Compatibility Audioengine A2+ and Raspberry-pi with PCP

[phocee]

Hello All,

I'm new to the forum, so I'll briefly describe my current setup:

I'm using a Raspberry PI B+ with Picoreplayer + I2S DAC (Audiophonics I-Sabre DAC ES9023), connected with RCA cables to a NAD C320 amplifier, and then JM Lab DB 19 speakers.
I'm using Material skin on PCP.
It has been working fantastically since many years and this my current setup in the living room.

I would like to extend this setup with multiroom capability and power active speakers in another room where I'm homeworking.
I'm considering the Audioengine A2+, and before purchasing would like to confirm it would work.

My question is:
can someone confirm that it will be possible to configure the PCP player to use the Audioengine internal DAC ?

Many thanks for any advice !

Nicolas

[agbagb]

How are you sending the audio to the Audioengines? I run a pair of A2+ (lovely little speakers!), but I can send audio to them only via wires or Bluetooth (ie, no wifi capacity)...

[CJS]

The Audioengine A2+ speakers have an USB input. So I suppose that phocee intends to send audio from his RPi to the speakers via an USB cable. Normally that should work by selecting USB audio as audio output device on the Squeezelite Settings page of piCorePlayer. Of course it would be nice if somebody can confirm that this indeed works.

[agbagb]

I'm sure we'll hear from the OP - but I would like to extend this setup with multiroom capability and power active speakers in another room where I'm homeworking puzzled me a tad, with the Audioengine A2+s. However you get the audio out of the PCP, it's then got to get to the 2nd room / space ...... and Bluetooth is the only wireless option for the A2+s.

[CJS]

I'm sure we'll hear from the OP - but I would like to extend this setup with multiroom capability and power active speakers in another room where I'm homeworking puzzled me a tad, with the Audioengine A2+s. However you get the audio out of the PCP, it's then got to get to the 2nd room / space ...... and Bluetooth is the only wireless option for the A2+s.

I was assuming that OP intended to use a second RPi for feeding audio into his Audioengine A2+s, and then use the multiroom capability of LMS. It would be good if the OP can confirm this.

[agbagb]

Just to clarify (from a happy A2+ owner!), the current A2+ inputs are Bluetooth, RCA, 3.5mm jack, USB digital. There's also RCA out for subwoofers. Audioengine also sell assorted WiFi receivers (all well north of $100) to make the A2+s "multiroom" compatible (though I haven't tried this....), taking any analog music input.

https://audioengine.com/shop/wirelessspeakers/a2-wireless-computer-speakers/

https://audioengine.com/shop/adapters/w3-wireless-audio-adapter/

[kidstypike]

That link is to a previous version of the A2+ (10 years out of date!) - the current inputs are Bluetooth, RCA, 3.5mm jack, USB digital. There's also RCA out for subwoofers. Audioengine also sell assorted WiFi receivers to make the A2+s "multiroom" compatible (though I haven't tried this....), taking any analog music input.

https://audioengine.com/shop/wirelessspeakers/a2-wireless-computer-speakers/

https://audioengine.com/shop/adapters/w3-wireless-audio-adapter/

Thanks, I've deleted my post, please delete my quote if possible.

[phocee]

Thank you all for your feedbacks: this is great to read all answers.

Of course I realise now I forgot to mention that I indeed intend to have another simple raspberry pi in the seconds room, and intend to connect it through usb, as CJS extrapolated ( well done ! :-) )

The multi room would be handled by Picoreolayer server.

The open point I'm not sure about, is that the speakers internal DAC will be well recognized and handled by the Picoreolayer running on the second raspberry pi.

I am hoping someone may have feedback on this setup.

Note, I can always purchase and return in the negative case of course.

Thanks again !

[CJS]

The open point I'm not sure about, is that the speakers internal DAC will be well recognized and handled by the Picoreolayer running on the second raspberry pi.

.
I think it is very likely to work, although I can't guarantee this. By googling "audioengine a2+ raspberry pi" I found this almost 7 year old forum post on the Rune Audio forum that confirms that the Audioengine A2+ is correctly recognized by a Raspberry Pi running Rune Audio software. It is likely then that a Raspberry pi running pCP will also recognize the Audioengine A2+. But again, I can't guarantee.

Since your second Pi will only be used as a player, this Pi does not need much processing power. My player with Raspberry Pi Zero W can handle all audio files that I have, with the exception of two exotic DSD128 and DSD256 test files that I have. I can still play these DSD files by transcoding DSD to FLAC on my LMS server. Btw, according to the spec of the Audioengine A2+ the USB input can handle a maximum audio sample rate of 48kHz. My advise is then to set a max sample rate of 48000 on the pCP Squeezelite Settings page. If you happen to have audio files with a sample rate higher than 48kHz, LMS will then down-sample such files to 48kHz max.

[phocee]

Thank you CSJ, for this clear and complete answer.

If I go forward with this setup I will indeed purchase a small standard rpi. And post here the results.

Thank you !

[Paul Webster]

Also, there are currently a lot of Pi Zero in the distribution network.