Wall mounted Squeezebox touch replacement

[Jake72]

I'm converting our Garage into a gym or to be more accurate I have some gym equipment already in there and I'm making it nicer to be there. Music is the next thing I want to improve. At the moment I have some old computer speakers I plug my phone into via a cable into the headphone socket but the experience is far from slick. In the house I have squeezeboxes and a Synology NAS with LMS so I want to add a new squeezebox touch replacement and I want to mount it on the wall as the idea is to keep the floor clear for exercise. I could get a secondhand touch and bodge a wall mount but I'd rather have something new plus I want to improve on start up time of the touch and the size and quality of the touchscreen if possible.

I did look at one of these bundles a few years ago but never got around to it yet: https://shop.max2play.com/en/raspber...7-display.html

This looks like a better case: https://coolcomponents.co.uk/products/smartipi-touch-2

From what I've read a Pi 3A+ and a hifiberry DAC should work well. It it better to buy a bundle or individual parts?

[Paul Webster]

Someone had a nice bathroom project that you could take ideas from
https://forums.slimdevices.com/showt...l=1#post990508

[jd68]

It it better to buy a bundle or individual parts?

Generally, a bundle has the advantage that you get all parts which you need (incl. software) and that the assembling is very easy.

But I have built two players with display with individual parts and it was as easy as if I had used a bundle. This (i.e. the simplicity) requires the usage of parts which are particularly made for this task, e.g. the official 7"-display of RPi, a case like the one by SmartPi and an HAT which is supported by the software that you choose.

You have several options for the software, e.g.:

• Hifiberry has its own software; HifiberryOS
• Volumio
• max2play
• piCorePlayer

Volumio and max2play are partly commercial, i.e. you might have to pay for some features. The most interesting software is piCorePlayer: it is developped and maintained by some forum members, so that you get full support here in the forum.

Vendors of audio HATs are e.g. Hifiberry, JustBoom, Allo or Audiophonic. You can use a simple DAC so that you need active loud speakers or a DAC with amp so that passive speakers are sufficient.

[Jake72]

Thanks for the replies. If I'm looking at a Pi 3A+, is it an issue that the board has no ethernet for the setup phase? Reading about the picoreplayer it says 'By default, if you are using wired ethernet and DHCP, piCorePlayer will just work' and 'To set up WiFi keep your ethernet cable attached until you’ve successfully configured the wireless settings!'

Also I found this on another forum:
"The biggest issue is wifi
It's on the wifi and LMS sees it, I can connect to the piCorePlayer web pageand in fact I can play music from the LMS side.
But the player UI just gives me Connecting to <LMS>
If I plug in the ethernet, all is well"

So maybe it's best to get the 3B+ and use wired ethernet which will just work. I have a free ethernet socket on a powerline adapter near where the player will be.

[Greg Erskine]

hi Jake72,

Standalone wifi setup has been working since the the introduction of the RPi1A.

In short, add the file wpa_suppliant.conf to your SD card boot partition.

wpa_supplicant.conf should contain at least the following:

ssid="yourssid"
psk="password"

Full instructions:

https://docs.picoreplayer.org/how-to...hout_ethernet/

FYI: The wifi issue you describe above sounds like the person forgot that the wired and wifi ethernet will have different IP addresses assigned by DHCP.

regards
Greg

[jd68]

Hi Jake72,

as Greg mentioned, the setup of wifi for the piCorePlayer is pretty easy. But the coverage of the onboard-wifi of the RPi is not very good. Hence, the powerline connection would be a good alternative.

[Jake72]

hi Jake72,

Standalone wifi setup has been working since the the introduction of the RPi1A.

In short, add the file wpa_suppliant.conf to your SD card boot partition.

wpa_supplicant.conf should contain at least the following:

ssid="yourssid"
psk="password"

Full instructions:

https://docs.picoreplayer.org/how-to...hout_ethernet/

FYI: The wifi issue you describe above sounds like the person forgot that the wired and wifi ethernet will have different IP addresses assigned by DHCP.

regards
Greg

Thanks for the info. Picoreplayer can work without wired ethernet then.

Hi Jake72,

as Greg mentioned, the setup of wifi for the piCorePlayer is pretty easy. But the coverage of the onboard-wifi of the RPi is not very good. Hence, the powerline connection would be a good alternative.

That's interesting. Wifi has always been the cause of most problems with squeezeboxes, normally the fault of the wifi not the squeezebox. So the 3B+ it is then.

Now if I'm going 3B+ and picoreplayer plus choosing hifiberry as the dac, which hifiberry to buy? The DAC+pro seems the most often recommended but this year they released two new models, the DAC2 HD which is much more expensive but cheap compared to a standalone audiophile DAC and the DAC2 Pro which is the sucessor to the DAC+ Pro. Why then keep selling the old version if the new one is better? Maybe I wont hear the difference with the cheaper DAC+ standard anyway. The stats for the DAC+ Pro look like it will sound perfectly transparent: 'DAC signal-to-noise ratio 112db, DAC THD+N -93db'.

Do all of these hifiberry DACs work fully with picoreplayer anyway?

[jd68]

Do all of these hifiberry DACs work fully with picoreplayer anyway?

The latest version, "DAC2 HD" had some problems with piCorePlayer but they are solved (as far as I remember). All others DACs are supported.

I assume that even the "cheapest" DAC is sufficient for your garage -- unless you plan an "high-end" music room. Most of the DAC HATs offered for the RPi are pretty good.

Keep in mind that you need an additional amplifier or active loud speakers if you choose just a DAC as HAT. Hifiberry offers also DACs plus amp, e.g. "Amp2". JustBoom has a similar HAT (i.e. DAC plus amp).

[Jake72]

The DAC/amp HATs do seem a good idea for some projects but I want to have 100wpc RMS in this room and I like proper terminals with banana plugs. I like it loud when I'm working out plus I may use this as a music room as well. So it's either the DAC2 Pro or the DAC+ Pro for this project. How do I choose between them?

[jd68]

So it's either the DAC2 Pro or the DAC+ Pro for this project. How do I choose between them?

The "DAC2 Pro" is the successor of the "DAC+ Pro". You can toss a coin. ;-)