Suggestions for Squeezebox player replacement for a non-techie longtime SB user

[threshold350]

This has been on my mind on what I want to do for whole home music without a bunch of devices. I have a Touch on my main system. My plan is to get an Android tablet with SB Player and use a bunch of bluetooth speakers around the house connected to it. The only location I really care about audiophile quality is my main system. My other option is a Windows Surface with Squeezelite-X and bluetooth speakers.

I’ve connected my old Samsung Note to my DAC with USB using SB player. Audio quality is comparable to the Touch. Only issue with the Note is it can’t be connected to a power source 24/7 without the battery going back. Which leads to an Android tablet or the Innovato. I tried rpi4 picoreplayer to dac using usb and couldn’t get audio. Didn’t spend enough time debugging. Was really looking for plug n play solution.


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[Goodsounds]

I appreciate the Airplay caution. I took a quick look around and didn't immediately find any non-Airplay2 devices for sale online.

With the Wiim Mini, would the steps be as simple as plugging it in, downloading and activating in LMS the UPNP bridge?

Thanks for the help, this thread will remain an easily available reference for me when needed. Hopefully not too soon. ;-)

[RobbH]

I appreciate the Airplay caution. I took a quick look around and didn't immediately find any non-Airplay2 devices for sale online....

Just for future reference, Airplay2 devices are supposed to be backward-compatible with Airplay, and many are. But some are not.

My recommendation of Airplay was contingent on your wanting to synchronize players. Since that is not something you need, Airplay might not be the best choice for you. But it could still be an option. If you see an Airplay2 device that interests you, you could ask in these forums if anyone has been able to use it with LMS.

[d6jg]

Just for future reference, Airplay2 devices are supposed to be backward-compatible with Airplay, and many are. But some are not.

My recommendation of Airplay was contingent on your wanting to synchronize players. Since that is not something you need, Airplay might not be the best choice for you. But it could still be an option. If you see an Airplay2 device that interests you, you could ask in these forums if anyone has been able to use it with LMS.

I’d second Airplay as a good option.
Phillipe’s AirplayBridge is relatively simple to use. His upnpbridge is not anywhere near as simple (nothing to do with his coding - just the fact that upnp as a protocol is crap).
I have taken delivery today of a Wiim Mini but not yet unboxed it. After I have I’ll let you know whether it is a real contender. chicks who recommended it today told me that it does work with the airplay bridge but that as far as the upnpbridge is concerned he had to disable gapless which for me is a no no.

[d6jg]

I’d second Airplay as a good option.
Phillipe’s AirplayBridge is relatively simple to use. His upnpbridge is not anywhere near as simple (nothing to do with his coding - just the fact that upnp as a protocol is crap).
I have taken delivery today of a Wiim Mini but not yet unboxed it. After I have I’ll let you know whether it is a real contender. chicks who recommended it today told me that it does work with the airplay bridge but that as far as the upnpbridge is concerned he had to disable gapless which for me is a no no.

Unboxed to go - about 10 mins. It automatically does a firmware update which takes the majority of this time.
Box contains the WiiM, an optical cable, a 3.5 to 3.5 aux cable, a 3.5 to 2 x RCA cable and a USB charging cable but no adapter - generous nevertheless.

I already had Phillipe's AirPlay bridge installed and the WiiM was found within a couple of seconds.
I shall use it in this mode as my background player all of today and report further but initial reaction on AirPlay (16/44.1 only) is good.

EDIT
You do get metadata and coverart inside the WiiM App if you set the AirPlaybridge accordingly but you only really need the WiiM App to set up if you are using exclusively with LMS.

[slartibartfast]

Unboxed to go - about 10 mins. It automatically does a firmware update which takes the majority of this time.
Box contains the WiiM, an optical cable, a 3.5 to 3.5 aux cable, a 3.5 to 2 x RCA cable and a USB charging cable but no adapter - generous nevertheless.

I already had Phillipe's AirPlay bridge installed and the WiiM was found within a couple of seconds.
I shall use it in this mode as my background player all of today and report further but initial reaction on AirPlay (16/44.1 only) is good.

