Pi-Squeeze! A DIRT-CHEAP music STREAMING system (+ ROON alternative)

Camera: Olaf von Voss | Editor: John Darko | Motion GFX: John Darko
(Filmed May 2020)
PATREON:
/ johndarko
A dirt-cheap, VPN-capable music server/streamer built around the Squeezebox platform with Raspberry Pi hardware.
Backstory:
darko.audio/20...
5 more thoughts on the Squeeze-Pi server/streamer:
darko.audio/20...
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Essential reading...
Getting started with Raspberry Pi:
projects.raspb...
ALLO DigiOne:
darko.audio/20...
HifiBerry HATs:
www.hifiberry....
PiCorePlayer:
www.picoreplay...
How to burn PiCorePlayer to a microSD card:
www.picoreplay...
How to install LMS on PiCorePlayer:
www.picoreplay...
Material skin:
github.com/CDr...
Orange Squeeze:
play.google.co...
Squeeze Player:
squeezeplayer.de/
iPeng:
penguinlovesmus...
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Feeling lost?
Back to Basics Part 1: music streaming:
• BACK TO BASICS Part 1:...
Back to Basics Part 2: Music servers and network streamers:
• BACK TO BASICS Part 2:...
A beginner’s guide to Raspberry Pi streaming:
• A beginner's guide to ...
Raspberry Pi streaming 101:
darko.audio/20...
Digital audio streaming 101:
darko.audio/20...
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Also seen in this video...
dCS Bartok:
darko.audio/20...
Schiit Freya+:
darko.audio/20...
Schiit Vidar, Aegir:
darko.audio/20...
Klipsch Forte III:
darko.audio/20...
Hifi Racks Podium XL:
www.hifiracks....
All cables by AudioQuest:
www.audioquest...
#squeezebox #raspberrypi #streaming
__________________________________________________________________
Darko.Audio FAQ:
darko.audio/faq/
What the bloody hell am I talking about?
• What the bloody hell a...
__________________________________________________________________
DID YOU KNOW WE HAVE A PODCAST?
podcasts.apple...
open.spotify.c...
/ johnhdarko
__________________________________________________________________
Darko.Audio is a web magazine covering new and exciting developments in the audio world and we aren’t afraid of indie rock or techno.
Web: Darko.Audio
Instagram: / darkoaudio
Twitter: / darkoaudio
Facebook: / darkodotaudio

[@kurthertel4299]

I believe you are providing a service that is very valuable not just to your viewers (although that is not inconsiderable by any means), but to the industry as a whole with your focus on easy/inexpensive/newbie-friendly digital music playback solutions. Lowering the barriers to entry is crucial for the continued health of the industry, and the benefits thereto accrue to all of us, not just newbies. Best time ever to be a music-lover, and your efforts are part of why. So thanks!

[@sudeep64ify]

I really love the fact that you make so many videos with Raspberry Pi!

[@MichaelJohnsonAzgard]

I like this sort of video where you point to what's possible, and we go on journey of discovery. This way we learn so much more and probably discover something different on the way.

[@Jahwobbly]

I have a CS degree, wrote my first korn shell script in 1987, bash in 1998. My experience installing and configuring PCP was frustrating. Yet, videos like this are invaluable, Between cheap Pis, powerful open source software, youtube creators, discussion boards,... we live in special times. Thank you.

[@RadioShackSeven]

Thanks so much for this. I was running music from my laptop, but it was big, got in the way, noisy fan and more. I bought myself a 4GB PI 4 and a case, connected it to my DAC via USB, flashed a micro SD and was up and running in around 30 minutes. I love it. Small, quiet and easy to control from Orange Squeeze. My config may not be the last word in HiFi, but then my ears aren't so great these days. But it was worth doing and it only cost me £65 for a complete audio solution that I can play my FLACS from and also my stream from Spotify. Good man, keep it up!

[@jonathanheider9295]

As someone new to the audiophile world your videos are incredibly helpful. There are a million videos on how to install an OS on a Raspberry Pi, the issue is what software, not how to do it. Thanks for the review.

[@TheOttacat]

Nice to see such a great review of an alternative to Roon for those who balk at its price. I think you were very honest in the effort to get it working and how its features compare to Roon. I personally prefer to pay for Roon as it is so super simple to set up and run. The time savings partially justify its cost, the metadata, signal path display, and multi-protocol support justify the rest for me. Also, your videos look gorgeous. Great video quality, very much a 'film' look in how the colours come out. I always enjoy your content.

[@ungava000]

Just built this system over the weekend after watching this video. Its brought new life to our old music drive. Once I added iPeng to my phone I was sold. Love it. Thanks for putting out all this great info John.

[@PCman50]

Must say that for those of us that just want an inexpensive alternative to the original Logitech squeezebox radio, this is an excellent solution. I already have two original Squeezebox players that after some 20 years of service started to give me problems. Since I already had an LMS server on my Network I used an old raspberry pi 2b as the main player and then added a cheap raspberry pi audio interface for $20 and within minutes it's was working perfectly. I used an android phone app called Squeezer to control all my Squeezebox players and it immediately picked up the new player. I'm very happy with this alternative. Thank you for showing that those of us with a low budget can still enjoy our audio music as well as thousands of Internet radio podcasts and streaming services like Pandora and others.

[@jallen1227]

Great video, John

[@bigdallyc]

If it wasn't for all your raspberry pi videos, I wouldn't have my current allo digione running volumio. So thanks for the kickstart, John.

