Recycling old IR remote (Creative Labs RM-1500) for Volumio

Hello Volumio community! I currently have a Raspberry Pi 2 with an IQaudio PiDAC running Volumio very nicely.
I’ve just rediscovered an old remote from a Sound Blaster Audigy which could make it even better and am looking for some direction as to how best to achieve this. Hoping to get some hardware and software pointers.

1 Hardware
The remote is an RM-1500. I think it transmits at 38 kHz.

Would receivers like these work:

  1. Something connected to GPIO: banggood.com/5Pcs-IR-Receiv … 45168.html
  2. USB connected - is this simpler? banggood.com/IR-Infrared-Re … 15454.html
    (My current go to tat emporium, happy to learn of other sources.)
    Failing that I’m guessing this Adafruit one should and I should follow a guide like this Adafruit one?

2 Software
After searching/learning a little I’ve discovered LIRC, and this remote appears to be supported.
What do I do with this knowledge? I see there’s an IR plugin, but I don’t know what to do with it.

Would the following post be helpful to follow as a rough guide/template:
using-remote-with-volumio-t1923.html ?

I’m reasonably technically literate but my Linux beard is sparse and wispy and I find the software side of things a bit daunting. That said, I think this is a good opportunity to understand things a bit better so any help/pointers would be appreciated.