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Raspberry Pi as headless streamer

I have it connected into my wired network - I try and avoid wireless adapters where possible.

Alan - time will tell how user friendly (and reliable) it all it - the only interface I have is via my Android phone. If it goes down well with the family, I may buy a cheap Android tablet to use as the controller.

The next step will be to plumb one in to the system in the kitchen - no need to have a DAC there, just the 3.5mm connector would do - I may have to bite the bullet and go wireless though, unless I get clever with the cat5 and the drill :)
 
It would be cool to DIY a home plug to use it's internal DC to power a pi all in one go with its Ethernet - assuming there's enough juice to do so.
 
RichardH said:
Well, the DAC arrived. Plugged it in, selected the correct soundcard output and bingo! All working.

For reference, the DAC I bought was the HiFimeDIY Sabre USB DAC, which is a 96khz/24bit DAC that cost £26 (plus shipping - I chose the shipping from EU option at £6 odd - it arrived in approx 5 days, and obviously no worries about customs etc).

Once plugged in, I ran
PHP: 
squeezelite-armv6hf -l
to get the list of sound devices. I then found the USB card listed, and so then ran squeezelite with the following parameters

PHP: 
squeezelite-armv6hf -o sysdefault:CARD=DAC

...I also edited the startup batch process to use the same options. Restarted the Pi, and away we go. Oh, I had to reset the sound level output as well using

PHP: 
sudo alsamixer

Not tested with any 24bit files as yet, but it all works with a random selection of standard files from my Squeezeserver (running on a ReadyNAS).


One more interesting bit of info - I plugged the power supply in to a current/power measuring plug thingy, and it semes that the Pi draws about 5-6W when playing - not bad, eh? The PSU draws more when it's charging my phone.
Click to expand...
Hi Richard H -what is sound quality like with DAC connected-I bought a Traxdata multimedia player a year or so ago from e-buyer for £63 and it has everything in one box apart from dongle to use wirelessly. It plays everything thrown at it up to 24bit 192khz and sounds amazing through my Ion Obelisk 1 and Monitor Audio BR2 speakers-deep bass and clear treble- it has a Cirrus DAC CS4352 inside and to my ears sounds better than a MUSE DAC fed from the optical output.I would like to try the Raspberry pi and also use it to stream internet radio but sound quality is a major issue.
 
Well, time to get a liquorice hat...and eat it.

Well done! Wonder if there's an improvement to XBMC to allow this too...
 
Alan - time will tell how user friendly (and reliable) it all is - the only interface I have is via my Android phone. If it goes down well with the family, I may buy a cheap Android tablet to use as the controller.
Click to expand...

Richard,
A tablet is the ultimate remote control IMO and definitely the way to go.
I use a Samsung 10.1 Tablet and the Giszmo app for Jriver to browse my music library and select tracks I don’t even have to be in the same room and the family think that’s way cool:cool:. There are android apps for XBMC so it should work fine.
Linux Ubuntu ----Na not for me it reminded me of using a commadore Amiga all those years ago !

Alan
 
To be honest I haven't had much time to listen critically to it as yet - I have only flung some OGG and MP3 files onto the NAS that I already had on my PC - so I need to rip some FLACs and see what's what. However I would assume that all CDs I rip will only be 16bit audio anyway - am I right? (See, told you I'm an idiot...)
 
I think that Pi (or Pi MK III) can devellop in a future into a nice streamer, but most important is software and remote app.

Jriver and XBMC are huge packages not only for audio, but unfortunatelly mostly for videos. Maybe some minimal hq audio software with good app will appear one day.
At the moment the best computer for audio with linux and arm cpu is Squeezebox Touch which is no more produced ...
 
tomek said:
I think that Pi (or Pi MK III) can devellop in a future into a nice streamer, but most important is software and remote app.

Jriver and XBMC are huge packages not only for audio, but unfortunatelly mostly for videos. Maybe some minimal hq audio software with good app will appear one day.
At the moment the best computer for audio with linux and arm cpu is Squeezebox Touch which is no more produced ...
Click to expand...

I run Squeezeplug on a RPi B 512 as the LMS server with music on a USB attached HDD. I then use a Joggler running Squeezeplay OS as my main player. I'm trying different USB dacs at the moment, but shortage of funds (weddings are SO expensive!) means I'm currently running cheap and cheerful ones (Behringer UCA202, generic Maplin one that does 24/96 and a DAC Destroyer). I'm planning on getting something decent (probably a John Kenney) as soon as I can.

I control the Joggler either from the touch screen (a la Squeeezebox Touch) or an Android app. I also have 2 older Squeezebox 3s and a Controller. The RPi works a treat as server - controlling all the players with nary a hitch!