[@juliansleath1989]

Thanks John....the video was a good start at persuading me into the world of Pi.....the Allo Player arrived yesterday and after a few steep learning curves it's up and running controlled by I-Peng from my I-Phone. It's connected to a 1970's Quad 33 Pre-amp, 303 Amp into JR149 speakers - ie kit that is over 40 years old. It sounds great and I can now play any of 26,000 songs on my USB drive plus get BBC Radio and much more. What an adventure. Happy listening and keep up the great reviews - Julian

[@markflower8885]

Love it. A €150 streamer/server attached to a €12,000 DCS dac. 👍

[@moonlight-kh6uz]

A proper way for DCS is to have Antipodes CX upstream with a direct ethernet link to Antipodes EX to get rid of all the noise and provide galvanic isolation. Then from EX to DCS via USB or better yet via Antipodes P2 re-clocker. CX + EX is ~7000eur. High-quality DAC like DCS cannot make up for a poor quality server (source is the King). Cheaper alternatives: Antipodes DX Gen3 to SOtM Stable (2 SOtM dCBL-CAT7 ethernet cables & ISO-CAT6 ethernet cleaner box; Trifecta D-Link DSG105 w clock mod LPS-1; sMS-200 w clock mod sPS-500; txUSBultra sPS-500 providing clock connections; IsoRegen LPS-1; clock Cybershaft OP-14 w original Cybershaft 50ohm cable) with Mutec MC3+ via Habst Digital BNC 5N cryo treated silver cable 70ohm to Mutec Reference 10 clock. Replace Antipodes DX3 Gen3 with Macbook for even cheaper solution (but sell DCS and get a cheaper DAC).

[@nunocavac0]

@@moonlight-kh6uz you can stop flexing now.

[@philmcgee3849]

When comparing LMS to Roon don't forget that there are 2 Alexa skills (one 'Smart Home' skill called LMS-lite and and one 'Custom' skill called MediaServer) for controlling pretty much everything LMS can do by voice. The MediaServer skill also allows you to stream music from LMS to an Amazon Echo as audio sink. That can be quite useful in rooms other than your main audiophile listening room. The 'Follow Me' command can be very useful to have the music follow you as you move around in your house without having to touch a screen. Voice is just one extra control paradigm to complement e.g. iPeng or Material but Roon does not have such an option and their API is too closed for a community effort.

[@daveg7878]

Sometimes you watch a video and are frustrated you can only give them one thumbs up. This is good.

[@pqwo90]

Hello John Darko and team, I simply love this video because the last 5 days I have been seeing a lot a videos (your's Basic 1,2,3, all HAT videos too ) and reading articles searching for this simple solution. Now I really know the hardware and software I need. Thank so much.

[@mosheserogovich4411]

Amazing video! Just spent an hour or two installing the picoreplayer and LMS on my Pi4 and it is much less complicated then first appears. The fact that you can use only the Pi as server and player may just saved me buying an intel nuc for use as a roon core. And with Ipeng on my iphone the gap between it and roon is not that big for me. I love that i can get my personal / work laptop out of the way without spending more money. Maybe, just maybe, i will not renew my roon subscription next year... thank you for pointing out this solution. Keep on the good work!

[@bigjt37]

Great video, John. Luv it like usual. Luv the semi bloopers at the end 😄👌🏼

[@Villaboy78]

Best addition to the picoreplayer LMS setup for me was installing the ‘Material’ skin plugin . Brings it bang up to date with a modern look , and simplified some of the navigation for me too

[@markstephens668]

Hello John, another great video. I've just setup a Raspberry Pi4 this morning with PiCorePlayer and LMS. One enhancement I'd add for anyone with Chromecast devices is adding the 'Chromecast Bridge' plugin, just the ticket for streaming Lossless audio to those legacy audio systems around the house :-) Love your work

[@dustinwongphotos]

Have you been able to stream KZbin audio via Chromecast using an Android phone to the Allo? (I'm talking about the general KZbin app not KZbin music - I would like to send the audio to the speakers and continue to watch on my phone) Or does the Allo just cast to other Chromecast devices around the house?

[@markstephens668]

@@dustinwongphotos The 'Chromecast Bridge' is a plugin to the LMS server software, that enables the streaming of audio to google chromecast devices elsewhere on the IP network. The Allo digione is a 'HAT' that provides better quality digital SPDIF output to a directly connected DAC from the Raspberry Pi client streamer software in this case Squeezelite from the piCorePlayer. There is a KZbin plugin for LMS that may do what you want, I haven't tried it myself.

[@Slant88]

Fantastic! This is just enough of a supplement to your past videos on raspberry pi streamers. Also, a wonderful economical, tech solution to streaming. This is exactly why your channel is unique; it offers these videos which round out how to experience audio.

[@livingcoramdeo]

John thank you for this. I'm late to the party but with your help on this series I was able to build my network streamer. I used Pi4 with the Allo hat. I really am enjoying this solution.

[@garydaniels6950]

This is great! I have been streaming to my Rasp-pi/Allo Digione signature using Moode on the Allo Digione Signature and controlling it with Mconnect app. But I have been searching for away to this with both a PC and Android, with little luck finding a solution. Seeing your smiling face with the answer to my dilemma and a few hour later... wallah Bliss. Kudos to you Sir!

[@MrWHeffern]

John your guidance on the Raspberry Pi/ PiCore steaming platform has been invaluable. Just built my streamer on a Squeezebox system, through a Schiit Bifrost, Quicksilver GLA and Audio Refinement electronics to my Monitor Audio speakers streaming Tidal,,,, amazing sound.

[@MichaelPsyrras]

Music lovers and audiophiles should give great respect to the piCore player, LMS and LMS plugins developers and community!!!! As great piece of software as piCore player is, and the community behind it, you should check GentooPlayer too. For rpi and x86. You can have Squeezelite (and S.lite R2), LMS, MPD, UpMPDcli, Bubbleupnp, Roon endpoint and many more simultaneously... It's great and free too. Also Archphile in its last "resurrected" version can run MPD and Squeezelite, changing from one to another very easily. LMS must be installed elsewhere though. May be the best sounding of all.

[@michaelfitzgerald8835]

Then I just plug it into my $13k Barton and I’m away! 😂 But seriously John kudos for keeping it real and taking the time to help newcomers experience the joys of hi fi. Thanks for supporting our community.

