Pi2 Design Idiot-Proof Ready-To-Go RPi/AES Streamer

Use a file hosting service like imgur, and either copy & paste the url or (specifically with imgur) paste the 'direct link' into the dialog box that comes up when you click the image icon at the top of the SBAF posting box.

 

Thanks guys. I will look into that but the thing is:
I can successfully browse the entire NAS content through Volumio. When tapping "Media Servers" on my tablet - I see my NAS and can browse its content even though I did not import it into Volumio library.

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/140894012@N03/albums/72177720296803750/with/51891879600/



Comparison between the Pi2AES and the Mercury Streamer, both from Pi2Design!

19 February 2022

I have built up both devices as close as possible to each other. I am running Volumio on both, with local storage on both devices. I have a USB Samsung T5 on the Pi2AES stack and an Inland m.2 NVME on the Mercury. Both devices are on power supplies from Pi 2 Design. I am using SPDiF out using a Bluejeans custom cable RCA to 3.5mm. The DAC headphone amplifier is an iFI xDSD Gryphon. The first headphones in the system are my HD-6xx with a balanced cable.

 

upload the image to imgur and then input the image URL to show the image

 

@uncola and @Qstik - I am now adding the NAS as a network drive to Volumio (instead of just browsing "by folder").
1.3TB of content, and looks like it will take some time...
I still do not understand WHY Volumio would let me see the entire NAS content, but would not let me play it properly
Having said that, if I can play properly after "importing" my NAS drive into Volumio library - that is an acceptble 1-time annoyance.
I will update after the scan is complete.

 

OK... the import was much faster than expected
15 minutes later - all was done, and now... everything works great!!!
So, my conclusion is that despite Volumio letting you browse through a NAS "by folder" without importing the NAS into your library - don't be fooled by it. You still have to import your library from the NAS. The good news is that it was not too bad at all.

Thanks again @uncola and @Qstik

 

Just adding to what others have said (use an image sharing service such as imgur), uploading on SBAF isn't available until you reach Friend status.

 

I want to test the SSD next... Did any of the other 9 beta testers get to install an SSD already?
The questions I have thus far (admittedly, I have not done any online research yet...):
1. With the current Volumio 3 installed - any easy way to mount the SSD and copy (FLAC) files to it?
(Plan B is to use a USB enclosure I have, format it to FAT32 or exFAT, copy files, and only then install to Mercury NVMe socket. I would still prefer to copy files to it AFTER installed inside the Mercury)
2. Did anyone try to use the SSD as the boot drive, eliminating the need for the microSD card?

 

So where's the Comparison?

 

I am not ready to give a report yet.

 

Would be great to get answers to these questions.

I would also want to know if larger sized M.2 SSDs are working?
The connection has 1 lane, i.e. PCIe x1, Michael was telling me that SSDs with more lanes are working.
Most of the M.2 PCIe SSDs come with 4 lanes, including the Crucial 1 TB SSD that is probably shown on the pictures of some prototypes. Is there any concern that the larger SSDs > 1TB could cause problems? On the PI2Design webpage,
it is mentioned that Mercury supports SSDs up to 1 TB...

Another question that I have is about the file system.
Is only FAT32 or exFAT supported? It should be possible to use other file systems such as ext4.

 

I have installed a 4TB NVME SSD that was formatted for NTFS. The BETA takes a little bit of CLI work in Volumio to set up the mount and share.

The file system support is primarily a Linux variant condition. ext4 and FAT32 are native; exfat will most likely need a driver. NTFS is supported on several OS variants and installable on most.

One of my goals in the beta is to test PiCorePlayer and Audio-Linux along with Volumio.

 

I have been thinking about and re-writing this end-of-the-day summary from Sunday for most of the afternoon and evening, and I have just delayed till Monday!

While the hardware is getting a little break-in time, I have played with different OS variants, etc. After about three days of testing, a few things are starting to settle in. I have not finished PiCorePlayer or Audiolinux configurations, and I am preserving the Volumio environment for listening and studying.

