Re: [slim] does anyone still use squeezelite anymore instead of chromecast audio and if so why?
it looks like there is an interesting thread about this and according to google the device itself is actually capable of gapless playback but the app needs to support it - I can't confirm myself which apps have been modified (at one stage it was google music and Spotify, but the last comment said this feature was broken with a release of CCA firmware) - it's hard to read the truth in that forum posting; https://code.google.com/p/google-cast-sdk/issues/detail?id=745 In terms of volume equalisation, right now all my listening comes from Spotify streaming and tunein (as I haven't had the time to re-rip my old CDs into FLAC), Spotify themselves have an option to equalise the volumes of their tracks, meaning this is a non issue for me - so taking everything into account, the chormecast audio still wins the day for me - it's a far simpler, modern and cheaper solution that really does work well (at-least for me). All my playlists currently refer to Spotify tracks. thanks for your comments - i guess i was always a lightweight squeezelite user and the two features that i really wanted (multi room audio sync and native Spotify app integration), either weren't available or didn't work consistently (especially the sync on wired and/or wireless). I'm going to pull out the hifiberry daughter board on one of the rpis and re-purpose it as a Home Assistant server; https://home-assistant.io/ ashleyw's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=58923 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=106113 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] does anyone still use squeezelite anymore instead of chromecast audio and if so why?
it appears that the dac in the choromecast audio is 24/192 but the chromecast audio can only go up to 24/96 in its current form;. For its price though nothing touches it (including the pi) - this seems quite interesting; http://archimago.blogspot.co.nz/2016/02/measurements-google-chromecast-audio.html My two main listening areas have Onkyo amps in now with chromecast audios in, there are another 7 zones so I can utilise various old kids powered speakers for kids bedrooms. Our outside zones have chromecast audios feeding cheap and cheerful amps driving outside speakers under the eaves of the house https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Breeze-Audio-TPA3116-HiFi-2-0-Audio-Stereo-Digital-Power-Amplifier-Advanced-50W-50W-Sound-good/32664243769.html I use Plex for all my bluray rips already so it makes sense for me to use this for music as well (to supplement the streaming services). The big plus point for the CC audio is that its a simple device that just works - there is no trickery required - and the sync is absolutely perfect. all 9 zones are in earshot of each other and there is no drift whatsoever - something i was never able to achieve on Squeezelite/LMS despite spending hours and hours of trying. The family really love it. What is missing is someone to hack a squeezebox style portable radio together using a chromecast audio inside and an old 4 inch touch screen device and package it up to look like nice. ashleyw's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=58923 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=106113 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
[slim] does anyone still use squeezelite anymore instead of chromecast audio and if so why?
hey guys, for several years I was running RPI2s with hifiberry cards in them for syncd multi room using squeezelite primarily with Triodes Spotify plugin - the sync was never that great. Fro the last 4 months I've been running 9 x Chromecast audio - they work brilliantly and the integration into android is slick (along with the setup) and audio quality is brilliant. The sync over wifi is 100%, and it's trivial to group/re group audio zones etc, there are no audio drop outs at all. I must say I haven't looked back at all and even my family can operate the Chromecast audios so WAF is good (and CCs are cheap). With things like Plex (for local music libraries) supporting audio cast, what is the use case for the squeezebox ecosystem any more (just checking before I sell all my RPIs in case I've missed something). any thoughts? ashleyw's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=58923 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=106113 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] What happened to Triode?
but ickstream doesn't have Spotify support which is important to many people, so if you want something that works for now (apart from LMS), I guess you are stuck with; - Gramofon - Sonos neither of which are open. The fact Spotify haven't licensed any of their stuff to open solutions (that I can see of) for the last few years - can only mean they are trying to kill it over time. This is disappointing but I guess expected in this day where DRM rules and commercial agreements between hardware and service providers prevail. ashleyw's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=58923 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=104030 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Are we near the end...
JJZolx wrote: It does that when you add any player. Always has. Unless you're talking about continuous stuttering. Unstable, how? Unable to maintain sync, or do you get dropouts? If it's dropouts, then it's a problem with your wireless network, not whatever you're using as a player. Once in sync, do you notice these skips? I never have. If you are, it would suggest something wrong with the clocks. I'm not talking about continuous stuttering - only when a player is added. Sonos and other products don't do this. problem is maintaining sync over wifi not drop outs - think some of this is related to the way libspotify which Triode uses buffers the data, but regardless, it renders wifi sync'd players unreliable. When things are in sync they occasional drift and then come back together - there is no direct control over the oscillator on the rpi so there will always be some drift. the drift isn't normally noticable as corrections are made between tracks. regardless of the underlying issues, the current squeezebox architecture in the form of the RPI with i2S DAC has too many quirks for widespread use when multi zone audio, WAF and access to a range of streaming services is a requirement. ashleyw's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=58923 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=103926 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Are we near the end...
what are peoples thoughts about Roonlabs running on the rpi2 with HifiBerry (or iqaudio) DAC in the form of Roonspeakers? https://community.roonlabs.com/t/raspberry-pi-support/1129/2 It's vapourware right now but could potentially be a neat alternative, but Spotify support isn't there currently AFAIK. The whole UI of something like SqueezeCommander is well past its sell by date, and the LMS architecture itself has strengths but also weaknesses in the forms of poor sync (compared to Sonos). Anyone have any thoughts on https://gramofon.com/ and the AllPlay architecture - certainly for Spotify it has neat integration. Sadly, I too can't see how long term the LMS architecture can flourish without the backing of the people who made it happen in the first place. ashleyw's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=58923 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=103926 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Are we near the end...
