One general question about DIY music servers Are they a HW or a SW issue?

[gino1961]

Hi to Everyone
I am very interested in setting up a music server
I have seen many valuable discussions about HW configurations
I have just a basic doubt
Why not start from the SW selection and after that moving to select a suitable HW to run that SW ?
I have the feeling that SW is more critical than HW
Then a decent CPU 16GB of Ram and a fast NVME card should be enough
But SW is key for great performance
Am I wrong?

 

[antcollinet]

Then a decent CPU 16GB of Ram and a fast NVME card should be enough

A low cost (<$20) Raspberry Pi zero 2 with SD card is enough. You don't need any significant power for audio applications. See my thread on my RPi Picoreplayer /LMS server build.

But yes - choose hardware that will run the software you want to run. That is a platfrorm/OS issue more than a power issue.

 

[gino1961]

A low cost (<$20) Raspberry Pi zero 2 with SD card is enough. You don't need any significant power for audio applications. See my thread on my RPi Picoreplayer /LMS server build.

But yes - choose hardware that will run the software you want to run. That is a platfrorm/OS issue more than a power issue.

Hi thank you for the very kind and valuable advice
I am weak on SW knowledge
For instance what I like of commercial music servers is that they come complete with a proprietary SW and apps to use a portable device to control them
The only thing that leaves me thinking is price
SW aside the HW alone often does not justify their price imho
I guess that the cost comes from SW or FW mostly
In the past I remember getting pretty decent sound from a humble Android TV boxes> Gustard U12 USB to spdif converter> Apogee Rosetta dac
So I wonder If big money is really needed to achieve great sound

 

[somebodyelse]

Software is the bit that you're going to interact with. Its performance, features and behaviour will decide whether you can live with it or not. The level of hardware performance required by the software does seem variable - LMS can get away with next to nothing because it started when hardware was a lot less capable than now. Roon claims fairly high minimum requirements, but that may just be to cover themselves when someone tries to use the more demanding options on less capable hardware. With the right plugins you could try server side DSP for many rooms worth of high res content and start needing similar hardware to what Roon claim they need, but that's not what most people do.

 

[antcollinet]

For instance what I like of commercial music servers is that they come complete with a proprietary SW and apps to use a portable device to control them

You can still get that from free software.

Here are screenshots from the phone "app" (Actually a web page configured to behave like an app) for picore player.

 

[somebodyelse]

Here are screenshots from the phone "app" (Actually a web page configured to behave like an app) for picore player.

That's the Material Skin plugin following the tips to get it to appear full screen. Note that there are multiple 3rd party apps for LMS, some open and some closed, for both Android and iOS. Squeezer and iPeng for example. Similarly there are 3rd party control point apps for UPnP/DLNA based servers, and remotes for MPD.

 

[JayGilb]

I run Plex (paid version), but a free version is available. It has been running on a 4 core i5 windows PC (Sony VAIO all in one system) that I found in a cardboard box at the local recycling center.
The hard drive had been violently removed, but it did not damage the system. I also found $45 dollars in an envelope in the box.

It has been running error free for over 6 years and easily handles my music and video serving requirements. While video requires more horsepower, especially if transcoding, it easily serves all of my needs. I run the Plexamp app for music and have the Plex app running on Roku sticks on all of my televisions.

 

[gino1961]

Software is the bit that you're going to interact with. Its performance, features and behaviour will decide whether you can live with it or not. The level of hardware performance required by the software does seem variable - LMS can get away with next to nothing because it started when hardware was a lot less capable than now. Roon claims fairly high minimum requirements, but that may just be to cover themselves when someone tries to use the more demanding options on less capable hardware. With the right plugins you could try server side DSP for many rooms worth of high res content and start needing similar hardware to what Roon claim they need, but that's not what most people do.

hi found the page https://www.picoreplayer.org/ thanks !
i feel i have to start selecting the SW
i am using now a small Lenovo M93P loaded with win 10 pro and it seems decent
using a small but nice smsl su-1 dac on usb
i have no experience with Linux OS
I wonder which is the most popular platform these days
i am not really on hirez CD quality is fine to me

 

[gino1961]

You can still get that from free software.

Here are screenshots from the phone "app" (Actually a web page configured to behave like an app) for picore player.

View attachment 332259 View attachment 332260 View attachment 332261 View attachment 332262

thanks a lot
found the page https://www.picoreplayer.org/
i have to study now

 

[somebodyelse]

There's also https://www.daphile.com/ which does something similar for PC hardware. You can run it on used thin clients for a cheap fanless option. Some can use internal SATA or NVMe storage, while others are limited to USB only. It's also linux under the skin, but you'll never see it - everything is done through the web GUI.

 

[PO3c]

An old RPI3+ can run LMS music server, Squeezelight Player and CamillDSP EQ at idle speed around 700 MHz. Here CamillDSP will upsample 2x and have two channels with multiple biquad filters and the 4 core CPU still run in idle mode.

Only when song changes it will speed up to 800Mhz. When starting application we see it speed up to max 1200MHz, but never when serving and playing music from a slow 2.5" USB drive.

Below is a player only RPi4 idling at 600MHz with Squeezelite and CamillaDSP playing CD rip where CDSP upsample to 88.2 before prosessing 2x 15 biquad filters before output to USB DAC.

Better HW are only beneficial when copying files to/from the server. Or running very CPU intensive realtime DSP algorithm.

Also note that RPi use internal switching power management IC with noisefloor close to 0.5mV. It will therefore not benefit from battery operation etc. other than changing potensial ground loops and/or capacitive coupling. That said, if using USB DAC this will tap straight into the power feeding the RPi.

 

[DLS79]

Imo, the pi 5, was a big step forward as it supports a cooling fan and pcie connections.

m.2 HATs are already on the market, but an official one is supposed to be coming at some point next year. I fully expect when the official HAT hits the market, we will see nice aluminum cases with active cooling not shortly after that.

For a lot of people that could be an end game home streaming devise.

• small
• powerful (relative to what it will be used for)
• fast/reliable/ high capacity storage (relative to what it will be used for)
• pretty cheap
• can be hidden away any place it can get power and a network connection

 

[gino1961]

There's also https://www.daphile.com/ which does something similar for PC hardware. You can run it on used thin clients for a cheap fanless option. Some can use internal SATA or NVMe storage, while others are limited to USB only. It's also linux under the skin, but you'll never see it - everything is done through the web GUI.

Hi thank you for the very valuable advice
I will try it for sure
I hope it will be compatible with some USB to spdif converters
I like the idea to be able to try different DAC options even vintage

 

[Apesbrain]

i am using now a small Lenovo M93P loaded with win 10 pro and it seems decent

Just install LMS release version from here:

Logitech Media Server Downloads

Download Logitech Media Server to feed music to your Squeezebox, Squeezelite based players or SqueezePlay and compatible software packages. Free the Music!

www.mysqueezebox.com

Once installed, go to the Settings > Plugins page and install the "Material Skin" and "Music And Artist Information" plugins.

Using any other Windows PC on your network, go to Microsoft Store and install Squeezelite-X. This will give that PC the ability to play from LMS. This way you can get familiar with how the software works before making any other investment. If this all works well for you, pick up a Raspberry Pi 4B-1GB or 2GB to use as a player to your DAC. piCorePlayer is the OS you would use for this.