MUHAHA! I just built a $40 RPi streamer

[scrubb]

This is going to sound awfully simplistic to most people on this forum, but I’m really proud of myself right now, and maybe it will serve as inspiration for others who are less technically inclined.

That said, I barely know what I’m doing. It was a real hack project. I read a few web tutorials, watched a few videos and decided to try it. I bought a Raspberry Pi 4 B, basic power supply, micro SD card and $0.99 plastic case. I decided to use Volumio as the OS and wrote it onto the SD card, inserted it into RPi and powered it up. I followed the directions on the Volumio website and, viola, it appeared in both Tidal and Spotify as an AirPlay endpoint.

The RPi is currently connected to the USB input on my Vannatoo T0 speakers and sounds great. I plan to get a Hat with a built-in DAC for ease in connecting to any system when a better USB DAC is not available.

Now come the questions. Please bear with how dumb they may be. As I understand it AirPlay is limited to 16 Bit, 44.1kHz. Is that true? If so that’s as good as a CD, right? But what if I want “hi res”? Do I need to get the Volumio mobile app? Will my streaming services interface with that? I suspect Roon would have no trouble with it? (I’m not ready to invest in Room just yet.) Is there a better option than Volumio? I’d like to not have to use six different apps for six different streaming devices. (I’m also in the BluOS ecosystem for now). This thing is real relatively huge, is it possible to do all this with a Raspberry Pi Zero WiFi version? Thanks!

 

[Beershaun]

Hi. Congrats. Nice work and I think it's encouraging for others who may be intimidated by building their own to hear more people successfully building RPI music steamers. I really think they are the best solution for bit perfect audio streaming. Try out Moode player and hifiberryos. I use Moode and I use bubbleupnp on my Android devices as a remote control. The combination is really fantastic. Moode supports Tidal, Spotify connect, and Airplay so you don't have to limit to Airplay. Bubbleupnp allows you to use a library on your local NAS or computer, or use your phone to control Sending Tidal or Qobuz to your streamer. I think the best way is to get a couple additional microsd cards and the load your other images on separate cards so you can swap them out without losing your settings.

 

[scrubb]

I think the best way is to get a couple additional microsd cards and the load your other images on separate cards so you can swap them out without losing your settings.

Ooh, that's a good tip! I wouldn't have thought of swapping out SD cards. Thanks! As far as encouraging others, I would suggest anyone try it. It was really simple. I am reminded of a post from someone here a while back who was willing to spend $800 on hardware for what is basically just a prepackaged RPi because they didn't want to go to the trouble of this. It took me about 30 minutes from unboxing to streaming (not including the 40KB/s two hour download of Volumio - not my server's problem).

 

[hdspeakerman]

Wow, thank you for sharing. I have little confidence in my RPI powers

 

[Zensō]

Great job! These little RPi4 streamers are super fun to build and perform incredibly well.

You’re correct, 16/44.1 is CD quality. Honestly, I wouldn’t be overly concerned with “hires” — it’s highly unlikely you‘d hear a difference when compared blind to CD.

Roon is not cheap, but in my opinion it’s the most complete/flexible solution if your budget allows.

Congrats and enjoy!

 

[0bs3rv3r]

As I understand it AirPlay is limited to 16 Bit, 44.1kHz. Is that true? If so that’s as good as a CD, right? But what if I want “hi res”? Do I need to get the Volumio mobile app?

Not quite sure what you are asking here. The Volumio app, is just a way to control the system you installed on the rPi remotely. It's basically a web interface, even when using the app.

Volumio, and other systems (I prefer moOde), are not limited to 16 bit 44.1kHz. If you feed them a high-res file, or stream, they will play it. The will even upsample the 16 bit 44.kHz to something better if you think it helps.

Try selecting one of the hires radio stations, or copy some hires files to the Volumio library and play them.

 

[samsa]

AirPlay (supported by Volumio, moOde and other distros via Shairport-sync) is limited to 16/44.1. So, yes, if you want to stream to your RPi from your iPhone, that'll be "limited" to CD-quality.

But playing music via the native app, or via UPnP/OpenHome (supported by Volumio, moOde and other distros via upmpdcli) has no such restriction. Neither does Roon (if you install Roonbridge).

Personally, I've got both moOde and Volumio RPi streamers and I've never used the native app with any of them. All my streaming is via Roon/OpenHome/AirPlay (in roughly that order).

 

[0bs3rv3r]

The app is just a web interface to control what is running on the rPi. Volumio/moOde maintain a library, of music files either local or remote (like on a NAS), and play the songs using MPD (a very nice linux music player daemon) under control of the web interface.
They also support other connections like upnp/openhome, tidal, spotify.
They also will play internet streaming "radio" stations, and come with a collection of bookmarks to good ones to try.
They also will receive audio via bluetooth and play that.

