SMSL DP5 Music Streamer and DAC Review

[amirm]

I think the membership needs to create a specific recipe for a PI streamer that is dead easy to put together and running. Links to where to buy items, image ready to download for it, etc.

 

[Davelemi]

I think the membership needs to create a specific recipe for a PI streamer that is dead easy to put together and running. Links to where to buy items, image ready to download for it, etc.

Archimango has a recent blog post describing how to build a basic RPi streamer. Link

Here are some links-
HifiBerry DACs
HiFiBerry SPDIF HATs
HiFiBerry Cases
RoPieee - Image/Software (Roon, Airplay, Spotify, Tidal, etc)
Allo USB & SPDIF HATs
Audiophonics DAC HAT ; ASR Review (a little pricer but the successor of one that tested very well here also)

 

[tmtomh]

Archimango has a recent blog post describing how to build a basic RPi streamer. Link

Here are some links-
HifiBerry DACs
HiFiBerry SPDIF HATs
HiFiBerry Cases
RoPieee - Image/Software (Roon, Airplay, Spotify, Tidal, etc)
Allo USB & SPDIF HATs
Audiophonics DAC HAT ; ASR Review (a little pricer but the successor of one that tested very well here also)

That streamer post is excellent - thanks!

 

[PeteL]

Airplay is so common that fallback to that allows communication to just about everything. Regardless, as I noted, I am the last guy to ask to be an advocate for DLNA.

May I ask what's so bad about DNLA? Just wondering, if I had to do a streamer, and the budget and price point would allow me to implement just one between Roon end point and DNLA to allow 24 bit, (Yeah I know LMS too but it's a geek thing) I would certainly try to checkout first the one that doesn't require my customer to purchase a 700$ software! To me expecting all streamers to be Roon Endpoint, Is a bit like saying all dacs should be MQA? It may sound that the obvious answer is that they should all have both, but it's not trivial. For exemple If you want to stream with the Ravena Protocol, your pretty much stuck to Roon if you want to purchase IP and not start from scratch, could you tell me a bit more why you don't like it?

 

[Chromatischism]

I've tried DLNA 3 or 4 times over the years. It's never actually worked properly over the myriad hardware and software I've tried that allegedly support it. Even when it does work, the amount of technical fiddling you need to do is absurd. Standards are worthless if they're not easy and reliable in actual use.

Huh. All I ever did was put hard drives in my Synology NAS, move my music to one of the drives, turn on DLNA, waited for it to index everything, and it was available to everything in the house. Have never really had to fuss with anything.

My only complaint is the lack of smooth starting of songs (sometimes it seems to start playing before buffering) and gapless playback. Other than that, there aren't any problems with it actually working.

 

[BillG]

May I ask what's so bad about DNLA?

All of the various implementations of it I've tried, from several different manufacturers now, have all varied in some way when it came to server-side search. Some of them were so broken as to be virtually unusable.

If it's a standard, it sure isn't being adhered to.

 

[PeteL]

High quality? The Node 2i didn't get a very good review on this forum.

Is the squeezebox standalone? Not really familiar with it.

Tried Raspberry Pi with Volumio. A complete bug fest.

I use the node as a streamer only, using an external dac, most of us have dacs anyway right? The poor measurments and review was the dac part, I find the interface ok (to be honest certainly better than what is described here). That said there are stuff that bugs me in the way it works, but it works.

 

[Chromatischism]

Archimango

It's getting fruity in here.

 

[Francis Vaughan]

The big sticking point for Roon is the price. Seriously it is way out of any reasonable metric of value for money. It is more expensive than Microsoft Office. For what? Little more than stream endpoint management.
We have yet another badly fractured environment with multiple competing interests and attempts to nail down various bits of market share. Proprietary formats and licensing locking the consumer in or out in a near predatory manner. The end result is one where a truly satisfactory system is very hard to achieve or costs an unreasonable amount.
The situation doesn’t seem that much better than the IP mess in AVRs.

