A Raspberry Pi as a music server

[Sukie]

Thank you all for the replies, much appreciated.

What is the preferred and recommended route to connect local music library with Pi + MoOde?

USB HDD into Pi
USB HDD into router
NAS drive
anything else?

I don't use any of these methods but I would have thought that USB HDD into Pi is the most straightforward.

I use a solution that suits my circumstances. I have my local library stored on my phone (256 GB micro sd card). I then stream this to my RPi using Bubble UPnP app on my phone. I do this because I can then use my phone as a portable DAP as well. I also use the app to stream Qobuz.

 

[m8o]

I am mainly a Roon user. But as far as stand alone player/server goes... Would folks who have tried all the top ones say the UI & UX of MoOde is superior to Rune?

I think I like Volumio over Rune. Did folks who thought the same like MoOde over Rune and maybe Volumio too? Thnx.

 

[mnemonix]

I am mainly a Roon user. But as far as stand alone player/server goes... Would folks who have tried all the top ones say the UI & UX of MoOde is superior to Rune?

Can't comment on Volumio, but Moode appears and can be used as a Roon endpoint using Airplay if you want to keep using that. Compared to iTunes and Roon I am finding the Moode interface rather limited, particularly when it comes to curating playlists etc, but it works and looks nice enough.

 

[mnemonix]

I don't use any of these methods but I would have thought that USB HDD into Pi is the most straightforward.

Moode automatically presents attached USB storage as shared folders on the network which can be seen from Macs and PCs with little or no configuration (I had to enable SMBv1 on Windows 10), which is handy if you want to combine player and NAS into 1 device.

 

[GeorgeWalk]

I used Volumio a lot and I have since witched to PiCorePlayer. I think the functionality and performance of PiCorePlayer is better. I can't speak to Rune or Moode

 

[Nybto]

Thank you all for the replies, much appreciated.

What is the preferred and recommended route to connect local music library with Pi + MoOde?

USB HDD into Pi
USB HDD into router
NAS drive
anything else?

USB HDD into Pi for me, via powered hub.

 

[Nybto]

I have the FLIRC aluminium case and this keeps things cool enough.

Does it (Al case) affect the wifi pick up? (I have mine set up on the wifi, but I only considered plastic cases, in order not to upset the wifi). (this is my player though, not my server.. just to avoid any misunderstanding).

 

[Sukie]

Does it (Al case) affect the wifi pick up? (I have mine set up on the wifi, but I only considered plastic cases, in order not to upset the wifi). (this is my player though, not my server.. just to avoid any misunderstanding).

It hasn't affected my wifi pick up at all. There are plenty of reviews of the case and I haven't noticed wifi related negative feedback either.

 

[Aldoszx]

There is also an alternative to Rune, M00de, Volumio, piCorePlayer, etc. that can be used as music server on RPi: Gentooplayer.
You can give it a try.

 

[JoachimStrobel]

I am mainly a Roon user. But as far as stand alone player/server goes... Would folks who have tried all the top ones say the UI & UX of MoOde is superior to Rune?

I think I like Volumio over Rune. Did folks who thought the same like MoOde over Rune and maybe Volumio too? Thnx.

AFAIK, only Volumio enables HDMI out via the Roon Bridge. That is all I need.

 

[TheWalkman]

USB HDD into Pi for me, via powered hub.

I have my music library loaded onto the internal Pi sd card (using a high endurance card though it probably isn’t necessary).

 

[Aldoszx]

AFAIK, only Volumio enables HDMI out via the Roon Bridge. That is all I need.

I think you can set this on "config.txt" file on every distro for Pi.

 

[nikkon]

Rpi4 + Volumio + jlsound I2SoverUSB v3. What’s missing from the pictures is the usb connection from the board to the jlsound module.
initially I used an ASUS tinker board, but it died too soon

 

[Nybto]

I have my music library loaded onto the internal Pi sd card (using a high endurance card though it probably isn’t necessary).

A neat solution. So how is this done, is the SD card partitioned to store the image as well, or have you moved that to the internal memory? Is there a limit on SD card capacity from the Pi?

 

[TheWalkman]

A neat solution. So how is this done, is the SD card partitioned to store the image as well, or have you moved that to the internal memory? Is there a limit on SD card capacity from the Pi?

