DIY Raspberry pi 4 + DAC + Android = Tidal, Spotify & Apple Music

[amrutmhatre90]

Hi Amrut, (and all - this is my first post)

I am about to try Lineage 18.1 with a Raspberry p4 and an external USB DAC stream apple music, could you please clarify for me post 32, as it seems to show how to change bit rate from 44.1 to 48?
I understood that we dont want Lineage to change anything, rather just bit perfect output of the source file, which now with apple music is 24/192?

I had edited the root files, there are some ways of doing it online.
For files with higher than 44.1khz it doesn't matter, apple music does proper streaming.
The songs with only 44.1khz get upsampled to 48khz

 

[rajivaryan1984]

Has anyone tried using any LCD with the Raspberry setup for visualization. Since am new to this Raspberry thing so just trying to get some knowledge on the same

 

[mbhangui]

Has anyone tried using any LCD with the Raspberry setup for visualization. Since am new to this Raspberry thing so just trying to get some knowledge on the same

I have tried various visualizers on linux. Various music players have visualizations (kodi, clementine, etc). They are mostly based on ProjectM. But what do you do when your player doesn't support visualizations or when you want your raspberry PI to give the best possibe music and hence turn off GUI and run it in run level 3? Also when you want to play bit perfect music, nothing beats MPD - Music Player Daemon interfacing with your DAC and giving the best low latency conversion. But MPD is just tiny program that sends the bits to your dac. It is not a album manager and no fancy stuff like visualizations, etc are present. In fact mpd avoids anything that can use your CPU and screw the music. It also can play music with RT priority (realtime). So what do you do in such cases?

What I have done is to have my 65" plasma tv connected to my linux PC and installed glava and connected a USB microphone to the PC. You can install glava on RPI too. The entire desktop becomes a visualizer and the visualizer plays for any sound that happens in my music room, for speech, any sound that is made in the room including music playing through my raspberry pi players through the amps on my speakers.

 

[audio_lurker]

Hi! Really nice project you built! Could you please share how exactly to change the config files under root to stop resampling or point to the relevant links?

 

[waris]

yup, Tidal & Spotify are easily doable on Volumio or Moode.
Even with a decent DAP like Activo CT10 I am able to use Tidal and Spotify, Tidal goes upto 96khz on some songs.

Apple music right now is only accessible through phones and everyone is using audio jack, airplay doesn't support lossless too.
With Android based Streamer I can have all three, and lossless on Tidal & Apple music.

Apple music now supports lossless upto 48Khz over airplay .

 

[amrutmhatre90]

Hi! Really nice project you built! Could you please share how exactly to change the config files under root to stop resampling or point to the relevant links?

Just search for resampling 44khz to 48khz you will get reddit and youtube links too.

I have moved on with this build now, have setup a roon endpoint with other OS. As got roon at a super price during black-friday.

 

[madman29]

Just search for resampling 44khz to 48khz you will get reddit and youtube links too.

I have moved on with this build now, have setup a roon endpoint with other OS. As got roon at a super price during black-friday.

Hi everyone
I'm in the process of making a RPI4B based music player. I'm a bit confused abut the choice of DAC. I have gone through a lot of YouTube videos to learn about this. In the prosses I found that Pi2AES is very good hat dac. Is it available anymore? As I could not find it on net for sale (new).
What other hat dac would you all suggest that will have a decent sound output?
My plan is to make the streamer with RPI+DAC+External HDD+6inch Touch screen display+Allo shanti PSU
Have not thought about enclosure yet.

Would really appreciate some guidance from you all

 

[Yogesh]

Hi everyone
I'm in the process of making a RPI4B based music player. I'm a bit confused abut the choice of DAC. I have gone through a lot of YouTube videos to learn about this. In the prosses I found that Pi2AES is very good hat dac. Is it available anymore? As I could not find it on net for sale (new).
What other hat dac would you all suggest that will have a decent sound output?
My plan is to make the streamer with RPI+DAC+External HDD+6inch Touch screen display+Allo shanti PSU
Have not thought about enclosure yet.

Would really appreciate some guidance from you all

Pi2AES is not a DAC HAT AFAIK. It's just a transport.

You will need to add a separate DAC of your budget. sound signature preference.

