State of play in the Squeezebox-replacement world 6/13?

[the nightfly]

So, I've been gone for many months and come back here to find lots of unfamiliar names being tossed around: SqueezePlug/SqueezeLite/Community Squeeze/Wandboard/Raspberry-Pi. All with long threads filled with hundreds of techie-jargon-filled posts which only make this layman thoroughly confused as to what a given product is supposed to be -- a player replacement, a player/server combo, something else entirely?

So, if it isn't too much trouble, could someone post a quick summary of any project or projects being undertaken to create an actual "Squeezebox replacement?" Particularly, let me ask the question: if my SB Touch were to die tomorrow, or next month, what options would I have to replace it with something that would be able to stream music over wi-fi from a computer or NAS running LMS, and outputting that music to a DAC at 24/96 resolution? A clear, simple summary would be greatly appreciated!

[erland]

So, I've been gone for many months and come back here to find lots of unfamiliar names being tossed around: SqueezePlug/SqueezeLite/Community Squeeze/Wandboard/Raspberry-Pi. All with long threads filled with hundreds of techie-jargon-filled posts which only make this layman thoroughly confused as to what a given product is supposed to be -- a player replacement, a player/server combo, something else entirely?

So, if it isn't too much trouble, could someone post a quick summary of any project or projects being undertaken to create an actual "Squeezebox replacement?" Particularly, let me ask the question: if my SB Touch were to die tomorrow, or next month, what options would I have to replace it with something that would be able to stream music over wi-fi from a computer or NAS running LMS, and outputting that music to a DAC at 24/96 resolution? A clear, simple summary would be greatly appreciated!

Quick summary of the ones I'm aware of:

SqueezePlug
http://forums.slimdevices.com/showth...y-for-download
http://forums.slimdevices.com/showth...final-Release)
Software distribution for SheevaPlug based hardware which also works on the Raspberry Pi hardware.
Initially designed to be a LMS server but these days SqueezeLite can be installed to make it a player also.
Typically it requires a an external DAC to get audio quality close to a Squeezebox Touch.


SqueezeLite
http://forums.slimdevices.com/showth...ux-(alsa-only)
http://forums.slimdevices.com/showth...ux-Windows-OSX
Software player distributed as a plugin which makes it possible to use your computer and the soundcard in it as a player.
Can be used on ARM based platforms such as Raspberry Pi, SheevaPlug or Wandboard or on Intel based platforms like your normal computer.

Typically it requires a an external DAC to get audio quality close to a Squeezebox Touch, the exception is the Community Squeeze project which will have a really good built-in DAC.


Community Squeeze
http://www.communitysqueeze.org/faq.jsp
http://forums.slimdevices.com/showth...munity-Squeeze
http://forums.slimdevices.com/showth...-Squeeze-OS-R3

Consists of both software and hardware designed by community members with the intention to be able to be an alternative for Logitech based Squeezebox hardware. Currently only the software distribution is available but they are working hard on the hardware part. It uses the CPU card from the Wandboard as a base but will provide an add-on hardware card which provides what we need to get excellent audio quality out of it. It uses SqueezeLite as a player.


VAMP
http://forums.slimdevices.com/showth...t-for-under-30

Cheap DIY hardware project which base its player hardware on SqueezeLite with the intention to make a cheap replacement for a Touch for people with an external DAC.


Wandboard
http://wandboard.org/
The hardware which contains the CPU card which is the base for the Community Squeezebox project. Can be used as a player already today, but to get decent audio quality you need an external DAC.


Raspberry Pi
http://www.raspberrypi.org/
The hardware which is used in piCoPlayer. Can be used as a player already today, but to get decent audio quality you need an external DAC.
Can also be used together with the SheevaPlug distribution.


Vortexbox
http://vortexbox.org

Software and hardware platform, initially designed to be a media server hosting LMS, but these days it also bundles a player so you can use it both as a server and player.
The software can be used either on a dedicated Vortexbox Appliance hardware or on your own computer.

ickStream Music Platform
http://forums.slimdevices.com/showth...Music-Platform
http://blog.ickstream.com/
Software project with the intention to create the next generation music streaming platform based on the experience from Squeezebox. It's currently in a closed beta phase and the intention is that any hardware vendor that wants to use it should be able license it to use it on their hardware platform. Will focus on providing a solution for people who are interested in having access both to local music and online music, will integrate with LMS and other music servers for local music and provide its own cloud server for integration with online streaming services.


From a hardware perspective, my feeling is that the Community Squeeze is most promising for people who like excellent audio quality, especially if you want a device with an excellent built-in DAC. It will hopefully also be possible to combine with ickStream Music Platform so we also can get great support for online services. For people who want a cheaper solution than the current Touch and have an external DAC, it might be worth to look into VAMP or SqueezePlug based on a Raspberry Pi, just make sure the DAC is compatible with the Raspberry Pi, I know some asynchronous USB DAC's have issues on the Raspberry Pi.

If you aren't in a hurry, I would wait and see how all these projects develops during the next 6 months.

[usbethjim]

Great summary - Thank you...I needed that!

