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Thread: Suggestions please

  1. #1
    Join Date: Feb 2008

    Location: Sunny (occasionally) Devon

    Posts: 1,713
    I'm Shane.

    Default Suggestions please

    Back in February I decided to dip my to into the world of streaming and bought a Chromecast Audio, which must be the smallest and least impressive looking bit of hifi gear I’ve ever come across. Initial thoughts were that sound quality is at least as good as my Squeezebox. A little more forward maybe, but clean and open, and astonishingly good for what looks like a miniature £30 hockey puck.

    Six months down the road and the experience isn’t quite as shiny as it originally seemed. From the SQ point of view I still think it’s amazing for what it is, but I must have been a bit dissatisfied with it because I pushed the eBay button on a Beresford TC-7510, and now it’s a whole lot better. More organic, if you like.


    What irks me is the usability of the thing. I’ve taken out subscriptions to Tidal and Idagio which are installed on my iPhone 7. I use FileBrowser to access my Jerry-built NAS which has about 400gb of assorted FLAC and MP3 stuff on it, and BBC iPlayer Radio.

    The problem I have is that I don’t find any of those apps in the least bit user friendly. Firstly, they all continually revert back to the iPhone instead of the Chromecast, often on successive tracks, and by the time I’ve worked out how to switch back the track is half way through and the mood is broken.

    Unless there’s a way to make everything permanently default to the Chromecast, I’m thinking that I need to find a device on which to run the apps to replace the Chromecast, which can be controlled remotely from the iPhone. Would a raspberry pi do that, and if so can it feed directly to the Beresford?

    Ideas please....
    Time flies like an arrow.
    Fruit flies like a banana.

  2. #2
    Join Date: May 2016

    Location: Notts

    Posts: 2,741
    I'm Geoff.

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by shane View Post
    [FONT="]Back in February I decided to dip my to into the world of streaming and bought a Chromecast Audio, which must be the smallest and least impressive looking bit of hifi gear I’ve ever come across. Initial thoughts were that sound quality is at least as good as my Squeezebox. A little more forward maybe, but clean and open, and astonishingly good for what looks like a miniature £30 hockey puck.

    Six months down the road and the experience isn’t quite as shiny as it originally seemed. From the SQ point of view I still think it’s amazing for what it is, but I must have been a bit dissatisfied with it because I pushed the eBay button on a Beresford TC-7510, and now it’s a whole lot better. More organic, if you like.[/FONT]


    [FONT="]What irks me is the usability of the thing. I’ve taken out subscriptions to Tidal and Idagio which are installed on my iPhone 7. I use FileBrowser to access my Jerry-built NAS which has about 400gb of assorted FLAC and MP3 stuff on it, and BBC iPlayer Radio.[/FONT]

    [FONT="]The problem I have is that I don’t find any of those apps in the least bit user friendly. Firstly, they all continually revert back to the iPhone instead of the Chromecast, often on successive tracks, and by the time I’ve worked out how to switch back the track is half way through and the mood is broken.[/FONT]

    [FONT="]Unless there’s a way to make everything permanently default to the Chromecast, I’m thinking that I need to find a device on which to run the apps to replace the Chromecast, which can be controlled remotely from the iPhone. Would a raspberry pi do that, and if so can it feed directly to the Beresford?[/FONT]

    Ideas please....
    Shane,

    the front end on my main system now comprises a Raspberry Pi with Digione board into a Caiman Beresford DAC. My main listening is comprised of a mix of my own flac files, Tidal, and high bitrate internet radio. I have a Chromecast Audio too and whilst it is great value for money, it is not as good as the Pi. I use Volumio with the Pi. For only £2.99 Bubble PnP integrates well with Volumio and allows me to play my Tidal playlists on Volumio with ease.

    Geoff

  3. #3
    Join Date: Feb 2008

    Location: Sunny (occasionally) Devon

    Posts: 1,713
    I'm Shane.

    Default

    Thanks Geoff, just the sort of info I was looking for!
    Time flies like an arrow.
    Fruit flies like a banana.

  4. #4
    Join Date: Mar 2014

    Location: KY - Scotland

    Posts: 5,465
    I'm Mike.

    Default

    Only drawback is Bubble uPnP is android only. I've searched and searched and never found an ios app that can do the same.

    There are plenty of apps in the Apple store that can cast to the chromecast.

  5. #5
    Join Date: Feb 2013

    Location: W Lothian

    Posts: 99,005
    I'm Grant.

