View Full Version : Media Streaming Options
I think I have finally got cheesed off with my SBT and NAS drive. I'm trying to establish if I start afresh or just refresh the existing SBT based system and put up with the inherent issues. I'm afraid I don't have sufficient time to research all the Raspberry Pi/PC/MAC optiosn to only find out there is another set of major issues!
Current setup
1) SBT with digital out only via the plugin.
2) Netgear duo NAS drive hard hard wired through a network router and on a totally seperate network the main house network.
3) All media ripped via EAC (on a laptop) and in mainly WAV and file names/folder names formatted by EAC (predominantly 44.1kHz 16 bit). Probably 1TB of audio data.
4) External old school Kinshaw Perception DAC (I've tried a few DACS and so far this is my favourite, I'd stomach sticking to 16bit to keep it rather than upgrade for the rare media that is available in HD) I still have an audiosector NOS DAC and Beresford bushmaster with external PSU so I guess I could consider having 2 digital outs and run 1 to the Beresford for HD stuff.
Issues:-
A) it's a ballache ripping new CDs via EAC and transferring and rescanning for the SBT.
B) The NAS/SBT need rebooting in the event of a power outage (which is relatively frequent here although I guess I coudl live with it).
C) It's just a bit too "clunky" in use.
Ideally I'd like an all in one that
will rip CDs,
incorporate the HD/storage (I'd probably look at SSD now),
has a facility to easily navigate music choices remotely via tablet or mobile phone (definitely not TV screen and ideally not a touchscreen located on the device.)
Has digital co-ax out to feed a DAC located on the other side of the room.
Is there anything that will do this in a sensible budget or am I in the realm of needing an expensive dedicated media streamer from one of the big brands?
Any help greatly appreciated.
Bluesound Vault will do all that, and more. Very easy to use and operate. Will also stream Tidal and the likes, if of interest. Whether it's a sensible price is one for you to decide :)
I prefer the App and UI of the Aries Mini. You can install a hard drive in these (I use a SSD) and they act as their own server. And it's very fast indeed. Re indexes are very swift, when needed. It'll also play from your NAS, although indexing from that is much slower. You could rip to the installed hard drive using your existing set up, but just change the target location where files are stored to the Aries Mini drive (it just shows up on your network as a NAS). The Mini will also output via USB, which can be useful in some set ups. Both will output via coax and Toslink SP/DIF. Both work very well and I've never had any problems at all setting them up and the like.
Either of the above can be backed up in the normal way as they both just appear as drives.
Many thanks,
All proposals seem to have merit although the bluesound vault is probably over my mental threshold for budget.
Just so I feel I have reviewed all options; is there software that could be downloaded/purchased to build a pc based streamer that will not be "clunky" (without full windows OS)? I briefly dabbled in XBMC (in fact still have the PC I built for for it) but it was waaay to clunky and compromised (overspecced for video too and too noisy as a result as well as I stupidly set it up as a Linux os with XBMC as a programe.
willbewill
17-05-2017, 07:48
Vortexbox is my weapon of choice, https://www.vortexbox.org
could use foobar/ bubble android/ chromecast to dac via optical. if you have the phone already then bubble is under a tenner and chromecast under £30. Foobar is free
Stratmangler
17-05-2017, 08:07
Netgear duo NAS drive hard hard wired through a network router and on a totally separate network the main house network
Why?
No wonder it's clunky :mental:
Why?
No wonder it's clunky :mental:
Which part is the issue?
Our house wi-fi network has the main hub at the other end of the house to the hi-fi and streamer.
The SBT, Hardwired router and hardwired NAS all form a spereate network local to the hi-fi to avoid A) any drop out of wi-fi which is an issue with a baby monitor in action B) isolation of critical data & media on the NAS and not connected to the internet in any form.
