DIY DIY HiFi audio player

[wwwillie]

Hey!!
Something different here. There are lots of great ideas for gardening here in the DIY section but I thought you may be interested in a very cool, quite high fidelity (audiophile even), digital, you could call it streaming, networked (wired or wireless) audio playback device! Whew that was hard to type in one breath!
Seriously though, for short money and a little of your time you can make a widget that will play your music through a stereo system. You music can be on an ipod, phone, or pad, on a hard drive on a computer on your network, on a usb drive... You control it via a web page or an app on your phone. Does any of this interest you?? Don't know about you but I need tunes! Love to have them playing wherever I go and especially in the garden.

The player is comprised of a Raspberry Pi single board computer, a digital to analog converter, and an operating system to run it all. The first one I made took a bit of soldering and stuff. I was pleasantly surprised to find that things have progressed amazingly in a short time and now everything can plug together and there are even cases pre made to hold the whole thing!

To use it you will need your tunes someplace available on your network. If you have an iProduct this will support airplay so you can cast to it. I have a server on my network that has all of my media stored so I just point to it and it cataloged it for me and I can create playlists etc. You will need a wired network as well I think. I need to verify this though and it's only to set up the wireless connection if you want to use it wirelessly.
It also needs a stereo to play back through. It does not have an amplifier, think of it like a CD player that you would attach to a stereo. I am relatively sure it will play through blue tooth but need to verify.

I am going to purchase some of the stuff I need tonight and report back here later. Hope to have some folks follow along. This is way cool and I am sure you will like it!

 

[Waximus]

I'm going to follow along, if I may, Brother 3w
I've always wanted to know more about the Raspberry Pi, but growing, and toking.. got in the way.... lololol
Brilliant idea!

 

[wwwillie]

Hey Waxi! Welcome aboard, so glad you could join in.
I have spent the last few days poking around to see whats going on with this stuff. There have been a few changes since I built the last one. There is a new version of the Raspberry Pi, it's now version 2 and the layout has changed a good bit. There are some great changes but it requires a different approach than my last one. Fortunately I have been able to find some very nice alternatives. I was looking for a DAC that used my current favorite chip the ESS 9023, there are some nice DAC boards but none that "bolt" right up. I choose what is called the PiFi+ V2.0. It uses the Ti 5122 chip. I read some nice reviews about it and it has awesome specs, I believe it's capable of 32/384!! Amazing!
The choice of operating system is going to be an implementation of Arch linux called RuneOS. This is similar, almost a fork of Volumio. I would suggest a visit to either site, I am sure you'll get excited after visiting them.

Here is a picture of the DAC

The DAC and case

I purchased these from GearBest.com for $30.48 with free shipping. I know it's from China and all but I have had decent luck with these guys and expect it should work out. Hope to recieve this stuff in about two weeks. I already have a RPi V2 waiting.
Peace.

 

[wwwillie]

OK, my order for a DAC and case has been placed. It will be a week or so until they get here. We still need a few things to complete the project. Here is my list.
Raspberry Pi 2
Power supply - 5 volt 2 amp (10 watt) with micro USB end.
4 GB (or larger) micro SD chip
USB WiFi dongle (if using wirelessly)
copy of RuneOS

That along with the DAC will complete the player. We will need some cables to connect to a stereo and a Ethernet patch cord to connect to the network; at least initially. One of the cool things about the Gearbest order is the nifty case. I think the case made me happier than anything. It's really cool that that is available. One of my "issues" is casing my projects, I build a really cool widget and crash when it comes to finishing it all up so having a nice case is bonus!!
That's int for now. When I have a bit more time I'll o into details with links to all this stuff.
Peace

 

[wannagrowbuds]

I run my Pi 2 with a HiFiBerry Digi+ and RuneAudio. Works a treat.

 

[wwwillie]

I run my Pi 2 with a HiFiBerry Digi+ and RuneAudio. Works a treat.

Awesome!!
Yep it really is a great set-up. I like the HiFiBerry group of widgets. Do you know what chip the digi uses to convert the I2S signal to spdif? I could not find that info. What DAC are you using? Where do you keep your media (tunes!)? I choose the PiFi for it's plug and [play and the Ti Burr Brown 5122, I have heard good things about that DAC.
Look forward to hearing more about your setup.
Peace.

 

[wannagrowbuds]

I don't know what specific chip they are using. I just run the optical digital into my Pioneer receiver, no separate DAC. I have a Qnap NAS where I store all my media. Also have another Pi in the theatre room running openelec as a media player.

 

[wwwillie]

Hey!
Thanks WannaGrow. I found out the chip is a Wolfson 8804, well respected chip for this purpose. I hang around DIY audio sites and am way to involved in chips and stuff for my own good. I guess we tend to get carried away with our hobbies...
What do you run with the OpenElec? I have RasPlex running on three of them in my house. I love the whole Plex set up. That's for my next DIY thread. Let's just say that I have almost 10 TB of media and can access it all from anyplace I have a connection!

Still waiting on the stuff I ordered. Not sure whether or not to buy a new RPi to go with this. If I do I'll order everything and share it here. just need to look at my "disposable" income situation for this month.

 

[wannagrowbuds]

OpenElec has Kodi as the media player. I just access my NAS as a network share.

 

[wwwillie]

Nice, I have not played with the Kodi as yet. I am solidly placed in the Plex world at the moment. I just love these little computers! There are so many cool things that can be done with them. I am thinking of expanding my system with a new server. There is a motherboard out there with 18 SATA ports! Boy all the drives I could connect, dual GB LAN ports, boy that get's my propeller spinning!!
Do you have apple products? I love the AirPlay aspect of the RuneOS! I have the Plex app on my iStuff and use AirPlay to control the RPi with Rune, way cool. I also have the mpad app that is written for iPad and connects with the MPD aspect of RuneOS. That works well and was only a buck or two.