    Default

    yup an rpi is a good shout, either with a digi board out to your dac or use a dac hat and straight to amp, which is way i do it.
    several os you can use... volumio2 is probably the easiest, plus you have moode 4.2 and the one im playing with at moment.. picoreplayer/logitech ms. it integrates well with most things i think. ive got spotify going including my albums there. looks like i will be able to run jriver to it too...
    only current issue is samba share, which ive not cracked yet but its probably a win10 issue.

    we need to get a how-to, done for these os for the guys and gals
    Regards,
    Grant .... ؠ ......Don't be such a big girl's blouse

    I've said it before and I'll say it again: democracy simply-doesn't-work
    .... ..... ...... ...... ................... ..... ..... ..... ..... .....
    FIIO K7 BT, M11 PLUS, BTR7, KA5 - OPPO BDP-103D - PANASONIC UB450 - PANASONIC 4K ULTRA HD TV - PIXEL 6 - AVANTREE LR BLUETOOTH - 2* X600 SOUNDCORE - HEADPHONES INCLUDE, FIIO, NURAPHONES', FOCAL, OPPO, BOSE, CAMBRIDGE, BOWER & WILKINS, DEVIALET, MARSHALL, SONY, MITCHELL & JOHNSTON - 2*ZBOOK'S- MERCURY BD ROM, ROON, QOBUZ, TIDAL, PLEX, CYBERLINK, JRIVER - MULTI HDD'S -

    Oh my god! There's nothing wrong with the bidet is there?

    “Nothing discloses real character like the use of power. It is easy for the weak to be gentle. Most people can bear adversity. But if you wish to know what a man really is, give him power. This is the supreme test. It is the glory of Lincoln that, having almost absolute power, he never abused it, except on the side of mercy".

    “You see these dictators on their pedestals, surrounded by the bayonets of their soldiers and the truncheons of their police ... yet in their hearts there is unspoken fear. They are afraid of words and thoughts: words spoken abroad, thoughts stirring at home -- all the more powerful because forbidden -- terrify them. A little mouse of thought appears in the room, and even the mightiest potentates are thrown into panic.”

    "You don't have free will. You have the appearance of free will.”

    “There's a war out there, old friend. A world war. And it's not about who's got the most bullets. It's about who controls the information. What we see and hear, how we work, what we think... it's all about the information!”


    ***SMILE, BE HAPPY***

  6. #6
    Join Date: Mar 2014

    Location: KY - Scotland

    Posts: 5,465
    I'm Mike.

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    I tried picoreplayer the other day and gave up, I went back to volumio 2 for ease of setup, takes less than 5 minutes from start to finish

    The rpi isn't my main digital player that's reserved for my SoTm sms200 which is far superior but my dac is out on loan so the rpi is in play

  7. #7
    Join Date: Feb 2013

    Location: W Lothian

    Posts: 99,005
    I'm Grant.

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by mikeyb View Post
    I tried picoreplayer the other day and gave up, I went back to volumio 2 for ease of setup, takes less than 5 minutes from start to finish

    The rpi isn't my main digital player that's reserved for my SoTm sms200 which is far superior but my dac is out on loan so the rpi is in play
    still fiddling with mine alas... cant help myself and I just know im going to screw it spotify is quite well done unlike volumio but its ui isnt too intuitive
    Regards,
    Grant .... ؠ ......Don't be such a big girl's blouse

    I've said it before and I'll say it again: democracy simply-doesn't-work
    .... ..... ...... ...... ................... ..... ..... ..... ..... .....
    FIIO K7 BT, M11 PLUS, BTR7, KA5 - OPPO BDP-103D - PANASONIC UB450 - PANASONIC 4K ULTRA HD TV - PIXEL 6 - AVANTREE LR BLUETOOTH - 2* X600 SOUNDCORE - HEADPHONES INCLUDE, FIIO, NURAPHONES', FOCAL, OPPO, BOSE, CAMBRIDGE, BOWER & WILKINS, DEVIALET, MARSHALL, SONY, MITCHELL & JOHNSTON - 2*ZBOOK'S- MERCURY BD ROM, ROON, QOBUZ, TIDAL, PLEX, CYBERLINK, JRIVER - MULTI HDD'S -

    Oh my god! There's nothing wrong with the bidet is there?

    “Nothing discloses real character like the use of power. It is easy for the weak to be gentle. Most people can bear adversity. But if you wish to know what a man really is, give him power. This is the supreme test. It is the glory of Lincoln that, having almost absolute power, he never abused it, except on the side of mercy".

    “You see these dictators on their pedestals, surrounded by the bayonets of their soldiers and the truncheons of their police ... yet in their hearts there is unspoken fear. They are afraid of words and thoughts: words spoken abroad, thoughts stirring at home -- all the more powerful because forbidden -- terrify them. A little mouse of thought appears in the room, and even the mightiest potentates are thrown into panic.”

    "You don't have free will. You have the appearance of free will.”

    “There's a war out there, old friend. A world war. And it's not about who's got the most bullets. It's about who controls the information. What we see and hear, how we work, what we think... it's all about the information!”


    ***SMILE, BE HAPPY***

  8. #8
    Join Date: Mar 2014

    Location: KY - Scotland

    Posts: 5,465
    I'm Mike.

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by struth View Post
    still fiddling with mine alas... cant help myself and I just know im going to screw it spotify is quite well done unlike volumio but its ui isnt too intuitive
    I've just posted about picoreplayer on the other thread, I'm going to give it another go just now

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