[@sheerkhanful]

I'm so glad you took the time to cover the LMS/Pi system. I run three audio systems in my house, with a pi acting as both server and player in the main one. I do wish you'd covered one other great feature in LMS, which is its shuffle system. It's hands down the best shuffle I know of with the way it can dig into a library and tease out just the right song again and again. The main shuffle screen on the server goes a long way toward explaining how this is possible with the ability to exclude genres from the generated list. The few times I've auditioned Roon in my systems, the inferior shuffle system and the outrageous cost have been the two factors that have kept me in LMS. Why pay $500 for something that's already largely free?

[@SpamMusubi310]

Thanks for bringing up this little project, John. Coming from the Squeezebox ecosystem, I still have a half a dozen Squeezebox devices and use them daily. A couple of features to point out with LMS is its plugin system. There are plugins that give LMS the ability to push audio to DLNA/UPNP devices, to Airplay, or to Chromecast. All of these devices can live simultaneously on your network and will show up as endpoints within LMS. With this, I am also able to utilize relatively cheap Google Home devices such as the Google Nest Hub, the Nest Mini, and the Chromecast Audio as Squeezebox devices. The coolest part about the puck-sized Chromecast Audio is that not only does it have a mini-optical jack for use in the rack, I can also power it off a small USB battery, add a pair of earbuds, and I now have have a portable WiFi "Squeezebox-walkman" for use around the house. I'd also like to mention about the Android, there's an app called SB Player that allows you to change the audio quality settings of the stream. While it should work with Orange Squeeze, I prefer using it with another app called Squeeze CTRL. Similar to the warnings you've given in your video, the setup for these plugins take some work and will require some research to configure along with some trial and error. One more thing I forgot to mention is that there are also virtual Squeezebox players on Windows and Mac called Squeeze Play. All the aforementioned can be found through a Google search!

[@jazzydog5635]

This was a fun thing to try and | managed to get it working eventually. I wired up my Allo Digione to my back up external drive containing my music files, found a spare sandisk card and pushed it out through my old Meridian CD Dac. I now have an completely independent digital system in addition to my main PC /Jriver / Chord Hugo - going to my Hi fi system. The only additional expense was just under £10 for Ipeng App on my ipad to control it. Thanks John - another great video

[@Colin-yh7oy]

Great video. Thumbs up for Squeezebox, and the Touch! I switched to Innuos Zen Mk.3-based streaming, using its embedded LMS and SqueezeLite player, *but* still using my Touch primarily as a visual display (and not a paperweight), while using an Android device and app for browsing music and controlling playback....though with an IR remote I can quickly pause, skip, etc., or even browse, on the Touch. Old meets new, and they work beautifully together.

[@stephenmcgee3010]

thanks John for info. I love that you challange all of us to do some work thanks again !

[@pugrallye23]

Hi John, firstly, thank you for your excellent content here - it's always informative, enjoyable, and beautifully produced. We also have a VERY similar taste in music (your most recent video reminded me of Robag Wruhme's "Olgamikks" which I've not listened to for ages. Like you, I'm a big fan of Squeezebox/LMS, since I first bought one of their "Duet" systems. I now run an entirely Pi based version, with a Pi v4 and a large USB 3 HDD attached. It easily handles my c140k track library (the bulk of which is FLAC) files. I have 4 Pi-based receivers, a couple of which use the Pi Zero for a really small, neat, and cheap option where ultimate sound quality isn't so important (kitchen for example). And with built in support for Spotify, LMS is a brilliant, cheap, open platform for home streaming.

[@gBoogie47]

Good information 👍. You are one of the few that look to alternatives than to simply get that uber expensive unit. Appreciate it Darko.

[@jonathanheider9295]

Follow up, with Plex now branching into Music specific media steaming and Tidal integration I would love your thoughts on Plex as a solution as a hifi server.

[@lukehouge9776]

This. With Plexamp they now have a native headless pi os for streaming and it is pretty awesome!

[@rendroidz4680]

I’ve been wondering too why no one is using plex as music server. Ive been using it for a year now and it works great. And also with the new plex amp apps you can download your file to your phone and delete it later...

[@GavinMarkable]

Maybe it lacks gapless. Its pretty good otherwise. I use Plex. Check my other comment on how I have it setup

[@JohnHeckendorn]

Does Plex support true gapless playback? Or do they use crossfade to approximately mimic it?

[@paisleyboxers]

I was just love tweeting about PlexAmp using a AirportExpress through TOSlink to HiFi...

[@HowieHaigh]

I don't think I've ever seen you so excited! Good stuff!

[@tr1ckcyclist]

This gets two thumbs up from me, I've got a Pi3 sitting around doing nothing, a Dragonfly ready to go to work, and a cheapskate attitude towards quality streaming through a monthly Spotty subscription, so this is ideal!

[@zbdrums]

Thank you for this John! This is exactly what I needed! Had a pi and a Behringer UCA222, so going really cheap here, and thought I'd try this out on my setup. It is really convenient to not have to use my phone as a streaming source anymore! Didn't think I needed a streamer but it's been pretty life-changing the last few days. Thank you for thinking of us who have no money but are willing to put in a little effort! Regarding effort, once I wrapped my head around the server/client relationship (and the relationship with mysqueezebox.com for Tidal in particular) I found this setup to actually be really easy to do. It just works. Granted I have a lot of experience with Linux and the Pi, but if anything that has taught me to expect things to be difficult, so I was actually very pleasantly surprised that I was able to get this setup up and running with virtually no issues whatsoever in probably an hour or less. And that's including adding plugins, doing all of my streaming from Tidal, Spotify, or Bandcamp. Contrary to what some other commenters have said, I did not find this to overcomplicated setup and has been working for me trouble-free for a couple days now.

[@j.m.w.5064]

Thanks for the vid, John. Would you be so kind as to shortly summarize the key diffences between using Squeeze and Volumio? Since there are various apps, OS' and concepts involved I really lost my overview. Much apprechiated. Cheers.

