A Raspberry Pi as a music server

[JoachimStrobel]

I read that SD and USB share the same technology which is OK for storage but not for continuous data retrieval. This is where SSDs are better and should be used. It is difficult to teach the Raspi to boot from an SSD. The best one can do is to boot from the SD and run data storage from an attached SSD. I crashed about 3-4 SD cards and keep a copy of them on my PC for reflashing. Improper power downs are the main problem. Hence better leave the Raspi running or buy a small USP to avoid the „ I want to hear music, my SD crashed, where did I install that flashing software and how was it called and how did it work and were did I keep my backup“ which could spoil a Saturday evening.

 

[maltux]

This is a subject i always wondered about, the reliability of the RPI for audio tasks (=good life? compared to other crazy projects)
I have currently 7 raspberry, some working 24/7, some even suffered my poor skills with the soldering iron, always crossing fingers when plugging back, and i have never had one failing.
Good luck? I don't know what is the experience of other members here, but I would be curious to hear about it.

I had an old raspberry pi 2 fail. It was working 24/7 for 5 years as a firewall (pi-hole). First the video cut out but was still useable for my purposes. I replaced it with an unused raspberry pi 4 I already had.

 

[maltux]

I read that SD and USB share the same technology which is OK for storage but not for continuous data retrieval. This is where SSDs are better and should be used. It is difficult to teach the Raspi to boot from an SSD. The best one can do is to boot from the SD and run data storage from an attached SSD. I crashed about 3-4 SD cards and keep a copy of them on my PC for reflashing. Improper power downs are the main problem. Hence better leave the Raspi running or buy a small USP to avoid the „ I want to hear music, my SD crashed, where did I install that flashing software and how was it called and how did it work and were did I keep my backup“ which could spoil a Saturday evening.

The argon case allows you to connect a SATA SSD and it runs seamless. No problems booting from the SSD. I use one to control my JMRI Model Railway.
argon 4 case

 

[anon2k2]

I've had good luck with all my raspberry pis and other small single board computers. I currently have 6 of them deployed as firewalls and other utility devices, including as music servers. I've never had one fail yet. I use sd cards that are marketed as "high endurance" or "surveillance camera" because they are rated for more read-write cycles. My RPi3B that runs pi-hole for dns has been active for 5 years and its current uptime is over a year.

 

[HarmonicTHD]

Go for Pi. I have two - one before switching to PC worked 24/7 for 1 year as a music streamer (Moode) the other 24/7 for my 3d printer since 5years. Never ever a single problem. I use brand name SD cards but nothing special.

 

[JoachimStrobel]

If you leave them running all the time they will hardly fail. Once booted, the software runs in RAM and unless you do DB stuff or read music from the SD, it will not break the SD.

 

[FrantzM]

Hi

Perhaps OT. I figured out this could be the right place to ask this question. I have 2 Raspberry Pi:
A Raspberry Pi 2, running Homebridge for Home Automation
A Pi 3 , maybe 4, running Volumio 3 for my Headphones .
Homebridge for some reasons is having some issues with the Pi 2, I wanted to run both Homebridge and Volumio on the Pi3, I was told it can be done. How do I do it? Pointers? URL? I am an ingnoramus about all things Linux, but can learn.

A different topic:
When it was easily available and reasonably prices ( <$75), the Pi was a no-brainer. Today as of (01/21/2023), Pi 4's price hovers around $200.oo ... Will it come back to the sub $100 price level? In the meantime's, what are the alternatives? under $100?

Thanks in advance for your replies and, if completely OT for this thread, PM are welcome

Peace.

 

[JoachimStrobel]

I bought a fanless Win11Pro PC 8/128Gb for 200€ - that becomes cheaper than a Raspi at the current price.

 

[FrantzM]

I bought a fanless Win11Pro PC 8/128Gb for 200€ - that becomes cheaper than a Raspi at the current price.

I would have gone that way too but power consumption of those Win 11 Pcs, is likely higher. I am quasi-off-grid, that is an important factor for me, thus the ARM-based Pi alternatives request.

Peace.

 

[ezublab]

I'm running volumio3 on a Dell wise 3040 + usb dac. Bought it 40€. Small, fanless, perfect for me!

 

[FrantzM]

Hi

Perhaps OT. I figured out this could be the right place to ask this question. I have 2 Raspberry Pi:
A Raspberry Pi 2, running Homebridge for Home Automation
A Pi 3 , maybe 4, running Volumio 3 for my Headphones .
Homebridge for some reasons is having some issues with the Pi 2, I wanted to run both Homebridge and Volumio on the Pi3, I was told it can be done. How do I do it? Pointers? URL? I am an ingnoramus about all things Linux, but can learn.

