Raspberry Pi audio jukebox and similar...

[OutInTheShed]

Anyone on here played with this kind of thing?

I've previously had a Pi Zero driving a Burr-Brown DAC quite nicely.
Did what I wanted at the time for under £50.

I'm now looking at some sort of solid state storage for a few hundred ripped CDs.
Vague ideas about multi-room, needs to be flexible though.

I want something that gives browse-able storage like my PC does, but I want it to just switch on and play, not fart about booting up and logging in and all that.

Just wondering what's out there? I've really let most of this pass me by because in the previous house, a CD player and an amp with 2 sets of speakers worked for us.

[Miserablegit]

Have a look at volumio. Runs on a raspberry pi. Once set up it is accessed from a phone or tablet and should do what you want.

[OutInTheShed]

Miserablegit said:

Have a look at volumio. Runs on a raspberry pi. Once set up it is accessed from a phone or tablet and should do what you want.

Thanks, I will have a play with that.

Ideally, I think we'd like something self-contained.
Switch it on, press play kind of thing.
Maybe a skip track and skip album button...

But OTOH, I've got an old tablet which could be a dedicated remote control.
The wish list is kind of vague at the moment.

It occurs to me I've got an old car stereo, mechless MP3 thing, which has roughly the right kind of man-machine interface, but not great quality.

I've not really kept up with the expensive audiophile solutions, there seems to be a lot of broken stuff on ebay.

[Captain_Morgan]

If you google darko audio volumio or darko audio squeeze box you’ll get a number of YouTube videos that should give you some food for thought.

You can also run squeeze box on a pi now too.

[nyt]

Miserablegit said:

Have a look at volumio. Runs on a raspberry pi. Once set up it is accessed from a phone or tablet and should do what you want.

Also

https://www.picoreplayer.org/

and

https://homehack.nl/creating-a-raspberry-pi-squeez...


But I've been thinking of a an off the shelf solution - https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B09QCVVLN8

[TonyRPH]

If multi room is important to you, I don't think any of the Pi solutions will do what you require.

My solution to multi room was a separate mini pc (Intel NUC / Gigabyte Brix) in each of the two rooms I want music in.

These run a generic Linux installation with MPD (Media Player Daemon) and the lounge one has a USB infrared remote control to stop / pause / skip tracks.

Both machines stream music from my central storage (NAS) a server running Linux.

It's all connected by Ethernet, I have bit perfect sound quality with no drop outs or other issues.

I also have several internet radio streams that I can choose from.

Obviously all of this requires some Linux knowledge.

[Miserablegit]

If it’s an off-the-shelf solution you want then look at Yamaha, Denon or any of the other big brands offering streaming. Not sure if Sonos does hi res yet but they don’t really like supporting older kit so I’d expect Sonos to have a shorter shelf life.

You’ll get more options if you alter the title!

[OutInTheShed]

Lots to read about, thanks!

Picoreplayer looks to have potential.
Our focus is on locally stored music at the moment.
I think that has to be solid. It would be nice if it worked without WiFi, there's nothing worse than thinking 'I will just put some music on and chill while the router reboots' and finding there's no music until the router has had some counselling.

The other issue is actually getting hold of pi's at the moment.
I've got an old one. Somewhere!

[TonyRPH]

I should have added that I can control both of mine from a single app in my phone (you can select between machines).

It's an Android app (there are a few to choose from) and as such runs on tablets too.

There are also a couple of Windows apps.

[OutInTheShed]

TonyRPH said:

If multi room is important to you, I don't think any of the Pi solutions will do what you require.

My solution to multi room was a separate mini pc (Intel NUC / Gigabyte Brix) in each of the two rooms I want music in.

These run a generic Linux installation with MPD (Media Player Daemon) and the lounge one has a USB infrared remote control to stop / pause / skip tracks.

Both machines stream music from my central storage (NAS) a server running Linux.

It's all connected by Ethernet, I have bit perfect sound quality with no drop outs or other issues.

I also have several internet radio streams that I can choose from.

Obviously all of this requires some Linux knowledge.

Networking around the house is a possibility, but recently I'm conscious of the cost of having IT running full time for not much benefit.
There is some ethernet. I've noticed the Pi's built in WiFi is not great at going through our walls.

We quite often have two rooms playing the same music via the ancient method of the 'spkrs B' button.
There are 6 rooms, no! 7 rooms! where listening might happen, but logically there might be two people listening to different stuff and only certain combinations of rooms are valid.