I thought my setup would help to alleviate any issues not cause them?
could use foobar/ bubble android/ chromecast to dac via optical. if you have the phone already then bubble is under a tenner and chromecast under £30. Foobar is free
These all look powerful bits of software but unless I am mistaken none will run as a dedicated platform and operate over an OS which IMHO will make it a PITA for the (young) family to use which I'd rather avoid. I only have co-ax digital in on my DAC of choice unfortunately, whilst I know you can get converters I'd rather avoid having interface boxes littered about (I feel the same way about the current setup with 4 boxes and 3 walwarts which IMHO is far more complicated than it needs be.
Thanks for the ideas though - gives me further options to consider.
chromecast has a dac in it which is decent so you can take out analogue via a 3.5mm socket. otherwise its pretty straightforward. leave pc on somewhere with foobar running. then when you want music you pick up an android device and pick what you want and it plays wirelessly where your chromecast is. its not the most elegant thing as Bubble is not a roon or sch but its nearly free and works well enough. I dont need to use it now as I have my pcs hard wired to dacs via jriver but I can easily enough
B) The NAS/SBT need rebooting in the event of a power outage (which is relatively frequent here although I guess I coudl live with it).
To avoid a corrupted filesystem on the NAS you should maybe consider something like an APC Battery backup to bridge the power outages. Power the router, the SBT and the NAS with it. They come quite cheap these days (sub 100 EU).
On the hardware side, I am a great fan of a Pi based system with an onboard DAC. They are easy to set up and very robust (i.e. they will run for weeks without any problems.)
ianlenco
17-05-2017, 09:06
Bluesound Vault will do all that, and more. Very easy to use and operate. Will also stream Tidal and the likes, if of interest. Whether it's a sensible price is one for you to decide :)
I prefer the App and UI of the Aries Mini. You can install a hard drive in these (I use a SSD) and they act as their own server. And it's very fast indeed. Re indexes are very swift, when needed. It'll also play from your NAS, although indexing from that is much slower. You could rip to the installed hard drive using your existing set up, but just change the target location where files are stored to the Aries Mini drive (it just shows up on your network as a NAS). The Mini will also output via USB, which can be useful in some set ups. Both will output via coax and Toslink SP/DIF. Both work very well and I've never had any problems at all setting them up and the like.
Either of the above can be backed up in the normal way as they both just appear as drives.
Hi Simon,
I've read about the Aries mini before and it looks an interesting solution. At the moment I use a dedicated Vortexbox which works very well but I've noticed a drop off in activity around this system including fewer sellers of ready-made Vortexboxes. The one big advantage I can see for the Vortexbox is it's ability to rip CDs. If I went down this route I'd want it to be a standalone unit with its own storage but how do I get new recordings on to it? I'm assuming I'd have to rip to my laptop then transfer them which is a bit messy compared to simply sliding the CD into the Vortexbox.
Cheers, Ian
Subsonic is the way to go for streaming in the house or out and about.
$12 a year to stream outside home network, free inside home network
App you install on PC/Mac/linux/server, tell it what folders to watch and a time you spec (like 3am) it'll scour the network for changes.
You can set bitrates and users and what folders they can/'t see (when remote or not)
DL app to phone/pad log in and listen, either via wifi or mobile (it chews mobile data - I use about 1.5gb a day streaming from home to my phone)
my own tidal/netflix all rolled into one for $12 a year.
The vortexbox options do look favourable although I suspect a fair amount of tinkering to get the bugger to work unless you purchase a readybuilt unit.
ianlenco
17-05-2017, 09:48
For the Vortexbox you'll also need a USB DAC if you want to link direct to your amplifier.
Stratmangler
17-05-2017, 10:01
Reading this ...
Ideally I'd like an all in one that
will rip CDs,
incorporate the HD/storage (I'd probably look at SSD now),
has a facility to easily navigate music choices remotely via tablet or mobile phone (definitely not TV screen and ideally not a touchscreen located on the device.)
Has digital co-ax out to feed a DAC located on the other side of the room.
...makes me think you're not all that interested in trying to get your existing setup working properly, so I hope you understand my reluctance to get too embroiled.
There's nothing wrong with a Squeezebox Touch, especially when it's set up properly in an appropriate environment.
Reading this ...
