Raspberry pie, anybody?

[John EH]

This is kind of just barely touching around the subject of the raspberry pi as a media server and probably not something a dedicated audiophile would want to do but I built up a Raspberry Pi with something called Screenly.  It is a digital signage program.  My gf owns a bar and I took a small flat screen TV, made a bunch of Power Points regarding drink specials, etc. and made a bunch of joke slides. It's pretty cool in that you can upload stuff wirelessly through the browser on a network.

Anyway I download a couple videos from YouTube in H264 and they play real nice.  I see no reason why I couldn't download a ton of videos and Screenly has a shuttle mode as well.  Other than that not much user control.  I guess my point, if I have one, is that the HMDI out for video and sound is pretty impressive.

I have my other Raspberry Pi built up with the latest Raspian OS but I haven't touched it all week.  Been playing around with DD-WRT routers and set up a VPN here in my home in Japan to stream Hulu, Netflix, and Pandora.  Better than any cable system here and much  much cheaper.  I let the cat out of the bag and it seems like everybody wants my help doing the same for their home.

John

 

[banjopicker]

I use a Raspberry Pi as a headless dedicated music player, connected through a very cheap Chinese USB DAC (hifimediy) to my Foreplay, Parabees, and Straight 8s.  It works very well.  I use Squeezelite, player software designed to work with Logitech Squeezebox systems. The software is free. I control the current playlist (or internet radio) from any computer in the house via a web interface.  My collection is stored as lossless flacs on a readynas server, which is in a different part of the house and serve it up by wifi. 

Yes, it was a pain to rerip everything to flac, but I just did a few at a time (with DBPoweramp) whenever I was sitting at my computer, and eventually it was done. I am glad to now have my collection archived, and the cds put away in boxes.

You can build up the system on the Pi from scratch, but you don't have to.  There is a distribution called "squeezeplug" that has an image with squeezelite and other music server/player software already installed.

 

[rif]

A new potential competitor?

http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/04/for-your-robot-building-needs-the-45-beaglebone-linux-pc-goes-on-sale/

 

[earwaxxer]

I use a Raspberry Pi as a headless dedicated music player, connected through a very cheap Chinese USB DAC (hifimediy) to my Foreplay, Parabees, and Straight 8s.  It works very well.  I use Squeezelite, player software designed to work with Logitech Squeezebox systems. The software is free. I control the current playlist (or internet radio) from any computer in the house via a web interface.  My collection is stored as lossless flacs on a readynas server, which is in a different part of the house and serve it up by wifi. 

Yes, it was a pain to rerip everything to flac, but I just did a few at a time (with DBPoweramp) whenever I was sitting at my computer, and eventually it was done. I am glad to now have my collection archived, and the cds put away in boxes.

So many ways to 'skin a cat'.....

You can build up the system on the Pi from scratch, but you don't have to.  There is a distribution called "squeezeplug" that has an image with squeezelite and other music server/player software already installed.

 

[John EH]

Okay here's what I did with my Raspberry Pi.  But first a little backstory.  I have a Squeezebox Radio which I enjoy. I live in Japan so can't stream Pandora or MOG from the US because of the geo restrictions.

However anything can be beaten.  I just set up a router with DD-WRT and have a VPN service so now I have a US IP address and can now stream US content.

So I got Pandora and MOG and have really been loving it.  Then I decided I needed a Squeezebox Touch for my upstairs bedroom.  To my dismay I found the SQ Touch is no longer in production and sells for basically double or triple of retail now.  Ouch.

So I downloaded the Squeezeplug distribution which appears to be an altered Raspian with Samba and the Squeezeplay libraries.

It took about 2 hours to set it all up.  To my complete and total surprise it shows up on my Logitech Media Server as just another Squeezebox appliance.  I can control my Rpi Squeezeplug player from my iPhone with iPeng.

I guess next I'll get a DAC but to be quite frank it sounds awesome the way it is.  I have it hooked to my home built Foreplay 2 from the headphone jack and feeding my Paramour amps.