I'm not sure what's essential and what's 'wish list' stuff, but I don't want to invest too much money or effort in things I won't use, or things which turn out to be restrictive.
I suppose multiple copies of music don't cost much now.
I don't know if my does does anything other than basic MP3, so that may imply keeping copies of the same music in different formats.

[OutInTheShed]

TonyRPH said:

I should have added that I can control both of mine from a single app in my phone (you can select between machines).

It's an Android app (there are a few to choose from) and as such runs on tablets too.

There are also a couple of Windows apps.

Our system will have to be easily understood and operated by my partner who is used to just putting a CD in, pressing 'play' and maybe pressing the 'spkrs B' button. Ideally without having to find her specs first.....

[Shiv_P]

Plex on Rasp Pi with Chromecast Audio's to each set of speakers? Works fantasticly for multi room

[ARHarh]

There are loads of options but surely running some kind of dlna server and as mentioned some kind of audio casting device would be easiest.

Chromecast audio is no longer available, but there are alternatives. I believe amazons echos will do the same thing, not sure never tried. Just grab any pi or old PC install something like Openmediavault. Load the Mini DLNA plugin and share your music library. Then control from any device. You can test this on a pc to see if it works for you before committing. Try using this for the pi you already have. https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/raspberry-pi-chromec...

I run an old thin client with proxmox. It runs my Home assistant, open media vault (with DLNA server), pihole, motioneye and jellyfin. I cast to speakers using Chromecast Audios and chromecast speakers. I group speakers together for multi room and can cast anything from any device to any device

[OutInTheShed]

Shiv_P said:

Plex on Rasp Pi with Chromecast Audio's to each set of speakers? Works fantasticly for multi room

My initial reaction is to avoid something which won't function at all without Wifi.
Maybe i need to re-think that and make the wifi more robust.

Why is a Chromecast Audio so expensive compared to one which does video?

[OutInTheShed]

ARHarh said:

There are loads of options but surely running some kind of dlna server and as mentioned some kind of audio casting device would be easiest.

Chromecast audio is no longer available, but there are alternatives. I believe amazons echos will do the same thing, not sure never tried. Just grab any pi or old PC install something like Openmediavault. Load the Mini DLNA plugin and share your music library. Then control from any device. You can test this on a pc to see if it works for you before committing. Try using this for the pi you already have. https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/raspberry-pi-chromec...

I run an old thin client with proxmox. It runs my Home assistant, open media vault (with DLNA server), pihole, motioneye and jellyfin. I cast to speakers using Chromecast Audios and chromecast speakers. I group speakers together for multi room and can cast anything from any device to any device

As you say there are loads of options.
Mostly all doing slightly different things.

I think I'll take a step back and try to decide what functionality is really important.

It could be as simple as running some SPDIF signals around the loft and a couple of FLAC players.

[Nomme de Plum]

I built a NUC with solid state drives. Loaded Ubuntu with is Linux. This was slightly more complicated than i had hoped and took a few goes but fortunately lots of online help.

I run Roon (lifetime licence) with Tidal (monthly subscription). Roon is excellent as a library for ripped and downloaded music. Mine is a mix of Hi res and CD quality.

I use iPads and iPhones as remotes to access the NUC . Interface is great and very simple.

If Wi Fi is an issue Netgear sell Orbi which can be dotted around your property if it is on large size.

[OutInTheShed]

Seems like no two people approach the problem the same way, loads of different answers.
All good learning.

[HowardB]

have you looked at the Brennan B2 - I have one and love it - basically a PI and SSD in a nice box with a great web interface

[Shiv_P]

OutInTheShed said:

Shiv_P said:

Plex on Rasp Pi with Chromecast Audio's to each set of speakers? Works fantasticly for multi room

My initial reaction is to avoid something which won't function at all without Wifi.
Maybe i need to re-think that and make the wifi more robust.

Why is a Chromecast Audio so expensive compared to one which does video?

Yes agreed, it's 2023 a solid WiFi connection is essential
CC Audios as mentioined are discontinued, however you can get them occasionally from CEX grade "C" which is fine as all it needs is a USB block and micro USB cable to funciton along with aux cable
Also rumours that google are working on it's replacement at some point

[Nomme de Plum]

Set a budget.

Building an NUC is not cheap but also functions as a mini computer if you want. Mine is hardwired to router then wi fi to Kef LSx (due for replacement) and KC62.

Roon also has some DSP functionality.

I migrated from Meridian system which ran Soolos which was the forerunner to Roon. I love the way Tidal integrates and creates suggested playlists and can also play continuously doing similar tracks but from different artists.