 

[watchnerd]

I sent my Pi4 DAC to Amir

 

[scrubb]

Not quite sure what you are asking here. The Volumio app, is just a way to control the system you installed on the rPi remotely. It's basically a web interface, even when using the app.

I’m just using the basic web interface which doesn’t appear to integrate streaming services. It seems I would have to subscribe to MyVolumio to get that integration.

i don’t currently have a large library of local digital music. I’ve been too lazy to rip all my cds. And why do it when I can listen to most of them on Tidal anyways? I’m more inclined to digitize some of my vinyl collection which contains many recordings unavailable through streaming.

 

[scrubb]

Another dumb question. I’m in charge of the sound systems at work. If I wanted to use these RPi streamers on our systems rather than Bluetooth (cringe) or hard wire connection, is there a good, simple, free solution for multiple non-techie users to connect their various Androids and iPhones (not all at once of course) for streaming primarily from Spotify? It seems Airplay is the answer for iOS, but I’m not very familiar with Android.

 

[abdo123]

You can enable DLNA rendering and use mconnect app on your phone to stream Qobuz and Tidal content.

But for Tidal you would need an MQA DAC to get higher than CD quality.

 

[abdo123]

Another dumb question. I’m in charge of the sound systems at work. If I wanted to use these RPi streamers on our systems rather than Bluetooth (cringe) or hard wire connection, is there a good, simple, free solution for multiple non-techie users to connect their various Androids and iPhones (not all at once of course) for streaming primarily from Spotify? It seems Airplay is the answer for iOS, but I’m not very familiar with Android.

A very easy way to do that is to use RoopieXL.

It supports DLNA, Spotify connect and Airplay.

Without excessive teching, you can enable all these three feature very easily.

 

[mr.k]

Since he already has Volumio, it would be logical to use Spotify connect plugin for Volumio.

More info:

https://community.volumio.org/t/how-to-get-the-spotify-plugin-working/10458

 

[scrubb]

Since he already has Volumio, it would be logical to use Spotify connect plugin for Volumio.

That is very helpful. Thanks! I'm learning a lot very quickly here.

 

[Beershaun]

Moode player has Spotify connect as well. You need to enable it and it shows up on people's Spotify app as a speaker they can pick. Moode also had Tidal support. Not tidal Connect though.

 

[Beershaun]

Me too I use a Raspberry pi 4 as a streamer for Tidal, just finished yesterday to set it up! Since my only goal was to listen to TIDAL and I have an MQA capable DAC (smsl su-9), I only installed Tidal connect on raspberry os and it works perfectly (bit perfect, MQA passthrough etc...). No need for other apps like volumio (if you don’t have a local music library)
Here is the link with the tidal connect installer, in case you need it:
https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=297771

fantastic! I wonder if there is a way to incorporate this into Moode player...

 

[Sprint]

Me too I use a Raspberry pi 4 as a streamer for Tidal, just finished yesterday to set it up! Since my only goal was to listen to TIDAL and I have an MQA capable DAC (smsl su-9), I only installed Tidal connect on raspberry os and it works perfectly (bit perfect, MQA passthrough etc...). No need for other apps like volumio (if you don’t have a local music library)
Here is the link with the tidal connect installer, in case you need it:
https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=297771

Are you using any HAT? How easy it is to install Tidal connect on PI4? I have PI4 and plan to install Tidal connect

 

[Sprint]

No need for any HAT. Following the instructions given in the link I posted above the installation should be quite straightforward. The detailed instructions with all the needed code are found here: https://github.com/shawaj/ifi-tidal-release. I just followed the step by step guide. I am new to linux and I just googled for finding how to execute some basic commands from the terminal (like modifying the .service file which needs admin authorization and therefore the use of the “sudo“ command line, or running tidal connect on startup since I use it headless etc...).

@beq1990 Thanks a lot! I will give it a shot. I have never tried linux programming but it will be fun to learn. Currently I am running Qobuz via LMS plug in thru PICore Player. I use both material skin and sometimes via IPENG APP in my iPad. I also have a Tidal test account. Currently I am evaluating quality of Qobuz vs more content in Tidal. Does installing Tidal connect have more benefits than doing Tidal via LMS/IPENG? By the way which OS do you use in Raspberry Pi4?

 

[somebodyelse]

fantastic! I wonder if there is a way to incorporate this into Moode player...

It's technically possible, but they probably won't for fear of copyright violation as it looks like the binaries have been ripped out of a streamer firmware and dumped to github - there's no clear license for it. The license folder contains the licenses for various libraries it uses, not for the thing itself. If they do they'll probably be doing a better job of it than that HiTide install script - it's easy to run and will work in the short term, but adds some of the dependencies in a way that won't get security updates in future. It's one of those awkward things where if you know how to deal with the problems it'll cause you in the future you don't need to use the script in the first place.
https://wiki.debian.org/DontBreakDebian