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Post by MartinT on Aug 8, 2014 18:52:57 GMT
Project Continues!
No sooner had I extracted all the files I needed and was preparing for Linux surgery, when I found Michelangelo's post announcing a quick fix version of Volumio, including the newest kernel, compatible with both B and B+ versions. That saves the huge post I was going to make describing the fix steps in detail!
Here's the new Volumio v1.41 download link and I shall report back shortly on getting it into the B+.
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Post by MartinT on Aug 8, 2014 19:32:27 GMT
It works! Volumio is now running on the RPi B+. Here's a screenshot from my tablet. I shall modify various instructions in the sequence above to ensure that it makes sense to anyone following them.
Note the loss of the Library tab, which is not of much consequence. Michelangelo will probably restore it when he cleans up this version. It's much more efficient and runs faster, too.
Best of all, the sound quality via USB to my Caiman-II is now better with no tiny glitches in the sound. That's the improved USB subsystem in the B+ over the B talking.
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Post by MartinT on Aug 8, 2014 21:25:33 GMT
There is a new Pi-DAC Plus for the RPi B+ coming from IQaudIO. This will offer an alternative to the DAC coming from HiFiBerry, and uses the Burr Brown PCM5122 32-bit/384kHz chipset offering up to 24/192 decoding over the very efficient I 2S interface. See the news item here. Exciting stuff!
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Post by chukka on Aug 9, 2014 9:47:27 GMT
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Post by MartinT on Aug 9, 2014 10:07:05 GMT
7. Adding More Internet Radio Stations
The set of stations provided in Volumio as standard is quite small, and some don't work due to being old streams. In order to add stations, you have to dig deep into the RPi and you need a utility in order to transfer files into it.
Firstly, here is a nice post containing updated radio stations, including severaal hi-res ones. Chris will like FrankZappaStreamRadio at 256kbps! For me, Radio Paradise at 328kbps is essential. You can obtain some .pls Playlist files directly from the radio station website.
Now download an SCP (Secure Copy) file transfer utility. For Windows, I use WinSCP, which you can download here. Mac users can download Murphy here.
Fire up the SCP utility and create a New session. Here is my connection for my RPi. You will need to know the IP address of your RPi - see the earlier Section 3 on how to do that.
Enter the RPi's IP address and leave the port on 22. Use the default username 'pi' and password 'raspberry'. Login. You may receive a security certificate warning, it's safe to continue. You will now be presented with a spilt window: the convention is that the left pane is your local machine and the right pane is the remote machine.
You need to navigate the left pane to be the location of your downloaded and unzipped .pls Playlist files in your PC or Mac. Navigate the right pane to the location /var/lib/mpd/music/WEBRADIO in the RPi. You will need to go Up from the start location to get to the top level, then double-click your way down through the tree of folders to the required location. When you are ready your client should look a little like this. You can now copy the files from the left pane to the right by dragging them across or using copy/paste.
Once you have finished copying the Playlist files, you can close the SCP client (but you might want to first Session | Save Session for future use). There is one more step: go to Menu | Library in the Volumio control panel and click UPDATE MPD DATABASE. That's it - you're now ready to play your new radio stations!
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Post by MartinT on Aug 9, 2014 10:17:42 GMT
this may also be interesting to get the best out of your DAC Thanks, Chukka. That looks very interesting. We would have to modify it somewhat for the B+, but it could be one of those final tweaks for maximum sound quality. I want to get the HiFiBerry Digi S/PDIF board onto the RPi first, as I expect that to give me a significant jump in sound quality. After that, we'll look at battery power and this isolator/master clock. Here is a link to the site.
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Post by MartinT on Aug 11, 2014 22:46:54 GMT
If you find the Volumio interface too austere, there are several good 'full fat' Windows client applications to control the RPi, running on a PC. These work seamlessly as they all access the underlying MPD server in the heart of the RPi, so you can run an application and the Volumio interface at the same time. One that I particularly like is Gnome for Windows.
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Post by Tim on Aug 12, 2014 0:08:40 GMT
Does it Scrobble to Last.fm Martin, no good to me if it doesn't do that?
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Post by MartinT on Aug 12, 2014 0:20:04 GMT
It has a Last.fm fetcher, Tim, but I can't see reference to Scrobble. What does that do for you?
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Post by MartinT on Aug 12, 2014 6:53:56 GMT
Ah, I see, it's a statistics gatherer. There is a client for any MPD-based streamer (including Volumio and Gnome) called Mpdscribble. Perhaps you could give it a go and report your findings (if you ever play with a RPi)?
