Squeezebox types

Jobbo · Post by **Jobbo** » Tue Jul 02, 2019 1:29 pm

With the speed of that reply, you know Rich is just waiting for the next thing to argue with

No, Black is better than White.

Rich B · Post by **Rich B** » Tue Jul 02, 2019 1:31 pm

New forum rule - you cannot reply within 5 minutes of a post being posted or you’ll seem argumentative.

Rich B · Post by **Rich B** » Tue Jul 02, 2019 1:31 pm

Doh!!!!!!

JLv3.0 · Post by **JLv3.0** » Tue Jul 02, 2019 1:34 pm

DaveE wrote: Tue Jul 02, 2019 1:21 pm Isn't this the same as saying "Why don't you just use Netflix?" to someone with a massive movie collection, most of which isn't on Netflix?

It's not as I'm accessing my own multi-Tb local source music collection. I'm just not using a hexagonal wheel to do it.

C'mon Dave you know I have a bit more tech savvy than that.

It's fine, you Beany the solution as much as you like

It just seems very outdated when a modern receiver running say Plex can handle it all without blinking and your phone, tablet etc can be used as a remote.

I had a Squeezebox setup in 2006 and unless it has involved radically over time, it's really is very antiquated.

JLv3.0 · Post by **JLv3.0** » Tue Jul 02, 2019 1:35 pm

Rich B wrote: Tue Jul 02, 2019 1:31 pm New forum rule - you cannot reply within 5 minutes of a post being posted or you’ll seem argumentative.

Diagree and you're a HATER

Jobbo · Post by **Jobbo** » Tue Jul 02, 2019 1:38 pm

The Squeezebox setup is physical devices and free, open-source, server software. I don't see that playing around with devices to run the server is anything weird; you don't have to do that.

My Squeezeboxes might be antiquated but they still sound better than the Sonos things I've played with. The biggest problem with them is what to replace them with when they eventually die; the newest is 10 years old now.

DaveE · Post by **DaveE** » Tue Jul 02, 2019 1:41 pm

JLv3.0 wrote: Tue Jul 02, 2019 1:34 pm
DaveE wrote: Tue Jul 02, 2019 1:21 pm Isn't this the same as saying "Why don't you just use Netflix?" to someone with a massive movie collection, most of which isn't on Netflix?
It's not as I'm accessing my own multi-Tb local source music collection. I'm just not using a hexagonal wheel to do it. C'mon Dave you know I have a bit more tech savvy than that.

It's fine, you Beany the solution as much as you like It just seems very outdated when a modern receiver running say Plex can handle it all without blinking and your phone, tablet etc can be used as a remote.

I had a Squeezebox setup in 2006 and unless it has involved radically over time, it's really is very antiquated.

I guess it's my sad devotion to this ancient religion...

SB devices aren't made anymore, and a Pi (plus a few mins to build it and get it running) is a lot cheaper than buying a second hand one?

(There are other benefits like always on, USB powered, small/discrete etc)

There just aren't really any alternatives, not unless I spend big ££ and go above Sonos to some even more (than Pi based) esoteric solution.

SB is very simple, a little crude maybe. But it's free, easy to setup and use, manages a large library, has nice features like ReplayGain etc - and it has a big community supporting it.

It actually has a Spotify integration too - should anyone be interested in combining a streaming service with a 'local' library.

DaveE · Post by **DaveE** » Tue Jul 02, 2019 1:42 pm

Jobbo wrote: Tue Jul 02, 2019 1:38 pm The biggest problem with them is what to replace them with when they eventually die; the newest is 10 years old now.

If you just need new/more receivers, get a Pi

Jobbo · Post by **Jobbo** » Tue Jul 02, 2019 3:17 pm

I was thinking you were running the Pi as the server... now I''ve paid the £5 to play from the server on my iPhone and iPad, I could just use them too. So many possibilities!

DaveE · Post by **DaveE** » Tue Jul 02, 2019 3:33 pm

Jobbo wrote: Tue Jul 02, 2019 3:17 pm I was thinking you were running the Pi as the server... now I''ve paid the £5 to play from the server on my iPhone and iPad, I could just use them too. So many possibilities!

I bought the Pi4 to see if that could handle being a server, instead of the NAS.

But I've been using a Pi3 + DAC board (although there are other options here if you want to use an external DAC) as a receiver for a long time now.

It's very simple to set up.

You just download a zip file, flash the contents onto a microSD card (there are simple two-click apps for this), plug that into the Pi and switch it on.

