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Volumio vs Roon vs others for RPi

P

Puggie

pfm Member
I currently use a Netgear NAS box with a fair amount of audio files in FLAC, I also use Quobuz for streaming audio. This feeds a Raspberry Pi 3 with a waveshare touchscreen and Allo Digione HAT for SPDiF out into a DAC (MF X-DAC v3, the Pi and screen are in the MF case). I also use laptop and phone for Quobuz when using headphones.

I started with PiCoreplayer on the RPi which worked ok, but I found while the player aspect was stable, its output to the screen would crash quite regularly.

I moved to Volumio which has been rock solid stability wise, but to get Quobuz I need to subscribe to myvolumio, and I intend to have probably 4 players in the house (so probably more ultimately). Which means I'm on the superstar subscription. now at 67Euro a year, I'm not a million miles from a Roon subscription...

I've not played with either yet, Roon appears to have the better reputation, I spoke with a friend over lockdown who claims its amazing, but advised not to try the trial unless you could afford it, because everything else is a bit crap in comparison.

So what are other people using, what are the opinions of Roon/Volumio/ANOther?

I want to play my Nasbox files which are FLAC, my Quobuz subscription, ideally with a nicer front end than Quobuz all on a common RPi based player, which could have the Digione or Boss (or possibly PecanPi) Hat on the back? I would like to be able to auto back my server upto a second remote NAS (Pi Based), but this is probably something for another package.

What do people here use and what are their thoughts on it?

Thanks
 
I have a similarish set up to you, minus the screen. I started out with piCorePlayer/LMS and have experimented with Volumio, Roon and some other but always come back to pCP. For me its been the most reliable and glitch-free of all the configs I’ve tried, as well as the most comprehensive in terms of features and configurability. I leave mine running for literally months at a time and it never hangs or stalls or anything!

Not the easiest to get to grips with though - steep learning curve for the uninitiated at first - for me at least.
 
I use PiCoreplayer with Jivelite and LMS extensions. Rock solid, no crashing. I have tried Volumio but wasn’t stable and didn’t really like it. I have also used Ropieee with Roon. I liked this combination but couldn’t justify the combined price at the time and went back to PiCoreplayer and LMS with Material Skin. It delivers what I’m most concerned about; the music.
 
Puggie said:
I started with PiCoreplayer on the RPi which worked ok, but I found while the player aspect was stable, its output to the screen would crash quite regularly
Click to expand...

pCP only support the official raspberry pi screen

Some user have managed to configure a waveshare touchscreen.

perhaps ask on the slimdevices forum :)
 
I’m using Ropieee with Roon and an Allo Digione Signature/RPi, streaming; Tidal, Qobuz and y own ripped files.
I find Roon faultless and a real enhancement to my enjoyment of music.
Ropieee is of course Free, and I found it incredibly simple to use as a complete novice.
 
Think I might have to give Roon a punt on the 15 day trial.

Picoreplayer and jivelite Fundamentally worked, just the screen would freeze occasionally. I was using Tidal then for streaming and found the implementation quite clunky and basic.

I would like a better streaming interface where browsing and finding music is easier. Hoping Roon could give me this.
 
For me moOde or PiCorePlayer/LMS were great options. Volume was too fragile and I ended up having to reinstall it multiple times (different builds, different RPi models, different micro SD cards) because it would corrupt itself on shutdown/restart cycles. Volumio and moOde are closely related, being branches of the same software ancestor. LMS/PCP are more work to get running but it is nice to have a single music database instance if you plan to have multiple RPi devices in your house.
 
I’ve used pcp with jive light on the official 7” pi screen for 3 or 4 years with pi2/3/4 and had zero problems once I got it stable. Is your power supply able to supply enough juice? I had problems right at the beginning with the first power supply I used and I’d get the little lightening bolt symbol top right on the screen when it was booting.
 
Tried a few in the past but settled with Moode in the end - stable (unlike some others), easy to set up (unlike some others) and a breeze to use (unlike some others) + Tim is constantly updating with new features, etc and listens to feedback from users (unlike some others) ... the interface is the main selling point for me, really well designed.
Don't use Quobuz but I believe it is supported.

Also -its free ;)
(although I do drop some dollars Tim's way occasionally via Paypal donation)
 
I use PCP/LMS as I had a Squeezebox system to add to. I don’t use a screen on the Pi as I couldn’t see it all the way across the room anyway. iPeng on the iPad on my lap does the job for me. Never had any problems with the installation, LMS running on a Pi 3A+ and Pi 2Bs for the non-Squeezebox devices. Spotify, Tidal, RP, BBC iPlayer, FIP, France Musique all available. Great!
 
killie99 said:
I’ve used pcp with jive light on the official 7” pi screen for 3 or 4 years with pi2/3/4 and had zero problems once I got it stable. Is your power supply able to supply enough juice? I had problems right at the beginning with the first power supply I used and I’d get the little lightening bolt symbol top right on the screen when it was booting.
Click to expand...
I didn’t have problems with PCP/LMS — only Volumio. I always used the official RPi power supplies (2.5A 5.1V for Pi 3). Same problem, it would only successfully reboot about half of the time. This was using software based shutdown and waiting 1 minute until unplugging, or waiting for the lights to stop flashing, whichever was longer. Sometimes it would come up again after cycling following a failed boot. But I had to reimage the SD quite often to get it working again, and that many another lengthy music DB rebuild. It wasn’t worth it. MoOde and PCP/LMS never had stability issues for me.
 
I have had power issues initially (the little lightning bolt), but it now all runs off a 5a psu with no issues. I may have to give moode a go and trial roon.
 
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