Spec me a (Sqeezebox-like) music player?

Tony Williams

Tony Williams

Tony Williams

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Ok, this is for the kitchen. We are using an out-dated hifi at the moment and my Mum is getting used to her Huwai Y300 Phone (Android) and she's liking it a lot, she has MP3's on there and is currently playing music via 3.5mm audio jack to the HiFi speaker or she is using a Bluetooth speaker (just a speaker w/ bluetooth), she is after something a bit better, ideally a DAB+Net radio with bluetooth built in.

My next idea is Raspberry PI? I was thinking of trying a distro that's hifi-like and playing all the song's that way. Then get a USB soundcard and hook up two speakers that are half decent and get a screen and add an enclosure?

Two main points are:

First is easy-to-use but has services like Last.FM, Pandora, maybe weather clock or something.
and for me, ideally something hackable that you can add a tonne of features and change a lot of settings.

Bluetooth+wifi
Internet services like Last.fm, Pandora (no need to buy on device)
FLAC playback maybe?
<>£100 ideally
Screen

I have:
Android phones
iPad, iPod
Asus Darknight RT N66U - Tomato (music may be stored here)
PC that is always on
Raspberry PI
Spare Z5500 speakers

I am looking at
Raspberry PI-idea's
Logitech Sqeezebox
 
Earlier this year I built a Squeezebox from an old Roberts radio, powered by a Raspberry Pi.

You can pick broken Roberts chassis up for next to nothing, and then you can style it however you want

http://plentyofgin.blogspot.co.uk

I've also got a second Pi with a Hifi-berry, hooked up to a Bose SoundDock. Squeezelite copes with FLAC and syncs between the rooms very well.

The HifiBerry has no problem playing 24 bit / 96 Khz HD audio.

HTH
 
markwombat said:
Earlier this year I built a Squeezebox from an old Roberts radio, powered by a Raspberry Pi.

You can pick broken Roberts chassis up for next to nothing, and then you can style it however you want

http://plentyofgin.blogspot.co.uk

I've also got a second Pi with a Hifi-berry, hooked up to a Bose SoundDock. Squeezelite copes with FLAC and syncs between the rooms very well.

The HifiBerry has no problem playing 24 bit / 96 Khz HD audio.

HTH
Click to expand...

Where did you get the hifiberry?
 
As nice as the roberts/pi hybrid is it seems a right faff on.
Have you looked at a logitech squeezebox Radio?
All in one, plug it in connect to wireless, done.

I think logitech recently redid them as UE Smart Radio.
mine has been used for years now quite content with it, that happy with it I bought a duet and a Touch too :p

God forbid when the rest of my SB gear dies, gonna be expensive to replace looking at the current options. the duet died and logitech couldn't replace it :(
 
~Divine~Wind~ said:
As nice as the roberts/pi hybrid is it seems a right faff on.
Have you looked at a logitech squeezebox Radio?
All in one, plug it in connect to wireless, done.

I think logitech recently redid them as UE Smart Radio.
mine has been used for years now quite content with it, that happy with it I bought a duet and a Touch too :p

God forbid when the rest of my SB gear dies, gonna be expensive to replace looking at the current options. the duet died and logitech couldn't replace it :(
Click to expand...

https://www.digitallivingroom.co.uk.../product/raspberry-pi-music-player?Itemid=512 a nice option, fully setup if you don't fancy it yourself
 
Do you need to have a speaker built in to the device or are you going to continue with the hi-fi? Airplay to an airport express or apple TV might be an option if you want something straight out of the box to use with apple devices. I'm not sure if you can airplay using android (I'm guessing not).

I hate to say it, but the squeezebox touch was less than satisfactory for spotify and airplay using spotify's own ipad/ipod app was miles better. I'm sure the SBT would have been fine using a server and a local network music library, but that seems rather last decade now with the internet streaming services available these days.

Perhaps something simple like a Bluetooth receiver would do the trick and would work with pretty much every portable device that you have - keep it simple if you're only having one music zone!
 
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