From the Volumio site:

Can I use the unused space of my SD card for music?
Yes. Volumio has a folder called 'INTERNAL' set aside for this, which uses the free space on your SD card. The folder is shared on your network as a Samba share called "Internal Storage". You can upload music files to that share and they will be shown in your Volumio music library, in a folder called 'INTERNAL'. Note that the folder does not appear in the music library if it is empty.

https://volumio.github.io/docs/FAQs/Audio_Sources.html

I really like the fact that you can build extremely small streamers (see my posts #83, 86 and 132 in this thread. * )

That said, two caveats: it‘s a little bit of work to add new music files to the server. You must ssh into the Pi as guest, mount the “internal“ volume, then copy the new files to it.

Adding new music is a little bit of a gyration compared to copying files to a NAS, etc. but I probably have 250 - 300 titles in my library and am adding few new titles - perhaps 12 - 24 new titles per year - so it’s not a biggie.

One other benefit is that I frequently stream Pandora, Spotify and Tune In directly from the Raspberry Pi streamers at high bit rates, freeing my phone, ipad, etc for other things.

The final bonus is that the streamers also act as Airplay endpoints so I can stream high quality audio to them (and my stereo) as I watch, say a YouTube video, etc.

I‘ve built half a dozen of these with various hats - Allos, Booms, Optical hats, etc. My current favorite that’s fast, compact and energy efficient, is the Pi 3A+ with an Apple dongle. See post #136 above. It works really well. The Pi Zeros are a bit slow and this config zips right along. The only downside is the red power LED is a bit obnoxious at night.

*Note, too, I’m having some issues with an apparent memory bug on the Pi Zeros. Though I have ~30gb of space available on my 64gb sd cards, I‘m getting a memory error - not enough storage available. working through that on the Volumio forums now. No problems on the Pi 3 A or Bs doing this.

Overall, I’m really pleased with these.

 

[m8o]

Moode automatically presents attached USB storage as shared folders on the network which can be seen from Macs and PCs with little or no configuration (I had to enable SMBv1 on Windows 10), which is handy if you want to combine player and NAS into 1 device.

Is this "safe"? This (SMBv1) was the subject of a critical security flaw years back.

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/storage-at-microsoft/stop-using-smb1/ba-p/425858

 

[mnemonix]

Is this "safe"? This (SMBv1) was the subject of a critical security flaw years back.

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/storage-at-microsoft/stop-using-smb1/ba-p/425858

Good point, I admit it was a quick fix; there's no reason it should be necessary with the correct setup.

 

[wineds]

I replied early on in this thread; at the time I was running Volumio on my 2GB Raspberry Pi 4. I finally got fed up with the slowness and lag trying to run a full server on the Pi. My music is on a Synology NAS and I had Logitech Media Server installed on it from when I used a Logitech Touch. I replaced Volumio with piCorePlayer and could not be happier. I use iPeng to control it from my iPhone. Having a client on the Pi and the server running on the NAS does not have the slowness and lag I suffered trying to run a server (Volumio) on the Pi.

Synology discontinued support for Logitech Media Server but that's been picked up by pinkdot: https://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?111876-LmsUpdate-and-LmsRepack-Synology-8-0-*-packages.

I'm running Logitech Media Server (LMS) 8.0 on my NAS and could not be happier with the performance and stability of the server, piCorePlayer client and iPeng app. As a bonus I can use SoX on the LMS to run equalization.

My DAC is a Topping DX7 Pro. I'm quite happy with my setup.

Martin

There is a neat trick I worked out if you still have the Logitech Touch. Synchronise it to piCorePlayer in LMS then you will have a display and you can use the Touch IR remote for control. It makes the Touch a "dummy" player with piCorePlayer connected to the USB DAC.

 

[jtwrace]

I just put my RP4 with RopieeeXL together today. It took all of 10 minutes to flash the SD card, install and configure the incredible GUI for Ropieee. Even with my donation for RopieeeXL it's a bargain IMO. Even has full auto update at your set time. I'm a Roon user and it works flawless all day today with my Topping D90.

This guide is quite helpful too.

 

[Pep2020]

I use Volumio, but with the LMS Server and Squeezelite player plugins installed. Really easy to set up and better than standard Volumio IMHO. Volumio has drivers for my usb WiFi dongle (unlike Moode) so that also 'just works'. Sound is great into Topping E30. I'm using pi 4b