A Raspberry Pi as a music server

[phoenixdogfan]

Just about any computer built in the 21th century is capable of being used as a simple file server, which is what we're discussing here. Even a single core Pentium machine from the 20th century would probably work just fine. Reading a file from disk and passing it on through whatever interface that one prefers isn't very demanding of CPU resources, neither is audio file decode and playback.

The RPi is merely a very versatile single board computer that applies to DIY. Others use mini PC, NUC, laptop, and desktop machines for the task. Even Android mobiles can be used as such - I'm not kidding...

Think the one thing everyone wants is a quiet machine. After that, anything will work.

 

[phoenixdogfan]

Wow. Have you read much of the content on this site ? It's not really a normal audio forum where this sort of voodoo nonsense is accepted! (My original comment wasn't meant seriously btw).

I don't think his post is either.

 

[TheWalkman]

Think the one thing everyone wants is a quiet machine. After that, anything will work.

Besides a quiet server, my Pi Zero server draws < 1 watt in idle mode so there‘s no sound, virtually no heat and very little power draw. That works for me!

 

[JRM_PT]

The Pi 4 draws a little more power. The weaker part of my setup will be, at the beginning, the iomega HDD as it might be a little too noisy. Speed will be fine for the task. Nevertheless, that has an easy fixing, a SDD. Costly though. Can't wait to receive all the stuff and start building the monster.

 

[JRM_PT]

At another forum, someone gave me this list of OS to try:
Moode
Volumio
Archphile
CollybiaOS
PiCorePlayer/LMS
Gentooplayer
Rune
I might test them all

 

[TheWalkman]

At another forum, someone gave me this list of OS to try:
Moode
Volumio
Archphile
CollybiaOS
PiCorePlayer/LMS
Gentooplayer
Rune
I might test them all

It would be great to get an objective comparison between them all. I’d be particularly curious to know how the latest versions compare with features, performance and user interface.

 

[samsa]

I have three Raspberry Pi3B+'s. Two are running on Volumio, one on moOde.

I rather strongly recommend against Volumio. Their Linux distro is radically out-of-date

Raspbian GNU/Linux 8.0 (jessie) | 4.19.86-v7+ #1283 SMP Fri Nov 29 18:32:25 GMT 2019 armv7l

and you can't use apt upgrade like on any other Debian-based Linux system, without bricking the RPi.

moOde is a reasonably up-to-date Linux distro

Raspbian 10.4 | 5.4.40-v8+ #1316 | aarch64 (64-bit)

and apt upgrade works just fine.

I don't use the native player on either of these. Instead, they are OpenHome renderers (via upmpdcli), Airplay receivers (via ShairPortSync) and Roon endpoints (via RoonBridge).

I had to install RoonBridge myself; the rest come pre-installed with the distro.

 

[GeorgeWalk]

It would be great to get an objective comparison between them all. I’d be particularly curious to know how the latest versions compare with features, performance and user interface.

I have used Volumio on a number of my PI's, but I have become disillusioned with it recently. The last update broke the multi-room play. There is a thread on the issue on the Volumio forums, but no replies. Also, I seem to be experiencing network glitches and freeze that require me to restart it.

 

[JRM_PT]

Rune is, by now, out of question because it doesn't run on a RPi4

 

[TheWalkman]

I have used Volumio on a number of my PI's, but I have become disillusioned with it recently. The last update broke the multi-room play. There is a thread on the issue on the Volumio forums, but no replies. Also, I seem to be experiencing network glitches and freeze that require me to restart it.

George:

I’m beginning to feel the same way.

Though I love the PiZero form factor as posted previously, I, too, am beginning to become a bit disillusioned with Volumio. I’m having issues copying new music to the internal ssd card: using a Mac, the Fimder is telling me I’m out of memory on the card although there is actually 35 of 64gb free; some cds aren’t showing up in my library; and general flakey performance.

It may be time to explore other streaming software, I’m afraid to say.