I configured one of my Pi2AES units to run Volumio for direct comparison to the Mercury. My Volumio Primo is running to my Audioengine A2+ speakers as a baseline. I am working on getting all test systems on LMS and Squeezelite as my best success on the Pi4 was with that software. The K50 is even just that little bit better there too.

Sunday morning, I put the Ayre Codex DAC on the Mercury while working on other OS issues. I moved between the K50 and the Mercury using TOSLINK. Then I decided to put the Ferrum HYPSOS on the Mercury, and all other work screeched to a halt. I could not stop listening. I did not change tracks in the middle; I just listened.

My feet were getting cold, I had to use the facilities, yet I kept listening. I started getting chilled, and I kept listening. Volumio was not playing my Qobuz playlist correctly; it skipped tracks; I kept listening. Finally, Mother Nature and the chill sent me upstairs.

A day later, I think about what I heard/felt. Rarely do just the right mix of engineering, software, and hardware come together to make something special. I am not sure I have ever had this happen to the degree I heard this morning.

I have worked very hard for several years, and I have not been able or lucky enough to get to where I am today. I am just getting started here; I will take it off the test bench and apply it to the whole system.

Many Thanks to Michael Kelly


Monday Notes

I had to go back and verify what I have done. I listened again, and YEP is it GREAT. I built a new Volumio SD card to see if I could fix the issue with playlist and album track skipping. I shut off all of the different sources in Volumio, making it sound worse. I played my test list from Qobuz, and I have duplicated my efforts. Thinks are going rather nicely! I have re-formatted the internal 4TB drive to ext4 and re-mounted everything; I am copying files from a USB attached drive and the network.


By tomorrow, I hope to listen to the Mercury with my Heavenly Soundworks 517 speakers directly with AES and into the Dali Sound Hub S/PDIF input to square off with the Bluesound Module. The Sound Hub feeds a pair of Calisto 2C speakers over their wireless network.

 

Are you using the internal SSD for music storage only?
Did you try to boot the OS from it as well (and discard the microSD card)?

 

I have not tried to boot from NVME. I have seen that there were issues with that during '21 and have not studied it. The OS had ?? has?? a problem with the PCI-E switching systems or something? I think Michael said something about it too. You might want to search the thread. For my testing, (three different OS variants Keeping on the music on the NVME is not a problem, and with PiCorePlayer even less as it runs fully in RAM.

 

Thanks @bobfa

So far, I have only used Michael's supplied Volumio, and I successfully upgraded from 3.175 to 3.198.
Time permitting, I want to try Jriver's latest version of MC. Jriver MC has been my go-to for the last 3+ years on my NUC-based "music server" (Windows 10). It's time to pay Jriver for an upgrade to the upcoming MC29, and I will try to install it on top of the official Raspberry Pi OS.

 

Mercury Streamer here.

Used the included Volumio for a bit, and am running it now with GentooPlayer (version 6.6).

Working perfectly, and it sounds great.

 

Please describe the process of getting Gentoo running and if you have any listening impressions we would love to hear them. Do you have other digital sources you can compare against?

 

OK... made a lot of progress, but still no joy
Here is where I am at:
* Successfully created a 64-bit Raspberry Pi OS microSD card and it boots OK
* Successfully created a mount for my NAS
* Successfully installed Jriver MC28 (latest version), and imported a handful of folders from the NAS

Here is where I am stuck:
Connecting to my DAC through AES/EBU - no sound!

Anyone knows whether I need to change the Audio Device? Currently, on:
"default [ALSA] playback\recording through the PulseAudio sound server"

Tried several of the others, but still no sound...
Probably a really stupid little thing I am missing

 

You need to find the audio output setting on the Pi OS and choose HiFiBerry Digi Pro + driver. If it's not there you'll need to install it.