Pi 2 Design - How do I get started?

Discussion in 'Computer Audiophile: Software, Configs, Tools' started by purr1n, Jan 6, 2020.

  1. Hands

    Hands Overzealous Auto Flusher - Measurbator

    Staff Member Pyrate MZR
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    I dunno, a quick ethernet setup near the computer you're using to flash the SD card is pretty damn easy and convenient in my mind. And easier to troubleshoot right off the bat if you can't access the web gui. But I guess I like the pain of hard wiring stuff in a wireless age. :) (Though I use the RPi wirelessly once setup.)

    I should have clarified that AirPlay can be used to, say, send my Google Play Music stream straight to Volumio. BubbleUPnP's "equivalent" is messy in that regard, and you can't do an actual cast from the Play Music app to Volumio on Android AFAIK. Am I wrong? (Please tell me I'm just missing something!)

    As I grow older, and am still bitter from my NAS going corrupt and losing all my music, I do more and more listening from Play Music.

    Also, guys, while it's fine to mention Roon, don't assume that most people have it. I like it a lot myself, but a lot of people scoff at the price...if they really even know what it is. Keep that in mind when you rush to give tips and guides.
     
  2. Biodegraded

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    Yep, wired is more stable to set up - just wanted to point out that that it's not absolutely necessary, so if you're miles from the computer...

    I don't know about (non-Airplay) casting from Play Music to Volumio. With Spotify free and other services (unless you pay for MyVolumio), I don't think that can be done without some intermediate thing like Stream What You Hear (which adds an additional transcoding step).

    Regarding Roon, indeed, what I've read about it here is great - but I'm a cheap bastard...
     
  3. LetMeBeFrank

    LetMeBeFrank Won't tell anyone my name is actually Francis

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    Thank you. Roon is fine, but I could never justify that cost for software that has free alternatives (granted, not as feature rich, but if I don't need those features...¯\_(ツ)_/¯...) There are many free RPi OS's that can be streamed to by Spotify, Google Play, Qobuz, Squeezelite, Tidal and Airplay, not to mention your own local or NAS music. MoOde Audio comes to mind.
     
  4. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    Wired setup is no problem. I plan on using USB for music files, so I guess this shouldn't be a problem.
     
  5. Biodegraded

    Biodegraded Friend

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    Well, you could - but the one of the main points of using these sorts of transports being to keep USB completely out of the audio chain, why not go Ethernet or wireless?
     
  6. joch

    joch Friend

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    Data (your music) via USB > Streamer > SPDIF/I2S > DAC should be OK.

    It's just Streamer via USB > DAC generally leaves a lot to be desired. Using USB as a transport delivery method includes a lot of noise, and is usually not as clean as a well implemented SPDIF--and this is where the DigiOne and Pi2AES come in.
     
  7. Hands

    Hands Overzealous Auto Flusher - Measurbator

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    Another option to consider, it seems fairly common for consumer routers to have USB ports now. I have a NAS share setup on mine and keep my music there. Then it's easy to have music on any device that can mount the NAS.

    But, yeah, local USB obviously is easy.

    I don't think USB as a storage interface is something to worry about. :)
     
  8. Biodegraded

    Biodegraded Friend

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    Banish boxes from the bedroom! Go wireless.
     
  9. haywood

    haywood Friend

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    I’d also rec the hats but the Pi4 has separate usb buses (2 & 3) and I haven’t seen anyone specifically test whether it’s bad or not instead of just repeating collective wisdom from the Pi3 era. It could still be terrible, but it’d be interesting to test the hats vs unison usb. The same goes with the guy who claimed the faster processor in the Pi4 was worse for audio when most of the speed increase comes architecturally rather than from just increasing the clock.


    If you’re using usb for storage and the drive isn’t externally powered or an ssd then it might be worth connecting it to a powered hub as the amount of power the usb ports can supply is limited.
     
  10. klyrish

    klyrish Facebook Friend

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    I'm considering one of these (between this and the Allo DigiOne Signature) and out of curiosity...what cable do you use for HDMI -> AES? I can't seem to find any on Amazon or through a Google search.
     
  11. Ksaurav402

    Ksaurav402 Friend

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    PI2AES has AES/EBU out. Digione Signature has COAX RCA and BNC only.
    You will get good AES cable from Bluejeans
     
  12. klyrish

    klyrish Facebook Friend

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    oh, FFS, I was looking at the pictures of it and only saw the one with dual HDMI ports on it. I thought the third thumbnail was another top-down/bottom-up. My bad.
     
  13. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    Because I have a USB stick with all my music on it and I do not have time to mess with NAS, wireless, SANs, etc. I do technology all day at work. Would rather not deal with it at home. The only things I want to put together these days is Lego blocks. Will be posting about a Lego 4x4 remote truck soon with their new Control+ system.
     
  14. joch

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    What Ksaurav said.

    For HDMI, just a regular cable. But I think Michael Kelly suggested that the cable shouldn't be too long (signal degradation over length?).

    The other important thing is, does your DAC support HDMI? You have to know if the wiring on your DAC's HDMI port is compatible. If you don't know, stick with the coax/BNC/EBU.

    For those who are wondering if video can be streamed--No. The HDMI is strictly for carrying the music data and does not work with your BluRay/TV/Roku etc as intended for video.
     
  15. haywood

    haywood Friend

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    Now that the Pi4 has a better topology with dedicated gig-e and two usb buses I don’t think there’s any advantage to using networked storage other than it makes it easier to manage your music if it only exists in one place. If you don’t have a nas and don’t want to leave a computer running you can use the Pi as a file server. The distro I run (moode) automatically sets up an smb server and I just point my music software to the shared directory and manage files remotely on my laptop when needed. I suspect other distros do the same. Iirc with picoreplayer some people run the server function on one pi and use another as the renderer but the processor load for audio is usually single digits of one core so it seems like overkill to me.
     
  16. Michael Kelly

    Michael Kelly MOT: Pi 2 Design

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    an important item to be aware of, is that the HDMI port is being driven using LVDS signals, not standard HDMI. This means the driving distance is not well controlled as there is no actual specification for this process. I have not heard of anybody failing to connect with up to 3 m (10 feet or so), but longer would need testing.

    Michael

    P.S. just found this thread. I am a little ashamed that we don’t provide better how to guides on our own website.Definitely something we need to work on. :eek:
     
  17. Biodegraded

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    Fair enough. But unless you plug a touch-screen into the Pi, you'll need to control it remotely anyway. If you go wireless and use a control-point app on your phone, you could play back content from whatever's connected to the same wifi network - including a USB stick, computer, or the phone itself.
     
  18. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    Don't be. Focus on the engineering. Let us take care of the rest. There's a reason my team at my RL job is hiring a tech writer.
     
  19. dBel84

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    Seems you have all the advice you need to get going. I can just second this as a great digital source. I run 2 systems, one on my desk and one hooked to my main rig and they work flawlessly ( although I preferred moOde over volumio).
    The newer versions of either software are very simple to set up.
    Looking forward to your experience.. dB
     
  20. jlucas

    jlucas Acquaintance

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    Is there a concensus on Pi3 B+ vs Pi4 for sound quality yet (in conjunction with the Pi2AES Pro Audio Shield)?
    Also is there on onboard RAM requirement for the Pi?
     

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