...makes me think you're not all that interested in trying to get your existing setup working properly, so I hope you understand my reluctance to get too embroiled.
There's nothing wrong with a Squeezebox Touch, especially when it's set up properly in an appropriate environment.
I've lived with it for many years. I understand that it may come across as "I can't be arsed" and to be honest it is close to that but more " I have young children now and don't have as much/sufficient time to research all my options and set out on a path of discovery as I once did :-) I'm thinking about the pain I went through with EAC ripping all my CDs, tagging, XBMC PC build and setup (at considerable cost, time and just finding it clunky in my admittedly poor setup choice). There was probably a couple of montsh of evenings spent doing all that and my evenings are no longer as long :-)
If I could get the SBT setup to work more reliably and a bit more responsive it is probably the path of least resistance (which maybe I am now more in-tune with current options I can reconsider).
I guess I had hoped that something like the original Meridan all in one setup was now much much cheaper (as I had hoped) then jumping ship would have been a path of least resistance.
Would ditching the NAS/router and using a USB SSD drive help or is that totally the wrong way to go? IIRC the NAS has SB Server running on it rather than the SBT (I have tried both) - no idea which is better or what are the limitations TBH but both seemed fine when working well and froze when not.
I'd appreciate some input if you feel I have cocked up somewhere :-)
PS - whilst I don't post much here I have been active for a fair few years elsewhere (can't be bothered with the politics anymore there) and a few of the members know me, I am not just passing through so to speak.
Stratmangler
17-05-2017, 11:16
I've had an extremely reliable and user friendly NAS/Squeezebox setup running for a good many years.
My son has had no difficulty getting music to play when he has wanted it to from around the age of six (he's doing his GCSEs at present).
A question about your NAS.
Is it running LMS (Logitech Media Server)?
It's useful to know where your server is being run from, because the Touch player can be run off an embedded internal server too, which as you can appreciate sometimes makes it difficult to diagnose problems.
If your server is being run on the NAS, then it's useful to know what the NAS IP address is.
If you connect to the network to which the NAS is connected, open your web browser, and type in the server IP address, adding the suffix :9000 you will find that you have web browser control of the players connected to that server, and also means that you can browse the file system for your music.
On my network the NAS server is on 192.168.0.16 , so to access LMS I need to have 192.168.0.16:9000 in my browser's address bar.
There are several ways to browse - I tend to go for Artist, but it's also possible to use playlists.
As you have ripped the majority of your CDs to WAV you'll find your options slightly limited, as WAV files carry no metadata for the server to utilise.
Most of the time, both my son and I control the respective players from a web browser. We both have a Squeezebox tab set up on our web browsers.
I do have an app on my Smartphone that can control the players too, but I use it far less than the web browser option, and of course there's the infra red remote controls, and the touch sensitive screen to navigate the players too.
Have a play with what I've covered so far, and let me know how you get on :)
I've lived with it for many years. I understand that it may come across as "I can't be arsed" and to be honest it is close to that but more " I have young children now and don't have as much/sufficient time to research all my options and set out on a path of discovery as I once did :-) I'm thinking about the pain I went through with EAC ripping all my CDs, tagging, XBMC PC build and setup (at considerable cost, time and just finding it clunky in my admittedly poor setup choice). There was probably a couple of montsh of evenings spent doing all that and my evenings are no longer as long :-)
If I could get the SBT setup to work more reliably and a bit more responsive it is probably the path of least resistance (which maybe I am now more in-tune with current options I can reconsider).
AS Chris states, plus a few other suggestions...
1. Use dbPoweramp to rip, its tagging, artwork, and accurate rip capabilities are much better than EAC...
2. You can easily 'beef up' LMS performance by installing piCoreplayer/LMS on a Rpi3, then point it at your NAS music library...my pi3 did a complete new index build of 3k flac cds in under 30 mins, and a new music rescan in under 3 mins, faster than when I ran LMS on my NAS.
