Rasberry Pi - nothing ... nothing .. nothing .. Gor Blimey

[Gazjam]

Good info here guys:
http://theaudiostandard.net/thread/1...scrollTo=33612
and
http://theaudiostandard.net/thread/5...scrollTo=11329

...handy for those starting out.

[ReggieB]

Looks good Gazjam

[Frankyc2003]

This is a fascinating read Rob. I got my Pi+/DAC+ yesterday through the post. It is running RuneAudio. But I am clearly intending to use it with Volumio. So I am about to enter that rollercoaster you are describing.
My first impressions are that the sound produced is far more natural and detailed than my SBT / rDac combo.
Very pleased so far...
Testament to AOS, this could be the best ever streaming DAC any money can buy.

[ReggieB]

Frankyc2003,

I'm not sure Volumio is necessarily technically better than RuneAudio. I had problems getting it working - googling again now suggests I needed to do some more tweaking. Volumio seemed to work fairly easily out of the box, but if you have a unit with a working instance of RuneAudio, I don't think there is a necessity to move over to Volumio.

However, as the code is on a microSD card, it would be very easy to rip the Volumio image onto another card, and then you can easily swap cards to compare the two systems.

You should be able to SSH into RuneAudio. The password will be 'rune' rather than 'volumio'. You can then run alsamixer as with Volumio, and have fun tweaking the settings there.

[Rothchild]

Frankyc2003,

I'm not sure Volumio is necessarily technically better than RuneAudio. I had problems getting it working - googling again now suggests I needed to do some more tweaking. Volumio seemed to work fairly easily out of the box, but if you have a unit with a working instance of RuneAudio, I don't think there is a necessity to move over to Volumio.

There appears to be very little difference between Rune and Volumio, both are basically front-ends for for an MPD server playing via ffmpeg in to ALSA - indeed both look very muck like forks of Mopidy and Pi Music Box: http://www.woutervanwijk.nl/pimusicbox/

[WAD62]

There appears to be very little difference between Rune and Volumio, both are basically front-ends for for an MPD server playing via ffmpeg in to ALSA - indeed both look very muck like forks of Mopidy and Pi Music Box: http://www.woutervanwijk.nl/pimusicbox/

As a LMS/Squeezebox user I've gone with piCorePlayer...

https://sites.google.com/site/picoreplayer/home

...which again is probably using the same underlying audio architecture as the others

NB. For any other SBox users it utilises triode's squeezelite player, and is absolutely rock solid, I've had it (kitchen) synchronised with my touch and MDAC combo (livingroom) for 3 days without a click, 3 auto LMS recycles, and the Pi turns off, and on (logically) from the squeezecommander android app...because it all runs from memory you can pull the power cord out at any time with no issues...which is nice
...oh and it sounds magnificent too

[Frankyc2003]

Funny you mention this, I was wondering actually.
On my setup, Volumio runs happily Spotify. Wheras RuneAudio just doesn't. Weird.
Sound wise. It is neck to neck really. RuneAydio seems a tad less brittle than Volumio. But that's early days.

[NRG]

As a LMS/Squeezebox user I've gone with piCorePlayer...

https://sites.google.com/site/picoreplayer/home

...which again is probably using the same underlying audio architecture as the others

NB. For any other SBox users it utilises triode's squeezelite player, and is absolutely rock solid, I've had it (kitchen) synchronised with my touch and MDAC combo (livingroom) for 3 days without a click, 3 auto LMS recycles, and the Pi turns off, and on (logically) from the squeezecommander android app...because it all runs from memory you can pull the power cord out at any time with no issues...which is nice
...oh and it sounds magnificent too

Hi Will what made you go with picoreplayer and not say max2play?

[WAD62]

Hi Will what made you go with picoreplayer and not say max2play?

Hi Neal, initially I went with Squeezeplug, but despite wrestling with both of the latest distro's (NOOB included), I could not get WiFi to work...and I tried all sorts of tricks, might be the combination of my router (old sky Sagem) and the dongles used, however using piCorePlayer I was up and running within minutes...

I tried piCorePlayer on the recommendation of another AOSser, on Marco's thread, and it is so much better if all you want is an SBplayer, very quick, and extremely robust!

P.S. piCorePlayer has the additional benefit of some pre built SUDO commands that enable one to utilise, and save the ALSA settings...which is critical to getting the best sound from the Pi-DAC+

[ReggieB]

Small update.

After just over a week's use of my Pi/DAC combo I've got around to trying Agnes Obel's Aventine album again. This was the album that I had problems with initially. Small digital artefacts and sibilance. Well they are gone. The album now plays without any problem.

So I think I have to reassess my thinking on what work with the Pi/DAC. It now seems to handle anything I throw at it. The main lesson learnt from the Aventine experience is that the unit takes a few days running in before it gives of it's best.

On a further note, I'm an avid podcast downloader. One of my favourites is "A good man in Rwanda": the story of Mbaye Diagne, a Senegalese captain working with the UN’s peacekeeping mission in Rwanda (A true hero of our time). Playing this podcast via my Pi/DAC has unveiled a level of detail in the recording that I didn't know was there. Incidental background sounds bring the interviews to life, and add context to each one. The emotion in Mark Doyle's voice when he revisits the place where Diagne was killed is heart breaking.

It's not just music that benefits from excellent reproduction.