ASR Open Source Streamer Project

[Kervel]

The advantage over existing solutions is the asr stamp of approval, meaning objective performance plus intuitive and consistent UI. This is a mayor selling point. Other solutions may get close to target, but there is no guarantee that they are stable and work as intended. What if your unit crashes and upon restart goes to 100% volume? Or the interface is slow; or no gapless play etc

 

[tinnitus]

Lots of things to look into. Thanks for the references -- do you have URLs perchance?

https://www.essenceelectrostatic.com/product/evolve-ii-4k-hdmi-v2-0-multi-channel-dac/

http://www.suptronics.com/miniPCkits/x6000-7.1ch.html

here is the answer from suptronics of my question buying a x6000 7.1 from geekworm

Hello Roland,

The X6000 will be updated to support Rpi4 but not support Pi3 because the HDMI connector different.
For the 3.5mm jack, I will need to study about this. But how about the RCA jack ? there are 8 channel so this is also the reason we used the 3.5 jacks to save space.…

 

[dc655321]

I have gained some experience working with the Linux audio stack by building my own convolution engine and integrating with ALSA.
Well... built and rebuilt, and rebuilt, and stalled and picked up again, and...

The engine itself performs well.

The DSP aspects are not difficult: the vertical integration aspects are where the demons lurk.
Integration "down" into the OS, and "up" to the user are non-trivial domains.

 

[voodooless]

As others have pointed out there already exist several open source music streamer distros that tick almost all Amir's boxes – most popular being Moode and Volumio – many of which are based on MPD (Music Player Dæmon) and LMS (Logitec Media Server) or combinations therof. If there are concrete issues with either the underlying music players or the distros themselves then I would think it would be more productive for those with the necessary skills to send PRs (pull requests) to the respective repositories that could benefit all the different distros rather than starting yet another competing distro.

What one could also do is focus on specific area's of interest, and then try fo focus on these as a group to improve the quality of the existing solutions. For instance, fix a persistent bug in distro X, add a special feature to distro Y, upgrade the UX on distro Z...

 

[bluefuzz]

While those are great projects, there is still a distinct advantage of working on another solution from the ground up, especially if it is community based.

Unless you are putting your hand up to single-handedly code this new platform (in a few months to a year - lol) I think it is deeply unrealistic to think it should not build on what is already out there. It is a massive undertaking to code a complete streaming OS from scratch, potentially including hardware design too.

Some of these platforms have an ancient or unfriendly code base

Then our time would be better spent helping to fix and modernize those existing codebases than starting from scratch.

 

[gvh1234]

I agree. For instance if the amazing talents gathered on this forum threw their weight behind the squeezebox community there would be fireworks. It already has all the licensing frameworks and agreements in place for all of the main streaming services which is very hard to do.

 

[Ralph_Cramden]

I agree. For instance if the amazing talents gathered on this forum threw their weight behind the squeezebox community there would be fireworks. It already has all the licensing frameworks and agreements in place for all of the main streaming services which is very hard to do.

I wonder how many are aware just how good LMS is, and how much development activity is currently going on improving it? I find the Material Skin to be better than any music app, and I've tried most of them; it's completely portable, as it requires only a browser. Also, the Chromecast and DLNA plugins are rock solid.

 

[Berwhale]

Yes. This is much preferred to RPi (for example).

Stream810 supports:

- Official Airplay 2 (even the Shairport emulator does not support Airplay 2)
- Official Chromecast Built-in - can't be done with Linux still

I imagine Roon is easily added - no licensing costs.

See below

https://www.streamunlimited.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Stream810-V3.3.pdf


View attachment 115562

Ah, now I understand why the Onkyo G3 smart speaker I bought my daughter appears as Stream810Georgia-MAC_Address on my home network!

VC-GX30-W | Standard Versions | null | Onkyo - Sound Acoustics

 

[watchnerd]

Would there be some red tape involved with Roon certification? If its Chromecast capable, Roon can cast to it - this might be quicker to get to, at least for the initial version.

Roopiee already supports RAAT and it's freely available.

Unless you were referring to certifying the hardware?

 

[amirm]

Folks, there is a product that seems to do a lot of what we are talking about from Audiophonics:

https://www.audiophonics.fr/fr/dsp-...reampli-dac-lecteur-reseau-audio-p-13124.html

Seems like they have solved some of the problems we are talking about???

 

[StefaanE]

Folks, there is a product that seems to do a lot of what we are talking about from Audiophonics:

https://www.audiophonics.fr/fr/dsp-...reampli-dac-lecteur-reseau-audio-p-13124.html

Seems like they have solved some of the problems we are talking about???

