RaspyFi Team pull it out of the bag!

[Rothchild]

The guys over at RaspFi have managed to get a V1.0 out of the doors and they've done some great work at pulling together an almost idiot proof Raspberry Pi audio solution, including a really handy web interface for MPD.

The whole lot appears to work 'out of the box' I just downloaded the zipped image file, transferred it to an SD card (I used dd in linux but windows users can use Win32DiskImager which is a really straight forward little app to write disk images).

Popped the card in my Pi and once it booted I could log in to the music interface from my laptop by pointing my web browser at: http://raspyfi/ chose a preconfigured web radio preset and bam straight away sounds are being played out from the HDMI via my telly and in to my little 'trash' system.

If you're not looking for a streaming solution this is an incredibly good, quick, cheap and simple way to get a digital audio player up and running, it also works with a number of relatively esoteric DACs. If you want a streaming solution then I'd still recommend Madsonic/Subsonic (on a Pi or any other machine).

[WAD62]

Thanks for the info...

Your link doesn't appear to be right, presumably you meant this one...http://www.raspyfi.com/

...the main question for me is have they got the USB audio out to work? I'll have a read...

[Rothchild]

Cheers Will,

I realised after I posted that I'd not given the link for their site but expected that most would be able to find it anyway. The link I gave is the one that you can use on your internal network to access the MPD server, running on the Pi, and control it from another device (you can also use traditional clients such as GMPC and the Android MDP clients (so you can use your phone / tablet as a remote)).

USB Audio (for Hi rez files) reportedly got sorted out a little while ago (and was never an issue with 16/44.1 anyway) but it's worth reading about as I think some people have had more luck than others. I can't comment directly as all my digital audio is 16/44.1 anyway.

[WAD62]

Cheers Will,
USB Audio (for Hi rez files) reportedly got sorted out a little while ago (and was never an issue with 16/44.1 anyway) but it's worth reading about as I think some people have had more luck than others. I can't comment directly as all my digital audio is 16/44.1 anyway.

I've not had my 'eye on the pi ball' for a while, I have one of the original 256 Mb ones which I'd used for on demand TV for a while (now superseded by my sky box wifi connector).

This might get me playing with it again...

Looks like 'native' USB audio out will be in the next release, I'll keep my eye on it, thanks again!

[NRG]

This is good news, its what a lot of folks have been waiting for. When they get the USB really sorted out it will be a popular choice I'm sure...

[Krisbee]

I doubt if Rpi “USB audio” will ever truly be sorted as there's an inherent limitation in the Pi's hardware design. I can't find the link at the slimdevices forum at the moment, but Adrian Smith (triode) also pointed out a problem with using certain USB DACs sans USB hub (async UAC 1?) with ARM based devices due to a generic ARM hardware deficiency.

RaspyFi is probably as good as you can get right now on the Pi. Anyone who knows a little Linux and looks at the RaspyFi image content will appreciate how much thought/work has gone into this. Their plans to support the Cubox, Beaglebone Black etc. under the “Tsunamp” name could make it very popular as NRG has said.

As a trial, I extracted the relevant stuff from the RaspyFi image to get their WEBUI working on my Linux desktop. Obviously the “settings” pages are irrelevant to me, but the core functions of browse, playback and playlist all work well.

As an oldie I don't have an iphone, ipad, or i anything else, nor do I have a touch of the Andriods. I've given the two figured gesture to all that. The only mobile gizmo in our house is a Kindle 4 non-touch, and WEBUI operates quite well on the Kindle's cut down browser. So it's a decent alternative to things like Mpod and MpDriod.

Of course you might prefer some combination of LMS and squeezelite to using MPD on the Rpi. For a similar cost, the Beaglebone Black offers more CPU oomph and a better USB & ethernet implementation but only one USB type A socket. Irrespective of the RaspyFi. I'm not sure I'd pick the Rpi as the base of an audio player, but if you've got one that's doing nothing, then you should really give RaspyFi a try.

[Rothchild]

I'm not clear what issue folk are perceiving with audio over USB on the Pi? There's a whole host of supported dacs listed here: http://www.raspyfi.com/raspberry-pi-...upported-dacs/

I recognise that some people are unhappy about the ethernet and usb sharing a bus on the hardware, but this seems a fairly esoteric concern in the face of something that works so well.

[Krisbee]

Audio at res > 16/44 is the area of concern on the RPi. In particular, loading the USB bus can cause clicks and pops at higher rez according to many reports, even after applying the so called "USB fix" that surfaced a couple of months ago.