Thaddeus Smith Posted December 20, 2014 Author Share Posted December 20, 2014 He knows more about ITUNES than I do.He's 10 sounds like a great bonding opportunity 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Posted December 20, 2014 Share Posted December 20, 2014 I have 4 altogether, 13 year old triplets and a 10 year old. 2/2. I take them to concerts all the time. We've been to 6-7 in the last 6 years. My last one was Social Distortion in October.They all like Black Veil Brides, so we are going to see them in February. We were front row and got a drum stick and guitar pick handed to us from Mike Ness (Social D), and met the B-52's and Bon Jovi. Music has been the biggest thing we all do together. From playing Rock Band on PS3, to concerts,and playing musical instruments, it has been the biggest thing we have in common. In this whole new computer age thing, I can't get them into sports like I was. So the music thing is what keeps us in tune with each other. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tigerwoodKhorns Posted December 20, 2014 Share Posted December 20, 2014 Intro I'm by no means an expert on any of this. If you want to experience some information overload, just google "digital audio" or become a member of the computeraudiophile.com forum. I have no time to read this right now, but a sincere thank you for doing this! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tromprof Posted December 20, 2014 Share Posted December 20, 2014 Very interesting read. I have done it a bit differently but it is always fun to see a different approach (yours is certainly better thought out). I had not heard of the Subsonic plugin before, I am going to spend a little time and see if it will work in my setup. Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joessportster Posted December 20, 2014 Share Posted December 20, 2014 I consider myself computer capable, I read this and scratch my head I am glad the process can be easier for listening......................I too appreciate your effort but me thinks I am destined to "carry on wayward son" My setup, 2 TB external hard drive loaded with my music flac files connected to my laptop via usb3 which is connected to my dacvia usb 2, which is then connected to my amp and of course then my speakers player is J-River and now with flac files it is a superb set up for my needs...............as far as backing up I do all tat manually currently, but I would like to set up a nas in the future Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JL Sargent Posted December 21, 2014 Share Posted December 21, 2014 (edited) Does the NAS stay live all the time? Do you do a weekly power cycle? I guess I'm wondering if it will corrupt over time if just left powered up indefinitely. Very interesting stuff, thanks for sharing. Cool how the NAS uses the parity drive for backup data/files. Edited December 21, 2014 by JL Sargent Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tigerwoodKhorns Posted December 21, 2014 Share Posted December 21, 2014 Looks like the Raspberry is the link that is needed as an alternative to a separate computer. What is the out the door cost (with power supply, box etc)? When you turn the raspberry on, how long to boot up? This seems very important as opposed to a separate computer that takes tiem to boot, or wastes power sitting there 23 hours a day not in use. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thaddeus Smith Posted December 21, 2014 Author Share Posted December 21, 2014 (edited) Does the NAS stay live all the time? Do you do a weekly power cycle? I guess I'm wondering if it will corrupt over time if just left powered up indefinitely. Very interesting stuff, thanks for sharing. Cool how the NAS uses the parity drive for backup data/files. NAS stays online unless I make software changes and need to reboot, shutdown for expected power outage, etc. I run a month parity check that takes about 10 hours - it scans each disk of the array and compares it to the data stored on the parity disk to ensure that all data is correct and protected. Edit: the one thing I don't have setup on this NAS is any sort of file version control or file backups, so if you delete something it's gone for good. drive failure = SAFE, human failure = Not SAFE. Edited December 21, 2014 by Thaddeus Smith Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thaddeus Smith Posted December 21, 2014 Author Share Posted December 21, 2014 Looks like the Raspberry is the link that is needed as an alternative to a separate computer. What is the out the door cost (with power supply, box etc)? When you turn the raspberry on, how long to boot up? This seems very important as opposed to a separate computer that takes tiem to boot, or wastes power sitting there 23 hours a day not in use. Raspberry Pi B+: $36 micro SD card (8GB): $5 Monoprice USB cable (Standard, 1.5ft): $0.93 Monoprice USB cable (Micro, 6ft): $.077 Apple USB wall charger: spare, $0. Any phone charger will work.. just need something with 5v and 1-2A. USB wireless adapter (optional): $25 Custom aluminum case: $65 >>> this is the one extravagant piece of the setup. Most cases are cheap plastic things that snap together, but I wanted something nicer since it was going to be front and center with my other items. Found a guy in Lithuania that made a small production run of aluminum cases that he designed. Very nice, but effectively double the project cost. He currently only has one left. (http://www.ebay.com/itm/151498945530?