3. Use a smartphone app to control it all, my preference is 'Orange Squeeze' but there are plenty of options
4. Staying with an open source architecture future proofs you, and allows you the flexibility of Rpi/DIY clients and players too...LMS now has end point for Chromecast Audio :)
Presumably there is no direct way to attach the hard drive with media on it to the RPI? Thereby doing away with the NAS and network switch.
Presumably there is no direct way to attach the hard drive with media on it to the RPI? Thereby doing away with the NAS and network switch.
sure you can and many do. it has 4 usb slots on it. Thats how I connect mine
Presumably there is no direct way to attach the hard drive with media on it to the RPI? Thereby doing away with the NAS and network switch.
Absolutely there is, but I prefer to use my NAS, as I have RAID backup etc. and my FLAC library also available for my laptops and PC...
You can choose either a local USB mount point, or a network NAS one...I did a head to head speed test between a local USB HD and my NAS (both pi and NAS on ethernet), with the same flac library on each, the local HD was only about 10% quicker, so I've stuck with the NAS :)
I now use a usb drive with my pi, I use to get terrible problems with WiFi when using my NAS.
AS Chris states, plus a few other suggestions...
1. Use dbPoweramp to rip, its tagging, artwork, and accurate rip capabilities are much better than EAC...
2. You can easily 'beef up' LMS performance by installing piCoreplayer/LMS on a Rpi3, then point it at your NAS music library...my pi3 did a complete new index build of 3k flac cds in under 30 mins, and a new music rescan in under 3 mins, faster than when I ran LMS on my NAS.
3. Use a smartphone app to control it all, my preference is 'Orange Squeeze' but there are plenty of options
4. Staying with an open source architecture future proofs you, and allows you the flexibility of Rpi/DIY clients and players too...LMS now has end point for Chromecast Audio :)
+1 This is pretty much my set-up. You could also consider replacing the NAS with a local USB drive connected to the RPI or (if your budget will stretch to it) a 1 TB SSD.
digression; Only other person I've known who uses the name Alp. He's of claimed Turkish origins, yet a blue eyed Arian (germanic variety of Yore) in appearance.
Gotta be a back story in that I would imagine. Just never ever seen that name elsewhere.. previously.
Mini ITX motherboard with a SoC built in like the Gigabyte J1800N, Super Flower Leadex Gold 750W ATX PSU, 8GB RAM, SSD, SATA or USB CD drive, and a nice case. I use Windows 10 on mine.
Thank you all for your input.
I haven't quite decided what to do yet but I'm erring toward a USB Ssd directly attached to the sbt and connecting it directly to the main wifi network as a first step. Having fired the damn thing up for the first time in 18 months I've realised another of my main issues was that I could never get an iPad or phone to easily connect to the network that way and navigation was painful via the remote.
Second phase I think will be to look at building / reconfiguring the old htpc as a vortexbox as that will solve the ripping issue and may prove to be long term solution to all but we will see, it may just end up being a dead end but we will see. I'm a little bit stuck on how to output a digital audio signal from a vortexbox via coax as it seems they are all USB only to dac?
digression; Only other person I've known who uses the name Alp. He's of claimed Turkish origins, yet a blue eyed Arian (germanic variety of Yore) in appearance.
Gotta be a back story in that I would imagine. Just never ever seen that name elsewhere.. previously.
The only similarity with me is the eye colour...
Thank you all for your input.
I haven't quite decided what to do yet but I'm erring toward a USB Ssd directly attached to the sbt and connecting it directly to the main wifi network as a first step. Having fired the damn thing up for the first time in 18 months I've realised another of my main issues was that I could never get an iPad or phone to easily connect to the network that way and navigation was painful via the remote.
Second phase I think will be to look at building / reconfiguring the old htpc as a vortexbox as that will solve the ripping issue and may prove to be long term solution to all but we will see, it may just end up being a dead end but we will see. I'm a little bit stuck on how to output a digital audio signal from a vortexbox via coax as it seems they are all USB only to dac?