Oh, and the Joggler supports 24/96 from the RPi quite happily! :D
 
The only issue I have had so far is that if I leave the Pi running ready to be used, I sometimes find when I tell it to start playing I get it freak out and just output a funny "judder" sound. Needs investigation....
 
RichardH said:
OK, here's what I did.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info. Finally got around to trying this, and am impressed, though had one or two hiccups. The main issue was with the couple of USB DACs I tried. The first one, Peachtree Audio DAC•IT had really crappy sound, with lots of dropouts. THe second, Rega Dac, seems to be playing faultlessly. I don't know if this has to do with the DACs being USB 1.0 or 2.0... but it seems strange that one would work and one not.

Will try one of those cheapo DACs as the application I need this for is far from HiFi.

PS If you want to get your RPi up and running with wifi, this link will help set it up: http://raspberrypi4dummies.wordpres...nt-sbinwpa_supplicant-daemon-failed-to-start/
(I post this as the wifi part of the instructions linked to by RichardH wouldn't work for me)
 
Has anyone had any success above 16/44.1? Tried 24/96 this eve, and it just crackled...
 
Lenny, do you want to borrow the DAC I got to try out? It will only a quid or so to post it over to you. I have downloaded a couple of 24/96 tracks and tried them on it, and they appear to work OK.

Thanks for the link to wifi - I may try adding one of these into the kitchen system, so wifi will be needed there (though - not that it's a problem for the kitchen system - does that then prevent you from using a USB DAC?)
 
Hi Richard,

I got the same DAC as you (it arrived today and I've just set it up) and...it works fine with 24/96 (another nail in the Rega coffin afaik). Playing Bill Evans' Waltz for Debbie, and setting myself up for the final stages of getting it to run on startup so I don't need to SSH every time to get it running.

Thanks very much for the offer though (must have missed your post all those days ago).

By the way, having played around with various settings, and never having managed to get the WiFi to run on start up, I decided to do a fresh install with the latest OS (2013-02-09-wheezy-raspbian). I don't know if they've all been like this, but when I ran the Pi with the new OS and the Pi plugged into a monitor it launched a rudimentary GUI, which has a WiFi Setup icon. Using this set the WiFi up perfectly, so there was no need to do any programming/coding.

[EDIT] The only drawback here is with regards to leaving the Pi on or not. The only way to turn it off it to unplug the PSU, but upon reconnecting squeezelite doesn't run properly. The other way is via SSH, but this is a bit of a PITA. The "Power" button within the logitech software does nothing of note (the music stops, but the Pi remains on). Any thoughts?

[EDIT II] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=mwmbb.rpiController does exactly what I need, no more, no less.
 
RichardH said:
How do you find that DAC?
Click to expand...

My first thoughts were: good, it works!

Other than that, my desktop system (Nuforce Icon and Nuforce SS-1 speakers) isn't going to reveal very much, and I'm not sure I've got the energy to do much comparative listening with my current HiFi's DAC (Teac DSD DAC). It does what it says on the tin, and at that price there's little competition.

Total cost of Project (incl p&p):
RPi €39
DAC €40
PSU €7
Mem Card €9
WiFi adaptor €9
Connecting cable €1
Total €105

Still quite a bit in the end, but much less than getting a Sonos or a SBT second hand. Am interested to see how reliable it remains...
 
Sounds like you're on my wavelength there, too!

Played with the rpiController, and it seems OK for doing a shutdown and reboot, but no way to get it to start up once shut down that I can see - or am I going insane?

Which WiFi controller did you use? Am thinking of adding a Pi to the kitchen system....
 
RichardH said:
Played with the rpiController, and it seems OK for doing a shutdown and reboot, but no way to get it to start up once shut down that I can see - or am I going insane?
Click to expand...

There's no way this would work, as the RPi would need to be on in order to receive commands, and by definition, it's off. Turning the power socket off and then on will achieve a boot up, I just wanted to avoid using said switch for turning off the RPi as (as I mentioned) this seems to screw everything up. Better (a la Windows) to shut down properly, hence the app.

I've read talk of using the 16pin interface to install some kind of on/off switch, but it seems it wouldn't work. The quesiton on top of that is how much energy the PSU draws when the RPi is off. I'd rather know the power is off at the socket, rather than it drawing 1 or more V the whole time.

RichardH said:
Which WiFi controller did you use? Am thinking of adding a Pi to the kitchen system....
Click to expand...

http://www.edimax.com/en/produce_detail.php?pd_id=347&pl1_id=1
£8.36 on amazon.
 
I ended up buying a SH Sony amp which has three powered sockets on the back for other equipment. These sockets are only live when the amp is on, so I use this to start up (ie the appearance of power starts the RPi up), and the remote app to power down. It's a bit of a fudge, but suits my needs.
 
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