[@bolobos]

I've played with volumio and OS' that incorporate Squeeze. MoOde and Max2Play are both free and have Squeeze incorporated. MoOde is a little harder to navigate. Both take patience if you're a noob. Max2play includes kodi if you're in to that. MoOde sounds better

[@HolgerBarske]

Finally. You managed to dig up the holy grail of digital audio. Thank you very much for this.

[@ksbav8r]

Set this up last weekend with a Pi 4 1gb model and Topping DX3 Pro II, and it works quite well! Still a few details to work out, like how to use Samba with my library drive to add new material without having to unplug it, and also how to VPN into it remotely. But iPeng works well, Spotify and Airplay both work great, various Sqeeze apps on my mac and PC computers work great, and for the price it's incredible! Replaces a frustrating and surprisingly unreliable iTunes based system which I am so happy to say goodbye to!

[@hectorbonilla9433]

I super appreciate the outlining of this solution. While not widely available, the Elac Discovery server is out there for about $600 USD on some sites and includes ROON Essentials that with the new 1.7 update effectively makes it a near perfect dedicated streamer server with a great on board DAC. Both Qobuz and Tidal are fully integrated now along with internet radio and it can connect USB to a drive or your network server. This was my way of trying out ROON long term without the $500-600 price tag USD. great kit once the updates were sorted out. The major downside-MAJOR- is the device is at the mercy of third party support from ROON, TIDAL, QOBUZ, and Elac. Unlike open source which democratized the UI and OS...

[@Randyak1]

Thank you very much for this video. I'm running a squeezebox ecosystem for many years. I went through the valley of tears trying to run an lms on the touch. Forget about it. Since several years I run the lms on a Synology NAS. Sooner or later I need an alternative solution, because synology no longer supports lms. That's where picoreplayer comes in. I already run an allo digione player with picoreplayer and it works like a charm. Comparing the sound quality of the Heos Network Module of my Denon avr-x4400h with the allo digione is like comparing a Trabant with a modern car. The DAC of the avr-x4400h is quite decent and works well with the allo digione. You mentioned some features of the Android app orange squeeze and the Apple app iPeng. I prefer Squeeze Ctrl on my Android device, which has the same features. It can run a local SB player. It also integrates Tidal seemles in your local library. But you can see which titles and albums are part of the local library and which are part of your Tidal favourites. Downloading Songs to the smartphone for takeaway is also included. I personally don't use that. I simply copied my full music library to an SD card inserted into my smartphone, which is an LG V30 with a Sabre hifi quad DAC. My library isn't that large. To play music on the go with my smartphone I use USB audio player pro. It supports Tidal, Qobuz, SHOUTcast, UpnP/DLNA, Chrome cast, MQA... It also has basic android auto integration. Every file played via this app sounds better. Independent if using 3.5 mm jack, Bluetooth or Android Auto (USB/Bluetooth combo). Maybe you'll try it yourself...

[@d6hq]

LMS v8 now includes Online Music Library integration i.e. Tidal, Qobuz & Spotify libaries can merge with your local library Also investigate Music & Artist Information plugin which brings the reviews, bios & lyrics into play

[@DarkoAudio]

Thanks! I didn't know about V8.

[@nicknugent4940]

Ha, I was going to post exactly this info! Also there is a material skin native app for Android, not in the store but needs to be installed from the developers GitHub. As a longtime user of pi based music systems I have settled on lms/picoreplayer as the best. Amazing that it is free, those developers are living legends!

[@nicknugent4940]

Also you didn't mention that once you have one pi with lms on it, you can add as many players as you want around your home and feed them from the same lms instance

[@avidnova]

Thank you so much John, for your always insightful, and as I see it, extremely well presented option for streaming on the cheap, which is exactly what I need right now.

[@pspdeepti]

Awesome video tutorial!! I didn't even know about this media streaming world before this series. I love it and bought a Usbridge Signature. I was enjoying music on Moode audio which is much simpler and allows network streaming from USB, Tidal and qobuz. You can use any DLNA, Upnp, Airplay apps to stream from it. But, this looks much more sophisticated and perfect because for me, Roon is perfect and beautiful, but I don't want to buy it because it needs to run on another computer 24 hours besides Raspberry pi. I researched a lot if it's possible to run Roon on Pi directly. But, this is next to Roon and it's free on top of that. Amazing solution. Thanks for sharing....Nice project for the weekend...

[@johnathanbailes5542]

I love the excitement. So fun.

[@GavinMarkable]

I stream music through a gen 2 firestick hardwired to my router via an ethernet adapter and wired to my integrated 2 channel stereo amp into coaxial and optical in into 5.1 av receiver for movies via a hdmi splitter. Laptop with external hard drive with my 2 TB FLAC collection has my Plex media server remotely accessed and configure with bubble upnp on my phone. Didn't have to spend a penny on this setup. Even if you were to get three adapters and cables, it still will be the most cost effective solution. The User experience of using bubble upnp along with its features with native transcoding makes it the best upnp streaming experience out there. I can even access my media server from my phone anywhere outside my home network. Pretty happy with this setup as I didn't have to buy anything to setup streaming and it's all wired. The sound is as good as any as it taps into my two channel amp dac which is ess

[@moonlight-kh6uz]

firestick wifi is faster than ethernet

[@GavinMarkable]

@@moonlight-kh6uz How is that and wouldn't that depends on the wifi?

[@SlowMenThinking]

Interesting, In the day used slmp3. Glad to see it is still around. Though these days I carry around my entire CD collection on a small part of a SD card on my phone. Someday this will get a go it is even better when you have a network connection from your CD ripper to upload the album to the server!

[@paulmilligan3007]

Excellent semi-tutorial - you cover enough to show how it can be done without drowning us in detail. Your target is people who like music rather than tech heads. Also appreciate that you base almost everything on CD quality rather than making us all feel inadequate if we don’t have exotic vinyl systems. How about a video on 10 tracks to show the best and worst of a system?

