Has Computer Audio Reached Mainstream?

[Santy]

It has been quite some time, have you received your order? Or still hoping for the mercy of India Post?

 

[manniraj]

It has been quite some time, have you received your order? Or still hoping for the mercy of India Post?

It was supposed to be shipped last week but got shipped only on 26th and I got the details about the shipping only after I posted on there facebook page. I think they got to be more responsive as there is no way to look at the orders once placed either their site or else where. I think lots of people had the same concerns. I hope it reaches me soon courtesy the Indian Post.

 

[az2325]

hi manniraj,
Please do share your impressions once you procure rocki. I have been looking around for a wireless device to stream music to my amp from pc. Was thinking on rpi or beaglebone black. Looking fwd to ur review
Regards,
Antony

 

[manniraj]

Yes will try to put a review, may not be in audiophile terms

Or I think Venkatcr has already put out a very nice simple review of the same.

 

[manniraj]

Update: Received the Rocki today and did the setup after installing the app on my Android tab. The device is very very small and light weight, you can easily miss it in the rack if not with the pink color cover that I got with. The setup is simple and easy for streaming of local content. Initial impressions is good and clear sound without any buffering or stuttering. Yet to check the playback of either the WAV or FLAC songs. I thought that the mini USB power port should have been a little far away from the 3.5mm port as the cables supplied are pressing each other and not sure how long this is going to last.

Unable to playback the music files stored on the network. I have a Pogoplug device with a 2 TB portable HDD connected over USB and I have installed Samba on the same. I am able to play thru Foobar using this network drive but unfortunately not able to playback using the Rocki app. Looked over the Rocki forum and the founder says that out of the box it streams/plays from the UPNP/DLNA share. But not sure how to go about it as the Pogoplug is UPNP/DLNA enabled by default. This looks bad as content from a mobile/tab is limited to either 10 to 20gb and all my music is on the LAN.

@venkat, do you have any idea how to go about the same. I have mailed the Rocki team as well.

Edit: I installed the "BubbleUpNp" app on my tab and set the library to Pogoplug share drive and the renderer as Rocki (this shows up automatically) and was able to play directly on this app rather on the Rocki app. But the playback has some problems with changes to the songs/playlists. I am yet to explore but I think this way it defeats the purpose of using the Rocki app to playback

 

[magma]

intresting

will this device help me stream internet radio from my ipad to my stereo ?

does it have an i pad app ?

i was thinking airport express at first
but now this may give me an option

 

[manniraj]

intresting

will this device help me stream internet radio from my ipad to my stereo ?

does it have an i pad app ?

i was thinking airport express at first
but now this may give me an option

I think yes it can be done, look at this site for details. As of now I can see only last.fm and soundcloud on my Rocki app. As per there official site the spotify is yet to be launched. But the link above is supposed to enable it albeit with a back door entry. Also in the same link you can see the app AirPlay which does stream from iTunes and playback on the Rocki. I am yet to try the same.

 

[manniraj]

Just got the mail from one of the founders Mr. Dennis that the shared network drive feature on the Rocki app is under testing and should be available within 2 weeks :clapping:

 

[Santy]

Did you get it working (streaming music on a network drive)?
It appears that the software has too many bugs.

 

[manniraj]

Did you get it working (streaming music on a network drive)?
It appears that the software has too many bugs.

I have stopped using it after I received my Raspberry Pi . So haven't checked or updated the firmware. Let me try this weekend if possible, there are some bugs in the playlists/shuffle but overall stable. With Pi i am able to use the ODAC for music playback as well as movies using the Openelec OS. I can control the same using an app and my music/movies are on the network, so did not find the need to go back to Rocki for music.

 

[Santy]

Are you running pi headless using only an app? That would be nice, I was looking for something like that for my secondary system. Can you tell me which model of pi you bought and which app you use for music playback.

 

[manniraj]

Are you running pi headless using only an app? That would be nice, I was looking for something like that for my secondary system. Can you tell me which model of pi you bought and which app you use for music playback.

