I’m finding it OK and its a lot less busy than Roon, but it does make you think about what to play rather than Roon suggesting things, I guess I’d get used to tidal doing that, I’m getting used to ipeng as a front end on M1 Mac, iPhone and iPad.
And don’t forget this plugin
You might be thinking of an older version (when it was iPlayer plugin).
The BBC Sounds plugin is using genuine API from BBC.
Always possible that it will break or be blocked in the future but it has been working reliably for ages.
Like many here, I started my streaming journey with a Squeezebox device.
Initially a SqueezeBox 3 with digital out into a Pink Triangle DAC (2nd NIC card), so I could switch between CD and the SB3. I also had an external LPS PSU (Channel Audio) powering the SB3.
LMS was running on my ReadyNAS Duo unit, and iPeng was on the iPhone for control.
The Pink Triangle had the 24-bit filter board, and would support up to 24/48, but most of my Library at that time was Redbook CD 16/44.1
All good for a number of years, but the SQ was still wanting compared to Vinyl and sometimes the playback of physical CD in the Meridian 200 CDT.
I tried replacing the SB3 with a SB Touch, but the SQ was not as good. I couldn’t play some of the 24/96 files I was gathering, and was having to pre-convert them to 24/48 and I was finding as the Library grew, iPeng and LMS on a low-spec NAS was not snappy enough.
The Squeezebox infrastructure was replaced with a Naim Network player (ND5XS), a DAC capable of upto 24/192, a much better overall sound and a better controller App (Naim nStream) which went on a newly purchased iPad Mini. However LMS wasn’t good at providing the Naim the UPnP based connectivity. Tried TwonkyServer for a while, but then discovered Asset, which could be run on a RPi and indexed the files on the NAS.
Now this all worked much better. Separation of functions - NAS for storing the files, the RPi/Asset UPnP Server for indexing and serving them plus transcoded to WAV for the Naim Network server.
And I have this configuration as my backup, especially given that Roon now has a hard requirement for an Internet connection to operate, even for locally stored files.
I still use the Roon Squeezebox setting, as playback through a SonoreUPnP Bridge, running on an UltraRendu/UltraCap LPS requires it, to get the UPnP stream, in WAV, to my current Naim Network player, a NDS with 555DR PSU.
But Squeezebox, the devices and LMS were well ahead of their time, easier to use than any DLNA solution at the time, allowing standard commodity computing equipment to be used for storage and control and only better by ‘closed’ manufacturer systems such as Soolous with its proprietary Disk modules and C31 control unit.
Would what would of happened if they hadn’t of sold to Logitech? Would a Roon-type enviroment happened sooner? Would the rise of Sonos, as ‘domestic standard’ equipment not happened?
Maybe it was it’s been over 5 years since it was my mainstay. BBC will be having the need to register and license streams to get an authentication token from next year so this is going to affect all 3rd party offerings.
Ok is about right I would say. It’s not slick, laid out well and overall it’s not fun to use or explore new music. Takes the fun out this part of things. It’s functional at best. It also doesn’t work well for UPnP based streamers without a lot of fiddling. If your a pi user or using pc to a DAC it’s fine. But I would rather use my Naim app for my main system than LMS as it’s way nicer to use.
Another issue is material skin being in a browser doesn’t perform Lock Screen control on my iPhone even though it’s configured to in the settings.
It’s also pretty ugly.
odd, the Squeezebox Touch (and Transporter) plays 24/96 files natively. I have no issues playing 24/96 FLAC files. True that the SB3 and Boom and Radio are limited to 24/48.
I used to run LMS on a low-spec ReadyNAS and it was terrible (with at the time maybe 90,000 mostly FLAC files). I switched to rPi3B+ (now rPi4B) and with my now 130,000 mostly FLAC files, LMS is very snappy.
I can confirm also that LMS is very snappy ingesting and serving my (very large) library. It doesn’t needlessly rescan the library every time it’s started up, it happily handles multi-room audio and it doesn’t require an internet connection to play local files. It’s perfectly happy streaming audio to my phone whilst on the go too. On top of all that it’s perfectly performant running on a Dell 3050 consuming 8W when idling and not a lot more when playing music. Sure, it doesn’t have Roon’s polish, but it doesn’t cost anything either.
Can someone convince me to renew my Roon subscription which is up next month. Aside from a prettier, but no more functional UI, and built-in MQA decoding (which as I don’t subscribe to Tidal anymore doesn’t add any value for me), I’m not seeing anything Roon does that LMS doesn’t. A pretty UI isn’t worth $150/yr. to me.
Plays to more Hifi components with out 3rd party workarounds. It’s combined library is way more advanced, if you don’t use focus, bookmarks, the great hyperlinks and your happy with how LMS works as it is then not much. Only you can make that decision. I have both but would never go back to LMS now it’s just not for me.
The real question is the “pain” of the cost. I spend so much on new music and concert tickets, etc. that the cost of Roon is rounding error, even if I was paying the most expensive way (monthly, billed monthly). If this is painful for your budget then you should likely look for free options, of which there are many. I use LMS and Roon and like them both. EDIT: I should note that I’m mostly a local library and internet radio/BBC person. I don’t subscribe to TIDAL or Qobuz. My wife listens to spotify via LMS and I use it to test out new things, that if I like, I buy digital lossless downloads if possible.
For example, I used to cringe when I would see $200,000 cars parked on the street in New York City. Then it hit me that to that person, the $200,000 was equivalent to me buying dinner. It’s all relative.
One thing I love about Roon though is that the Internet Radio is of insanely good quality compared to others. Is that worth 850 dollars however…
If LMS could improve music discovery, and integrate a DSP/convolution engine…
I would certainly revisit the software.
If on Windows, maybe Muso could fit that bill, at least for your local library - used it as a “front end” to LMS for quite some years in the distant past.
Can be done with BrutefirDRC, but it’s messy - been there in the distant past.
Or look at Daphile, easier but it’s an OS - been there a couple of years.
Or look at Volumio - been there, too.
You just need to be dedicated enough, to live through all the trouble involved.
There is this.
I’m pretty sure there’s a plugin that works with a last fm account to provide something very similar to Roon Radio.
There is a last.fm plugin yes.
One very important feature is spotify integration which Roon dont have.
With regards to dsp, you should really check out camilladsp which works wonderfully with squeezelite.
No need for Roon anymore.
I have looked at Camilladsp, from what I can see the software requires a fixed sampling rate, is this correct?
Pi + CamillaDSP tutorial.
Thanks Marin,
I have tried Volumio and Daphile.
In fact I have tried mostly all music software over the years.
I think LMS with CamillaDSP would be a decent option.
But cDSP doesn’t support sample rate changes - I believe.
“Don’t Stop The Music” and “LastMix” go well together - provided you have source(s) of music from local files or external service (Spotify, Tidal, Deezer, Qobuz)