[@alany3376]

Great video, as always. Interestingly enough just ordered a pi 4, hifiberry hat and a battery pack yesterday, should be with me tomorrow. Already planned to install Plex, Volumie to try it out. Now, got another one to try it out, cheers mate. Going to be a busy weekend and the good thing is to try all those different combo only the cost of the SD card, and it’s reusable! What not to like? Life is good.

[@grahammiles5695]

Don’t forget John, the latest Raspberry Pi 4B separates the USB and network bus for improved performance. I ran the 4B for a year with a Khadas Tone Board USB attached. Sounded marvellous and no connection issues. Makes for an even cheaper introductory streaming solution.

[@DarkoAudio]

From here: darko.audio/2020/07/a-short-film-about-the-raspberry-pi-as-music-streamer-and-server/ "Prior to version 4, the Raspberry Pi's USB and Ethernet data shared a single data bus whose narrow bandwidth regularly introduced audible pops and clicks to a USB audio connection."

[@tempusOregano]

I've been running a similar setup for 5 yrs. Server - cheap NUC, with external SSD holding music library, covers etc. 3 players (around the house) - 1 surviving original Squeezebox, 2 cheap Android tablets running Angry Goat's Squeeze Ctrl & SB Player (far & away the best clients imho, Android & Windows 10 versions avail). The Squeezexbox is connected to my AV, the tablets connect (via HDMI to optical converter boxes, £16), to small T-Class amps, & spare bookshelf speakers. The advantage of the tablets is they are a great interface to Squeeze Ctrl (which has a tablet mode), allowing you to browse your music collection, have album art in playlist, display full cover etc. Costs way less than Sonos & performs just as well, & is a huge visual improvement. If you are doing any home automation, the tablets can double as access/control points to your system. It's a great way to utilise ageing/surplus tablets & speakers.

[@metalman0708]

I want to thank you for the series. I have learned so much. I ordered a pie and we shall see.

[@braddavid9065]

Nice job. I use a Raspberry Pi Zero WH ($15), digi+ hat ($20), Volumio (free), streaming my music from a NAS (expensive). Portable version is Raspberry Pi 3, Audioquest Dragonfly Red, a beefy phone charger battery and usb thumb drive for music storage running Volumio.

[@markussorrentino]

Thanks for the good video and all the explanations. I am really surprised about the LMS ecosystem nowadays and i still have my squeezebox touch. Actually i like to use the UPNP/DLNA plugin in the LMS server and stream to my integrated amp and it really works good. Looking forward about future updates/plugins and improvements of the LMS software.

[@pdcragin33]

Very much appreciate your effort on this Mr. D. Previously I saw your Pi videos. So I approached and then veered away from Pi in favor of a HiBy R5 player-streamer. The HiBy balanced out seems distinctly better than its single ended, so I acquired two adaptors - pentaconn male -> dual XLR. Then dual XLR -> dual RCA to get into my Schiit Asgard. Awfully hard to A/B compare, but I’ve declared victory and am a happy listener. For today. This hour, anyway. 😉

[@AlexReusch]

Thanks for sharing the idea. How would you compare it with the Bluesound Node 2i? In what situation would you prefer one over the other?

[@StuartSuper79]

If it wasn’t for you John, & your channel I would never of herd of the artist Burial & bought my first ever Ritchie Hawtin album Decks, EFX & 909. So I thank you John Darko for everything that you do on your channel 👍🏻

[@petejones284]

My Squeezebox Touch is still running fine 10 years after I purchased it.

[@roscored1000]

Mine too,though I have a couple of volumio setup on rpi3b as well

[@saieva]

And I'm still running three Squeezebox Classics (v3), one that I originally purchased and two that I purchased on eBay after Logitech stopped selling the devices. They are all working great with LMS running on an AWS EC2 instance.

[@MarcusGlynn]

John Darko: Have you assessed the USB output capabilities of the RPi4 i.e. are they any better than previous versions? Does a USB 'cleaner' (e.g. Schiit Eitr, Unison USB - Modius) device mitigate it enough to no longer recommend a HAT?

[@W8rrfsdY73]

Good question, I was a bit concerned that he said RPI clicks and pops. How can this be, even through an external DAC?

[@DarkoAudio]

UPDATE: 5 more thoughts on the Squeeze-Pi server/streamer: darko.audio/2020/07/5-more-thoughts-on-the-squeeze-pi-server-streamer/ "A €50 1) music streamer and 2) server that 3) integrates more streaming services than Roon, Volumio or any other Pi-capable streaming platform with 4) gapless playback and 5) offline content and VPN streaming possibilities. What's not to like? What we don’t pay for with money, we pay for with time." darko.audio/2020/07/a-short-film-about-the-raspberry-pi-as-music-streamer-and-server/

[@normalman6686]

So fine, well done John.

[@andyimmens4282]

Stupid question: but anyhow has an idea about the brand of his transparant/grey glasses? they are awesome :D - ow yeah the video is 2 :D

[@paisleyboxers]

I am ecstatic! I just hooked up my RPI4 + hifiberry digi+ pro to my Schiit Modi3. All of this based on your recommendations. I'm streaming from an SMB share locally. Took me about an hour to get things running!

[@kzy-ngakyaw]

paisleyboxers what’s your overall impression on the music quality? I’m also considering Rpi+day board Vs HDD plugging into the AVR directly. 😆

[@paisleyboxers]

Jeff L If you are looking for descriptive narratives like John provides, I won’t be able to measure up. The digital coaxial is going into a Schiit stack (Modi3, Loki, Magni2), and I’m listening with Sennheiser HD6XX. I would be the low end spectrum here, but really appreciate what I’m hearing so far. This is cheap enough not to second guess just picking it up for a run

[@monochromios]