Im sure Home Plugs would be a lot more reliable than using wifi for the Touch, I dont use them in my house as I cable everything and only use wifi for the pnone/tablet control, I will let others comment on whether its a good idea for sound quality. I would test that usb connection before buying a large SSD though, I used to connect my Touch this way then it stopped scanning the library, If memory serves me mr swenson said it was probably the size of my album art, I have too big a library to go through and remove it all so my server sits on another pc running 24/7 for Subsonic access anyway.
Thank you all for your input.
..... Having fired the damn thing up for the first time in 18 months I've realised another of my main issues was that I could never get an iPad or phone to easily connect to the network that way and navigation was painful via the remote.
My gut feeling is that your network is not as robust as it could be. If you have access to the router, you could maybe get some statistics (errors, drops, etc.) and determine what the problem is. IMHO, that is the first step to insure a frustration free listening experience. Just my 2cts :)
I do have home plugs and it is one of the routes that I've tried. The problem I found is during a power outage or other issue the power adptor would lose connection with the primary network and require an additional process to get the network back up and all units talking.
All of this wasn't so much of an issue when I listened to the system more and had more time before children but now each time I have power outage it would take 15-20 minutes to get the NAS, Home plugs, SBT back on line to listen to a piece of music (by which time my window of opportunity has passed) it is exactly this reason the SBT has been sat in position for the last 18 months without being powered up again.
In reality I think I know I need to bite the bullit and have a new hardwired connection between primary router and living space put in, it's not a massive house but I suspecty teh sketchy wi-fi is due to having to pass through a couple of external walls where extensions have been put in.
I am making progress but primarily in reminding myself of my grumpy side and reminding myself of the previous issues I found. Cds have been archived in the loft years ago so I have been listening to only 20 CDs over the last 18 months which is now quite painful.
My gut feeling is that your network is not as robust as it could be. If you have access to the router, you could maybe get some statistics (errors, drops, etc.) and determine what the problem is. IMHO, that is the first step to insure a frustration free listening experience. Just my 2cts :)
The primary network is indeed like that. The SBT network is hardwired only between SBT/NAS & router and not connected to the primary network or outside world. As such to get ipeng or such to work I had to change wi-fi networks on my phone and then couldn't surf until I swapped back to our primary network.
I think you have however hit the nail on the head WRT the robustness of the network and in reviewing the issues this is the route cause of me considering ditching a SBT based system but an issue that is likely to be present with other systems I've considered above. Happy days :-)
We've only recently had fibre to our area and our internet connection was also previously sketchy at best and could be unusable for days, not related but I suspect this exacerbated my reluctance to "fix the network" at the time or integrate the SBT on a network that constantly required rebooting and fixing.
The wi-fi is now reliable in the living room but not at a data rate sufficient to support WAV/hi-def streaming. Squeeze Server on the NAS running via the IP address on a hardwired laptop to teh network was still a bit slow to respond so I suspect the NAS processor is not much better than the SBT for thsi qty of files?
Thinking about this, if i went raspberry Pi/Pi Digi + from IQAudio and attached a USB SSD directly then the wi-fi would only have to "control" the Pi. It wouldn't give me auto ripping and is essentially mirroring what a SBT and usb SSD would provide but hopefully faster to respond?
Is there actually any benefit in the Pi/SSD route?
..... Is there actually any benefit in the Pi/SSD route?
It would be 100% silent
If i was thinking of going pi/ssd route i woukd buy the ssd first and plug it into the touch, it could be a lot more reliable than your present setup with power outs, pi is going to take more precious time. I am tempted to the pi but only as a SQ upgrade.
Ali Tait
19-05-2017, 12:32
I'll be going the pissed route, once I get into those cold beers in the fridge. :-)
Stratmangler
19-05-2017, 13:42
The primary network is indeed like that. The SBT network is hardwired only between SBT/NAS & router and not connected to the primary network or outside world. As such to get ipeng or such to work I had to change wi-fi networks on my phone and then couldn't surf until I swapped back to our primary network.
