Author Topic: Raspberry PI as a Music Server and/or Player?  (Read 11622 times)

djdube525

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Raspberry PI as a Music Server and/or Player?
« on: September 12, 2016, 10:42:51 AM »
Was wondering if anyone (HAL) has built a Raspberry PI using one of the bolt on DAC modules as a music server and/or player...

Was wondering if people tended to store music locally on the microSD card or pointed the PI to a network storage and ran that way... thoughts?

Any experience with various DAC modules?


Offline shadowlight

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Re: Raspberry PI as a Music Server and/or Player?
« Reply #1 on: September 12, 2016, 12:16:09 PM »
Dave,

Mike (mfsoa) has built one and uses it as replacement for Squeezebox.  I know he posted something about it but I cannot seem to find it.

I found the Mike's post on Audiocircle
« Last Edit: September 12, 2016, 12:31:55 PM by shadowlight »

Offline HAL

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Re: Raspberry PI as a Music Server and/or Player?
« Reply #2 on: September 12, 2016, 12:22:57 PM »
I built one running a Linux player and my DIY USB AK4490 DAC with good results.  I just attached a USB drive with my library for replay.  Worked fine for headphones.  I tried Moode and it worked, but had to do some manual inputs to get the DAC working.

For the multichannel crossover and HiRez DAC I need a PC running Windows.

Did not try the other DAC's.


Offline richidoo

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Re: Raspberry PI as a Music Server and/or Player?
« Reply #3 on: September 12, 2016, 12:40:16 PM »
Hifiberry looks interesting
https://www.hifiberry.com/dacplus/

djdube525

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Re: Raspberry PI as a Music Server and/or Player?
« Reply #4 on: September 12, 2016, 02:27:12 PM »
Hifiberry looks interesting
https://www.hifiberry.com/dacplus/

Yeah... that was one of the two I was looking at...

djdube525

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Re: Raspberry PI as a Music Server and/or Player?
« Reply #5 on: September 12, 2016, 02:27:38 PM »
Dave,

Mike (mfsoa) has built one and uses it as replacement for Squeezebox.  I know he posted something about it but I cannot seem to find it.

I found the Mike's post on Audiocircle

Thanks Deepak... that's quite helpful!

djdube525

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Re: Raspberry PI as a Music Server and/or Player?
« Reply #6 on: September 12, 2016, 02:30:53 PM »
I built one running a Linux player and my DIY USB AK4490 DAC with good results.  I just attached a USB drive with my library for replay.  Worked fine for headphones.  I tried Moode and it worked, but had to do some manual inputs to get the DAC working.

For the multichannel crossover and HiRez DAC I need a PC running Windows.

Did not try the other DAC's.

I was thinking of potentially repurposing a 100GB SSD I have laying around, but then got to thinking... it's amazing what you can find in a micro sd card... 200GB for around $80... granted, an external drive would get you much more capacity, but a micro sd card would be a little bit "cleaner"...


Offline HAL

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Re: Raspberry PI as a Music Server and/or Player?
« Reply #7 on: September 12, 2016, 03:44:17 PM »
Yes, they are getting bigger all the time.  I just got a 2TB OCZ SSD for my MS-3 for under $400 as a refurb.  That will hold all my library for awhile.

The HiFiBerry DAC+ with the TI PCM5122 DAC looks interesting if you can access the digital filters.  There are two types that are not linear phase.  These are similar to the AK4490 DAC filters I used in my DIY USB DAC.
 
I already have large SSD's, so was easier to use them than to get larger micro's.  The one microSD slot drive has the OS as well to run the machine.  You should be able to reclaim the space after it boots and loads the OS if it is allowed. 


Offline mfsoa

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Re: Raspberry PI as a Music Server and/or Player?
« Reply #9 on: September 13, 2016, 04:58:16 PM »
My Pis have been mating like bunnies - I now have 3 going into my Marantz SA8005. My tunes are on an external USB drive going into a PC - no NAS. Mostly Redbook, some HiRez, no DSD (barely). I already had Ethernet going to the system so I added a 5-way switch near the rack to feed the Pis.

1) Rasp Pi II, with Hifiberry Digi+: This guy runs Moode Audio. I don't really neeeed this one, but I really like the Moode interface and how it is so sweet to select among the various pre-programmed (100? 200?) radio stations. At this time I only use it for internet radio. It's the only way I can get the fantastic Czech classical station, which broadcasts in better-than-cd quality (16/48) to my main rig. There are many stations broadcasting at 320K, and even the ones at 128 are very listenable. If I get around to it I'll map Moode to the USB drive so I can get to all my music to it. Or, I can just pop my backup USB drive into it and have a cute lil' MPD-based server. Moode can resample, so I usually bump everything to 192K, cuz why not? I use the optical out on this guy. Using a 2.5A CanaKit switching pwr supply.