A different topic:
When it was easily available and reasonably prices ( <$75), the Pi was a no-brainer. Today as of (01/21/2023), Pi 4's price hovers around $200.oo ... Will it come back to the sub $100 price level? In the meantime's, what are the alternatives? under $100?

Thanks in advance for your replies and, if completely OT for this thread, PM are welcome

Peace.

Answering my own questinons for those who would be interested:

Step 1 Enable SSH on your Volumio Pi:
Step 2 and the rest :

Install Homebridge on Raspbian - GitHub​

https://github.com/homebridge/homebridge/wiki/Install-Homebridge-on-Raspbian
Now I am running Homebridge on the Rasp 3 (not configured yet but all Plugin for the various accessories in the house (Smart lights, outlets, sensor are on it) the load from the CPU while listening to glorious music through the Pi with a Topping D-10B plugged on it +THX 789 Headphones Amp driving the HifiMan HE6SE, is less than 6%!! .... !!! .... !!!
Well I re-reread it and CPU load is at most 2% while playing music...

 

[charleski]

I bought a fanless Win11Pro PC 8/128Gb for 200€ - that becomes cheaper than a Raspi at the current price.

Another option might be something like the BeagleBone Black, which goes for around £50 and is readily available:

Geek Speak: How To Build A BeagleBone Black MPD Music Server

Warning the following article contains some geeky stuff. What follows is a step by step guide to building a tiny 2.4" x 0.82" x 3.54" Linux music server. It's not rocket science and the instructions make the process fairly easy, but the article isn't for everybody. Thanks to CA readers K-man and...

audiophilestyle.com

Configuring the Beaglebone Black to run Squeezelite

Getting the Beaglebone Black was only supposed to be a fun lesson in following a set of Linux instructions for audio playback, and assessing the merits of embedded systems with low power requirements. The results were convincing enough to share for the first blog, and this next set of instruction...

audiophilestyle.com

But compared to the RPi 4, the BeagleBone is very basic, and you don't get flash'n'go options like mOode and Volumio. I still feel incredibly lucky to have got an RPi 4 at the old price last March (in stock for less than an hour).

 

[HarmonicTHD]

Hi

Perhaps OT. I figured out this could be the right place to ask this question. I have 2 Raspberry Pi:
A Raspberry Pi 2, running Homebridge for Home Automation
A Pi 3 , maybe 4, running Volumio 3 for my Headphones .
Homebridge for some reasons is having some issues with the Pi 2, I wanted to run both Homebridge and Volumio on the Pi3, I was told it can be done. How do I do it? Pointers? URL? I am an ingnoramus about all things Linux, but can learn.

A different topic:
When it was easily available and reasonably prices ( <$75), the Pi was a no-brainer. Today as of (01/21/2023), Pi 4's price hovers around $200.oo ... Will it come back to the sub $100 price level? In the meantime's, what are the alternatives? under $100?

Thanks in advance for your replies and, if completely OT for this thread, PM are welcome

Peace.

Further alternatives:
Rock Pi4 Model C
Banana Pi M5
Odroid-C4
Pine Rock 64

I dont have any experiences with any of them, but they seem worth checking out.

 

[charleski]

Further alternatives:
Rock Pi4 Model C
Banana Pi M5
Odroid-C4
Pine Rock 64

I dont have any experiences with any of them, but they seem worth checking out.

I see Max2Play has a couple of images designed for ODroid boards.

 

[somebodyelse]

Volumio has an x86 version, and daphile is an easy way to run LMS/squeezelite as an alternative to piCorePlayer. Neither needs powerful hardware, and can run on cheap, fanless used thin clients like the Dell/Wyse mentioned above.

Few of the many alternative ARM boards have the range of easily deployed images that the Pi does. If you've got some linux experience or aren't afraid to try things with computers it's not too hard to install a linux image and the packages for the player and/or server, but that isn't for everyone.

 

[benanders]

Here’s a question I can’t seem to find a clear answer for:

Is there a plug-n-play OS option (Pi 3 B+) for a completely basic, library-free transport: basically, folder-/file-browsing an external drive (SATA SSD, 8TB) containing only music (FLAC, MP3, minimal DSD and WAV and…), to send a given selected file to a separate DAC via USB or HigiBerry Digi2 Pro? Preferably by phone app or remote device?

Features like automatically playing through files within one folder (e.g. album) would be icing on the cake; playlists, streaming from Spotify / Tidal and the like are unnecessary for my use.

Reason I ask is because the software for the transport section of my DAC has finally become completely unreliable after ~5 years of no updates (thank you, Oppo…) and I don’t want to corrupt a big $$D with endless reboots after constant freezes.

