Building a Raspberry Pi-based streamer - a guide for the nervous

Discussion in 'Digital: DACs, USB converters, decrapifiers' started by Kattefjaes, Feb 19, 2017.

  1. DigMe

    DigMe Friend

    Pyrate
    Joined:
    Aug 25, 2016
    Likes Received:
    8,802
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Location:
    Tejas
    I have no probs with reliability using Rune but what is the convenience upgrade?
     
  2. bilboda

    bilboda Florida boomer

    Pyrate Banned
    Joined:
    Nov 20, 2016
    Likes Received:
    834
    Trophy Points:
    93
    Location:
    Miama
    I don't know what Kattefjaes is referring to but I have been using picoreplayer since the beginning.
    LMS on the pc and squeezelite on the pi. It sends the entire track to pi memory for playback. Tidal hires and Radio Paradise flac stream without issue.
    3 wires plugged in, ifi power, coax to spdif, and ethernet, wifi turned off. Control thru my phone/tablet or pc.
    LMS seems to update every other day.
    DSD converts to pcm and downsamples just in case it appears in my playlist. .
    I have not updated picoreplayer in some time. The only changes have been Tidal hires only and RadioParadise flac playback. I did have it underclocked before but after the last update, I haven't bothered.
    Probably not the be all end all of sources but I am happy with it. And the 502dac. Maybe I should check for updates to the os? nah...
    Modi Multibit, crack/sppedball, hd650k and JBL LS3xx
     
  3. Azimuth

    Azimuth FKA rtaylor76, Friend

    Pyrate
    Joined:
    Nov 9, 2015
    Likes Received:
    6,839
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Location:
    Nashville, TN
    Home Page:
    I am thinking we need to do reviews of all these distros and maybe a basic build and set up. @Kattefjaes, you in?
     
  4. dBel84

    dBel84 Friend

    Pyrate
    Joined:
    Sep 27, 2015
    Likes Received:
    3,230
    Trophy Points:
    113
    I have the same issue with the touch screen ..dB
     
  5. gixxerwimp

    gixxerwimp Professional tricycle rider

    Pyrate
    Joined:
    Sep 30, 2015
    Likes Received:
    5,773
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Location:
    small island claimed by China
    When I saw the OP, I was rather intimidated and decided to put this on the backburner. But now I've got an Eitr>Modi Multibit>Magni 3 stack next to the couch in the living room, I'm seriously thinking about building a basic RPi 3 Wi-Fi streamer and outputting USB from the built-in ports to Eitr. I started asking questions here, but I guess this is the more appropriate thread.

    I've seen cautions about Wi-Fi performance due to everything being shared off the USB bus, but the RPi 3's Wi-Fi chip seems to be using SDIO/UART.

    [​IMG]

    Also confirmed by a redditor:
    I've seen people mention that they've got systems running and streaming from a NAS via Wi-Fi.

    tl;dr
    Has anyone using Wi-Fi had problems with dropouts? I should have a pretty strong signal where the box will sit. Will mostly be playing CD rips, occasionally 24/96 files.
     
  6. Cspirou

    Cspirou They call me Sparky

    Pyrate
    Joined:
    Sep 27, 2015
    Likes Received:
    8,200
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Location:
    Northwest France
    With the RPi 2 and WiFi adapter I had dropouts. But with the RPi Zero W I haven't had any issues with WiFi and I expect the same with the RPi 3.
     
  7. gixxerwimp

    gixxerwimp Professional tricycle rider

    Pyrate
    Joined:
    Sep 30, 2015
    Likes Received:
    5,773
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Location:
    small island claimed by China
    @Grahad2 said the Zero W would be sufficient for my needs. I didn't realize it also has built-in Wi-Fi.
    What OS are you running on your Zero?
     
  8. Cspirou

    Cspirou They call me Sparky

    Pyrate
    Joined:
    Sep 27, 2015
    Likes Received:
    8,200
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Location:
    Northwest France
  9. Taverius

    Taverius Smells like sausages

    Pyrate
    Joined:
    Dec 27, 2017
    Likes Received:
    3,026
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Location:
    Rapallo, Italy
    Ooh, that's worth getting for the AC WiFi alone.
     
  10. caecillius

    caecillius New

    Contributor
    Joined:
    Jul 18, 2017
    Likes Received:
    16
    Trophy Points:
    3
    Location:
    Sterling, VA
    My Pi3 has been working great, zero dropouts compared to my previous attempt with a version 1B and a WIFI dongle. I stream from a QNAP NAS upstairs and use Volumio. I don't use anything other than FLAC files, no streaming services. I then go from USB to an Eitr and into a Modi Multibit. With it being Pi Day I look forward to snapping up a Pi Zero W and trying it as well for a bedroom setup.
     
  11. wormcycle

    wormcycle Friend

    Pyrate
    Joined:
    Aug 13, 2016
    Likes Received:
    1,506
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Location:
    Toronto, ON, Canada
    I have three RPi 3 running either Rune or Roon endpoint. The issue is not dropouts, if you plug in a sensitive headphones, I tried with SE535 and Bryston BDA-2, you will most likely hear that the background is different. With nothing playing, and Wi-fi on is definitely a bit more background noise, on USB for sure but also n SPDIF. I hear it with iPower and with DIY regulated PSU. Roon endpoint comes with Wi-fi off and I think for a good reason. You can turn it on, which I did, and then turned it off.
     
