Will
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Post by Will on Mar 16, 2013 18:29:26 GMT
Evening All, I needed (wanted?) some music in our new conservatory, but wanted something really unobtrusive. Absolutely minimal to play some nice music whilst enjoying the garden on the colder days, enjoying some on the new residents we have (siskins, redpolls, goldcrests etc) As uber sound quality was out - speakers will be 'hidden' along with the reflections caused by tiled floors and all that glass, I decided that I'd try and build something that consumed minimal power which meant smps! Shocking, eh? After a bit of hotel down-time I decided upon a little box to sit in a cupboard , driven by a Raspberry Pi - one of little linux computers you can pick up for £30 ish. So i ordered one. I sat down with it this afternoon, copied an image of Raspian to a SD card (a version of Linux for the Pi) and followed an excellent little tutorial here - Raspberry Pi Android Server and in less than an hour has music being downloaded from a USB stick connected to the household router (a technicolour 582n) and being played out of the headphone socket of the raspberry pi, with the playlist and volume being controlled by a Android tablet. I was really surprised how easy it was to setup and get tunes from, really. I have a Arjen Helder TA2020 tripath amp upstairs, and as soon as my cheap-as-chips 5V,2A 12V 4A SMPS arrive from dealextreme, both the Pi and the Ta2020 amp will go and sit in a diecast box in a drawer in the conservatory, providing music on-demand! The SQ of the Pi audio out is a bit bright, so I might look at using my long-unused Alien USB Dac (pcm27xx based) to up the SQ a tad. Anybody else thinking of similar? It's really as easy a sudo nano /etc/init.d/gmediarenderer! (in root)
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Post by gommer on Mar 16, 2013 18:49:39 GMT
I was thinking of doing similar things with a Beaglebone (TI Sitara core, which is much beefier than the Pi) and external DAC, with top notch SQ as a goal.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Mar 16, 2013 19:36:51 GMT
I've tried XBMC and Squeezebox Server on mine, with HDMI out. It was interesting having music synced on my hifi and TV. I want a RPI streaming device with output thru i2s. On the newer RPI you have i2s access, but I am not sure there is suitable software yet.
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Will
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Post by Will on Mar 17, 2013 10:23:10 GMT
I've only read a little about the i2s on the Pi, but as you sat Greg, it not quite there yet. I have read that quite a few people have been using the Pi to feed into some of the posher USB dacs, but that needs a bit of Linux knowledge. Seems that there are a few PI-WaveIO-Buffalo Dac systems out there. There is also a 'audiophile' Linux version for the Pi - Raspyfi - but I've not tried it. I think that what really surprised me was that Linux is quite alien when coming from a Windows based computer (even though I was quite happy using DOS years ago) but by following the tutorial, and by doing a little bit of research, I've got a little system up and running. I've now effectively got something equivalent to the Sonos systems, but for a lot less cash!
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XTRProf
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Post by XTRProf on Mar 18, 2013 10:24:05 GMT
Interestingly, CJ wrote something about this here: www.rockgrotto.proboards.com/thread/7643/raspberry-piNope, I guess I will stick to my trusted wireless hirez music streaming to my laptop for now just to have some basic music anywhere in the house including the toilet and bathroom. Surprisingly, I dug up my old pair of AT-SP5 around now as shown and will refurbish it to working order again and with a shiny coat of paint when I have the time. This will be put in the toilet when doing "big biz" there. Can also connect to my Samsung S3 for even more portability at the expense of SQ. Yup, when they were still made in Japan. Btw, not one of those low power IC chip as used in those present TV HP outputs but a higher power one for 2.2W.
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Will
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Post by Will on Mar 18, 2013 19:32:39 GMT
I'd forgotten about that thread, or I would have posted my thoughts there.
I think that now people have had more time to play with the Pi and a couple of early issues have been sorted out, it's more than capable being a video/music system. I've certainly not pushed mine, but others have and are using it in serious systems. I think it's horses for courses, but it's definitely up to meeting Chris's original thoughts of a computer, mini DAC and headphone amplifier in a very small profile albeit controlled from the ubiquitous android/ipod.
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XTRProf
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Pssst ! Got any spare capacitors ?
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Post by XTRProf on Mar 19, 2013 0:39:07 GMT
...albeit controlled from the ubiquitous android/ipod. Will, I was thinking about 2 weeks ago is there any highend Android music player that can play 192 or even 384-24 music files of all types like FLAC, Wav ,etc. Will be interested to know more if you have already done some research into that. So far I only found one here: play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.neutroncode.mp&hl=enBut it downsample to 48 or 44-16 or 24 (sorry, can't remember correctly but surely downsample) as I believe most present "in-house" dac in the smart HPs can't do hirez music files for now. So limited only by the present dac onboard current smart HPs.
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joethearachnid
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Post by joethearachnid on Apr 12, 2013 16:58:46 GMT
I'm about to embark on an attempt to create a Raspberry Pi music server using RaspyFi (at least at first) and then connect it to my DAC and control it with my tablet. I've got some Linux experience so hopefully things will be smooth sailing. I'll let you guys know how (if) it works out.
-JoetheArachnid
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Will
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Post by Will on Mar 29, 2014 18:52:12 GMT
I've had a bit of free time this week and have indulged in a spot of DIY! Using bits and pieces I've had hanging around, I've now got my RPI up and running, sending i2s to my PK Dac and then out to a Sure TPA 3110 based amp. I'm using Volumio as software. Sounds very nice I must say doing internet radio and music file playing duties. I'm using two lm317 based supplies, one for the RPI and one for the PK dac which I originally had from electronics salon (ebay). I had to increase the post rectification cap (was 1000uF) to 2200uF as the op voltage drooped when the RPI was booting, causing problems with the USB not recognising the wifi dongle. No doubt I'll be installing some JLH's in the future, and I might move to a linear supply for the Sure amp (currently using an old laptop SMPS) Bit of a lash up at the moment, will tidy it up before I start using it properly!
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4c
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Post by 4c on May 2, 2014 22:03:47 GMT
I've got Squeezelite running on my RPi, so that it can join my network of squeezeboxes. The Logitech Media Server software community is still alive and well (http://forums.slimdevices.com/forumdisplay.php?27-Logitech-Media-Server). It's great being able to stream Spotify to multiple locations in the house, all controlled by the iPhone app. I've long been tempted to build something similar to your solution, I'm just not up to date on what the best DIY DACs are nowadays.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on May 2, 2014 23:25:08 GMT
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