But it comes at a price, €1158 ex. VAT, which will add about 18% to the final price, or something like €1390 here in Luxembourg. Not exactly chickenfeed.
That being said, it does tick a lot of the boxes. At first blush, the fact that it integrates the DACs into the (nice) case might make it less attractive for people who want to stick to their DACs and more expensive than it needs to be. I created an account (a pain in the butt and a lot of personal information to provide) but even after registering I didn't find an English version, so would anyone be interested in me providing an English translation of the MiniSharc sales blurb and specifications?

 

[StefaanE]

As far as a summary of today's proceedings is concerned, I'd like to wait for a day or two before summarising, I'm still trying to wrap my mind around the scope of the project. Anyway, a great many thanks for all the suggestions and offers for help, keep them coming folks.

 

[somebodyelse]

https://www.audiophonics.fr/en/dsp-...-preamplifier-dac-network-player-p-13124.html
That's got most of it in english but the comments are still in french.

 

[rgpit]

I wonder how many are aware just how good LMS is, and how much development activity is currently going on improving it? I find the Material Skin to be better than any music app, and I've tried most of them; it's completely portable, as it requires only a browser. Also, the Chromecast and DLNA plugins are rock solid.

I agree 100%

 

[StefaanE]

https://www.audiophonics.fr/en/dsp-...-preamplifier-dac-network-player-p-13124.html
That's got most of it in english but the comments are still in french.

Thanks, I just managed to locate the language button in the top right corner. Saves me a lot of work.

 

[McFly]

My biggest gripe with all these streamers is WAF (or making it idiot proof), and the lack of HDMI ARC. Yes I am aware there are probably massive licensing fees involved with this

Your Mrs knows how to use the TV? YES. She knows how to use the TV remote? YES.

Then you throw in a Logitech harmony, WHOOA maybe she can use it but its starting to get confusing. Then you throw in the devices the Logitech is switching on getting the devices out of sync? GAME OVER. Phone call from the Mrs while your at the pub.

The ultimate would be a MiniDSP SHD/SHD studio without the poor Volumio integration (insert ASR's NEW improved software) and HDMI ARC. This way, you could have your Cake - your own sources into the SHD, and eat it too! - Mrs turns on the TV, starts casting Spotify to it, and can control the volume from her PHONE rocker switch. All this with a DSP backend controlling multiple digital/analogue output channels (min 2, up to 8 if you add a nanoDIGI to the SHD studio).

But wait, I have created a complicated version of the above! - the only thing I don't get is rocker volume control from Spotify, purely because I am forced to use fixed optical out audio from the TV to the miniDSP SHD. ARC would mean I could get rid of all my trigger wiring, IR extenders, and get full phone volume control from Spotify connect. And also, streaming services (including Roon!) are adding visual information to the audio streams so a TV makes sense to use as the Source! Im not even using a Logitech Harmony! the SHD has learned the SONY remote IR inputs!

tldr; in order for streamers to be future proof, HDMI ARC should be included. Allowing power on/off and volume control from the factory TV remote.

 

[somebodyelse]

I'm still not entirely clear on how much is included in the package. If I'm reading one of the comments correctly they can't swap the DACs for coax/toslink digital outputs as they don't have a method of controlling the volume on the MiniSharc, which seems a little odd. I'm not sure how the MiniSharc gets programmed either - AFAIK the MiniDSP software won't run on linux, let alone a Pi, so I guess you plug it into a Windows machine somehow? It's one of the things that's led me to avoid MiniDSP boards so far, so if there's now a way to program them from the Pi I'll be all ears.

 

[StefaanE]

My biggest gripe with all these streamers is WAF (or making it idiot proof), and the lack of HDMI ARC.

As far as HDMI ARC is concerned, the folks at Nubert have an HDMI --> USB dongle they deliver with all their active speakers. I'll try to hook one up to a PC to see if it is recognised. I would be amazed if it would be a proprietary product.

 

[StefaanE]

I'm still not entirely clear on how much is included in the package. If I'm reading one of the comments correctly they can't swap the DACs for coax/toslink digital outputs as they don't have a method of controlling the volume on the MiniSharc, which seems a little odd. I'm not sure how the MiniSharc gets programmed either - AFAIK the MiniDSP software won't run on linux, let alone a Pi, so I guess you plug it into a Windows machine somehow? It's one of the things that's led me to avoid MiniDSP boards so far, so if there's now a way to program them from the Pi I'll be all ears.

It's a bit dear to order one just for evaluation, unfortunately.

 

[McFly]

As far as HDMI ARC is concerned, the folks at Nubert have an HDMI --> USB dongle they deliver with all their active speakers. I'll try to hook one up to a PC to see if it is recognised. I would be amazed if it would be a proprietary product.

I shouted Hallelujah when KEF added HDMI ARC to the LS50's. Looong overdue, means the wife or kids won't have to touch the speakers to get awesome sound when watching TV.