I am looking for player hardware that offers the best price/sound quality tradeoff. Ideally the whole thing would be one prebuilt item, but I wouldn't mind assembling prebuilt components (for example, raspberry pi plus USB DAC would be fine, but I am not interested in sottering i2s board to a raspberry pi). I don't mind tweaking and mucking around with software, but hardware isn't my strong suit....
I have been experimenting with raspberry pi players for a while now and I have not yet found a solution I am pleased with...
I initially tried squeezeplug, but had lots of crashes (these may have been caused by file system corruption due to improper shutdowns).
I then moved onto picoreplayer and stability has been perfect using the onboard analog audio, but sound quality not so good.
I added a Schmitt Modi USB DAC which had been reported to work with picoreplayer. Using it with the recommended output settings:
-o sysdefault:CARD=Device -a 80 4
gives great sound quality, but causes the RPi processor to run 80-90% all the time, whether it is playing or paused. After a few hours of this, problems occur, and I have to power off the squeezelite player using the LMS web interface for a few seconds, let the load drop a bit, then start it playing again for it to start working again. I don't have to reboot the RPi or kill squeezelite, so it's not horrible, but not as rock solid as the stability is using picoreplayer with the RPi onboard analog audio.
If I change the ouput setttings to:
-o hw:CARD=Device -a 80 4
stability is great, and processor usage drops to 2-3% instead of 80-90%.... but I hear pops and clicks in the audio at lower volumes...
I am hoping someone can recommend me a reasonably priced solution for player hardware...
I don't want to order a different USB DAC to find out I have the same problem with that one as with the Schmitt Modi, and I haven't played with any other cheap hardware platforms besides the RPi. Is there a way to get good, stable sound output with the RPi without using an I2S DAC? Should I be considering something besides the RPi?
I have been experimenting with raspberry pi players for a while now and I have not yet found a solution I am pleased with...
I initially tried squeezeplug, but had lots of crashes (these may have been caused by file system corruption due to improper shutdowns).
I then moved onto picoreplayer and stability has been perfect using the onboard analog audio, but sound quality not so good.
I added a Schmitt Modi USB DAC which had been reported to work with picoreplayer. Using it with the recommended output settings:
-o sysdefault:CARD=Device -a 80 4
gives great sound quality, but causes the RPi processor to run 80-90% all the time, whether it is playing or paused. After a few hours of this, problems occur, and I have to power off the squeezelite player using the LMS web interface for a few seconds, let the load drop a bit, then start it playing again for it to start working again. I don't have to reboot the RPi or kill squeezelite, so it's not horrible, but not as rock solid as the stability is using picoreplayer with the RPi onboard analog audio.
If I change the ouput setttings to:
-o hw:CARD=Device -a 80 4
stability is great, and processor usage drops to 2-3% instead of 80-90%.... but I hear pops and clicks in the audio at lower volumes...
I am hoping someone can recommend me a reasonably priced solution for player hardware...
I don't want to order a different USB DAC to find out I have the same problem with that one as with the Schmitt Modi, and I haven't played with any other cheap hardware platforms besides the RPi. Is there a way to get good, stable sound output with the RPi without using an I2S DAC? Should I be considering something besides the RPi?