I'm forever trying to improve my SSTRAN setup so I can get the most out of my radios and make it as convenient as possible. Ive tried a few audio sources so far, but they often have the inconvenience of being quite hands on or limited in duration. If you use your main PC, each time it reboots or some other audio is played that affects your radio stream. My partner likes to listen to podcasts so I've tried to find something to accommodate all our needs.
Volumio (
https://volumio.org/ ) seems very good so far. You boot it from USB (HD installation is possible), and you can use an old laptop or PC to run it (or Raspberry Pi), as an appliance. It has an excellent iPhone app that matches the interface you see on the computer, and I'm sure Android devices also (it being Linux based). This makes it a breeze to control from anywhere in the house.
You can play internet radio through it and setup your favourite stations, it supports network shares (CIFS and NFS), UPNP / DLNA streaming, Apple Airplay, features a sleep timer and alarm, and playlist features. Podcast functionally is apparently coming soon. The workaround I'm using for podcasts right now is running GPodder on a PC, adding all the feeds from the other halfs podcasts and downloading them to a network share for easy access on the Volumio.
Its advertised as an "audiophile" player, but don't be scared by that - it doesnt need expensive gear to run and the SW is free. It can also run from a raspberry Pi for minimal power consumption. Configuration is nice and simple , the only fault is not supporting podcasts directly but apparently this in the works.
It could also make a nice addition to any hifi and allow you to play digital formats without the hassle of a fully fledged computer and the joys that come with it.
I have nothing to do with the above organisation, just very impressed with the product and thought Id share it.