Plexamp Headless

[Berwhale]

I've been running Plex server for many years (I bought a lifetime Plexpass in 2014) and I am familiar with Plexamp but I only recently stumbled across Plexamp Headless. I set it up yesterday on a Raspberry Pi5 8GB (massive overkill on the hardware!) and connected to my Topping x50 stack...

I used the guide here: https://brentsaltzman.com/install-plexamp-headless/

I also referenced this site: https://howtohifi.com/install-headless-plexamp-endpoint-home-network-raspberry-pi/

I must say that I am most impressed with the performance. Changing tracks from either Plexamp on my phone or from a browser connected directly to Plexamp on the Pi5 is instantaneous and everything feels really responsive. It's also nice to see AutoEQ integration into the EQ within Plexamp, unfortunately it's only GEQ, but i'm hoping they'll add PEQ at some point.

As you can see from the photo above, I have a spare FLIRC RPi4 case*, so I think i'll purchase an RPi4 2GB to become a permanent Plexamp headless source for the x50 stack. Is anyone else running Plexamp Headless in their setup?

*The RPi4 4GB that originally occupied it has gone into my PiCorePlayer setup in the garage: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...coreplayer-streamer.42228/page-2#post-1495871

I would replace the PiCorePlayer setup in the garage, but I want to listen to internet radio streams in there and this doesn't seem to be possible with Plex/Plexamp since they dropped plug-in support and the Shoutcast plug-in.

 

[norcalscott]

Thanks for this - I may re-image my RPi4 that was being used for Volumio to do this instead. I have also been running Plex for many years and have the lifetime pass. Plexamp on both my Android phone and my iPad is fantastic.

 

[Brubaker]

love plexamp on my smartphone+wavelet and my grado gw100x.... no need amp,dac,wires...

 

[aagstn]

I have my pi 5 setup, but my first try following the Lon.TV guide installed Node 18 instead of 16. I will retry using the guide here.

 

[Berwhale]

I have my pi 5 setup, but my first try following the Lon.TV guide installed Node 18 instead of 16. I will retry using the guide here.

Mine did that as well. Step 4 in the guide I linked to... https://brentsaltzman.com/install-plexamp-headless/

Step 4: Check Your Node.js Version​

node -v

If, for some reason, the version that is installed is not 16.x, you can use Node Version Manager (NVM) to change it:

curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/v0.37.2/install.sh | bash

nvm -v

nvm install v16.20.2

nvm use v16.20.2

 

[aagstn]

Thank you. I needed to restart terminal to get it to do the 16.20.2 switch. Got everything working including it autoloading on reboot. Love that gapless works now. When I use Plexamp on my phone using Chromecast to a Wiim it doesn't support gapless. This is very nice.

 

[TwoEars]

I've been running Plex server for many years (I bought a lifetime Plexpass in 2014) and I am familiar with Plexamp but I only recently stumbled across Plexamp Headless. I set it up yesterday on a Raspberry Pi5 8GB (massive overkill on the hardware!) and connected to my Topping x50 stack...

View attachment 344480

I used the guide here: https://brentsaltzman.com/install-plexamp-headless/

I also referenced this site: https://howtohifi.com/install-headless-plexamp-endpoint-home-network-raspberry-pi/

I must say that I am most impressed with the performance. Changing tracks from either Plexamp on my phone or from a browser connected directly to Plexamp on the Pi5 is instantaneous and everything feels really responsive. It's also nice to see AutoEQ integration into the EQ within Plexamp, unfortunately it's only GEQ, but i'm hoping they'll add PEQ at some point.

As you can see from the photo above, I have a spare FLIRC RPi4 case*, so I think i'll purchase an RPi4 2GB to become a permanent Plexamp headless source for the x50 stack. Is anyone else running Plexamp Headless in their setup?

*The RPi4 4GB that originally occupied it has gone into my PiCorePlayer setup in the garage: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...coreplayer-streamer.42228/page-2#post-1495871

I would replace the PiCorePlayer setup in the garage, but I want to listen to internet radio streams in there and this doesn't seem to be possible with Plex/Plexamp since they dropped plug-in support and the Shoutcast plug-in.

I set up my rpi3 using the tutorials. I was using Volumio via a hifiberry digi+ pro HAT to output SPIF & Toslink for my non-USB DAC. Are you using the pi USB as input to the Topping DAC? How do I configure the rpi to output thru the GPIO to the hifiberry HAT so I can use the SPDIF

I've been running Plex server for many years (I bought a lifetime Plexpass in 2014) and I am familiar with Plexamp but I only recently stumbled across Plexamp Headless. I set it up yesterday on a Raspberry Pi5 8GB (massive overkill on the hardware!) and connected to my Topping x50 stack...

View attachment 344480

I used the guide here: https://brentsaltzman.com/install-plexamp-headless/

I also referenced this site: https://howtohifi.com/install-headless-plexamp-endpoint-home-network-raspberry-pi/

I must say that I am most impressed with the performance. Changing tracks from either Plexamp on my phone or from a browser connected directly to Plexamp on the Pi5 is instantaneous and everything feels really responsive. It's also nice to see AutoEQ integration into the EQ within Plexamp, unfortunately it's only GEQ, but i'm hoping they'll add PEQ at some point.

