Raspberry PI as a CD player

[mikmas]

Was quite intrigued by this thread and the option of playing CDs via the RPI - haven't used Volumio since V1 having moved to Moode and preferring the interface/performance so decided to kill two birds...

Having gone through the rigermerole setting it up this evening have to say I am not overly impressed so far. I found CD playback not brilliant - even compared to using the same drive though iTunes on my Mac.

Setting up Volumio was a bit of a pain to start with. I tried using the WiFi Hotspot Volumio suggest on their website but the default password they gave simply didn't work so had to resort to pulling the ethernet cable from my Mac and doing it the old fashioned way - also not straightforward (sigh) but managed to get wifi set up (more by accident than design)

Nanasound took a bit over half an hour to install. I used a powered Lite-On DVD drive I had in a drawer and initially found the Nansound interface all a bit cumbersome and clumsy to use - more the fault of Volumio's infuriating screen systems than the Nanosound plugin per-se. Playback quality was quite frankly disappointing - muddy and booming bass and the rest just a bit too smeared for my liking. Also got frequent dropouts and tracks simply stopping for no reason. Playback of the same tunes ripped to AIFF and played through Moode was far better but even (as I said) iTunes CD playback on my Mac using the same drive was much better.

Not something I'll be repeating .....

[Yomanze]

Hi Mikmas, are you using a dedicated SPDIF or USB HAT with your Raspberry Pi? I really can’t tell much if any difference between streaming FLAC and playing WAV on my setup.

Also, you seem to have general network issues that are resulting in audible glitches and dropouts. Better to use hardwired and a good wired router where possible IMHO.

[mikmas]

Hi Mikmas, are you using a dedicated SPDIF or USB HAT with your Raspberry Pi? I really can’t tell much if any difference between streaming FLAC and playing WAV on my setup.

Also, you seem to have general network issues that are resulting in audible glitches and dropouts. Better to use hardwired and a good wired router where possible IMHO.

There are absolutely no problems with the RPi and the network normally or with file playback so don't see this as the issue at all.

Also can't see how wifi or ethernet would play any role at all given that files are sent via USB cable from a CD drive and then to an amp via an Allo Boss DAC hat and analogue RCA cables

[gninnam]

Sorry you had a faff with getting to try it and also the results for you ended up being worse than your other configuration.
I found the intstallation straight forward (took about 15 minutes to install the Nanosound plug-in) and the process of playing the media again straight forward.
The sound I was hearing was also very similar to the ripped flac I had made of the cd I played, with no issues with the replay (worked from the first track to the last with no issues)
Wonder if the CD/DVD drive was the culprit? (and your aversion to Volumio............)

[mikmas]

Sorry you had a faff with getting to try it and also the results for you ended up being worse than your other configuration.
......
Wonder if the CD/DVD drive was the culprit? (and your aversion to Volumio............)

No need to apologise Andy (unless you wrote the software )
Always wondered whether connecting a CD player to the RPi was a possibility so I needed to itch that scratch
Shame it didn't work out ... but nothing ventured etc.
Not really too bothered as I'm fine with the quality of ripped file playback as it is.

DVD drive could be the culprit I suppose but strange that it performs flawlessly when connected to my Mac

As to Volumio - I doubt I'll be switching from Moode any day soon but again, only find out if you try these things .....

[mikmas]

Interesting postscript less anyone has been put off trying this due to my whinging

Reading through the Nanosound website for any clues or hints I discovered that they recommend a minimum 16gb micro SD for the complete installation (Volumio+Nanosound).

I used an 8GB card I had kicking about ... so this may be the cause of the dropouts (programme struggling with inadequate memory???)

Will give it another whirl with a bigger card sometime soon and report back

[mikmas]

Cracked it !!!

The micro card was indeed the main culprit - that and the buffer settings.
Increasing the card to 16GB made quite a dramatic difference to the playback quality - bass is now tight and direct and the rest is much clearer - more cohesive as a whole by quite a large margin

Still very occasional (and short) dropouts - but this was cleared up by increasing the Audio Buffer from 2 to 4 MB and 'Buffer before Play' from 10% to 20% (in Volumio Playback settings)
Would now definitely agree with Neil's comment earlier that this combo beats quite a few dedicated CDPs I have heard in my time - quite noticeably!!

Most excellent result - and many thanks to Andy (gninnam) for the heads up on this :

[gninnam]

Phew - glad you sussed it.
I should mention that I had tweaked the buffer settings many years ago and use a 32gb card so for me it worked out of the box!!

[Yomanze]

Woohoo, glad you sorted it Mikmas! Was a bit of a head-scratcher as to why you had issues, but makes sense now. Good sleuthing.

[mikmas]

just as a bit of a follow up ..

I had some hassles getting the IR controller plug-in to work with v2.599 (I think Volumio are working on a fix) but once sorted I have to say this is a great combo and the sound quality is top notch.

The Lite-On drive I was using turned out to be a bit noisy in operation (and bulky) so I sourced a far smaller self-powered Sony drive off the bay that is practically silent:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SONY-DRX-...wAAOSwEAtdNNx7

All in all very happy with this development (bar one or two very minor niggles with the interface).