2) R Pi III, with no other board, so USB out only. No wireless used. I currently have the demo of HQPlayer on this guy. I recently upgraded my PC as part of this nefarious plan, so I have no problem doing any of HQPlayer's advanced filtering/upsampling/DSD conversion. I'll probably use this one to upsample everything to 2X DSD. The HQPlayer interface is pretty primitive so this setup is for the really serious listening. Sounds great. Using a Jerome linear pwr supply I used to use w/ my Touch. [edit - using this as an HQPlayer NAA device]

3) R Pi III. w/ Digi+. No wireless used.: This guy runs PiCorePlayer, an excellent program that turns your Pi into a Squeezebox. This Pi is now integrated with the 4-5 other Squeezeboxen around the house, so it fits perfectly into the ecosystem my wife is used to. PiCorePlayer allows for an unholy range of filtering options. Linear or minimum phase? Bah humbug - You can pick, from 0 to 50 , exactly how much linear or minimum phase behavior you want. Many many more "behind the scenes" options, which made me realize that we don't listen to the sound of a dac as much as listen to the filtering choice the designer made (oversimplification but good food for thought...).  I find Tidal works well through this Pi so when I re-do my subscription I'll  use this Pi for Tidal. Got a nice beefy metal case for this one (seen on Hifiberry site). Using a 2.5A CanaKit switching pwr supply.

Now, I know you are all saying Mike Mike Mike why don't you just buy a microRendu, which will do the Squeezebox, DLNA and HQPlayer thing with one box? Well, its $700 for a teeny-weeny computer but is supposed to outperform the Pis handily. Oh well, maybe someday. I think I can turn some of these Pis into DLNA devices, so I could plumb JRiver to them too.

And you are also saying Mike, why don't you just use Roon to control HQPlayer? Well, that's $500. See a theme? Going for bang and fun for the buck lately.

That's the setup for now. I will gladly help anyone with any questions, although I am no expert (I just know how to use Google)

Its important to say that I DO NOT KNOW LINUX!! NONE of the above setups have required any Linux knowledge. You just need to know how to download, unzip, and copy the pre-made Linux image files onto a micro SD card.

Fun. New music. Win.

-Mike



« Last Edit: September 13, 2016, 05:42:38 PM by mfsoa »

djdube525

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Re: Raspberry PI as a Music Server and/or Player?
« Reply #10 on: September 14, 2016, 01:46:51 PM »
My Pis have been mating like bunnies - I now have 3 going into my Marantz SA8005.

Never thought of feeding a CD player inputs... so it's acting as your DAC... right?

2) R Pi III, with no other board, so USB out only.

So this goes to the marantz via USB... does PI 1 & 3 also do that? Why have the HiFiBerry then? Or are you using it for optical out?


And you are also saying Mike, why don't you just use Roon to control HQPlayer? Well, that's $500. See a theme? Going for bang and fun for the buck lately.

I was wondering where the $500 came into play, but I figured out that's the lifetime membership fee. I hear ya.

Can you run multiple "apps" concurrently on a PI as opposed to each being dedicated appliance?

Offline mfsoa

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Re: Raspberry PI as a Music Server and/or Player?
« Reply #11 on: September 14, 2016, 02:08:18 PM »
The Marantz is a CD/SACD disk spinner that also has digital optical, spfif coax, and USB inputs, so it is my DAC as well.

One Pi USB, one Pi optical, one Pi coax.

AFAIK the Pi runs one program at a time. To load a program you pop in the micro SD card, attach Ethermet and plug it in. If you have two cards, one say with PiCorePlayer and one with Moode, you can change the program running on the Pi in less than a minute.

-Mike


Offline richidoo

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Offline richidoo

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Re: Raspberry PI as a Music Server and/or Player?
« Reply #13 on: September 23, 2016, 01:40:50 PM »
Ran across this article today. Looks like a lot of info on setting up RPi system.

http://www.hifizine.com/2016/06/pidisk-inexpensive-raspberry-pi-music-server/

Offline mfsoa

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Re: Raspberry PI as a Music Server and/or Player?
« Reply #14 on: September 25, 2016, 07:56:53 AM »
Ran across this article today. Looks like a lot of info on setting up RPi system.

http://www.hifizine.com/2016/06/pidisk-inexpensive-raspberry-pi-music-server/

This article may be intimidating to some (like me) who don't know Linux. From the very start he has you doing all kinda Linux-programmy stuff which I'm sure is as simple to those familiar with it as it is intimidating to those who aren't. So take the good bits from the article, of which there are many, but don't get bogged by the programming.

I just want to stress that the three programs I have on my three Pis did not require one speck of Linux programming to install, configure and use.
-Mike