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/2020/07/a-short-f...
5 more thoughts on the Squeeze-Pi server/streamer:
darko.audio/2020/07/5-more-th...
__________________________________________________________________
Essential reading...
Getting started with Raspberry Pi:
projects.raspberrypi.org/en/p...
ALLO DigiOne:
darko.audio/2017/08/allos-dig...
HifiBerry HATs:
www.hifiberry.com/
PiCorePlayer:
www.picoreplayer.org/
How to burn PiCorePlayer to a microSD card:
www.picoreplayer.org/how_to_b...
How to install LMS on PiCorePlayer:
www.picoreplayer.org/how_to_i...
Material skin:
github.com/CDrummond/lms-mate...
Orange Squeeze:
play.google.com/store/apps/de...
Squeeze Player:
squeezeplayer.de/
iPeng:
penguinlovesmusic.de/
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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/2020/01/raspberry...
Digital audio streaming 101:
darko.audio/2020/05/digital-m...
__________________________________________________________________
Also seen in this video...
dCS Bartok:
darko.audio/2019/07/a-short-f...
Schiit Freya+:
darko.audio/2019/09/a-short-f...
Schiit Vidar, Aegir:
darko.audio/2020/05/a-short-f...
Klipsch Forte III:
darko.audio/2019/10/wheely-go...
Hifi Racks Podium XL:
www.hifiracks.co.uk/products/...
All cables by AudioQuest:
www.audioquest.com/
#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.com/us/podcast...
open.spotify.com/show/1mnKixp...
/ 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

[@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.

[@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.

[@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.

[@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!

[@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.

[@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/

[@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.

[@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.

[@bigjt37]

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

[@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.

[@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.

[@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

[@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?

[@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!

[@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.

[@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

[@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!

[@HowieHaigh]

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

[@HolgerBarske]

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

[@gregoryfrassetti1276]

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

[@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.

[@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.

[@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.

[@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.

[@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

[@stephenmcgee3010]

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

[@johnathanbailes5542]

I love the excitement. So fun.

[@metalman0708]

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

[@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.

[@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.

[@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.

[@Gravel-79]

Thank you, love your channel. I received a PI4 for my birthday, you have helped me make up mind on what to use it for.

[@daveg7878]

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

[@ujean56]

Yes, loved it. Keep'em coming!

[@EwaldWassink]

Love your channel. Some good reviews! this one is also great. we are going to move soon, where i get a dedicated home office and it is going to be my audio room, and this is one of the solutions i'm going to implement.

[@normalman6686]

So fine, well done John.

[@Musicman-50]

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.

[@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.

[@Highqman1974]

Been running this for years, its excellent!!

[@isaacsykes3]

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

[@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.

[@jerryjustfnride4467]

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

[@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).

[@jim586]

Yeah, valid point Mark, however the point of the video (IMO) is to bring people into the hobby, not frighten them off/bore them, like moonlights answer to you. Ha

[@nunocavac0]

@@moonlight-kh6uz you can stop flexing now.

[@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?

[@jallen1227]

Great video, John

[@sricchiuto]

Another great one John, thank you. You kind of gave us a "preview" of this (much more detailed ) content when you reviewed the Volumio Primo, but this is a totally different cut and I like it a lot (+ this is exactly how I've been streaming for 6 months now, except for the OS of choice). I was wondering if you prefer PiCore over Volumio OS for any sound-quality related reason, given that all you mentioned is also possible with Volumio. Thanks again and keep up with the great job you're doing.

[@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 👍🏻

[@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...

[@PatrickSmith-zg9xl]

Great vid John.. as always.

[@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

[@eugeniomandiola]

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

[@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!

[@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

[@jamesferrell497]

great video as always John... choices, affordably, flexibility, and without saying of course $$$$ equipment is great and what we all lust for, but many of us need budget equipment at different stages of our audio journey...and you deliver these options continually....you introduce many to the concept of new equipment...that you can have incredible, enjoyable audio at every price point..thanks for your efforts

[@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. 😉

[@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.

[@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.

[@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

[@wabba67]

Thanks, this is quite close to something I've been thinking about doing with my setup. I currently got all my (digital) music on my computer which is connected to my amplifier, so it might be easier to have something smaller (and not need to run my tabletop PC all the time). Then again, I do watch quite a bit of film and television series as well, so some kind of more robust media server might be better.

[@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!

[@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!

