How to implement Raspberry Pi into my system?

[Simon_LDT]

Mike, thanks for that guide. I will certainly give it a go once I've got everything set-up nicely, I just need to sort out how I'm going to power the Pi, external drive, wifi dongle and I also need some longer cables as at the moment I've had to move things into silly locations just to test it's working!

I'm looking at getting a Pi-Hut USB powered hub to power the Pi and also connect a HDD and wifi dongle to. Would that work without degrading the sound? I'll then worry about a decent PSU to power the hub once that's all set-up and working.

One of the reasons I really like the Kodi system/s is that I can control it using my TV remote, it's so simple and didn't require any extra hassle. My only hurdle has been trying to get the Pi to recognise my external DAC but thankfully now solved.

I've only had a quick listen and so far the sound is pretty good. I haven't done a side by side comparison with my CD player (which uses the same DAC) but the thing I did notice is the bass seems a bit more prominent and slightly boomy/indistinct. Could that be the power supply causing that?

Richard, do you know any way I can use Xbian and also add on the hifiberry Digi+ install so it recognises the S/PDIF output? When using the hifiberry installer it doesn't have Xbian as an option to install to SD, hence why I went with OpenElec so far.

[rikardo1979]

Mike, thanks for that guide. I will certainly give it a go once I've got everything set-up nicely, I just need to sort out how I'm going to power the Pi, external drive, wifi dongle and I also need some longer cables as at the moment I've had to move things into silly locations just to test it's working!

I'm looking at getting a Pi-Hut USB powered hub to power the Pi and also connect a HDD and wifi dongle to. Would that work without degrading the sound? I'll then worry about a decent PSU to power the hub once that's all set-up and working.

One of the reasons I really like the Kodi system/s is that I can control it using my TV remote, it's so simple and didn't require any extra hassle. My only hurdle has been trying to get the Pi to recognise my external DAC but thankfully now solved.

I've only had a quick listen and so far the sound is pretty good. I haven't done a side by side comparison with my CD player (which uses the same DAC) but the thing I did notice is the bass seems a bit more prominent and slightly boomy/indistinct. Could that be the power supply causing that?

Richard, do you know any way I can use Xbian and also add on the hifiberry Digi+ install so it recognises the S/PDIF output? When using the hifiberry installer it doesn't have Xbian as an option to install to SD, hence why I went with OpenElec so far.

Sorry Simon, I have no experience with external DAC on RPi as I do not have one myself to play with. I have always use it over HDMI into my AVR which works just perfectly.
But if you have a time you can post in our forum and I am sure that some guys can help
http://forum.xbian.org/
Or maybe there is some talk already over there, I am not sure

But the USB DAC should work, but not sure why you have problem with it ...

[Simon_LDT]

Have installed Volumio to try. Still no USB working which is strange as the Arcam has async USB and I'm using the 1.1 input which is fully galvanised too and doesn't need any drivers.

The hifiberry Digi+ is working a treat though thankfully, via coax connection. Not sure whether I prefer a web gui over the TV gui, reason I wanted to try a web gui is the supposed better audio quality as apparently from what I've read online players such as Rune, Volumio, etc provide more accurate bit-perfect data transfer when decoding FLAC's, or is this just nonsense?

[Jankoff]

Thanks to the people who replied to my post after I bought the pi3!
I launched it without much hassle. It is now connected to my 50-inch plasma TV through the HDMI port. I use it with a wireless mouse and keyboard and I can browse the Internet. Funny, it even manages to play YouTube videos. Almost. The picture is far from good - understandably for such a minute device, but when the screen is reduced to 1/4 of the 50-inch area - which is still a large area, quality becomes more acceptable. Haven't tried this yet, but I suppose the pi3 will work fine with a small PC monitor.
I haven't been able to play music. Volumio is not compatible yet, Windows 10 IoT is not fully functional. I will probably have to wait before the pi3 can play music - but there's no hurry. Meanwhile I am watching various YouTube videos on the Raspberry PI project - find it very interesting. Anybody with an idea what standard music player (Windows-like, not based on prompts) could be used with the Raspbian?

[Rothchild]

Diet Pi is up and running on Pi3 with a whole host of audio and video software available to install, including MPD (what Volumio uses) Subsonic, Ampache, LMS / Squeezelite and Airplay.

www.dietpi.com

[Jankoff]

Diet Pi is up and running on Pi3 with a whole host of audio and video software available to install, including MPD (what Volumio uses) Subsonic, Ampache, LMS / Squeezelite and Airplay.
www.dietpi.com

Thanks a lot! Starting to explore.