As you can see from the photo above, I have a spare FLIRC RPi4 case*, so I think i'll purchase an RPi4 2GB to become a permanent Plexamp headless source for the x50 stack. Is anyone else running Plexamp Headless in their setup?

*The RPi4 4GB that originally occupied it has gone into my PiCorePlayer setup in the garage: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...coreplayer-streamer.42228/page-2#post-1495871

I would replace the PiCorePlayer setup in the garage, but I want to listen to internet radio streams in there and this doesn't seem to be possible with Plex/Plexamp since they dropped plug-in support and the Shoutcast plug-in.

Are you using the USB from rpi as input to the Topping DAC? I was running Volumio on my rpi3, with a hifiberry digi+ pro HAT which outputs to SPDIF and Toslink.
After going through the tutorials, my Plex Amp can now cast to rpi3. I use the SPDIF to connect to my non-USB DAC but the DAC detects no output from the hifiberry HAT.

 

[bevok]

I recently purchased a Raspberry Pi 4 (4GB) after being frustrated with the Sonos Plexamp integration (playback would always stop after around 40 seconds). Elan Feingold (Plex co-founder) advised on Reddit advised future development was focused on Headless. I used similar resources to the O/P and found it very straightforward to setup. For my application I used a Fiio KA11 USB-C to output to the 3.5mm line-in on Sonos as the Apple Dongle didn't have enough gain. Very robust and reliable, aside from the 'annoyance' of having to sign in once in a while to update the O/S and Plexamp client (script does this) its a neat solution, total cost around NZD$200.

 

[Berwhale]

Update: This is now my bedside stack. I bought an Argon ONE V2 case that is a similar size to my Topping D50s/A50s. The Argone ONE V2 also has a power button and all the cable entry is on the rear...

 

[RedEyeNinja]

Doing this with the updated headless Plexamp script from Oct 2024 along with headless Spotify, with USB out to a SMSL DO400 and I'm happy with the low cost, wattage and bit perfect playback solution with a Pi 3b+ that I had laying around.

Links to scripts:

GitHub - odinb/bash-plexamp-installer: PlexAmp-installer for Raspberry Pi with ARM64 HW. Headless music-player controlled from any other Plexamp client.

PlexAmp-installer for Raspberry Pi with ARM64 HW. Headless music-player controlled from any other Plexamp client. - odinb/bash-plexamp-installer

github.com

GitHub - dtcooper/raspotify: A Spotify Connect client that mostly Just Works™

A Spotify Connect client that mostly Just Works™. Contribute to dtcooper/raspotify development by creating an account on GitHub.

github.com

My next step...can't stop tinkering...is to get some POE hat as it's difficult to find a reliable replacement micro USB cable. I also have this [snake oil] feeling that POE power might "cleaner" but I also read somewhere that the power stages of the Pi is pretty clean to begin with or that there's nothing to upgrade there.

Has anyone considered or upgraded the output with a DSD/i2s transport hat to output thru HDMI? Looking at the Ian Canada solutions, it kind of defeats the whole purpose of going with a low cost Pi, but I also wonder about the quality.

TransportPi Digi/II, Audiophile master mode digi re-clock streamer

IntroductionTransportPi Digi is an audiophile grade high-performance low-cost master mode all-in-one Raspberry Pi interface transport. It successfully achieves an ultra-low jitter low noise signal quality by using IanCanada's well reputed 1-bit three stages discrete re-clock technology for the...

iancanada.ca

Also...what are you guys doing for system wide EQ? My Pi actually has a screen on it which I'm using as a photo slide show for now, but it'd be cool if I can do PEQ on the Pi and have the screen display EQ levels output.

 

[Berwhale]

Also...what are you guys doing for system wide EQ? My Pi actually has a screen on it which I'm using as a photo slide show for now, but it'd be cool if I can do PEQ on the Pi and have the screen display EQ levels output.

I only use PiPlexAmp and i'm happy enough with the inbuilt GEQ (my AKG K371 don't need much adjustment). You can run CamillaDSP on the Pi...

RPi + CamillaDSP Tutorial

As of May 22, 2024, this tutorial has been migrated to GitHub to allow for better revision management and a more universal location, please see link below. https://github.com/mdsimon2/RPi-CamillaDSP In general the GitHub tutorial is the same as previous ASR tutorial but now covers the RPi5...

www.audiosciencereview.com

Nicer front end for CamillaDSP...

CamillaDSP User Interface Alternatives

Given how capable it is, I imagine CamillaDSP might have quite a wide variety of use cases for quite a lot of people. One not-very-visionary way is to use it as an EQ for non-Windows sources. CamillaGUI interface, albeit quite handy, is not the most easy to use however for the EQ usecase. I was...

www.audiosciencereview.com