I think you have however hit the nail on the head WRT the robustness of the network and in reviewing the issues this is the route cause of me considering ditching a SBT based system but an issue that is likely to be present with other systems I've considered above. Happy days :-)
We've only recently had fibre to our area and our internet connection was also previously sketchy at best and could be unusable for days, not related but I suspect this exacerbated my reluctance to "fix the network" at the time or integrate the SBT on a network that constantly required rebooting and fixing.
The wi-fi is now reliable in the living room but not at a data rate sufficient to support WAV/hi-def streaming. Squeeze Server on the NAS running via the IP address on a hardwired laptop to teh network was still a bit slow to respond so I suspect the NAS processor is not much better than the SBT for thsi qty of files?
Thinking about this, if i went raspberry Pi/Pi Digi + from IQAudio and attached a USB SSD directly then the wi-fi would only have to "control" the Pi. It wouldn't give me auto ripping and is essentially mirroring what a SBT and usb SSD would provide but hopefully faster to respond?
Is there actually any benefit in the Pi/SSD route?
The first two highlighted bits relate directly to my initial comment, and my initial suspicions, that your home network needs properly sorting out.
The third highlighted bit raises a couple of things.
You mention Squeeze Server - this is a very old version of server program. It should be upgraded to something much more recent.
It also indicates that your NAS might be a bit long in the tooth, and slightly under powered as a result.
You also mention issues streaming WAV - this is why all but the earliest Squeezebox players support FLAC playback natively.
When you rip a CD, the initial rip is a WAV file, and following this external compression can be applied. This is how FLAC works. The compresson applied is lossless, and the file is capable of being streamed more efficiently over the network, because the quantity of data being streamed is smaller.
At the player end the data is stored in buffer, and is decompressed back to its original form for playback. So the file being played is WAV.
FLAC is a much more sensible way of streaming lossless audio data from storage to player.
You still need robust network to make things function properly.
The first two highlighted bits relate directly to my initial comment, and my initial suspicions, that your home network needs properly sorting out.
The third highlighted bit raises a couple of things.
You mention Squeeze Server - this is a very old version of server program. It should be upgraded to something much more recent.
It also indicates that your NAS might be a bit long in the tooth, and slightly under powered as a result.
You also mention issues streaming WAV - this is why all but the earliest Squeezebox players support FLAC playback natively.
When you rip a CD, the initial rip is a WAV file, and following this external compression can be applied. This is how FLAC works. The compresson applied is lossless, and the file is capable of being streamed more efficiently over the network, because the quantity of data being streamed is smaller.
At the player end the data is stored in buffer, and is decompressed back to its original form for playback. So the file being played is WAV.
FLAC is a much more sensible way of streaming lossless audio data from storage to player.
You still need robust network to make things function properly.
It's an old Netgear Readynas Duo V1 (one of the few that were originally suggested to work well with Squeezebox). I'm not sure if there is a difference if I called the squeezebox server the wrong name, are there different generations e.g. logitech Media server, Squeeze Server etc etc - TBH I have no reccolection at present on the exact name but the standard nas control software has a box to tick for running it as well as iTunes Server. I don't know if it is even possible to upgrade it TBH. Is this worth looking into more? I guess if it's useless I may be able to rip it apart and reuse the box for a Raspberry Pi and hard drives!
The decsion for WAV was deliberate (albeit possibly flawed) I had wante dto keep everything in native format to avoid the whims of time and support of different compression formats.
There's a pi/dac for sale in the classifieds for £55, add a usb drive for about £50 and your have a top class unit for a little over £100.
There's a pi/dac for sale in the classifieds for £55, add a usb drive for about £50 and your have a top class unit for a little over £100.
Thanks for your heads up, I was very tempted to have a bash with it but.... It's a pi2 though which I believe doesn't have onboard wifi. I'd prefer as much to be integrated to ensure it actually connects!
Stratmangler
19-05-2017, 15:14
It's an old Netgear Readynas Duo V1 (one of the few that were originally suggested to work well with Squeezebox). I'm not sure if there is a difference if I called the squeezebox server the wrong name, are there different generations e.g. logitech Media server, Squeeze Server etc etc - TBH I have no reccolection at present on the exact name but the standard nas control software has a box to tick for running it as well as iTunes Server. I don't know if it is even possible to upgrade it TBH. Is this worth looking into more? I guess if it's useless I may be able to rip it apart and reuse the box for a Raspberry Pi and hard drives!