Amazing little project.  I've now ordered my third Rpi and I'll play around with that a bit maybe as a little higher end project.

John

 

[jrebman]

John,

Way to go!  I'm loving MOG myself.  I'll bet even something like the HRT MicroStreamer pllugged directly into the usb port will sound quite a bit better.  Then another step up could be had with a linear regulated or battery power supply -- just make sure you don't give it more than 5v or things could go pop.

Another possibility is the HRT HDMI streamer connected to the HDMI port on the RPi but that would require some reconfiguration of some of the files and maybe ALSA as well.  I do plan to try it, just have not had time yet and don't have the hdmi dac yet.

I'll be getting one of the Beagle Bone black boards too when they're available again.

-- Jim

 

[jrebman]

I found a place that has the BeagleBone Black boards in stock...

http://www.specialcomp.com

I just ordered one, but gotit through amazon as I also needed a memory card reader/writer.  That's another one of those little things I had but can't seem to locate after the move.

-- Jim

 

[John EH]

Jim,

I'm not real pleased with the sound however I just bought a HiFiMeDIY Sabre USB DAC that is supposed to be supported.  Will report how that works out.

FWIW one raspberry Pi I have sounds much better than the other.

John

 

[jrebman]

John,

Interesting about the difference in sound -- are they both the rev b board, same power supply, etc.?  Wonder if it is hardware or software?  Maybe try swapping CF cards?  Does one have wireless and the other not?  This is really kind of interesting.


My BeagleBone shipped yesterday and I'll have it wed or thurs this week.  Wondering if there will be a difference in SQ between RPI and BBB.

-- Jim

 

[John EH]

Both Rev B boards although one is clearly better sounding (to me).  All I did was swap the CF cards and used the same dongle for wifi between cards.

Amazon says DAC is in the mail.  Should be here in 4-5 days.

John

 

[jrebman]

John,

Interesting (still).  Maybe I'll get a couple more and see if I can find the same thing.

My BeagleBone arrived a day ahead of time yesterday and it looks possibly even more compact than the Rpi  I'll have to compare them side to side to really know, but this one is quite nice too.  Only one usb host port, but the power port can double as a client port.

Going to see if I can find a micro HDMI cable.

It will be interesting to see which of these fares better in audio performance.  This does have a faster processor (1ghz vs 700 mhz for the Rpi) but for audio both are easily plenty.  Once the main system is done and running, I'm really going to dive into both of these tiny boards, as well as the two kinds of alix boards I have (2D2 and 6F2) and really see how far each can be pushed.  The Beagle Bone may just have enough horsepower to do on the fly SRC, and that would be really cool.  Porting the core algorithms from SOX won't be trivial, but I'll be up for a challenge by then.

 

[Tubejack]

My Beaglebone Black also arrived yesterday, jumped to try it against my RPi's for XBMC, personal file server, and web server apps I have already running on RPi's - only to discover as well I need a micro HDMI cable, not in my cable arsenal.  Amazon Prime - a lifesaver .......

I have a couple of powered multiport USB 2.0 hubs that work fine with the RPi ....

Here's a concise comparison between the 2 boards ...  http://www.cnx-software.com/2013/04/25/beaglebone-black-vs-raspberry-pi-features-and-price-comparison/

 

[Doc B]

Monoprice is a great source for video and computer cables for not much money.

 

[jrebman]

Good stuff!  In the comments I saw a clue as to why there may be connectivity and speed issues with some dacs and hi-res files -- the ethernet port on the RPi is implemented such that it is basically a usb dongle and therefore has to usse the same i/o channels to the processor as the usb host ports.  Depending on how the ethernet is implemented on the BBB, it may turn out to be the preferred platform for a streamer.

Time to go order a micro hdmi cable

BTW, I checked today and it does not look like the HRT HDMIStreamer dac is out yet (which may also be a way around the usb issue on the RPI).

Thanks for the link!

-- Jim

 

[John EH]

Okay I finally got my Raspberry Pi going with my HiFiMeDIY Sabre USB DAC.  Squeezelite sets it up when you install squeezeplug and the Squeezelite Music Player.