  12. Cspirou

    Cspirou They call me Sparky

    Pyrate
    Joined:
    Sep 27, 2015
    Likes Received:
    8,200
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Location:
    Northwest France
    What sort of SPDIF device are you using? Would you hear the background noise with speakers?
     
  13. Kattefjaes

    Kattefjaes Mostly Harmless

    Pyrate
    Joined:
    Sep 5, 2016
    Likes Received:
    4,521
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Location:
    London, UK
    Yep, It's better to turn all the radios off and used wired Ethernet (as noted earlier in the thread)- especially if your DAC is sensitive to that stuff. To rip myself off:

    Only do this once it's already working on your wired network. You need to ssh in and:

    nano /etc/modprobe.d/disable_rpi3_wifi_bt.conf

    Remove the "#" at the start of each "blacklist" line. Hit ctrl-x to exit, remembering to say yes to save. Reboot. Job done.

    If you really want to use Wifi, you could consider picking up a good quality glass TOSlink cable, maybe.
     
    Last edited: Mar 14, 2018
  14. Cspirou

    Cspirou They call me Sparky

    Pyrate
    Joined:
    Sep 27, 2015
    Likes Received:
    8,200
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Location:
    Northwest France
    Considering the measurements that atomicbob took of the Eitr with the ludicrous noisefloor and the intended use of the Eitr by @gixxerwimp, I wonder how detrimental WiFi would still be to streaming.

    http://www.superbestaudiofriends.or...-eitr-preview-thread.4729/page-17#post-152794
     
  15. Taverius

    Taverius Smells like sausages

    Pyrate
    Joined:
    Dec 27, 2017
    Likes Received:
    3,026
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Location:
    Rapallo, Italy
    I don't think noise on the usb is a concern, though you do want more distance from the pi itself if WiFi is on.

    Probably 50+cm would be best, triple that if any of your gear is made by Chord :p
     
  16. gixxerwimp

    gixxerwimp Professional tricycle rider

    Pyrate
    Joined:
    Sep 30, 2015
    Likes Received:
    5,773
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Location:
    small island claimed by China
    Well, I'm basically doing the same now streaming over wifi to my phone and then out by USB to Eitr. It would just be the Pi doing it instead of my phone. I can't tell any difference between playing streamed or local files on the phone.

    I'll soon find out. I've got an RPi Zero W on order.
     
  17. Biodegraded

    Biodegraded Friend

    Pyrate Contributor
    Joined:
    May 28, 2017
    Likes Received:
    7,985
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Location:
    Vancouver BC
    Yes, with RPi3, a wifi dongle and 16/44 - but streaming from the other (kitchen) end of the house via a range extender (wireless-n), and the dropouts most commonly occur when the microwave is running :eek:.

    If your source is close/strong like you say, you probably won't have that issue.
     
  18. Kattefjaes

    Kattefjaes Mostly Harmless

    Pyrate
    Joined:
    Sep 5, 2016
    Likes Received:
    4,521
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Location:
    London, UK
    On the 2.4 band by any chance? :D

    Yeah, at the time that was written, the Eitr wasn't on sale, and it was using a Digi+ Pro, however. That was sort of the entire point of starting the thread, a cheap way to get cleanly clocked SPDIF as a source without spending more than the value of a Modi Multibit. Frankly, the Eitr is brilliant and simplifies things a lot for Modi Multibit users. Lovely to be obsolete, go Schiitheads.

    (I didn't notice much noise diff when using the transformer out on the Digi+ Pro and the Gungnir Multibit, via coax or BNC, too, guess it's more robust- but then it doesn't need clock help as much anyway. Not sure what the transformer would stop, other than ground loops/DC mind, it's probably just that the Gungnir Multibit is generally more robust about this stuff.)
     
    Last edited: Mar 14, 2018
  19. Cspirou

    Cspirou They call me Sparky

    Pyrate
    Joined:
    Sep 27, 2015
    Likes Received:
    8,200
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Location:
    Northwest France
    Why a dongle instead of the onboard wifi? Extended range?
     
  20. Azimuth

    Azimuth FKA rtaylor76, Friend

    Pyrate
    Joined:
    Nov 9, 2015
    Likes Received:
    6,839
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Location:
    Nashville, TN
    Home Page:
    If you have a n-router laying around, load DD-WRT on it and turn it into a Network Bridge. This way, the WiFi is on a separate power supply all together. I noticed my transfer speed when I put new files on is 3 to 4 times faster.

    I am pretty sure it it not just the WiFi radio that gets in the way of everything on the Pi3, but more or less the power it has to output from the USB. This is also why I run a powered external drive.

    And I will say it one more time, the two absolute best upgrades I did to mine were:

    - Powering the Pi off a Regen. (I am sure a iFi USB power supply would work just as well)
    - Turning off all radios and running external WiFi to Ethernet bridge.

    I now would only recommend running the onboard WiFi for connection and control. Anything media related or anything involving big file transfers over the WiFi Network, such as NAS (running Samba of course).

    Doesn't the Digi+ Pro have a transformer coupled Coax output anyway?

    The transformer isolates just the digital stream so no other noise can somehow get through or junk up the signal. Whereas a transformer would color the signal for analog audio signals, this better isolates the connection, especially the ground plane from what I gather.
     

Share This Page