 

[GeorgeWalk]

George:

I’m beginning to feel the same way.

Though I love the PiZero form factor as posted previously, I, too, am beginning to become a bit disillusioned with Volumio. I’m having issues copying new music to the internal ssd card: using a Mac, the Fimder is telling me I’m out of memory on the card although there is actually 35 of 64gb free; some cds aren’t showing up in my library; and general flakey performance.

It may be time to explore other streaming software, I’m afraid to say.

I tried to change my Pi Zero to moode, but it worked worse. I am begging to think that the PI Zero may be a little under-powered to handle the audio streaming and serve the Web interface. I do like the PI 4 with Volumio other than the issues I sited above. I hope they fix it soon.

 

[mikeburns]

At another forum, someone gave me this list of OS to try:
Moode
Volumio
Archphile
CollybiaOS
PiCorePlayer/LMS
Gentooplayer
Rune
I might test them all

Would be great to hear your opinions on them all. Seems my my searching that the most stable of them (and simple/straightforward to use for audio) was moode. I stopped at moode because it works so well. I am interested in your thoughts/reviews as there is likely some stuff I did not think about that might improve my experience.

 

[mikeburns]

I tried to change my Pi Zero to moode, but it worked worse. I am begging to think that the PI Zero may be a little under-powered to handle the audio streaming and serve the Web interface. I do like the PI 4 with Volumio other than the issues I sited above. I hope they fix it soon.

My pi4 works well with moode, though I do not use higher level functionality (no multi room, bluetooth etc).

 

[GeorgeWalk]

My pi4 works well with moode, though I do not use higher level functionality (no multi room, bluetooth etc).

I have a Pi 4 with Volumio (and Topping D50s connected via USB) and it works great. I also have the PI Touchscreen on it. I usually use the Bluetooth on the D50s and not the PI/Volumio Bluetooth. I am not sure, but I think the D5s has a better Bluetooth implementation than PI.

 

[Rocky Loudboa]

I tried to change my Pi Zero to moode, but it worked worse. I am begging to think that the PI Zero may be a little under-powered to handle the audio streaming and serve the Web interface. I do like the PI 4 with Volumio other than the issues I sited above. I hope they fix it soon.

I can confirm that. Pi Zero has too little power for streaming with Moode Audio. Glitches occured, so SQ was bad. I sold mine afterwards and bought a Pi 4 with a fanless Hifi-stylish Flirc Case.

 

[JRM_PT]

So, I got the RPi4 booting with PiCorePlayer but I need a keyboard to further set it up properly, namely using the HDD, wi-fi and to fully configure it as a player.
Also got the Topping E30 and I'll be receiving the last cable during this week.
Also have to pick one app to run it from my smartphone (Android Q). There are too many!

 

[somebodyelse]

So, I got the RPi4 booting with PiCorePlayer but I need a keyboard to further set it up properly, namely using the HDD, wi-fi and to fully configure it as a player.
Also got the Topping E30 and I'll be receiving the last cable during this week.
Also have to pick one app to run it from my smartphone (Android Q). There are too many!

You shouldn't need a keyboard - PiCorePlayer is designed for configuration via a browser on another machine on your network. The web interface actually allows you to do more configuration than you can from a keyboard and screen plugged into it. You don't strictly need an app on the phone either, particularly if you enable the Material Skin plugin on LMS - you can just use the browser. The user guide includes instructions on how to pin it to your home screen as a browser app.

 

[samsa]

You shouldn't need a keyboard - PiCorePlayer is designed for configuration via a browser on another machine on your network. The web interface actually allows you to do more configuration than you can from a keyboard and screen plugged into it.

And whatever you can't do via the web interface can always be done via ssh.

 

[Apesbrain]

Also have to pick one app to run it from my smartphone (Android Q). There are too many!

Look into the Material Skin plugin. It's SOTA and free! Includes both mobile and desktop versions.

 

[somebodyelse]

On the offchance it's about the wifi config without a wired network, see these instructions.