_trksid=p2060778.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT) Software: $0 So even with the fancy case this is only about $100. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rudy81 Posted December 21, 2014 Share Posted December 21, 2014 Glad you started this thread. I will need to carefully review your setup and see if I can pick up any tips on a better way to run my system. I too run unRAID. Im my case, I'm running 5.0.6 with the plus key purchased. I have 5x1TB drives, a parity drive and a cache drive. Currently, I use JRiver Media Center for management of music files and the free JRiver app, Gizmo, to allow control of the system from any device, anywhere in reach of my wi-fi signal. Normally, I use my phone to control the songs playing, playlists etc. I will have to look at your plugins for Unraid to see if here is a better way to use the system. My Oppo player might be an option vs. using a HTPC. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tigerwoodKhorns Posted December 21, 2014 Share Posted December 21, 2014 Looks like the Raspberry is the link that is needed as an alternative to a separate computer. What is the out the door cost (with power supply, box etc)? When you turn the raspberry on, how long to boot up? This seems very important as opposed to a separate computer that takes tiem to boot, or wastes power sitting there 23 hours a day not in use. Raspberry Pi B+: $36 micro SD card (8GB): $5 Monoprice USB cable (Standard, 1.5ft): $0.93 Monoprice USB cable (Micro, 6ft): $.077 Apple USB wall charger: spare, $0. Any phone charger will work.. just need something with 5v and 1-2A. USB wireless adapter (optional): $25 Custom aluminum case: $65 >>> this is the one extravagant piece of the setup. Most cases are cheap plastic things that snap together, but I wanted something nicer since it was going to be front and center with my other items. Found a guy in Lithuania that made a small production run of aluminum cases that he designed. Very nice, but effectively double the project cost. He currently only has one left. (http://www.ebay.com/itm/151498945530?_trksid=p2060778.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT) Software: $0 So even with the fancy case this is only about $100. Thanks, little more info on the Raspberry. On all of the time? Bootup time? Any websites that have a good tour of the software? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thaddeus Smith Posted December 21, 2014 Author Share Posted December 21, 2014 On all of the time? power consumption is between .5W and 1W, so yea I leave it on all the time. Bootup time? 30 seconds or less? I haven't really timed it, but everything is up and running between plugging in the device and going back to sit down with ipad/laptop to browse the interface. Any websites that have a good tour of the software? The raspberry pi is just a hardware platform. software is limitless, depending on your need. the most popular packages for hifi audio right now seem to be Volumio and Rune Audio (variants of each other and the evolution of Raspyfi). I'm using Archphile, which is based off of the work put into Volumio, but stripped down to bare essentials for operation. All of these use MPD for the actual core music playback. http://volumio.org/ http://www.runeaudio.com/ http://archphile.org/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rudy81 Posted December 21, 2014 Share Posted December 21, 2014 Does the NAS stay live all the time? Do you do a weekly power cycle? I guess I'm wondering if it will corrupt over time if just left powered up indefinitely. Very interesting stuff, thanks for sharing. Cool how the NAS uses the parity drive for backup data/files. In one iteration of my unRAID, I was able to put the system into S3 sleep. The only problem came when there was a power outage. The system would want to run a parity check, which can take a long time. I'm also big on saving electricity if some piece of hardware is not being used. So, S3 sleep was a must for me. Unfortunately, in my last upgrade of unRAID, my box will no longer go into sleep mode due to some software changes made to the linux commands. Fortunately, I figured out that my motherboard, on the server, has the capability of being remotely booted via the network. So, I now turn the machine off and boot it remotely when necessary. Works like a champ. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quiet_Hollow Posted December 21, 2014 Share Posted December 21, 2014 Great thread. Very informative. Thanks for the tips Thad. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tigerwoodKhorns Posted December 21, 2014 Share Posted December 21, 2014 On all of the time? power consumption is between .5W and 1W, so yea I leave it on all the time. Bootup time? 30 seconds or less? I haven't really timed it, but everything is up and running between plugging in the device and going back to sit down with ipad/laptop to browse the interface. Any websites that have a good tour of the software? The raspberry pi is just a hardware platform. software is limitless, depending on your need. the most popular packages for hifi audio right now seem to be Volumio and Rune Audio (variants of each other and the evolution of Raspyfi). I'm using Archphile, which is based off of the work put into Volumio, but stripped down to bare essentials for operation. All of these use MPD for the actual core music playback. http://volumio.org/ http://www.runeaudio.com/ http://archphile.org/ I sould have said that differently, but you answered my question. Why usde the stripped down version of Volumino? Does the Raspberry run faster or better? Is there raspberry software that works for video as well (internet streaming, recording shows off the internest, etc?) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thaddeus Smith Posted December 21, 2014 Author Share Posted December 21, 2014 Fewer features means fewer processes running and better resource allocation for music playback. There's a funky incompatibility with linux and my specific dac chip (of course, right?) so I actually have to down-sample high res files to 16/44.1 on the fly. I don't need a fancy interface or automatic library scanning, extensive GUI's for system configuration, etc, etc. I just wanted a box that would connect to my NAS shares and play music through to the DAC. I could theoretically get a USB to SPDIF convertor with a chip that's more linux compatible and then take that digital signal to the Stealth DC-1's spdif input. But I'm struggling with justifying the cost for something that I may or not audibly notice. Is there raspberry software that works for video as well (internet streaming, recording shows off the internest, etc?) I think there are projects out there with a focus on video, Plex, etc. I have another Pi running arcade software for arcade and console virtualization in my Neo-Geo cabinet. Try not to think of it as a singular OS with add-on software like your typical windows/mac environment. Instead, there are projects focused on a need which utilize a specific version of linux and software packages specific to that need. If you're wanting to start out with just a basic desktop system, this is probably where you need to go: http://www.raspberrypi.org/downloads/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schu Posted December 21, 2014 Share Posted December 21, 2014 (edited) I think you are over complicating the process/set up Chris... Laptop/Tablet with a large ARSE hard drive(depending on how much material you actually have) or a Network storage device and a player (jRiver/iTunes etc) on a device is about all you need if you have an external DAC or a receiver/processor with a decent DAC. I bought a new 15" i3 500gb laptop for under $300 to try this out. I have been playing with jRiver/laptop/DAC vs direct Oppo/DAC and while the HD based set up does sound really fairly good, no matter how I configure it (including sampling and ripping format) the disc straight from the Oppo to the DAC via coax is still very superior in critical sound quality, range and liquidity... Unless I am doing something wrong, and I dont think I am. I wanted the digital storage to work, but I have not found it to be to my satisfaction... but then again, conveince and portability is not the main requirement with my set up. Edited December 21, 2014 by Schu Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tigerwoodKhorns Posted December 22, 2014 Share Posted December 22, 2014 I am looking at doing video and audio at the same time. I want something that boots quickly or stays on so if I wake up in the middle of the night I can find something to watch. The music playback is allso a bonus. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thaddeus Smith Posted December 22, 2014 Author Share Posted December 22, 2014 I am looking at doing video and audio at the same time. I want something that boots quickly or stays on so if I wake up in the middle of the night I can find something to watch. The music playback is allso a bonus. take a look at http://www.rasplex.com/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thaddeus Smith Posted December 22, 2014 Author Share Posted December 22, 2014 i only have three powered devices, one of which utilizes usb, so I just picked up this surge protector. it'll power the amp and dac with standard plugs, then the raspberry pi and a charging slot for iphone/ipad based controllers. http://www.monoprice.com/Product?c_id=109&cp_id=10907&cs_id=1090701&p_id=9195&seq=1&format=2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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