 

[amrutmhatre90]

Hi everyone
I'm in the process of making a RPI4B based music player. I'm a bit confused abut the choice of DAC. I have gone through a lot of YouTube videos to learn about this. In the prosses I found that Pi2AES is very good hat dac. Is it available anymore? As I could not find it on net for sale (new).
What other hat dac would you all suggest that will have a decent sound output?
My plan is to make the streamer with RPI+DAC+External HDD+6inch Touch screen display+Allo shanti PSU
Have not thought about enclosure yet.

Would really appreciate some guidance from you all

I would suggest go for a external USB DAC. It can be replaced alone without changing the RPI player and would definitely sound better than HAT DACs.

I have used and connected following DACs with below OS's:
- IQaudio DAC Pro
- SMSL SU8S
- Topping D50s


I still have a the above boards, hats and display. Have used some variety of OS's.

1) Android bases LineageOS
Pros:
- Can install any android app - Main purpose of build was Apple Music.
- Can connect USB DAC and HAT DAC, both can be used together.
- Sound quality is Ok compared to others OS i used.

Cons:
- After editing all the root files to get bit perfect it is still not, came to know after I connected USB DACs and played AM files. Higher sample rates don't have a problem at all.
- Cannot be controlled from phone, laptop or any other device. Touch screen or screen with keyboard and mouse is needed and only way of using it.

2) RopieeXL
Pros:
- Superb sound quality, better than anything I heard. The processing Roon does is very good.
- First unfold for MQA songs, I used Tidal mostly on this.
- Flawless setup and no issues with OS, never experienced any hick ups or reboots.
- Now Playing can be casted to any device on same network. The screen looks amazing and refined with real time lyrics.
- Spotify also can be played flawlessly

Cons:
- Expensive! Around Rs.700 a month
- Connected Display to RPI works only with the official Raspberry Pi 7 inch touch screen. Cannot use any other screen.
- While using Spotify, u cannot adjust volume through volume buttons on phone or Spotify app. Need to back to Roon.
- Needs a constant server running, laptop desktop etc.

3) Volumio 3
Pros:
- Easy to setup, nice help guide too.
- Good sound quality, nothing to complain about. Wide variety of support for DACs.
- Huge community, tons of plugins and mods.
- Easy to use over a long time, play through Spotify or Tidal directly and even control volume. (need paid versions)
- Any display works, lot of aftermarket parts available.

Cons:
- To use Tidal and some other features you need a paid premium account. Or BubbleUpnp type apps.
- Can get buggy and require reboots

I am using Volumio 3 now, liking it so far.


I would rate the above OSs like below:
RopieeaXL > Volumio > LineageOS

 

[premoddev]

Hi everyone
I'm in the process of making a RPI4B based music player. I'm a bit confused abut the choice of DAC. I have gone through a lot of YouTube videos to learn about this. In the prosses I found that Pi2AES is very good hat dac. Is it available anymore? As I could not find it on net for sale (new).
What other hat dac would you all suggest that will have a decent sound output?
My plan is to make the streamer with RPI+DAC+External HDD+6inch Touch screen display+Allo shanti PSU
Have not thought about enclosure yet.

Would really appreciate some guidance from you all

You can check Allo Boss2 DAC if you still prefer the HAT dacs..

Buy BOSS2 ACRYLIC in India | Fab.to.Lab

Boss2 is a meaningful upgrade over Boss in sound quality (measurements, THD / Jtest) and a much better bang for your buck.

www.fabtolab.com

 

[ajuvignesh]

I would suggest go for a external USB DAC. It can be replaced alone without changing the RPI player and would definitely sound better than HAT DACs.

I have used and connected following DACs with below OS's:
- IQaudio DAC Pro
- SMSL SU8S
- Topping D50s


I still have a the above boards, hats and display. Have used some variety of OS's.

1) Android bases LineageOS
Pros:
- Can install any android app - Main purpose of build was Apple Music.
- Can connect USB DAC and HAT DAC, both can be used together.
- Sound quality is Ok compared to others OS i used.

Cons:
- After editing all the root files to get bit perfect it is still not, came to know after I connected USB DACs and played AM files. Higher sample rates don't have a problem at all.
- Cannot be controlled from phone, laptop or any other device. Touch screen or screen with keyboard and mouse is needed and only way of using it.

2) RopieeXL
Pros:
- Superb sound quality, better than anything I heard. The processing Roon does is very good.
- First unfold for MQA songs, I used Tidal mostly on this.
- Flawless setup and no issues with OS, never experienced any hick ups or reboots.
- Now Playing can be casted to any device on same network. The screen looks amazing and refined with real time lyrics.
- Spotify also can be played flawlessly

Cons:
- Expensive! Around Rs.700 a month
- Connected Display to RPI works only with the official Raspberry Pi 7 inch touch screen. Cannot use any other screen.
- While using Spotify, u cannot adjust volume through volume buttons on phone or Spotify app. Need to back to Roon.
- Needs a constant server running, laptop desktop etc.

