Raspberry pi and the delights of invisible media!

[mightymonoped]

Thanks guys! Some great suggestions here for Volumio, iPeng, Picoreplayer, etc. Lots of things to research here. Definitely more involved than just plugging a DAC into a laptop. But rewards seem to be worth the effort.

That's the great thing about a 'headless' device like the RPi, it's pretty much 'front-end' agnostic, so you can choose the interface that suits you best. Similarly, it is flexible enough to accommodate the simplest source (a USB stick plonked directly into the RPi) to a multi-room NAS or Media Controller.
The main thing is it's ability to let you listen to the music you want, when and where you want it (and of course, the ability to tinker round with all the bits to your heart's content) :-)

[Svend N]

Hi Svend,

Also look at Kodi: https://kodi.tv/ used in conjunction with OSMC (instead of Volumio and such like): https://osmc.tv/

If you've got a smart TV and good Wi-Fi, for me it's the way to go, as the interface is superb (easy to use and very intuitive), looks great, and you can control *everything* from your TV remote control! No phones, laptops or any other such device needed.

In conjunction with an RPi, streaming music is a joy, encouraging rather long listening sessions!

Marco.

Smart TV? What's that? Our TV is at least 15 years old, maybe more...a tiny (by today's sizes) 32" panel. It's definitely not smart....but perhaps more so than it's owner at times . It sits in the basement rec room, and barely gets used except to watch a hockey game once a week or so. In non-hockey season (aka summer) it maybe gets turned on once a month. Seriously, other than hockey, if I watch an hour a week that's a lot for me. Rather be doing other stuff... Besides, a TV in our living room is Verboten!

Good suggestion on Kodi though. Sounds like a great way to go.

[Svend N]

That's the great thing about a 'headless' device like the RPi, it's pretty much 'front-end' agnostic, so you can choose the interface that suits you best. Similarly, it is flexible enough to accommodate the simplest source (a USB stick plonked directly into the RPi) to a multi-room NAS or Media Controller.
The main thing is it's ability to let you listen to the music you want, when and where you want it (and of course, the ability to tinker round with all the bits to your heart's content) :-)

Yes, it sure seems to be very versatile, this little Pi thing. I like that. A bit of a learning curve, for sure, but I'll get there and it sounds like it will be worth it. I like tinkering, so this should be fun.

A high point is the compact footprint, which I can tuck away behind another component and just forget about it. Nice! And it's very affordable, so I can buy a second one for the downstairs system.

Cheers,
Svend

[Marco]

Smart TV? What's that? Our TV is at least 15 years old, maybe more...a tiny (by today's sizes) 32" panel. It's definitely not smart....but perhaps more so than it's owner at times . It sits in the basement rec room, and barely gets used except to watch a hockey game once a week or so. In non-hockey season (aka summer) it maybe gets turned on once a month. Seriously, other than hockey, if I watch an hour a week that's a lot for me. Rather be doing other stuff... Besides, a TV in our living room is Verboten!

Good suggestion on Kodi though. Sounds like a great way to go.

Lol... I admire your stance!

We also resisted the 'big tele' thing for a while. The focal point in our living room is still our inglenook fireplace and wood burner, but there's a 46" (big enough but not too big to dominate) smart TV in one of the corners, which forms part of our home-cinema system (and to which the RPi adds a music function), as we love our movies too much, and like them reproduced as realistically as possible

However, quite simply, if you want to get the most out of Kodi, you *need* a smart TV, as apart from allowing the use of one remote control (the one for the TV), to access your Pi's music library, Kodi syncs seamlessly with a smart TV, and so enhances your whole music-listening experience (providing direct access to unlimited music on YouTube, or Spotify, Tidal, etc), especially with also allowing you to view all the album cover-art, from your streams, in high-definition!

But I guess if you insist on slumming it....

Marco.

P.S On a rather different note, how dd you get on with sourcing the milk for your coffee direct from the dairy? You never did say!

[Svend N]

Lol... I admire your stance! We also resisted the 'big tele' thing for a while. The focal point in our living room is still our inglenook fireplace and wood burner, but there's a 46" (big enough but not too big to dominate) smart TV in one of the corners, which forms part of our home-cinema system (and to which the RPi adds a music function), as we love our movies too much, and like them reproduced as realistically as possible

However, quite simply, if you want to get the most out of Kodi, you *need* a smart TV, as apart from allowing the use of one remote control, to access your music library (the one for the TV), it syncs seamlessly with a smart TV and enhances your whole music-listening experience, especially viewing all the album cover-art in high-definition!

But I guess if you insist on slumming it....

Marco.

P.S On a rather different note, how dd you get on with sourcing your milk direct from the dairy? You never did say!

It's not really a "stance", as in a deliberate effort to push the TV out of our lives. It simply evolved that way out of sheer boredom with what was broadcast (other than a certain winter sport ). That, and having better things to do than sit in front of the tube. The TV just gradually got relegated to second class status in our home....we slowly over time watched less and less. We used to have satellite TV, and after a time came to realize that even with 200+ channels there was nothing on worth watching. Waste of money! We recently cancelled our Netflix too. Hardly used it. That said, we do watch the odd movie at home...about once a month or so.

Audio, OTOH, is front and center. There is almost always music playing somewhere in the house. Our daughters are big-time into music too. The eldest got me Mumford's Delta on vinyl as a Christmas present

Re. the milk, yes! I did just recently find a dairy which sells unhomogenized whole milk in a glass bottle. It's about 25 min. drive, so not close, but it is on the way to our local ski hill (and our fave mtn. bike forest in summer) so a quick pop in on the way would be easy. Haven't tried it yet, but I'll be up that way in a couple of days so will pick up a few bottles. Can't wait to try it!

[Jimbo]

Anyone compared a Pi server to a Zen mini. Once you have built up a Pi and maxed it out with clean USB performance etc I believe it comes in quite expensive. A second hand Zen mini can be had for £400 and you can obviously rip files to this as it has storage so no need to use a laptop. I would put money on the Zen turning out a better performance than any Pi with whatever source attached but I have not compared the two so cannot be absolutely sure.

[Sherwood]

Have to disagree. An RPI with Digione and good case is under £200. Performance with SEG is awesome.

is

Anyone compared a Pi server to a Zen mini. Once you have built up a Pi and maxed it out with clean USB performance etc I believe it comes in quite expensive. A second hand Zen mini can be had for £400 and you can obviously rip files to this as it has storage so no need to use a laptop. I would put money on the Zen turning out a better performance than any Pi with whatever source attached but I have not compared the two so cannot be absolutely sure.

[Jimbo]

Have to disagree. An RPI with Digione and good case is under £200. Performance with SEG is awesome.

is

Have you compared it with a Zen Geoff?

[Bigman80]

Well, regardless of whether X Y or Z sounds better, I am thoroughly enjoying this little gadget.

[Sherwood]

Have you compared it with a Zen Geoff?

Not an AB type comparison, but I did listen to a Zen. Good but overpriced IMHO!