Multiroom Audio - Raspberry Pi

Hank_Marvin

Hank_Marvin

Hank_Marvin

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Hi,

Looking at using a Pi B+/Pi2 and one of these https://www.hifiberry.com/ampplus/ hifiberry amp+.

Don't suppose anyone has one? I read a review for another Pi amp which sounded very good but more expensive.

Matched with some ceiling speakers it should be good ,all tied in to my LMS squeezebox setup, headless, controlled by phone apps.


New house extension starting soon which this will be going into, bathroom and kitchen/diner and then bedrooms in existing house later.


What have other people done for multi room audio?


Same people do dac's for Pi's, which could then feed that into a separate amp, a multizone amp would be good but they are so expensive.


Thanks
 
I managed to pickup a multi channel amp for around £150 on eBay, think it's 12 channel?

Then you could run multiple instances of Squeezelite on the PI naming each one to whichever room that channels speakers are in. Link to one library, then on your phone you'll see multiple zones which you can play separate music in or play the same music in multiple rooms.

/EDIT

You'll just have to run a USB hub or something, with a USB Soundcard or DAC for each instance/room you want.
 
ooo didn't know you could have more than one instance on a pi. Was looking to run picoreplayer.
how do you control that amp? what controls volume?
 
You can control the volume through the phone for each 'zone/instance of squeezelite'

You could set max volume for each room through Alsa or equivalent output which goes to that room, if that makes sense?
 
PI
|
Squeezelite (5 instances)
|
5 USB Soundcards/DACS
|
5 x Cables to each amp channel (Y Splitter optional for stereo)
|
Amp channels to speakers
 
I meant your amp, do you just set that to max and leave it, presume its shut away.

You noticed any problem with usb soundcards and squeeze apps, read about people hearing popping noises every so often.

I'll have to work out which was will be cheaper, multiple pi's and hifiberry amps or your way above, will have to look around for multi zone amps and single zones ones.


Just found out about those O2 Jogglers too for squeezebox, seem awesome.
 
You could set PI to 100% volume then set the Amp to max volume for that room, or vice versa.

No problems with USB Soundcard. The onboard 3.5mm jack caused popping and clicking but with the first gen PI B so not sure what it would be like with the newer ones.

I think one PI and one Multizone Amp would definitely be cheaper, I paid £150 for my 12 zone amp, its a Sonance Sonamp 1230.
 
MarkLP said:
I think one PI and one Multizone Amp would definitely be cheaper, I paid £150 for my 12 zone amp, its a Sonance Sonamp 1230.
Click to expand...
A 1230 is 12 mono channels at 30W per ch. If you want/need stereo then the number of zones decreases. It's a lovely bit of kit too as the channel allocations can be set to Bus/L/R/Mono per channel; and there's level controls per channel, and staggered start-up to reduce the current in-rush. I have a few installed in client's homes.

Still, £150 for that is an absolute steal compared to the new price which is currently well north of £1000. It was a second-hand unit?
 
Sorry forgot to mention its 12 mono channels, what's your opinion on mono/stereo for ceiling speakers. Personally haven't tested but thought stereo may sound slightly odd.

Yes was a second hand unit, but mint condition and works perfectly.
 
It depends on the room, its layout and listeners positions.

I'll use two speakers in stereo in a bedroom where the main static listening position is on a bed. That works well because there's not much difference in position between the left and right sides of the bed. The rest of the time music will be playing as someone's moving about the bedroom getting ready.

For a living room where the seating means a much bigger spread of static positions then I tend to go with 4 speakers in a crossed stereo arrangement. I'll do the same in a dining room or kitchen with 4 speaker. If it's just two then sometimes mono works better, particularly if the client is trying to save money by making two speakers cover an area that should really be served by 4 or more.

Utility areas and small zones (bathrooms) I run either single point stereo of a single mono speaker subject to the size of room and type of listening being done.
 
Bathroom I was going to use a single stereo speaker. 2m x 3m

Kitchen/Diner I was planning on two speaker stereo setup in a central position, 4m x 7m.

Bedrooms at a later date, 3.5m x 3.5m, two speaker stereo.

A pi b+ and a hifiberry amp is £20 + £50 = 1 zone


Any other multichannel amp suggestions? That come into that kind of money


Thanks for your help and suggestions.
 
lucid said:
It depends on the room, its layout and listeners positions.

I'll use two speakers in stereo in a bedroom where the main static listening position is on a bed. That works well because there's not much difference in position between the left and right sides of the bed. The rest of the time music will be playing as someone's moving about the bedroom getting ready.

For a living room where the seating means a much bigger spread of static positions then I tend to go with 4 speakers in a crossed stereo arrangement. I'll do the same in a dining room or kitchen with 4 speaker. If it's just two then sometimes mono works better, particularly if the client is trying to save money by making two speakers cover an area that should really be served by 4 or more.

Utility areas and small zones (bathrooms) I run either single point stereo of a single mono speaker subject to the size of room and type of listening being done.
Click to expand...

When you do the crossed stereo arrangement does each speaker go to an individual mono channel or do you normally stick two speakers on a single channel and the other two on another single channel? I'm assuming the latter scenario would halve the output to each speaker but is that an issue for the type of listening most people would do with that type of setup (Assuming something like a 30W per channel output)?
 
Amp34 said:
When you do the crossed stereo arrangement does each speaker go to an individual mono channel or do you normally stick two speakers on a single channel and the other two on another single channel? I'm assuming the latter scenario would halve the output to each speaker but is that an issue for the type of listening most people would do with that type of setup (Assuming something like a 30W per channel output)?
Click to expand...
It depends on the amp and the speakers.

For something like the Sonance Sonamp 1230, each speaker would go back to a single channel - Two left channels and two right channels used then for the four speakers, so two stereo pairs.

It's also possible with a Sonamp and the correct type of speakers to run two speakers off each channel; so on the amp you'd only use one stereo pair of connections but run 4 speakers; two on the left channel and two on the right. However, this is only possible because of a combination of reasons:

First, the amp has a massive toroidal transformer and some big ass power reserve capacitors so it delivers a lot of current. So despite being rated at 30W per channel it'll whup the butt of any of the conventional 50~80W/ch shelf systems and mini Hi-Fi's running switchmode power supply amps (T-amps and Class D).

Second, you need really good high-efficiency (+88dB minimum) speakers with switchable 4/8Ω (Ohm) impedance.

Third, the cabling needs to be rated and spec'd correctly to ensure that the current is delivered with as minimal a transmission loss as possible.

Finally, the Sonamp has individual channel level controls - 12 of them. So as part of the final set-up procedure it's possible to balance the sound in the various rooms so that the room with the power division across the 4 speakers sounds no different in volume to the others in the house.
 
Yes, very.

Once you scratch the surface and start to understand the gear and its capabilities it becomes more and more evident why it's the price it is and, dare I say it, you start to consider it good value. That may sound odd for what is in effect 6 stereo amps or 12 mono amps in a box, but if I had to make the same functionality, power reserve and intelligence of design from regular Hi-Fi or AV gear then it would cost substantially more than the retail price of a Sonamp and still not work as well.
 
Cool, thanks for that Lucid. I should be getting a house in a few months and we want to put in a multi room audio system along with some automation so I'm trying to swat up a bit!
 
Quickly set it up using some active speakers and all working well, very easy to setup picoreplayer.

Got a Monitor Audio CT165-T2 from ebay the other day so will test that tonight on my amp, just need the pi amp now for final testing.
 
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