garym wrote: Sonos and LMS/Squeezeboxes both have rock solid sync. I sync several players together (and they are sometimes in the same room). I've never heard any echo or sync problems in my use of SBs. If you're having Sync issues, I suspect that is fixable as it must be something in your local setup afraid in my world (which only consists of RPI2s and hifiberry DACs) - there are several issues with sync; - Adding a player to a sync group while a track is playing results in a stutter on all players. - sync via wifi on an RPI2 is too unstable which forces wired connection. - sync is via skips where as on sonos sync is via adjusting the audio clock rate so players get in pefect sync quickly without noticable sync jumps. - no native Spotify integration (via say Spotify connect) which forces the use of Triode's plugin - which means the Spotify view of the world is through an LMS app - which is feature poor compared to the native android Spotfy client for example. For example Spotify moods can only be played on LMS architecture by subscribing to a playlist rather and then selecting the playlist form the LMS app. - no native support for multiple Spotify accounts (eg family subscriptions) - which means there has to be multiple LMS servers with clients connected to specific servers. All of these types of things to me means that LMS needs an overhaul. Even though I accept that real squeezebox hardware maybe better, the fact it is no longer made (or ever likely to be), means its future is entirely dependent on these types of issues being addressed - which is kind of hard on any open hardware - particularly open hardware solutions like the rpi+dac without any commercial drive. I just can't see how any streaming service which is heavily tied into DRM can be viable longterm on an open platform like the RPI as it is entirely dependent on the official API support from the service providers. Even now we can't even get Netflix on an RPI (without hacks like Playon) as there is no official android port for the RPI - which would require a locked bootloader anyway which isn't going to happen on the rpi. I love the suqeezebox eco-system but it still needs work and without official tie ins from the likes of Spotify/Tidal/Apple/Youtube etc, its use cases will be limited and users will continue to switch to other solutions (which to be fair isn't going to be a commercial concern for Logitech anyway as they have other speaker products which are much easier to support and pushes the sync/streaming responsibility to other technology devices). ashleyw's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=58923 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=103926 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] [ANNOUNCE] Music-Playback now on ANDROID! SqueezePlayer released to the market ...
bluegaspode wrote: I wrote a blog post about synchronization here: http://www.squeezeplayer.com/2011/12/squeezeplayer-and-synchronisation-with-other-squeezeboxes/ It's not that easy on Android, as the actual music layers are far away from where I can reach them. This changed with Android 4.0 (new Audio APIs) which I didn't test yet - but on the other hand SqueezePlayer wants to run on pretty old Android gadgets as well. When you say in earshot does this mean the same room or two different rooms? In may experience I can hear small drifts when I have two devices side by side - but as soon as you have them in different rooms walking from one to another you cannot make that out anymore. Maybe if you try really hard (but that would be an academic problem then). thanks - yeah I have read your post numerous times. By earshot, I mean an two open plan rooms next to each other. In reality most modern phones within the last few years are running variants of 4.0 or later these days - if nothing else it would be fantastic if you could put some effort into creating a port for 4.0 and up droid phones/tablets - I would be more than happy to test any new version. thanks again. ashleyw's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=58923 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=87364 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] [ANNOUNCE] Music-Playback now on ANDROID! SqueezePlayer released to the market ...
bluegaspode wrote: I'm a bit surprised, that the audio delays are not working for you. I'd always start with the audio delay setting, leave the start delay at zero. Start a song in sync with one VM, wait 30 seconds, then start changing the delay setting for the Squeezebox that is behind. When you hit Apply wait 10 seconds the delay is updated on the fly, you won't need to restart the track. thanks. I think the issue I had is that I didn't wait long enough for the sync to start occurring. Once sync'd things seemed ok, but sync is nowhere near as good as sync'd virtualised Squeezelite instances - the sync on SqueezePlayer seems to vary considerably over time. I'm guessing that the clock speed on am android phone is simply varying too much - sync drifts and creates a very annoying echo when the squeezeplayer audio is in earshot of the other Squeezelite instances. By itself SqueezePlayer is great but being part of a SqueezeLite sync group (running as virtual Debian machines) just doesn't seem to work as well as I had hoped. I may switch from virtualised Squeezelite to SqueezeLite on CuBoxes/Beagleboxes etc, but the problem with this is that the cost/complexity quickly escalates beyond the Sonos Play1 (from a pure Spotify music viewpoint). It would be absolutely fantastic if you were able to take a commodity device like a Samsung S3 or a tablet like a Nexus 7 (2013 model) and could reproduce virtualised Debian x86 VMs running Squeezelite and could reproduce the issues I'm having. Things are so close that there must be a solution out there... Surely between you and Adrian there must be a solution here? ashleyw's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=58923 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=87364 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] [ANNOUNCE] Music-Playback now on ANDROID! SqueezePlayer released to the market ...
hi, I have LMS running as a virtual machine on a debian OS. I have 3 squeezelite instances each running as debian VMs. As soon as I add SqueezePlayer into the sync group I seem to find that regardless of player start delay/player audio delay etc on the other members of the sync group, that the SqueezePlayer (on a Samsung S3 and on a Nexus 7-2013) always starts before the other players. I suspect this is due to the buffer size differences between SqueezeLite under a Debian VM and SqueezePlayer. It always sounds as if the SqueezePlayer client is running faster than the others. Music is via Triodes Spotify plugin. I can get perfect sync between SqueezeLite on different VMs on different physical machines. I can tune the buffers easily on the start up daemons on SqueezeLite. How can I tune the buffer sizes on SqueezePlayer as I don't see any options on the app? Please can someone run up a test - 2xdebian 32bit VMs. SqueezeLite on both of them, LMS on one of them, and SqueezePlayer on an Android phone. I have thought of compiling the Debian kernel for 1000hz support, but I can't see how that could be the issue, otherwise the SqueezeLite instances would drift (which they don't). ashleyw's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=58923 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=87364 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss
