Answered Streaming options, SONOS and/or R Pi/something else

Braxios

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Hi,

While enjoying some of the good weather at the weekend and making use of the conservatory for the first time this year I lazily pondered to myself that it'd be nice to get some audio in there for some background music. I had no idea what the tech was like at the moment but I thought it'd be interesting to see if I could get something relatively cheap that would stream from Spotify or something.

Then I started googling and now my head hurts. I like music but I've never had much in the way of sound systems and all this hifi stuff is quite alien to me and it maybe isn't as mature (in terms of internet stuff) as I was hoping yet.

I've been somewhat taken in by the idea of multiroom systems and though I'm not going to spend hundreds of pounds setting it all up now, I'd kind of like a system that I could add to from time to time.

A SONOS Play:1 looks like it'd do most of what I want though I don't subscribe to any services so I'd be a bit limited there and would want to get my ripped CDs available from something other than my desktop PC.

A Raspberry Pi also looks attractive, I may not know a lot about audio systems but I'm happy enough building and configuring PCs. Either setup as a NAS for SONOS to use or as a streamer in it's own right with something like Volumio.

What I don't know with the RPi is what I'd end up spending on the speaker bit if I didn't have something like a SONOS.
I know £170 isn't exactly a lot for a speaker and it sounds like the SONOS Play 1 is pretty reasonable but I'm a little nervous of 'locking myself in' to SONOS and spending at least £170 every time I want to expand the setup or whether I can get reasonable quality sound from a different setup.

Could I start out with 1 RPi with Hifiberry Amp+, a flash drive for mp3s and some cheap speakers (like Tibo EDGE MINI Black | Speakers Per Pair | Richer Sounds which cost a grand total of about £90 for something 'reasonable' and then add more RPi/amp + speakers in other rooms later that stream off the first one? Or is there another way of sharing the 1st RPi to speakers in other rooms?

I know I'm being really cheap here but if I can set up audio in 3/4 rooms for the same price as 2 SONOS Play 1s without a big difference in sound quality and with a bit of extra config I'm willing to try it. if I'm having a complete laugh expecting something worth listening to on that kind of setup I need to know and adjust my thinking :)

(I'll admit I kind of like the idea of tinkering with the Raspberry Pi but I do want something that once setup works without a lot of faf, which again seems to be a strong point for SONOS.)

Thanks!
 
I'd vote for the Sonos option.
I bought one last year for the kitchen and despite my misgivings about the cost, we are very pleased with it.
We mainly use it to stream Spotify but also have loads of cds ripped to a nas which also stream perfectly.
No faffing about, plug it in, link to your Spotify account and add the link for your stored music and you're away.
It sounds great and I am pondering whether to get another to create a stereo pair.
You can pick them up for less than £170, I paid £140 and have recently seen links on ukhotdeals for about £130 if purchased through Amazon Spain.
 
Forgot to add that all tablets/mobiles in the house have the Spotify app installed so we can all control playback easily from within earshot.
 
I would go with the RPi option as this gives you much more flexibility in the future. You could upgrade the sound at any location by the addition of a USB DAC connected to an external amp for example. It also gives you the flexibility of choosing your own control app of which there are several good ones - Volumio, BubbleUPnP etc. Also this will be a more flexible platform when new streaming services appear such as Tidal.

Sonos means you are locked into their ecosystem and the sound quality they decide to give you and when they decide to support new services.
 
Sonos can play multi-zones in sync, I'm not aware any home-brew setup can achieve that.
 
Using the RPi as a squeezebox will give you synchronised play.

You will need a device to run the Logitech Media Server which can be a Pi running Squeezeplug SqueezePlug

Other Pi's as that are going to be used as just players I would recommend using PiCorePlayer on, this is a really small OS that runs entirely in memory once booted and turns a Pi into a dedicated headless Player, because it runs in memory you can treat it like an appliance, you can even power down by unplugging from the mains with no risk of corruption to the OS. piCorePlayer

I believe Volumio also has an option to enable it as a squeezebox client but I've never got round to trying it.

For control with Android I'd recommend Orange Squeeze, it's better than Squeeze Commander IMO which has been discontinued from further development, there's also a few free options for a control app, including the official Logitech app or one called squeezer. On iOS I'd recommend iPeng.