However, HOWEVER it sounds like crap.  Pops, static, etc.  So I found this guys web site.

http://www.raspberrypi.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?t=31241&p=270802

Copy his code into your /etc/asound.conf file and reboot and it works PERFECTLY.  Sounds awesome pumping through my Bottlehead Paramour and Foreplay system with SEXy speakers.

One other gotcha.  The squeezelite installation creates some files that launch it at boot.  My Raspberry Pi would boot but Squeezelite would not.

I went to the file /etc/default/squeezelite

and it was trying to call the program as:

-n Squeezelite -o [soundcard selected by the installation]

I know enough about linux that that launch would never fly so I altered it to:

squeezelite -o [soundcard selected by the installation]

Squeezelite now boots up with the RPi and is found by every Logitech Media Server in my home including iPeng on my iPhone and iPad.

I'm blown away with the sound.

Anyway buy the DAC, alter those two files like I said and it works like a champ.  If I get a chance I'll throw up a little web page.

John

 

[jrebman]

John,

You're really cooking with gas there!  I should give this a try as my synology NAS has LMS on it, or I can install it easy enough if it's not there already.  I think that will enable DLNA access as well and therefore may be able to serve streams to the new Oppo bdp-130 in the media room system.

That could make all this way to easy .

I haven't looked at the raspyfi site in a couple of weeks and will go take another look -- not sure if this is a new development or not, or maybe just something I missed.

Best,

Jim

 

[John EH]

Jim,

I'd be interested in your LMS server on your Synology NAS.  Which one do you have?  I think Netgear also has LMS support on some but I have to find one I can put DD-WRT or Tomato Firmware on.

Just to round things out here's a photo of my RPi and DAC.  Has worked for about 24 hours now without crashing so I think it's golden now.

And as you can see I'm running it headless with just a USB wifi dongle ($10) and the HiFiMeDIY DAC.  The power source is a 1.5 amp cell charger I picked up in the exchange here.

Everything is administered via web interface or from the iPhone / iPad.  Would be cool to have LMS on the NAS Server though.

 

[vrgard]

That looks very cool John EH.  You mentioned possibly putting up a web page about your setup.  I for one would love to see that as I'm thinking more and more about setting up a media server.

Thanks,
Randy

 

[John EH]

I started working on it yesterday and got derailed.  But I am working on one. 

Mostly it boils down to this:

Buy a raspberry pi, a cell phone charger and an optional wifi dongle and of course the DAC.  Wifi dongle not needed if you use ethernet.

Download squeezeplug, install the ISO image on an SD card.  Put in the raspberry pi and boot. 

Expand root file system at boot up, set up your wifi or ethernet reboot.

Install the media server in Squeezeplug and then install the media player. 

Then the fun begins with the DAC.  That's mostly what I'll focus on in my web page.  Everything else is well documented on the Squeeplug home page.  The keeper of that place has an awesome step by step video of installing squeezeplug but it assumes your intenet on your Pi is working. 

I had to boot into X (starts) to set my WiFi dongle up with a program called WPA_GUI because it just wouldn't install on the setup screens.

John

 

[jrebman]

John,

Thanks for the pic, but I do need to tell you that I'm blind so I can't see it.  The NAS is the Synology DS 212+ with a couple of 3tb enterprise grade hitachi drives in it and the LMS is actually an installable package from Synology.  I don't know much more about it than that at this point as I just haven't been able to muck about with it very much.

As you're doing with your posts and upcoming web site, I hope we can put together a set of recipes for different boards, players and configurations that will allow non-linux folks to be able to setup a system likke this for their own use.  The mac mini is great but with the prices of decent dacs now coming way down, the mac solution won't make all that much sense for somebody with a less expensive dac and system.

You've got me a bit concerned about the wireless dongle -- I'm assuming its the little ETI (spelling?) device that's a bit larger than a nickel and supports up to the dual band wirelesss N for up to 150 mbps data rates?  When I first felt that thing I thought it was an cable adaptor of some kind.  Hopefully there will be a way to configure it from the console.

-- Jim