Santy, I brought my Pi from a online store located in Bangalore (Raspberry Pi BeagleBone Black Online Store India Best Prices) for around 3.5k including the case. I am running Openelec OS which has XBMC built-in. Hence I run it headless for music playback and control the playlists/songs via iPhone/Android mobile and switch on the TV for playback of the movies. Also I SSH'ed to the Pi and enabled the ALSA, so I can now map the ODAC as the default audio device which automatically gets picked up for only music playback and when the movies are played back as its over HDMI the video/sound comes via the TV. If you do not want to run Openelec on Pi and use it only for headless music purpose only then you can install MPD and use its app/browser and you should be good to go.

 

[crosstalk]

I use foobar on my PC with 10 virtual CD drives. All my audio CDs have their respective BIN_CUE image on my hard drive and I load them on the 10 CD drives and play according to my mood via foobar.

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

What is a virtual CD drive? It's a new one on me.

Yep. I should google. Will do later... have to go out now

 

[crosstalk]

There is a software called Magic Disc (FREE) that allows you to create virtual drives on your PC.

Freeware MagicISO Virtual CD/DVD-ROM(MagicDisc) Overview

Each of these drive behave as a stand alone CD/DVD drive and you can load CD/DVD images on these drives just as you load a physical CD/DVD on a physical drive.

At the end you get as many drives as you want with the CD images of choice loaded in them.

My philosophy - HDD and storage is cheap. So rather than going for FLAC or High bit rate mp3s, I keep disc images of my CDs on my drive.

Load them, play them as per my mood.

At times I do flip a CD in the tray but for most of the time I span my virtual library as I mostly listen to music when I work.

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

OK thanks... I don't see any advantage over FLAC (or WAV, if preferred), so I have never stored Audio CDs as images.

I do sometimes with DVD, though. I just rip to an iso file, and open that to play. No other software required.

(Linux... maybe Windows world is different)

 

[crosstalk]

OK thanks... I don't see any advantage over FLAC (or WAV, if preferred), so I have never stored Audio CDs as images.

I do sometimes with DVD, though. I just rip to an iso file, and open that to play. No other software required.

(Linux... maybe Windows world is different)

The advantage is, I avoid a "rip". Bit perfect or otherwise. Additionally I save some time.

The other advantage is, all the CD images serve as a backup.

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

Each of chooses the working methods that suit us, should not dispute at all with that of course, but... you are "ripping" the image from the CD to your hard disk, and, the FLAC/WAV files also act as a backup of the music. But yes, as far as I know, the iso file would be only backup that could produce an identical CD. I don't know enough to confirm that.

 

[musicbee]

Each of chooses the working methods that suit us, should not dispute at all with that of course, but... you are "ripping" the image from the CD to your hard disk, and, the FLAC/WAV files also act as a backup of the music. But yes, as far as I know, the iso file would be only backup that could produce an identical CD. I don't know enough to confirm that.

Not technically... lossless means exactly that, lossless and any lossless rip can replicate/duplicate the CD the same as the original.

I am not sure how much of an improvement a virtual drive offers over playing ripped files, but along those lines arguments have been made in favor of RAM discs to improve playback/SQ. I have tried it with Foobar and its hard to say... some files I perceive an improvement in SQ and then others I don't. Hard to say unless a blind test can prove it conclusively.

 

[musicbee]

My philosophy - HDD and storage is cheap. So rather than going for FLAC or High bit rate mp3s, I keep disc images of my CDs on my drive.

Sounds good until you start talking of 2000, 3000... 50,000 CDs, unless of course you have reached Nirvana with your existing collection and don't intend to add more CDs.

PS - After crossing 8 TB with my Blu-Ray rips I realized the solution is not to keep adding HDDs... not unless I want to maintain a mini server farm. Again perceptions vary... but a 4-6 GB rip (with DTS) looks the same as a 20-30GB Blu-Ray rip and most will not be able to tell a difference... hence nothing wrong with "economical" rips of Audio CDs and movies.