[@robertsillitoe]

Excellent video - challenge accepted! THANK YOU!

[@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...

[@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

[@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.

[@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.

[@adrianoxbrow4015]

chasing the dragons tail? - hmmmmmmmm.... I really, really enjoy your pragmatic audiophile reviews, and as a fellow aussie do truly enjoy your delivery. Now, however, i've plateaued out on my audiophile journey - been a short one during Covid19, and am now really content with the hardware i have. So, new hardware reviews are of only academic interest, and i'm much less engaged by them. I'd really like to see/hear (and you always have the best sound) more on audio tracks that can challenge my ears, and listening preferences. I'm guessing that like many of our fellow audio travelers, we enjoy being challenged with good music of every genre - after all, i have your tshirt - Music first! (perhaps 1 review in every 2, just on music?) Love what you do! - Thanks!

[@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.

[@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!

[@Musicman-50]

Thank You for this amazing tutorial.

[@timwhistler5882]

thanks mr.Darko . That gives me more than enough to be getting on with.lol All the best

[@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?

[@dylanemeraldgrey]

Sounds pretty good. I have plex and and a gen 2 firestick (in storage). Right now I just use Plex on my laptop and phone. My 4TBs of music and media are on external HDs connected to my laptop. My TV goes in to my laptop by HDMI and the DAC on my laptop goes out to my AV receiver. I guess I'm missing what the benefits are of the firestick to router and not sure where the bubble upnp comes into play. They only thing I can think of is that you were able to get the benefits of Plexpass without having Plexpass; otherwise, am I missing some benefits? If so, would love some more detailed info.

[@brothersidea6393]

excellent video and Very useful video.

[@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?

[@gavinguy148]

Great video, will give it a try.

[@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...

[@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.

[@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.

[@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."

[@EKrijl-jm1tj]

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 :).

[@EKrijl-jm1tj]

@@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.

[@ThePrivateirony]

this is quite complicated, but soooo awesome!

[@mrgadget4863]

Love your stuff. This id exactly the right level of detail John. Please go on with those pleasant surprises.

[@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!

[@tillaard61]

Briljant video Darko! Perhaps a little to complicated for the most but surely a eyeopener for the interested. Is the Elac discovery DS-101 worth mentioning as a "Roon alternative" since it provides Roon essentials also for free? Although is much more expensive then a Pi. Keep up the good work 👍

[@OrlandoPaco]

Best video yet!

[@jeppemichaeljensen2684]

Geeeeee, so happy i got an Innuos........ great video

[@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 :)

[@Pirxel]

Good stuff. I tried Volumio for a while and it was nice, but this seems worth a try as well.

[@ProfessorHamer]

Excellent, thank you

[@alhashman1]

Great review. Still have my Logitec streamer stored away somewhere. Might dig it out now...

[@menfallinloveandwomenmakeplans]

Hmmmmm This is sounding good so far. Really straightforward.

[@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

[@hidde4190]

A Roon alternative that intrest me is Plex. It has a lot of features a you mentioned and one can add video the same way.

[@audiorick841]

Great video as always John! Just an idea... a part 2 touching on LMS multi-room functionality, NAS as a file source, and streaming quality.

[@tempusOregano]

I have mine running across 3 floors. LMS allows you to sync players. How effective this is depends on the speed of your network & wifi, over a few hours players may go out of sync by half a sec. (in my experience), but only noticeable if you are 'between' floors. I don't know how this compares to Sonos. Of course you can just pause a track & restart, usually enough to get them back in sync. My Squeezebox is hardwired, but the 2 tablets don't have ethernet so they are streaming via wifi. Overall the syncing is very acceptable, I've had 5 simultaneous players with no problem.

[@MarcusGlynn]

@@tempusOregano Sonos is essentially flawless even between floors. Its easy but there is a cost ($ and sound quality). Spotify in sync is great - can LMS play spotify (or Titdal) to multiple rooms in sync

[@amarcy5369]

Hi john Bless you I have no idea what you have been Talking about Alas it’s all above my understanding I am pretty old school ie vinyl and cd But fully understand that you’re many followers will get the premise of your informative video I Am a bit to old to grasp the new technology that’s coming available Your the new hifi generation that will continue this passion forward I my self feel confident that the future is in good hands Kind regards Mike here in the U.K.

[@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.

[@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.

[@aayotechnology]

Interesting video. Which features are you missing with a setup like this? I’m guessing it lacks many ports.