The decsion for WAV was deliberate (albeit possibly flawed) I had wante dto keep everything in native format to avoid the whims of time and support of different compression formats.
I don't know if the version used on the Readynas Duo V1 is a full fat one or not.
If it is full fat, then it's probably compressing all the WAV stuff to FLAC anyway - it's the default behaviour. The processing overhead could make the Readynas seem a touch slow, and unresponsive.
Netgear might have had one of their supported software programmers make a few adjustments to the Squeezebox server, which would make it behave more like mine.
I run my server on a Zyxel NSA310, which is quite lowly in the processing stakes, and Zyxel had one of their supported software programmers remove all the intensive processing bits from the Squeezebox server program.
So I know for definite that a WAV file on my server gets sent as WAV over the network, and all files are not resampled.
Most of the stuff on my server is stored as FLAC, with a few MP3s thrown in.
The majority of files on the server are CD rips, so 16/44.1, but I do have 16/48, 24/44.1, 24/48, 24/88.2, 24/96, 24/176.4, and 24/192 files on there too, and the Zyxel just serves them when required.
My Touch is wired, and has the EDO (Enhanced Digital Output) applet installed, which means that it can handle 24/176.4 and 24/192 files without the need to resample down to 24/96.
My external DAC copes easily with all the mentioned sample rates.
Good point. Never did get my pi 2b to work on wifi
Good point. Never did get my pi 2b to work on wifi
Hi Grant, I use a 'plugable' wifi dongle with both my pi2s and 3...
https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/Networking-Devices/Plugable-Wireless-Adapter-Realtek-RTL8188CUS-Chipset-Raspberry/B00H28H8DU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1495208999&sr=8-1&keywords=plugable+wifi+dongle
...I think it needs to be a realtek chip set to work properly
Hi Grant, I use a 'plugable' wifi dongle with both my pi2s and 3...
https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/Networking-Devices/Plugable-Wireless-Adapter-Realtek-RTL8188CUS-Chipset-Raspberry/B00H28H8DU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1495208999&sr=8-1&keywords=plugable+wifi+dongle
...I think it need to be a realtek chip set
Must be the chip i guess. I tried 3 dongles and it never worked...or me i suppose lol. Happy enough on wired tbh now. Still got the dongles somewhere. Probably should go up to a pi3 but things would maybe not fit my fancy box so ive just stuck with what ive got. Works flawlessly
It's early days but I am currently playing about with a Pi3 B, Allo Boss/Isolator Lifepo battery, MoOde and an SSD direct to and powered by the Pi. The Pi is connected to the main network via Wi-fI (as it only requires the data for control as music files are direct to the Pi ).
It's probably had around 30 hours run in on a 12v sealed lead acid battery so far and it sounds promising although i still have to play with the upsampling & filter settings to see which I prefer more as well as battery types and voltage (I have the 6.4v Lifepo cells Allo suggest as well a big Tracer 12V 20AH Lifepo or 12V SLA already as I use them for other purposes). There are some niggles (mainly so far that I have all my files in WAV so navigation is a little clunky!)
I am currently upsampling to 192kHz or 196kHz (can't remember off hand) and 24-bit which sounds far better and free of any harshness that I had previously associated with digital. It's definitely better than most DACs I have had but we will see when/if my favourite Kinshaw DAC is repaired/returned.
For anyone considering having a bash at a Pi streamer, it is very easy and can be setup in 5 mins but IMHO there is little to actually explain how to do it and what to expect. It took me about 20 minutes farting about trying to figure out why the HDMI screen display went dead after booting and feeling quite pissed off that I had try and research the problem (which transpoired to be that it wasn't a problem and moOde was operating and I needed to access it via a browser on another device to see it! With no concept of how these things work; it was much harder than it need be for me.
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