Thanks to your videos about Raspberry Pi streaming solutions during the COVID lockdown I've built my little streamer using Moode as operating system and a wonderful sounding (to my ears) Audioquest Dragonfly Red for streaming Tidal through Audirvana to my (not so much) hifi system. I've started with another operation system but I did my explorations and found that Moode is better to my ears and for the kind of music I listen to. I've also modified the exit for the audio from raspberry to Dragonfly from direct USB to a AUX/USB adapter and it sounds a lot better. Now I'll give a try to PiCore Player. As you stated in your video the nice thing about Raspy is that you can try and tune the sound to your tastes for very low prices. Maybe sooner or later I'll move to better streamer solution (a Myth Brooklyn Bridge is on whish list) but at the moment I've discovered a whole new audio world with no problems with the "Wife Acceptance Factor". Thank you so much John for being open minded and for sharing so many informations

[@theerasers13]

Bought an Allo Digione Signature after your review and definitely took some time to get it up and running. Tried a bunch of UPNP players for Android (and like 10 different OS's for Pi) and was unimpressed with any of the interfaces or the functionalities. Sometimes, I wouldn't be able to skip a track. Other times, Tidal was not supported, etc etc. Got sick and tired of it and shelled out for Roon and now I'm a happy camper :) Oh and Roopieee OS is probably the best and cleanest Roon OS I have found. It's almost plug and play, has support for a remote control, Spotify connect, etc. In hingsight, the process was kind of fun but I don't mind being done with it haha

[@PatrickSmith-zg9xl]

Great vid John.. as always.

[@popliviustefan]

Hi! And thank you for your video! Although I don't want the setup that you're getting enthusiastic about: LMS on the pi, I initially set it up that way thinking it is "the way" to do. Actually I went with the exact opposite: put the LMS on home server and have only the piCorePlayer on the raspberry pi (this way benefiting also from the fact that piCorePlayer runs in memory only and you can unplug it without corrupting the sdcard). I also want to ask a question: you say that raspberry pi's USB audio is shit and favor an add-on DAC for the pi. Now, my system is not expensive: it is composed of a raspberry pi 3 b+ and an AirpulseA300Pro set of speakers that are connected to the pi via (that crappy) USB. I also have my pc connected to those speakers via an spdif optical cable. I really can't hear any difference between those two inputs. So, the question is, what is crappy about the raspberry pi USB? (I know that for the pi 3 model the usb shares the same controller with the ethernet interface, but that is not so on the new pi 4 that you were talking about - and also it isn't actually a problem, since even streaming the highest bitrate files from a network source to the usb it is far far away from having any chance to top out the capabilities of the controller to handle the traffic). Also, I would like to point out that having a DAC hat on the pi also introduces a new problem: since you have analog circuitry on the pi, now the power supply quality actually starts to matter and you can't use any crappy phone charger anymore. Thank you for reading my lengthy comment!

[@Unix_Based]

I have still not yet "converted" to music streaming as a system. No matter what provider. What i did was buying some micro SD-Cards that were big enough keeping my entire library. Lets me stay independent from Internet when i'm on the go or at home when listening to music. Allthough i consider this a nice feature to have your own streaming service running instead of relying on a big corporation provider.

[@funkyfunky8271]

2:38 I'm a simple man, I see Answer Code Request followed by Kubikov followed by Aphex Twin - I smash that like button : )

[@foznoth]

It's worth noting that the Pi4 seperates the ethernet from the USB. Making the USB theoretically better. I have a Pi4 USB connected to a DAC, then balanced to an Geshelli Erish, then on to Hifiman Sundaras. It sounds good to me.

[@timwoodward3381]

Steve Foster same here, I’ve a Pi 4 USB out into my Mojo for both the main hifi and headfi listening, I’m actually mucho impressed compared to the £500 streamer i had before! Just wondering if a SPDIF HAT would improve the sound even more? Depends on the DAC I suppose?

[@bosahvandenberg]

I would rather avoid a HAT. Is the Pi4 connection equivalent to the Pi3+HAT? I already have a usb DAC that I'm pleased with. Do you see any downside to a Pi4 to USB DAC setup?

[@mikecole4924]

I fully agree. I doubt there is much improvement with adding a hat to a pi4, although I have not heard one. If you have a USB dac with asynchronous capability it should deal with any potential issues the rpi might have. I have an rpi4 via USB to an smsl su8 dac. Every now and then I notice a very minor switching noise, especially when changing sampling rates. I believe this can be completely overcome through the moode buffering settings. It is barely noticeable and other than that the sound is absolutely killer. I am not yearning an upgrade in any way.

[@petehurd5301]

Question/comment: I wound up using a second raspberry pi (running picore player with a 7" touchscreen on my stereo end as the first, recreating my beloved squeezebox touch) in the basement as the lms server because I could not figure out how to get the picore to sleep the harddrives and the noise and hd wear of the constantly spinning hard drive was unacceptable. The lms server is running raspbian, which is easily configured to allow the harddrives to sleep. Question: did I miss some way to sleep harddrives in picore player?

[@Brendannz]

Does the SB Touch sound better/worse/the same as your Pi setup?

[@GodfreyMann]

Do you notice the difference in sound quality compared to e.g. high end streamers from Aurelic and Innuos or from a decent CD transport? I’m just thinking there must be a price to pay (in sound quality) ...something surely has to give?

[@mexellify]

Not really. Look at the higher end stuff from Allo, like the DigiOne. They’re also RPi based and top out at 500€ or so including a linear PSU, and they are up there with not only the best comparably expensive transports but with the best transports period. They just come in ugly cases and you need to be willing to do some tinkering - those are the prices you need to pay.

[@19janiboy96]

The Kadas Tone board seems to be great

[@timoleary5815]

Bravo John, people need to challenge themselves and learn how to do things, rather than buying something, turning it on and expecting miracles. Or to be totally led by the hand with anything remotly difficul, rather than trying to work it out. When did we lose the ability to actually use our own brains and do something rewarding, using our own skills. Great video as always too, inspiring and hopefully . . . motivating :)

[@farhanhere]

Great video John, a noob question, I have a squeezebox touch, can i use a Raspberry Pi with Toslink/Coax HAT to feed the streaming signal to squeezebox touch and make use of the DAC in SB touch ? I am using a vintage Sansui AU Aplha Amp that only has RCA as inputs, sadly no digital inputs.