Are you sure you can't get gapless to work with the upnp plugin? Maybe changing other settings would help. Maybe transcoding would help. It is a bit of a minefield.

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[d6jg]

Are you sure you can't get gapless to work with the upnp plugin? Maybe changing other settings would help. Maybe transcoding would help. It is a bit of a minefield.

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Hi Slarti
I shall be testing it with the upnpbridge in next few days and obviously I shall try to get it to work gapless. I can already confirm that gapless (and metatdata) works on AirPlay as I'm playing DSOTM right now!

[slartibartfast]

Hi Slarti
I shall be testing it with the upnpbridge in next few days and obviously I shall try to get it to work gapless. I can already confirm that gapless (and metatdata) works on AirPlay as I'm playing DSOTM right now!

My simple mpd player on a Pi3B works perfectly with gapless although I could never get Moode or Volumio to work at the time.

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[d6jg]

Connected via Optical to Onkyo CR-N755 which is 24/96 capable

Works fine with Airplay bridge except a few dropouts but that could be to do with current placement of the device and interefrence of some description i.e. WiFi issue.

Gave it a go with uPNPBridge. Worked straight away WITH gapless - playing DSOTM again

Common parameters



Device specific - only changes here were device name and 96000

[slartibartfast]

Connected via Optical to Onkyo CR-N755 which is 24/96 capable

Works fine with Airplay bridge except a few dropouts but that could be to do with current placement of the device and interefrence of some description i.e. WiFi issue.

Gave it a go with uPNPBridge. Worked straight away WITH gapless - playing DSOTM again

Common parameters

[ATTACH]39211[/ATTACH]

Device specific - only changes here were device name and 96000

[ATTACH]39212[/ATTACH]

Was it someone else who couldn't get gapless to work with the WiiM?

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[d6jg]

Was it someone else who couldn't get gapless to work with the WiiM?

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Yes it was "chicks" who said to get it to work with uPnP he had to switch off gapless - that would be a showstopper for many but I saw it on Amazon at a Black Friday price so took a punt.

First impressions are that it seems more stable on uPnP than with the Airplay bridge (which is odd).

It works on 2.4Ghz or 5Ghz WiFi so has connected to my SSID at 5Ghz. The Dac32/Digi32 devices only had 2.4Ghz and I found them unstable with Qobuz HiRes. This seems OK on that front.

I have yet to use it's native service clients except a quick test on Qobuz but it is an impressive list.

[chicks]

I turned gapless off because it was stopping at the end of each song via UPnP, but that was several firmware updates ago. Sounds like WiiM has fixed it now.

[d6jg]

I turned gapless off because it was stopping at the end of each song via UPnP, but that was several firmware updates ago. Sounds like WiiM has fixed it now.

My screenshots above are my fully working uPnPBridge settings. I can't recall if I ever tinkered with Common Paramters - I might have.

[NFLnut]

I get what you said, several times, regarding not wanting to put anything together. And there are options which have been shared. BUT I decided to finally take the plunge and put a 7" touch screen piCorePlayer with a JustBoom DAC hat because I bought my first SB when it was still SlimD and missed the boat on the Touch before Logi pulled the plug. SO glad I did! Works great! Looks great! And sounds better than my original Squeezebox. Might still want to consider. It's really not difficult to do at all. Buying the parts was the hardest.

[Goodsounds]

I get what you said, several times, regarding not wanting to put anything together. And there are options which have been shared. BUT I decided to finally take the plunge and put a 7" touch screen piCorePlayer with a JustBoom DAC hat because I bought my first SB when it was still SlimD and missed the boat on the Touch before Logi pulled the plug. SO glad I did! Works great! Looks great! And sounds better than my original Squeezebox. Might still want to consider. It's really not difficult to do at all. Buying the parts was the hardest.

I'm glad it worked out for you. It's not what I'm interested in doing but for others so inclined, it's great to have the support of those who share what they've accomplished.