Whats the go to for new hardware?

[cparker]

Hi all,

Blimey new forum software and a reminder that I first joined 18yrs ago.. geez feeling old

Anyway, my LMS hardware are also feeling their age and this year I've lost two Duets that just died. So I don't have any spare hardware and need to buy some. I get frequent power cuts so need the hardware to survive being bounced without saving anything and don't want the hassle of having to find a keyboard or having to learn Linux to fix or make it work

Ebay seems to be getting very thin on the ground now, so what are the best options these days??

Thanks in advance

[w3wilkes]

You need to check out piCorePlayer. Not only can you build fine players, but you can also build a Pi based server. From the hardware side these folks have done a fantastic job of keeping the Squeeze ecosystem alive and well. And on the software side with Michael mherger, Craig cpd73 and others the squeeze platform is alive and well!

[SamY]

If you're just looking for a "plug and play" player solution (no LMS), consider the DAC32. I've had mine running for over a year now without a hiccup. Great sound, simple hookup and survives power outages without intervention.

https://www.vortexbox.co.uk/shop?store-page=DAC32-WiFi-Streamer-p429428713

[bpa]

The Raspiaudio Mn Cast or Manga Cast is another alternative but its availability is erratic.

https://raspiaudio.com/produit/mncast

[Man in a van]

If I were in North America, I would think of trying this (pinched from another thread )

https://forum.inovato.com/post/setting-up-logitech-media-server-lms-on-quadra-12509072




ronnie

[Redrum]

I agree with the above suggestions, but I am still buying sb's on ebay. The radios especially are super cheap, and I have deployed to friends and used them in non critical listening areas using the headphone out to RCA in on an amp/receiver. Get a battery, unplug it, and take it outside or to another room. You can get radios here in the US for under $50 USD, Touches about $100-$120USD

The other thought on your dead duet/receivers - have you checked the power supply? Of all of my sb devices (and there are many) I have not had anything "die" that wasn't the supply. Oops, one controller did.

disclaimer - If I could actually buy a pi without paying double., I would be definitely be building new stuff as well. I just really like the sb products, especially at a fraction of their MSRP.

Jim

[sodface]

I'm a big fan of thin clients, for players or server. See for example this HP T530, new, for $50 shipped:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/314021345786

Looks like you could easily swap out the 8GB M.2 drive if you wanted more internal storage, driving up the price a bit of course.

[Apesbrain]

WiiM has it on their "Roadmap" to natively support LMS so we'll see how that goes:

https://wiimhome.com/Roadmap.html

[Gobuleberbu]

WiiM has it on their "Roadmap" to natively support LMS so we'll see how that goes:
https://wiimhome.com/Roadmap.html

Maybe we should ask Logitech to consider adding support to their UE speakers. They’d have to add wifi support beforehand…

[mherger]

Maybe we should ask Logitech to consider adding support to their UE speakers. They’d have to add wifi support beforehand…

I was part of the UE team for a few years. There were two wifi enabled speakers (Blast and MegaBlast). But I'm not sure whether the hardware would have been powerful enough for this purpose. Those speakers don't have much of a CPU.

[sgmlaw]

I agree with the above suggestions, but I am still buying sb's on ebay. The radios especially are super cheap, and I have deployed to friends and used them in non critical listening areas using the headphone out to RCA in on an amp/receiver. Get a battery, unplug it, and take it outside or to another room. You can get radios here in the US for under $50 USD, Touches about $100-$120USD

The other thought on your dead duet/receivers - have you checked the power supply? Of all of my sb devices (and there are many) I have not had anything "die" that wasn't the supply. Oops, one controller did.

disclaimer - If I could actually buy a pi without paying double., I would be definitely be building new stuff as well. I just really like the sb products, especially at a fraction of their MSRP.

Jim

Sound advice. I've had Receivers seemingly misbehave for weeks, and then just die. And a fresh power supply brought them right back up like new again. I keep a drawer of spare PSUs for these occasions.

The only thing I've noticed on the Bay is the inventory of used SBs is starting to slowly taper, and the condition of what's left is starting to get a little ragged at times. The years are taking their toll it seems.

Maybe we should have a dedicated equipment marketplace thread here.

If I couldn't grab a clean Touch or TP nowadays, I would probably go with a Pi if the price were fair. It can be cobbled into a respectable digital head end with some of the aftermarket bits now available for them.

LMS is still a well-maintained, rock solid platform, and does so much, for free. It's still the heart of the whole thing, as far as I'm concerned.

[cparker]

The other thought on your dead duet/receivers - have you checked the power supply? Of all of my sb devices (and there are many) I have not had anything "die" that wasn't the supply. Oops, one controller did.

Thanks for the suggestion, I'll try a new power supply as a first step not sure it will work though as they power up fine just lose their network connectivity after a few hours but worth a go for £10.

The WiiM devices look like the kind of thing I'm after, fingers crossed they make them LMS native and they work as well as the original Logitech devices

[sgmlaw]

... they power up fine just lose their network connectivity after a few hours ...

That is EXACTLY the misbehavior we were experiencing with our Receiver. I suspect the supply starts sagging before outright failure. And the sag in the rail values could be enough to drop out the network section.

Once a new supply was on it, it has yet to drop out again.

So there may be hope for yours. No guarantees. But if you're willing to invest the $5-10, I would definitely try a fresh supply before giving up on it.

[Redrum]

That is EXACTLY the misbehavior we were experiencing with our Receiver. I suspect the supply starts sagging before outright failure. And the sag in the rail values could be enough to drop out the network section.

That's exactly how the commodity switching supplies can fail. They can supply the voltage, hang in the balance, but an increased demand in current causes the voltage to drop into that "gray" (maybe work/maybe not) area or lower.

If you ever have a unit that boots fine, up to a point, goes dark, then tries to boot again, rinse repeat, that's what's happening. It's kind of funny actually. I bought a used radio once that did that on receipt. It hit the boot point where it turned on the audio amp (and maybe wifi?) and crashed. The seller was kind enough to credit me the $ for a new supply.

Jim

[d6jg]

On the OP. I don’t think there is currently any go to hardware. Until the shortage it was the Pi.

The only commercially available pre installed native players that I know of are DAC32 and DIGI32. I have both but not currently in play as they don’t seem to like my WiFi that much - Qobuz 24bit was often choppy.

I m currently trialling a WiiM Mini with the UPnP/DLNA Bridge. It’s near perfect but not 100%. If they install Squeezelite it could be.