[@dmitrys410]

As long as you're not a proper geek enjoing all this process, just get a astell kern sr15 (on sale everywere now cause SR25 came out). It's more expensive but has a dac (dual dac) I connect it to wifi, connect it through line out to 3.5mm to dual rca to my amp. it takes micro sd cards up to 1tb (i use 400gb), has tidal, deezer (i have sideloaded spotify on it no problem) So it stays in the rack by the amp and i control it with an iphone (ak connect app). So it serves me as a streaming dac at home and as a dap when i'm out. App is sh t but sounds amazing.

[@barryemmerton4087]

Hi John, very interesting. How does the quality of the digital output of the Squeeezebox compare to that of the All Digione Signature? I'm currently using a Touch and am considering a Pi plus Signature board searching for improvements to sound quality.

[@MrWHeffern]

Great question Barry. I was wondering the same thing, would it be worth purchasing a RPI possibly just to be the LMS server if the Squeezebox T all ready sounds as good as the Allo HAT? Very interested in a response. Love the entrepreneurial nature of these videos John !

[@warrenkeppler9217]

I'm still using the Squeezebox as a streamer into a Chord Qutest. My Music is on a network hard drive and I use Qobuz and Spotify through the Squeeze LMS (the LMS is running on a network computer), not as user friendly as Roon, but it gets it done for little money. Would I get better sound quality with the type of set up you describe?

[@barryemmerton4087]

I think the pertinent question is: How does the digital output of the Squeeezebox compare to that of the All Digione Signature? I'd be interested in the answer to that too as I am running the same set up as yu, albeit with a Mojo DAC.

[@DarkoAudio]

That's a good question which I can answer: even the standard ALLO DigiOne sounds better than the orig Touch's S/PDIF output.

[@MrWHeffern]

John Darko Thanks John, so it sounds like Rpi 4 with Pi Core, Digione loaded with LMS and Squeeze. I already have Ipeng. Are you a Foobar 2k fan ?

[@vikpavasars3272]

Good timing, I have just ordered a HiFiBerry HD DAC and am correctly looking for a stream OS. I was considering Volumio or Moode Audio. How do these compare to the PiCore Player. Will you be looking at how these players work in this particular setup? The only difference in my setup is that my music library is on a Pi server run by OpenMidiaVault.

[@bolobos]

I just got an allo digione with moode. Picore has a renderer built into moode

[@thomaslee6957]

Great review John. Enjoyed the video. Though for a simple life I use a tiny Yamaha Music Cast streamer. Does similar and is just as cheap. How about a MusicCast review John.

[@eugeniomandiola]

Schiit! I have Volumio playing nicely in my Pi. You catch the fish, now I would have to try this.

[@LASoundCrafter]

Dense video, but after viewing several times and taking notes, useful. Overall, though, very accurate statement, having a hard drive filled with music is itself a streamer. That’s the direction I’m currently taking.

[@Egkr0001]

Found this channel about a month ago when I was searching for a DAC. Like the way you present it and how the videos are edited. As for the DAC I’ve decided on the Cobalt and use it on my phone and Nvidia Shield TV. The latter gives a nasty high pitching sound on the USB port when it gets hot so now I’m looking for another streamer for music. Your vids about the Raspberry made me curious and after looking into it some more I decided I will give it a try. At this moment not sure about the HAT with the Chord because I have the Dragonfly. Anyway, you give me a lot to think about and will follow your channel, thanks.

[@impuls60]

Buy an usb 3 ground loop isolator or use optical toslink. It will break the ground loop causing the noise you hear. Unfortunately they are a bit pricey but you can use it later on whatever dac you get since many hifi enthusiast highly recommends one. If you have 2 ground alternatives between 2 devices you'll get that effect your noticing. Its nothing wrong with the devices, its just a ground loop you have created with multiple cables which shares ground. Hope this helps :).

[@Egkr0001]

@@impuls60 Thanks for the advice! Never heard of such a device before but this could solve my problem. Google came up with the Audioquest JitterBug USB filter. Not sure if this is a ground loop isolator but it does filter out unwanted noise and it's the same brand as my Dragonfly. Going to try that. I always can return it if it doesn't work. It should also take care of the sharp edges of the sound of the Raspberry PI which I am going to try anyway.

[@fairmania]

Cracking review, very helpful for setup and the pros and cons. The Pi people will have to start employing you, you're turning into a bit of a fanboy, all for the good too!

[@Notime2readFXDLS]

Great video John! I've been wanting to do this exact project. I'm running out of room for my cd collection.

[@AndresRafaelCastroSocolich]

Any chance you are going to review the Hifiberry DAC2 HD?

Do you know if audio hats make as much sense on the rpi 4 as they did for the rpi3? I'm using a rpi4 with Volumio + an external DAC to stream to my system and I never heard any clicks or bangs due to poor quality power going through the USB ports. Maybe the Pi team improved it on the rpi4...?

[@MashBill]

What case is your Pi / ALLO DigiOne HAT housed in? Great video!

[@JuanPabloOyarzunArroyo]

Hi Darko! what alternative to a HAT do you think will be better to extract spdif audio of a PI??... my main issue with allo and other alternatives is the ugliness of the cases (yes i know that i'm too shallow).

[@derricktoppert8145]

This is awesome. Thank you very much for the suggestion John. I've been using the free version of Volumio on a Raspberry Pi with a Hifiberry DAC Pro for a couple of years now. I like it a lot, but it doesn't have support for streaming services. There is a plugin for Spotify, but that's a bit buggy. A major advantage of solutions like this, which often remains underexposed, is that you are in control of your own device. With an all-in-one network player, there is always a gamble on how long a manufacturer will continue to provide support and updates. This kind of technology is subject to rapid development and can quickly become outdated. Even when a project like piCorePlayer stops there will probably be other similar projects that you can use. Since you are in control of the software, you can simply install another application. Remember: If you can't open it, you don't own it. This seems like a fun project to sink my teeth into this weekend. I can't wait :-)

[@mexellify]

I tried Volumio too, on an Allo USB Sig (that’s RPi based as well). I also made the experience that Spotify Connect was quite buggy. Then I tried Moode, and that works really well for my purpose, which is providing an endpoint for Spotify Connect, AirPlay and UPnP.