I don’t like that all the Pi OS’es (Volumio and the other options frequently discussed in this great thread) want to build a files library. I have too many pressings of the same album in many cases, for a library to be a clean path. I also don’t care to re-label thousands of files for consistency to fit a given program’s requirements (PLEX, I’m looking at you…).
I’m guessing there’s not such a streamlined, bare-bones ( = boring ) option that doesn’t require a fair amount of programming pioneer spirit, but maybe I’m wrong?

Edit: In a nutshell, is there any Volumio-type option that does not require building a library to access / transport music files from an external drive to a discrete DAC, either via USB or HifiBerry Digi2 Pro?

I’m all ears eyes for any suggestions. Thank you.

 

[charleski]

Here’s a question I can’t seem to find a clear answer for:

Is there a plug-n-play OS option (Pi 3 B+) for a completely basic, library-free transport: basically, folder-/file-browsing an external drive (SATA SSD, 8TB) containing only music (FLAC, MP3, minimal DSD and WAV and…), to send a given selected file to a separate DAC via USB or HigiBerry Digi2 Pro? Preferably by phone app or remote device?

Features like automatically playing through files within one folder (e.g. album) would be icing on the cake; playlists, streaming from Spotify / Tidal and the like are unnecessary for my use.

Reason I ask is because the software for the transport section of my DAC has finally become completely unreliable after ~5 years of no updates (thank you, Oppo…) and I don’t want to corrupt a big $$D with endless reboots after constant freezes.

I don’t like that all the Pi OS’es (Volumio and the other options frequently discussed in this great thread) want to build a files library. I have too many pressings of the same album in many cases, for a library to be a clean path. I also don’t care to re-label thousands of files for consistency to fit a given program’s requirements (PLEX, I’m looking at you…).
I’m guessing there’s not such a streamlined, bare-bones ( = boring ) option that doesn’t require a fair amount of programming pioneer spirit, but maybe I’m wrong?

Edit: In a nutshell, is there any Volumio-type option that does not require building a library to access / transport music files from an external drive to a discrete DAC, either via USB or HifiBerry Digi2 Pro?

I’m all ears eyes for any suggestions. Thank you.

I think almost all the solutions out there also offer a ‘Folder’ view that will let you browse through the folders on your drive and play albums from there. I know LMS (piCorePlayer) and Moode can do this, pretty sure that others like Volumio can as well. They will all build a library database built from the tags, but you can ignore that.

 

[benanders]

I think almost all the solutions out there also offer a ‘Folder’ view that will let you browse through the folders on your drive and play albums from there. I know LMS (piCorePlayer) and Moode can do this, pretty sure that others like Volumio can as well. They will all build a library database built from the tags, but you can ignore that.

@charleski thank you. This gives cause to try several OS’es for the best non-peekaboo-features interface. Good.
Mine seems a same-opposite scenario as other “Which OS is best?” queries in these 25pp. I’ve consistently encountered use issues with music libraries and wish the feature could be universally disabled. When >1 album pressing is involved, it just introduces too many bugs not inherent with film libraries. I was hoping to eliminate any/all contenders that lack a stripped-down option - very glad I found this thread!

 

[Ears of Tin]

One of my small frustrations is the three hours it takes to build my library with operating systems such as rAudio or Volumio that incorporate MPD. After the build finally completes with all that wonderful tag detail, the next thing I do is delete the album, artist, genre, composer, etc. icons from the user interface because I never use them. I'm strictly a folders guy.

I've tried playing folders with BubbleUpnp but all too often it plays the tracks of the folder in alphabetical order. I don't know how MPD works differently but it does so I'll stick with rAudio.

 

[benanders]

One of my small frustrations is the three hours it takes to build my library with operating systems such as rAudio or Volumio that incorporate MPD. After the build finally completes with all that wonderful tag detail, the next thing I do is delete the album, artist, genre, composer, etc. icons from the user interface because I never use them. I'm strictly a folders guy.

I've tried playing folders with BubbleUpnp but all too often it plays the tracks of the folder in alphabetical order. I don't know how MPD works differently but it does so I'll stick with rAudio.

Groan, I’d assumed no better. And if ever anything causes the library to “need” rebuilding, I assume the OS will do so automatically, and reverse previous manual deletions.
That’s where for me, a small frustration becomes a big frustration, albeit a petty one.
Much of my stuff isn’t consistently tagged / labeled, having been accrued over too long a time and for too many use cases, so initial cataloguing by a given OS may prove especially messy, even without multiple pressings considered.
I’ll first tinker with a smaller drive and fewer folders / files in hopes of streamlining my “simplificustomization”.