Another extra bonus with using Squeezebox and LMS is that there are software players available for most systems, including Android and iOS. I use an old Android phone hooked up to some old active PC speakers in my garage as an extra zone.

My preference is to use a normal amp and one of the add-on DACS, either the normal HiFiBerry for a stereo amp or the Digi version for an amp with digital inputs, but I have heard the amp version is more than acceptable, especially for background listening.

I have done a quick side by side listen against a Sonos Connect vs an old Pi B with a HiFi berry and IMO the pi was superior for SQ.
 
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Heh, good old mixed opinions! I realised my maths was a bit out last night and the RPi setup would be a bit more than I mentioned as well.

It also gives you the flexibility of choosing your own control app of which there are several good ones - Volumio, BubbleUPnP etc. Also this will be a more flexible platform when new streaming services appear such as Tidal.

Yeah, this is one of my reasons for looking at an option like RPi. SONOS looks pretty good at the moment but if they go a bit pear shaped in a couple of years I'd be looking at putting up with what I've got or replacing them completely. If I decide to use Volumio and that goes pear shaped, well there are number of other distros to try and the rest is just generic hardware.

So I could have an RPi running Squeezeplug acting as server and player, with a DAC connected to amp and speakers that dealt with one room? (flash drive and wireless adaptor included)
Then a similar setup for each other room but the RPI just acting as a player?
 
Yep exactly that.

Plus the possibility of other devices like your PC, phone and tablet etc all being used as extra zones, you could even add some 2nd hand genuine Squeezebox hardware at a later date if you wish, for example a squeezebox radio with a battery could give you a portable player for the garden or even a BT or Airplay speaker connected to your phone or tablet.

Just one caveat regarding sync, there are options for setting delays for perfect sync. I've found using identical hardware syncs nicely but there can be differences if using dissimilar hardware, it depends how close the zones are.
 
Great thanks.
Will do a bit more reading up on Squeezeplug later but I think I'm pretty happy with that part of the concept now.

With the audio hardware bit, I realise I was probably extracting the urine talking about £20 speakers that may not even be that easy to get hold of.
What should I be looking at for an Amp and speakers?
Is it possible to get a pair of speakers and a small amp worth buying for £100?
 
Yes I'd say so. Some of the T-Amps are worth having (Topping for example), maybe you could pick up something 2nd hand from these forums or even Richer Sounds
 
Sonos can play multi-zones in sync, I'm not aware any home-brew setup can achieve that.

Jriver can do it , and across any device that uses upnp , I have two squeezbox units , marantz and yamaha amps , and a Sonos connect amp , and Jriver can have them all play in sync. The only one that needed extra software was squeezbox , and for that all I had to do was install whitebear media server for a link between jriver and squeezbox server.
 
A flexible option is Panasonic SC-ALL3 or ALL8 speakers. They use DLNA and Qualcomm Allplay and so not tied to Sonos. You can stream from Spotify or NAS or PC to the speakers using current network. Any Qualcomm speaker can be used (limited at present to 3 manufacturers at present) for multiroom but can use any DLNA renderer for sole playing of music. I stream from QNAP NAS to Yamaha AVR or Pioneer mobile speaker xw-sma3w (£80) or to Panasonic SH-ALL1 (and into my hi-fi system). All contolled by Spotify connect or Bubble Upnp or Panasonic app. Panasonic doing offer at present
Panasonic SC-ALL3 Black with FREE SC-ALL3 Black for £229 at most stores including richersounds. That would give you 2 rooms at same time. (stops end of month)
 
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I think I've managed to get a couple of free speakers (I need to have a closer look at them and check they still work but they're from a defunct Kenwood system my parents bought about 25 years ago that I know used to sound pretty good) so given the cost of the other components I'm going to have a go at the Raspberry Pi idea. If I can't get it to work as expected then I can at least just use it as a NAS for my digital music to stream to something else.

Thanks for the input
 
I would go with the RPi option as this gives you much more flexibility in the future. You could upgrade the sound at any location by the addition of a USB DAC connected to an external amp for example. It also gives you the flexibility of choosing your own control app of which there are several good ones - Volumio, BubbleUPnP etc. Also this will be a more flexible platform when new streaming services appear such as Tidal.

Sonos means you are locked into their ecosystem and the sound quality they decide to give you and when they decide to support new services.
Hi, any suggestions of settling up my new CXA81 amp with pi4 working as streamer to my music files controlled by an app or windows
 

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