[@DistroUser]

Very good point! You are in control of your own device and can move along with technology and with less consequence. The hurtles here are applying oneself and making time for this project if so inclined. Cheers!

[@francescobailo3835]

DerRick Toppert hi, did you try the Spotify connect plugin recently? It works fine for me

[@stephensquires8935]

Volumio was the route I was going to take with my Pi4. Before watching this I thought LMS was dead and gone. What has your experience been like with volumio?

[@derricktoppert8145]

@@francescobailo3835 I think the last time I tried it was 3 months ago. The plugin is still installed, but it doesn't connect anymore.

[@anthonyrondolino8148]

Have an older system with Marantz AV & Outlaw power amp to Def Tech Mythos towers. Took a 4th gen IPad no longer in use and got a Dragonfly Cobalt. The IPad is a beautiful big touch screen streamer that runs while charging with an Apple lightning-usb camera adapter.

[@brandonburr4900]

It's amazing after all these years how relevant the squeezebox and LMS software still is. This is what happens when developers make something terrifc open source. This all sounds promising but where does it rank in terms of sound to say a sonore microrendu? The microrendu is obviously a ethernet to usb out but still uses the squeezebox software and has similar functionality being a streamer/server. Thank John and excellent review. Might get one just to mess with. The low power consumption option of this is intriguing as it might not pollute my dac as much as other sources!

[@my_wood]

pls review allo usbridge signature too

[@kunaalkhanna]

As seamless and great as this is, I still can't find a cleaner solution than Chromecast audio going into the DAC via toslink and playing Qobuz hifi. Still around $50 shipped on eBay!

[@ronaldvangulden7314]

Does this combination do gapless playback? I use this set up with lms and Sptify but the only drawback is no gapless playback. The sound is fine though.

[@derzulya]

Sadly, Google discontinued the product for the sake of licensing other companies for integrated Chromecast products. It's so easy to build a multi room setup with Chromecast than any other system.

[@JohnHeckendorn]

Thanks for bringing this up. I've done only limited testing so far, but so far it looks like Qobuz high-def (96 KHz) content cast to a Chromecast Audio using the Qobuz app on my phone has better SQ than the same content routed through LMS to a Chromecast Audio, using the Qobuz and Chromecast plug-ins, respectively (using PCM transcoding on the CC plug-in to preserve gapless playback). John Darko, have you had a chance to test this? Are there particular LMS settings that will eliminate the differences I'm hearing?

[@Behine.DeChilis]

All I need is a Chromecast Audio replacement that I know won't disappear in the future.

[@WhiteBubblySoup]

Chromecast audio was so good they had to discontinue it.

[@rafaelrodriguez2931]

I’m in to it! Just a simple question how can or were I can find your raspberry black case?

[@rafacq]

Too complicated! I would love to use ROON on a Mac mini but why is the lifetime subscription so expensive?

[@ws13bf]

I run the LMS on a Macbook, not complicated at all.

[@mikecees2230]

After months of problem free listening with version 5.0 I just decided to update piCorePlayer to version 6.1. I spent most of my day in a record breaking heat wave trying to get it to work. At one point I thought I had fried my micro SD card so I ran out and bought another one. Again it was showing 0 bytes after installing version 6.1. Then I thought maybe I had fried my RPi 3b, so I drove across the city in rush hour traffic to buy an RPI 4. Tried installing 6.1 again and again and my network still couldn't recognize the RPi. Out of frustration and after having sifted through pages and pages of RPi/Squeezebox geek forums tried going back to version 5.0. I was instantly up and running again so I decided to try 6.0. After a few minutes the RPi finally popped up on my network and music was happening again. This is the first, and hopefully the last time, I have had any problems with this setup so don't let it discourage you from giving it a try. The only thing that's bothering me now, other than wasting a day of my precious vacation time and spending money unnecessarily is that the RPi 4 runs much hotter than the 3.

[@pqwo90]

Hello Mike, It's a great story

[@mikecees2230]

@@pqwo90 BTW after a few days I decided to give 6.1 one more try and it worked right off the bat. Go figure... I also took a spare computer fan I had lying around and converted it to USB 5V. At 5V it runs silent and makes sure that everything stays nice and cool on those hot summer days. Maybe not necessary as I read that there were heat issues only with the first Rpi 4s and that they had worked it out later in the firmware. But just in case...

[@dinfreitas]

May I have a suggestion for your next video? Roon Core: I'm lost trying to to come up with a better solution than a computer running 24/7 just to serve as a core. NAS could be an viable alternative but it's all very complicated and super geeky. Maybe a Innuos mini or even a Nucleous, but they are expensive. A NUC is also power demanding to run non-stop, just like a macmini. We all love Roon and it's a far superior experience than a Squeezebox open source platform, but damn, it's hard to justify the whole system.

[@koszyklbn]

try raspberry pi with volumio system. It supports Spotify Connect and Tidal. With apps like mconnect or Bubble upnp You can stream even from Cloud services like Dropbox or OneDrive. You can have hard drive connected to it with a lot of music or even put 128GB microSD card and always have Your music inside. You can even use bluetooth. Its avalaible for free but there is a paid version that gives You more features like native Tidal and Qoubuz integration. Rasperry pi is cheap and easy on power consumption. Im using this system in my Allo Digione Signature.

[@tertiarycanary]

Dude, what’s your kWh cost that a NUC is power demanding?

[@isaacsykes3]

This is great...I'm sold!!! Thank you!!

[@browpetj]

I remember spending days setting and tweaking stuff... Really a bit timeconsuming. Had squeezebox till 2015 and packed up all my stuff and music listening years ago when I moved house. Nightmare. Cant wait to get back into it.