Jim

[the nightfly]

Thanks, erland. A couple more quick questions:

1) If I were going to use the Pi with SqueezeLite, but didn't need to run LMS on it (because it would be running on a separate machine), would I still need to install SqueezePlug first? In other words, on the Pi, is SqueezePlug a prerequisite to install and run SqueezeLite?

2) VAMP sounds really promising, except that the last detailed building and installation instructions from the creator presupposed the VAMP would be connected to the router via Ethernet, which is a non-starter in my setup. Later on in that thread, he claims to have wi-fi working, but gives no further details, and has been relatively silent since then. Is there a thread or website I'm missing that gives directions on how to install a VAMP so that it connects over wi-fi rather than being hard-cabled?

FWIW, I wouldn't need an internal DAC, since I'd be using the one in my receiver. (It would be pointless to use a better DAC, since the receiver would first re-digitize the incoming signal for DSP purposes, so it's just as well to provide a digital input stream. Accordingly, since I don't see any of these projects having an S/PDIF output, I assume I'd be using a USB-to-S/PDIF adapter of some sort. Would there be any possible pitfalls to such an approach?

Once again, thanks!

[guidof]

Excellent post, Erland!

Very helpful.

Guido F.

[guidof]

Thanks, erland. A couple more quick questions:

1) If I were going to use the Pi with SqueezeLite, but didn't need to run LMS on it (because it would be running on a separate machine), would I still need to install SqueezePlug first? In other words, on the Pi, is SqueezePlug a prerequisite to install and run SqueezeLite?

2) VAMP sounds really promising, except that the last detailed building and installation instructions from the creator presupposed the VAMP would be connected to the router via Ethernet, which is a non-starter in my setup. Later on in that thread, he claims to have wi-fi working, but gives no further details, and has been relatively silent since then. Is there a thread or website I'm missing that gives directions on how to install a VAMP so that it connects over wi-fi rather than being hard-cabled?

FWIW, I wouldn't need an internal DAC, since I'd be using the one in my receiver. (It would be pointless to use a better DAC, since the receiver would first re-digitize the incoming signal for DSP purposes, so it's just as well to provide a digital input stream. Accordingly, since I don't see any of these projects having an S/PDIF output, I assume I'd be using a USB-to-S/PDIF adapter of some sort. Would there be any possible pitfalls to such an approach?

Once again, thanks!

Community Squeeze is intended to support WiFi as well as SPDIF (coax and Toslink).

Guido F.

[castalla]

Thanks, erland. A couple more quick questions:

1) If I were going to use the Pi with SqueezeLite, but didn't need to run LMS on it (because it would be running on a separate machine), would I still need to install SqueezePlug first? In other words, on the Pi, is SqueezePlug a prerequisite to install and run SqueezeLite?

Squeezeplug is a debian distro with a specialised menu setup for installing various pieces of software: eg. LMS, Squeezelite, Squeezeplay, Twonky, etc., as well as letting you setup the debian image with network, wifi, etc.

You only need to install the software you want - so you can just select Squeezelite.

You can simply Squeezelite on other Pi distros by downloading the binary - you do need some additonal files, which Squeezeplug provides. A good reason to simply use Squeezeplug!

[hubbaloo]

1) If I were going to use the Pi with SqueezeLite, but didn't need to run LMS on it (because it would be running on a separate machine), would I still need to install SqueezePlug first? In other words, on the Pi, is SqueezePlug a prerequisite to install and run SqueezeLite?

If it is just a player try piCoPlayer:

http://forums.slimdevices.com/showth...th-Squeezelite

[erland]

2) VAMP sounds really promising, except that the last detailed building and installation instructions from the creator presupposed the VAMP would be connected to the router via Ethernet, which is a non-starter in my setup. Later on in that thread, he claims to have wi-fi working, but gives no further details, and has been relatively silent since then. Is there a thread or website I'm missing that gives directions on how to install a VAMP so that it connects over wi-fi rather than being hard-cabled?

There are a lot of VAMP threads on the Vortexbox forum at: http://vortexbox.org/forum.php
I've used the Pi with a USB WiFi module so it's definitely possible to get it to work with the right USB WiFi dongle, but I haven't tried it on the VAMP.

FWIW, I wouldn't need an internal DAC, since I'd be using the one in my receiver. (It would be pointless to use a better DAC, since the receiver would first re-digitize the incoming signal for DSP purposes, so it's just as well to provide a digital input stream. Accordingly, since I don't see any of these projects having an S/PDIF output, I assume I'd be using a USB-to-S/PDIF adapter of some sort. Would there be any possible pitfalls to such an approach?

The Wandboard have optical S/PDIF, but if I've understood corrected it's broken and requires some soldering to work properly, so if you don't have soldering skills it won't work.

The Community Squeeze hardware will definitely have a good quality S/PDIF, but then you would have to wait for the Community Squeeze add-on board which is currently being developed and doesn't exist to to the general public at this stage.

For the Raspberry Pi, you would need a USB-to-S/PDIF adaptor, I've no idea how much these affects the audio quality.

It might also be possible to use the HDMI output depending if your receiver have inputs for HDMI.

[the nightfly]

If it is just a player try piCoPlayer:

http://forums.slimdevices.com/showth...th-Squeezelite

Thanks for the recommendation! I'll check it out.