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My Apologies for the typos and misses due to a long Post .
I intend to document my project and maybe some people may want to do the same. or have a similar need . I am not a seasoned writer so some of it maybe vague and would need further explanations . This is not a step by step thing but rather a rough guide , as you have a lot of options ,
Anyway I wanted to setup a multi room audio source and client for a long time now but it has always been set aside due to other priorities .
It is strange that I have a setup to serve my movies within my home as I have wired lan throughtout the house and have a 20TB server for my video content , and I use HTPC's and NMT's as clients to the Home theater , sala and bedrooms..
But none for pure audio since , one major block was I did not like to have an interface that involves turning on a TV/Monitor or projector just to play audio ,
My Requirements were
1. Single source for all my audio files.
2. Multi room
3. Flac and some mp3
4. Easy way to rip and archive
5. Stream to my HT , audio sala , bedroom , Pipe in music , smartphones and tablets
6. Higher quality output and up gradable thru DAC changes
7 Must meet my priorities and budget.
Today there are a number of solutions , like Olive , Cocktail Audio among the few .. but they cost a lot.
For a long time now I was reading about the Logitech Squeezebox (formerly Slim devices), I thought of buying the "Squeezebox Classic"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squeezebox_(network_music_player)#Squeezebox_Classic_.28SB3.29_.28November_2005.29 model maybe 6 to 7 years ago , It was available locally at Datacore computers and some of the TPC sellers for around 13K . Logitech has released several models since then , the last one being the "touch" model in 2010 , and but discontinued last year. And unfortunately I never got around to buying as HT has been my focus. Also now that it has been discontinued , a number of squeezebox replacement projects have come to light
Typical Squeezbox connection diagram
Having more time now since being Jobless since May , I started this last Jan
A.) We have a number of smartphones and Tablets in the household and looking thru the Apps for IOS and
android , I found a number of apps that would primarily be a squeezebox controller , but if you buy an in-app plugin you could also use it as a client and play your music through it .
Here are IOS apps for Squeezebox.
I downloaded LMS ( Logitech media server)
http://www.mysqueezebox.com/downloadinto my server pc and it was easy to configure to serve my audio files. As I already had a lot of my music files residing in my PC.
With the apps in my tablet and LMS in my pc , I have a great interface and system to play my music .. I could use the line out thru the ipad/iphone connector or headphone out .. I used a 1st gen Ipad , as my kids and wife migrated to the 2nd Gen one .. Now you could purchase used 1st Gen Ipad for 8k if you so wish to follow this path .
It sounded ok , but I know it would be better if I had an outboard dac for better quality .
To connect a usb DAC to an Ipad you would have to use the Camera connection Kit , I already have one from CDRking so it was easy to try it , There was also the usb connection cable .
I tried both solutions and indeed you can get an external dac to work , I tried our Behringer UCA-202 , the Encore EMMAB , cdrking's usb audio dongle .. But the interface would time out and the music will suddenly revert to the speaker out of the IPAD.
I thought of buying an original one but based on the internet post it seems that I even the Apple CCC has problems ..
So what we have is a remote music solution that ties up the Ipad and does not allow an outboard DAC.
I used this for a week or 2 with an iphone/ipad feeding a headphone amp to a senn HD650
B.) Last year My son who just graduated from college told me he was buying a raspberry pi micro-controller to experiment with . He has to, as he was purchasing thru his credit card for an internet order . and I would see it .. But It took 4 to 5 months before he was able to get it , ordered in July , arrived Nov .. Although it should be easier today, Due to the long time before it arrived I think he only played with it for a week or so and then put it aside , as now had a job .
Raspberry Pi housed in a makeshift iphone case
I saw it here in PDVD about Raspberry PI and XBMC and got curious .This one needs a psu and a 4gb SD card (class 10 would be best) and I tried out squeezeplug
http://www.squeezeplug.eu/With squeezeplug you can have a squeezbox server and or a client . But for me I just wanted a client and choose squeezelite (still in beta at that time). It would help to have a little linux knowledge in setting up .. I really struggled in the setup , as my programming skills were really rusty.
Here is my digital audio source or networked player , it's what they would call a "headless" Squeezebox. Headless since there is no local display interface , my interface/control resided as an app either on my smartphone or my tablet. Or I could control it thru my PC ... song selection , playlist selection . which a great search function.
Connection is Power , Ethernet and analog output from the DAC. Wired into my audio setup . And controls on my Iphone . This is really very convenient .
I would only need to build more of these and I could have a lot of players where I want to stream my music.
Controls as shown on an Ipad running the app "squeezepad"
Here is the control running in an iphone , an ipad and on Android (nexus 7 tablet).
Granted that we have a lot of gadgets already , what make it great is I spent additional , emphasis on the additional , only $5 to $8 on apps as I was using free/demo and P180 for the cdrking usb . To get to this point.
After I had this working for a week I purchased another Raspberry PI , and now had 2 clients.
This is only the 1st part , still to follow is making it wireless , setting up another server which would rip , convert to flac , tag and download cover art automatically , and my current client.