HQP NAA - Raspberry Pi

Audio Gear Talk HQ Player
41

In NL they sell the case at ie SOS Solutions. Both in wood and black plastic.

42

@fritzg: This one. For <€12 I could hardly be motivated to open the toolshed. :wink:

@mvrlogins: I had the same after installing and upgrading the Raspbian Lite image. Since I was already planning on doing a more minimal & optimised install (even Jessie Lite is rather bloated for this purpose), instead of figuring out why the service failed to load I did the netinstall procedure outlined above. Much faster upgrading to Stretch as well and the networkaudiod service installed without problems.

43

Thanks Rene. WIll give it a shot

44

This is usually because network is started with delay in background on Raspbian by default. You can “dpkg --purge dhcpcd” and use /etc/network/interfaces (see “man interfaces”) instead to get network started synchronously at boot time.

If network is not available while starting networkaudiod, it will eventually fail to start.

This is the case with all systems relying on systemd instead of init (Debian since Jessie). There’s a systemd service file for networkaudiod. You can control networkaudiod service using “systemctl”. For example “systemctl start networkaudiod” will start the service.

45

I’m curious if anyone is using a USB wifi adapter in their RPI NAA? Anyone have any data points on the speeds needed to play DSD64 or even 192kHz files? Is 802.11g enough?

Thanks,
muski

46

Yes, 802.11g should be enough for that, but not much higher. I’ve done quite a bit of testing on 802.11n and now on 802.11ac networks and works fine.

But as usual with WiFi it largely depends on how good wireless signal quality there is. If there are lot of other networks nearby or any of the devices don’t have good enough antennas, speed will suffer. Streaming audio over wireless requires fairly consistent bandwidth quality.

47

I’m not a Pi guy, but IMO @andybob’s instructional post above looks like it should be a sticky in its own thread.

1 Like
48

Thanks Steve, but I’ll leave it here with the posts from muski, Rene and Jussi. DietPi is just one of the available choices of OS. I plan on adding to my post with a further post about static IP, updating to Stretch (if DoP is possible), WiFi and some of the changes recommended by Jussi (when I figure them out !). Those plans are in abeyance while I listen to the music, which is the best I’ve ever heard my system sound.

49

I hear you on that Andybob. While I spend my ARM processor time with a Cubox-i vs. an RPI, it is quite shocking IMO how wonderful these little ARM based (typically Linux OS) devices can sound. And I’m THRILLED at the recent update with Squeezebox support, which should open Roon to a whole new ARM audience. :smile:

50

I tried the DietPi install today (way to spend a lazy sunday afternoon), but it is still too obese for my taste. Good choice for those unexperienced with / not overly interested in Linux though: easy, menu-driven configuration is a bonus. Just follow @andybob’s steps and you’ll be there in no time. Looking forward to pt. 2! :wink:

The Cubox looks like a neat little box itself, but alas – I need coaxial out, hence the Pi+Digiberry Digi+. I ordered a linear power supply today as well: expectations are low, but we’ll see if it brings any benefits. Good thing Pi-ing around is an inexpensive hobby


51

I put some time to the NAA again over the New Year holidays and built new OS images. Just uploaded microSD images for RaspberryPi B+ (tested) and RaspberryPi 2 (not tested yet). Also for BeagleBone and CuBox-i too.

NAA stuff is on a slow server, so don’t rush


2 Likes
52

All this Pi stuff all of a sudden
 :wink:

I just tried the Pi2 image – to no avail (no device found in HQP). This is a Pi2 with Digi+ – I see the overlay is present. Pi is pingable. Anything else to try?

53

USB DACs should work fine. I’m not sure about those Pi add-on boards since I don’t have any to test with
 I have not studied how those are supposed to be enabled, since I guess there’s no “plug-and-play” since there’s no PCIe or other fancy bus.

I only tested with iFi iDSD Nano.

54

Do you have a static IP configured Rene ? Not sure how the network is configured in Jussi’s image. It might be DHCP or it could be configured in etc/network/interfaces as in his post above. It may also be that because the Pi is pingable it’s not a network issue. Just guessing on my part.

I’m going to pop out and buy a couple of microSDs and play around with it too.

Incidentally, thanks very much for the tip about backing up the SD image. Unfortunately Windows image burners appear to be either virus infested or commercial. Eventually I used the read function in Win32DiscImager, which made an image of the whole 8GB microSD, including empty space. Better than nothing, but if anyone can suggest a free (or inexpensive) Windows image archiver I’d be grateful.

55

It is DHCP
 So the image is supposed to be write-boot-use. The OS itself is very cut down and minimal there.

1 Like
56

@jussi_laako: That explains it. The add-on boards are enabled by referencing the correct overlay in /boot/config.txt, in this case:

dtoverlay=hifiberry-digi

(See: https://www.hifiberry.com/guides/configuring-linux-3-18-x/)

My Pi is running fine with my own install though – I totally understand if you want to stick with USB and are not interested in playing around with a variety of add-on boards.

@andybob: Can’t help you with Windows, I’m afraid. Mac man here, and we’ve got the ApplePi-Baker. Yay! :wink:

57

OK, since the overlays (I don’t know why they call device tree files such way) are there, and the boot partition filesystem is FAT, you can just plug in the card to normal computer modify the config.txt accordingly. The modules should get auto-loaded correctly. I can take a further look once I get my hands on one of those add-on boards.

1 Like
58

Heh
 I should have thought about that


I can confirm the Digi+ board works just fine by adding ‘dtoverlay=hifiberry-digi’ to config.txt . Should be the same for the other overlays.

Thanks - great! It doesn’t get more minimal than this, I guess. :smile:

1 Like
59

Jussi, thanks very much for those images.

Folks, the barrier to creating a DSD512 capable Ethernet NAA on a Raspberry Pi just fell to 0 Linux commands. You don’t need to use a terminal at all. This is all you need to do:

  1. Buy and assemble your Raspberry Pi or Pi 2. Connect it by Ethernet to your router and USB cable to your DAC.
  2. Download the appropriate zip file for your Pi version from here
  3. Write the image in the zip file to a microSD card
  4. Put the card in the Pi and power it up
  5. Give the Pi a name in HQP/Tools/Network Naming
  6. In HQP/Settings select Backend/Network Audio Adapter and choose the Pi as device.
  7. Configure HQP with the filters and modulators of your choosing
  8. Listen to the music !

Edit: Listening to Time, Steve Howe (2011) using poly-sinc-short-mp and ASDM7. It’s just great.

2 Likes
60

Would there be any advantage (SQ wise) using a Raspberry Pi over the Cubox-i or Beaglebone as the NAA.