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Post by MartinT on Aug 12, 2014 8:36:50 GMT
HiFiBerry Digi+ for RPi B+
The new HiFiBerry Digi+ board, offering S/PDIF digital audio outputs (co-ax and optical) is now available for pre-order for the RPi B+. I have pre-ordered mine. Once this board arrives, our RPi project is going to take a serious step up in audio quality.
More when it arrives in late August.
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Post by MartinT on Aug 12, 2014 8:48:40 GMT
I should have mentioned that, for those who want to make a self-contained RPi streamer with built-in DAC and audio outputs, the HiFiBerry DAC+ for the RPi B+ is also now available for pre-order.
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Post by Tim on Aug 12, 2014 11:09:26 GMT
Ah, I see, it's a statistics gatherer. Indeed and for me absolutely essential, best thing I have ever started using in the digital domain and a driver for my preference for file based audio - a database of over 75 billion (yes billion) Scrobbles and access to music collections worldwide, from people who play the same music as me. It's like flicking through folks record collections who have the same taste as you do . . just brilliant and you discover a lot of good stuff. I play so much new music now, it helps me keep track so I can go back if I forget anything. I have 'scrobbled' nearly 56,000 tracks since joining in 2012, at an average play rate of 67 tracks per day. I love it, I wouldn't like to be without it and wouldn't consider changing to a system that can't handle it. Luckily it is so popular I have yet to find any mainstream media players that don't Scrobble to Last.fm Of course though, if you are a vinyl addict it's totally useless . . . haha. It also keeps track of all my gigs and lets me know when artists I like are touring, which as you know is very important to me. Never had my own Pi, just played with a mates - but intend on giving the B+ a go at some point. I have two turntable projects on the go right now however, without enough spare time to complete those, yet alone take anything else on!
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Post by MartinT on Aug 12, 2014 11:45:19 GMT
Of course though, if you are a vinyl addict it's totally useless . . . haha. Oh, I don't know, another RPi with webcam mounted above your turntable, label reading software, scrobble sender and hey presto!
We'll keep you busy here
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Post by MartinT on Aug 12, 2014 16:51:18 GMT
How Hard is the RPi Working?
Some interesting findings, showing how hard the CPU in the RPi needs to work to decode a stream and process it outbound.
RPi streaming Radio Paradise at 320kbps to the Audio Jack (this forms a baseline measurement): 10.2% CPU usage running MPD.
RPi streaming the same stream to the USB port and into my DAC. 11.5% CPU usage running MPD. So there is some overhead generating data for the USB port.
Now for the eye opener. RPi streaming the same stream but upsampled to 24/96 with best quality to the USB port and into my DAC. 57.1% CPU usage running MPD! The RPi is now working very hard.
I didn't go on to try upsampling to 24/196 because I see no point in upsampling a 320k compressed stream to such an extent and, anyway, the poor CPU would run out of puff to even keep the display updated. It will be interesting to see what CPU usage there is using the same test into I2S and then into the HiFiBerry Digi+ board.
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Post by John on Aug 12, 2014 18:11:53 GMT
I am looking forward to learning more how this may connect to SQ
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Post by MartinT on Aug 12, 2014 18:16:54 GMT
It's great fun, John, and a real voyage of discovery. I'm listening to Radio Paradise right now and it's not sounding bad.
The great thing about the RPi is the very low cost of entry. I still look at it and am amazed that it's a fully fledged Linux computer.
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Post by John on Aug 12, 2014 18:32:15 GMT
I expect a big change when you move to SPDIF Martin. First the Caiman is so much capable that way, I suspect things like Usage of CPU and power are likely to be critical factors
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Post by MartinT on Aug 12, 2014 20:23:03 GMT
I'm very hopeful, John, but have little idea what to expect. If it sounds better than the Logitech Touch in full EDO/TT3 display-off mode, I shall be very pleased as that's >£200 worth of streamer and is much harder to interface with. I'm playing with battery power at the moment but prefer to wait for S/PDIF mode before commenting. Watching the CPU processes while controlling and listening is fascinating. MPD is really at the heart of it all.
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Post by John on Aug 12, 2014 20:59:26 GMT
I reckon you might equal it not sure you beat it, will be interesting to see how it develops I guess that the acid test with all the upgrades if beats or equals the Touch then a project worth considering for most folks
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