DIY USB Network Media Player.
- Thread starter KiranPS
- Start date
Muthuk
New Member
Excellent job kiranHello Everyone,
I am posting after a long time. I wanted to announce that I am working on a Simple to use USB and Network Media player. I am a software engineer who loves audio. So in the last Two year I have been developing the software and the supporting Hardware for this.
I wanted it to be a Standalone player without the need for a smartphone ,
like a simple CD player , with the capability to play USB and NAS content over lan and Wifi.
Most streamers today are headless which means you need a smart phone just to set it up and to control it. Which I found a lot of people were not comfortable with.
I initially took a Costs No Object approach so even the power Caps are audiophile grade. Resistors are Vishay in the preamp.
I have a blog here,
Software:
I am not using Roon or VolumeIO or even MPD. I am using a customized RPI3 Raspbian based distro which we developed for Factory Automation that had read only root so could be switched off directly and a separate partition for persistence. I have a SDL based Control and UI app which talks to a gstreamer based custom player. The control app takes care of mounting the SMB , NFS volumes handles Bluetooth Dongle pairing, WIFI setup etc. Since I have a LCD and a rotary encoder the entire setup can be done using the front panel setting.
I also have included Shairport Sync for AirPort Support and uPNP. There is also an app in the Appstore for discovering the player in the LAN and controlling it from a smartphone.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.godbtech.rasaplayer
I am planning to open source the software when its stable. Please feel free to contact me if you want more details.
Warm Regds,
Ravi Kiran.
Whoa! How did I miss this thread! Excellent work Kiran. Subscribed.
Superb project. I can only imagine how much you must have struggled to get the chassis and other physical parts done. The push buttons on either side of the screen are so well finished too.
I too feel that non-geeks will be uncomfortable with lots of contraptions hooked up to their music system to listen to music, and I too feel that hooking up a laptop or mobile phone each time you want to listen to music is the opposite of user-friendly. So, I like your design.
I've been looking for similar well-finished end-user devices myself.
The only kits I've found for devices like yours are from www.audiophonics.fr. They have really lovely kits and chassis, with lovely 7" screens too. The site is all in French, so keep your Google Chrome auto-translation on. I've pointed many non-DIY friends to that site.
I too feel that non-geeks will be uncomfortable with lots of contraptions hooked up to their music system to listen to music, and I too feel that hooking up a laptop or mobile phone each time you want to listen to music is the opposite of user-friendly. So, I like your design.
I've been looking for similar well-finished end-user devices myself. The only kits I've found for devices like yours are from www.audiophonics.fr. They have really lovely kits and chassis, with lovely 7" screens too. The site is all in French, so keep your Google Chrome auto-translation on. I've pointed many non-DIY friends to that site.
Thanks Captain ,TCP IP , rsponline, muthuk .
My primary motivation for this was to build a digital transport/player locally, that is easy to use .
I went with a non "Design for manufacture" approach (no cost optimization) to not compromise on SQ. I bought every possible DAC I could find, USB to I2S converters. Designed muliple LPSUs to figure out the Best DAC , lowest psu noise during loads etc. I have some blogs on these. Rasaaudio.com/blog .
When I started looking for chasis what I found in the local market were inexpensive but also looked inexpensive .
The first set of cabinets were made using manually process and the parts did not lineup during fitting , So went with CNC and Laser cutting.
Fortunately I found some good CNC shops , laser cutting shops to build me the front panel out of aluminum and box out of MS. Only issue was the MOQ.
I spent more than 2 years of my spare time building the software . It has a gstreamer player, Front panel UI a Web UI for tablets and an Android Mobile App ( a friend who works with me built it.) .
When I used to show initial Demos to friends, they encouraged me to brand it, so the Name " RASA player ". I got some UI UX guys in my firm to design the Logos and icons.
Will post more videos shortly.
Thanks everyone for the encouragement.
My primary motivation for this was to build a digital transport/player locally, that is easy to use .
I went with a non "Design for manufacture" approach (no cost optimization) to not compromise on SQ. I bought every possible DAC I could find, USB to I2S converters. Designed muliple LPSUs to figure out the Best DAC , lowest psu noise during loads etc. I have some blogs on these. Rasaaudio.com/blog .
When I started looking for chasis what I found in the local market were inexpensive but also looked inexpensive .
The first set of cabinets were made using manually process and the parts did not lineup during fitting , So went with CNC and Laser cutting.
Fortunately I found some good CNC shops , laser cutting shops to build me the front panel out of aluminum and box out of MS. Only issue was the MOQ.
I spent more than 2 years of my spare time building the software . It has a gstreamer player, Front panel UI a Web UI for tablets and an Android Mobile App ( a friend who works with me built it.) .
When I used to show initial Demos to friends, they encouraged me to brand it, so the Name " RASA player ". I got some UI UX guys in my firm to design the Logos and icons.
Will post more videos shortly.
Thanks everyone for the encouragement.
Great work and execution.
Just a word of caution if your caps are Nichicon FW series. Recently all of my 8 Nichicon FW series electrolytic capacitors bulged at the top making them useless and needed replacement. Just in case if something did not work as intended, you know where to look.
Just a word of caution if your caps are Nichicon FW series. Recently all of my 8 Nichicon FW series electrolytic capacitors bulged at the top making them useless and needed replacement. Just in case if something did not work as intended, you know where to look.
Thanks Mr Hari Iyer, will keep a look out for this, We purchased it from https://www.diyaudioparts.com/Nichicon-FW-4700uF-63V-85C-Radial-Leaded_p_59.html , I've heard that Caps Bulge if the Voltage ratings or polarity are not taken in to account. I have tried to use CAPs that are rated atleast 3 times the circuit voltage.
Video for Discovering and Adding a NAS (SMB / Windows Share) Server. Browsing and playback from the Server.
Last edited by a moderator:
Yes, mine was well with in the voltage limits, yet they bulged. Surprisingly the opamp which had a max voltage rating of just 18v did not damage, but the cap with 25v rating got bulged.
Hi Maniraj, This is the Acrylic Front Panel Version we tried earlier with Plastic buttons and Plastic Knobs.
Its much Lighter than the Aluminium version but it looks a little less Posh compared to the Machined Aluminium version.
Its much Lighter than the Aluminium version but it looks a little less Posh compared to the Machined Aluminium version.
Hello Guys,
I have added Spotify support to Rasa Player. There is a library called librespot which takes care of the hard stuff . I just
had to capture and parse the output to display the information on the screen. This also requires a Premium Spotify Account
on your mobile.
I have added Spotify support to Rasa Player. There is a library called librespot which takes care of the hard stuff . I just
had to capture and parse the output to display the information on the screen. This also requires a Premium Spotify Account
on your mobile.
Purchase the Audiolab 6000A Integrated Amplifier at a special offer price.