 

[gvl]

Yeah I know LMS too but it's a geek thing

LMS was a consumer product until Logitech pulled out from this business, nothing geeky about it, works well with community support until today.

 

[PeteL]

LMS was a consumer product until Logitech pulled out from this business, nothing geeky about it, works well with community support until today.

I am talking about commercial products, none, as far as I know, uses that, It IS Geeky to build your streamer with a PI. It might feel normal to the ASR crowd, but that just proves the point. is The source code available to be modified? general users wants to open an app, with the logo of the product they just bought as the Icon. a web based logitech branded UI wouldn't cut it. a web interface, it would have to be really transparent to appeal the general public. Am I missing something? I apologize if I ignored new developments to it, that's the perception I have but maybe it's not the case

 

[Tks]

Idk what to think about this.

Oh yes you do. DX9 Pro with these features fully functioning, and this sort of all-in-one operation. No better way to crown off your fire trail along with that power amp you got cooking up.

Give it to us John!

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Bossman, wudup with the headphone-out measurements? You forgot?

 

[gvl]

I am talking about commercial products, none, as far as I know, uses that,

There were... Various Squeezeboxes, they still work with the LMS but can't be had new. Also Daphile, fairly complete and solid streaming solution that you can load on an old PC.

 

[PeteL]

There were... Various Squeezeboxes, they still work with the LMS but can't be had new. Also Daphile, fairly complete and solid streaming solution that you can load on an old PC.

Let me rephrase this, I was talking about the options for a manufacturer, in this case smsl, that wish to release a network music streamer. Do you consider going the LMS route a viable technological choice for this.

 

[gvl]

Do you consider going the LMS route a viable technological choice for this.

No, too late. I was commenting on the geeky part. More like obsolete, not necessarily geeky.

 

[Dogen]

Huh. All I ever did was put hard drives in my Synology NAS, move my music to one of the drives, turn on DLNA, waited for it to index everything, and it was available to everything in the house. Have never really had to fuss with anything.

My only complaint is the lack of smooth starting of songs (sometimes it seems to start playing before buffering) and gapless playback. Other than that, there aren't any problems with it actually working.

Lack of gapless playback, in my book, would constitute a severe problem. Drives me crazy; how could anyone accept that?

 

[gvl]

Lack of gapless playback, in my book, would constitute a severe problem. Drives me crazy; how could anyone accept that?

Not everyone listens to Pink Floyd or classical.

 

[PeteL]

No, too late. I was commenting on the geeky part. More like obsolete, not necessarily geeky.

Fair enough, me I was refering to "a geek thing"has being an option for raspberry pi enthousiasth, not the general public, in current products. Yes it was mainstream in the past.

 

[Chromatischism]

Lack of gapless playback, in my book, would constitute a severe problem. Drives me crazy; how could anyone accept that?

It can be a problem, but it depends:

1. How you use your system. If you skip around, you don't need gapless.
2. If you listen to albums that run the tracks together. Many are not recorded this way, therefore you don't need gapless.

When I do want gapless, I just play the album directly to my Denon with UPNP instead of using the Chromecast. That is much closer but still not perfect. And, it unfortunately has its own flaws: no seeking (forward/rewind). So this better be background music or a case where you are not planning to skip around (like for testing, etc).

 

[waynel]

RPi4, RPi 7" Touch Screen, Ropieee XL (I have Roon), SmartiPi Touch 2 case (Amazon)

I have a HifiBerry SPDIF Hat that I've used in the past but the Atom DAC I'm using for this setup is USB only.
I also use a RPi3 with a HifiBerry SPDIF Hat for my RME DAC/HP Amp and a RPi3 with a HiFiBerry DAC Hat for my outdoor speakers.

That’s a pretty cool setup. Do you know if one can add a spdif hat in that case and have a touchscreen with spdif out ? Toslink and coax?

Thanks
Wayne