You do everything else through a webUI running on the Pi itself.

It's really simple, cheap, works well, and it's a nice thing to do (IMO) - I enjoyed it and got a sense of satisfaction from doing it.

DaveE · Post by **DaveE** » Thu Jul 11, 2019 1:37 pm

Hmmm, seems that because the people behind the Pi 4 didn't implement USB-C using the existing standards, the devices have a heat problem, and won't be powered by most USB-C chargers and cables (like the ones we already have).

It's not fixable through software, but apparently they may address it with a new board in a future version of the RPi4.

This doesn't really help people who have bought the current model though.

And it begs the question, "Why would they do that?!"

Anyway, the SqueezeBox software I use (PiCorePlayer) has a beta version for the RPi4 now, so I'll be giving that a go soon and seeing how I get on...

Simon · Post by **Simon** » Thu Jul 11, 2019 3:29 pm

DaveE wrote: Thu Jul 11, 2019 1:37 pm Hmmm, seems that because the people behind the Pi 4 didn't implement USB-C using the existing standards, the devices have a heat problem, and won't be powered by most USB-C chargers and cables (like the ones we already have).

It's not fixable through software, but apparently they may address it with a new board in a future version of the RPi4.

This doesn't really help people who have bought the current model though.

And it begs the question, "Why would they do that?!"

Anyway, the SqueezeBox software I use (PiCorePlayer) has a beta version for the RPi4 now, so I'll be giving that a go soon and seeing how I get on...

As I understand it, it looks like they're trying to be efficient with their use of resistors, rather than using just a single configuration channel resistor for both pins, rather than one per channel. I guess they thought they were being efficient with space and components and didn't realise what the spec required.

DaveE · Post by **DaveE** » Sun Jul 14, 2019 1:46 pm

All setup and working.

A few mis-steps and things I needed to learn/change, but it was all pretty straight forward.

The main issue was that I needed to increase the default partition that piCorePlayer (PCP) uses (in order to accommodate such a large library). This was really simple to do using the PCP web UI - I set it to 2GB, and with a FLAC library of c130,000 tracks, it's using about 560MB of that.

The first, full scan of the library took just over one hour, but I could shave 10 mins off that by pointing to an empty playlist folder (I don't use playlists) rather than pointing to the main FLAC library.

Incremental scans take about 10 mins (again I could save c2 mins by using a smaller/empty playlist folder).

In use, it's super quick and snappy.

the hardest part was rummaging through various USB chargers and cables finding one that works with the non-standard RPi4 USB-C implementation - I might take the easy route and just buy the branded power supply for £8.

All in all it was a fun experiment, and I think I'll keep using it and see how it works over time, relative to using a NAS (not sure how it'll handle going to sleep and coming back on again, if it even does sleep or just sits using power - need to check long term power use vs a NAS).

But £50 for a music server that can easily handle and stream 130,000 FLAC files is a bit of a bargain, and anyone with some (very) basic computer know-how could do it - it's all guided/UI - no command line hackery or anything...

DaveE · Post by **DaveE** » Mon Jul 29, 2019 3:52 pm

Update:

I caved and spent a whopping £8 on the official Pi PSU - it's really nice, well made etc and means I don't have to fanny about trying to find a compatible cable.

I also bought an acrylic case (that included some heatsinks and dinky little fan) from eBay.

Had fun with my nephew at the weekend, letting him assemble the whole thing, then guiding him through setting it all up and getting it working.

(He's really into playing PC games, but hasn't really shown any interest in "learning computers" - but he had great fun with the Pi and is now researching projects as he'd quite like to get one and start tinkering - IMO anything is better than him "wasting" hours just playing games.)

You can set up Samba using the PiCorePlayer webUI too, so the attached disk is now accessible across the network (turning the whole thing into a bit of a NAS).

It's all good fun - still not sure if it'll end up replacing the QNAP, but £ for £, it's been a fun little project so far.

I've also started reading up on OpenMediaVault which is a more fully fledged NAS software that can run on the Pi (and onto which you can also install LMS) - not sure what advantages it would infer over what I have now, but that's half the fun IMO, playing and seeing what happens...

Richard · Post by **Richard** » Wed Jul 31, 2019 12:46 pm

Sonos and Spotify is pretty good...

DaveE · Post by **DaveE** » Wed Jul 31, 2019 4:47 pm

Richard wrote: Wed Jul 31, 2019 12:46 pm Sonos and Spotify is pretty good...

It is...

If you use Spotify.

And don't have a large music library.

OV9

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