3) Volumio 3
Pros:
- Easy to setup, nice help guide too.
- Good sound quality, nothing to complain about. Wide variety of support for DACs.
- Huge community, tons of plugins and mods.
- Easy to use over a long time, play through Spotify or Tidal directly and even control volume. (need paid versions)
- Any display works, lot of aftermarket parts available.

Cons:
- To use Tidal and some other features you need a paid premium account. Or BubbleUpnp type apps.
- Can get buggy and require reboots

I am using Volumio 3 now, liking it so far.


I would rate the above OSs like below:
RopieeaXL > Volumio > LineageOS

With volumio 3, in my case, the spotify wasn't working. Switched to moode audio. Not sure if it is a placebo effect but moode sounded better to my ears. Besides, moode audio has dsp and EQ built in.

 

[amrutmhatre90]

With volumio 3, in my case, the spotify wasn't working. Switched to moode audio. Not sure if it is a placebo effect but moode sounded better to my ears. Besides, moode audio has dsp and EQ built in.

I will be trying out moode too, haven't explored it yet.

 

[madman29]

Pi2AES is not a DAC HAT AFAIK. It's just a transport.

You will need to add a separate DAC of your budget. sound signature preference.

Yes, my mistake. I have an arcam rlink dac which I intend to use

Pi2AES is not a DAC HAT AFAIK. It's just a transport.

You will need to add a separate DAC of your budget. sound signature preference

 

[madman29]

You can check Allo Boss2 DAC if you still prefer the HAT dacs..

Buy BOSS2 ACRYLIC in India | Fab.to.Lab

Boss2 is a meaningful upgrade over Boss in sound quality (measurements, THD / Jtest) and a much better bang for your buck.

www.fabtolab.com

This will be my go to solution if I don't get Pi2AES- which I intend to connect with my arcam dac
There is another complete product called Boss 2 player. Have anyone have any idea about that? The Sound quality?

 

[SanVJ]

This will be my go to solution if I don't get Pi2AES- which I intend to connect with my arcam dac
There is another complete product called Boss 2 player. Have anyone have any idea about that? The Sound quality?

There is one dedicated thread for Aloo Boss 2 player.

 

[madman29]

There is one dedicated thread for Aloo Boss 2 player.

Ok. Will see that thread. Thanks.

 

[souravin]

Hi everyone
I'm in the process of making a RPI4B based music player. I'm a bit confused abut the choice of DAC. I have gone through a lot of YouTube videos to learn about this. In the prosses I found that Pi2AES is very good hat dac. Is it available anymore? As I could not find it on net for sale (new).
What other hat dac would you all suggest that will have a decent sound output?
My plan is to make the streamer with RPI+DAC+External HDD+6inch Touch screen display+Allo shanti PSU
Have not thought about enclosure yet.

Would really appreciate some guidance from you all

Dear Shantanu,

If you are going the Allo Route or even Rasp Pi as a solo, do consider Allo Shanti or Allo Nirvana power sources . The difference is substantial. I'm not conversant with the audiophile lexicon to describe the layers in sound refinement but can vouch for the improvement in overall sound.

 

[madman29]

Dear Shantanu,

If you are going the Allo Route or even Rasp Pi as a solo, do consider Allo Shanti or Allo Nirvana power sources . The difference is substantial. I'm not conversant with the audiophile lexicon to describe the layers in sound refinement but can vouch for the improvement in overall sound.

Thanks . I intend to use Allo shanti

 

[slappymcphee]

Very glad that I found this thread. I am in the midst of building a RetroModded 1930's Silvertone radio cabinet into a modern jukebox and my goal is to use Android with it as we mainly consume audio when it isn't our own FLAC files via iHeartRadio or Amazon music. We may end up selling the Jukebox down the road so want to have something that would make it easy for anyone to use. It is a bummer that you decided to move on from your Android build, but wonderful that you have shared all of this information on the project along with staying in touch with people here on your thread!

P.S. Yes, I fully understand that especially iHeartRadio isn't the greatest quality source, but we just don't care for Tidal, Spotify (Loathe Spotify's use case model), nor Apple Music.

 

[Kapeel]

Apple Music reduces free-trial period to one month