'home media centre'

[eFestivals]

Transcoding (I presume this is was you mean by transposed ?)

yeah - transposed from one audio format to another.

They best way to test it is to encode a track to both a airplay and stero friendly format to stop the transcoding and see if that works ?

I reckon the best way to test it is to take the NAS out of everything, and see if it works to the stereo from my PC.

But it's one of these things (like DLNA) which has almost no windoze implementions, and those that there are are a bit flakey ... so it's taking me a while to get a working set-up to try it.

[eFestivals]

hmmmm .... well, I've got it streaming via airplay from windoze (using airfoil, and winamp), and I'm still getting some drop-out now and then - but much less than I was getting previously.

So it looks as tho a part of the problem is network speed via a powerline adapter. I'll give things a try with a long network cable instead.

[eFestivals]

What is the speed of the power line adapter ? Unless its woefully slow any audio file shouldn't be a problem for it. Mine doesn't break a sweat doing full HD movies!

as I said, mine doesn't break sweat doing HD movies either. It's just Airplay which is temperamental. The adapter utility is saying 20Mbps, which is more than enough.

By-passing the powerline adapter completely by plugging the stereo straight into the router got an almost smooth stream but still not perfect.

From my desktop PC I've just tested things again, playing from a control point on my NAS (while also having a unix console open) - and there's no big processing overhead, so the NAS is up to the job. Plugged back into the powerline adapter I also seemed to get as smooth a stream as did when directly wired.

Weird; everything is the same, but the result is very different.

I'll try testing from a few more devives around the network, I think.

[eFestivals]

So the problem is your stereo surely at this point ? Its the only thing that isn't changing... Yet everything you do results in something less than acceptable ?

perhaps, tho it's a very rated brand and model (where almost all 'net comments are extremely positive, and from proper hifi nerds), and i've not seen any comments (and i've read a LOT of comments) saying there's issues with its Airplay implementation (whereas i have read many negative comments about its DLNA implementation).

What's also been a constant (along with the stereo) in all of the testing I've done is the router - and as I said in my first post about this is that cheap and nasty routers are known to cause issues with airplay.

Unfortunately the only other router I have is the previous model by the same manufacturer to the one I'm using now, so I can't use that for reliable testing. When I have some time I'll try an-almost direct connection thru (just) a hub and see if that gets rid of the last of the glitches.

[eFestivals]

I must misread something as I thought you had done a direct connection at some point and still had the problem.

I think I might have said 'direct connection' at some point, tho I was referring to taking the powerline adapter out of things then.

Like I said above I have had problems with routers and airplay so yeah I would agree it could be that. The problem is unless you go out and buy an apple router (£££) its going to be difficult to buy one which will 100% guarantee no problems.

yep - which is precisely why I've not already gone and bought one.

It's also the case that i'm more limited in my options for an alternative than most people, as I need something which supports both of fixed IPs and 2 VoIP lines.

I tried wangling a new router out of BT the other day and nearly succeeded - until we discovered that the only newer one that they supply as standard doesn't support VoIP.

[eFestivals]

I've got Airplay working flawlessly now, tho I've little idea why it's suddenly come good. I have changed the powerline adapter I'm using (I've just got a new one with three ethernet ports), tho as I tested it without using the powerline adapter it wouldn't have improved that.

But the whole thing has been a bit of a waste of time. The whole point was so I could get gapless audio, but so far I've not found a way of actually achieving that from any of the devices that would be used as the control point. Bum.

[t8yman]

I went for a Sonos bridge and Play 3. I'm very impressed with it. Sounds great, and so far has been a doddle to set up and use.

[eFestivals]

I went for a Sonos bridge and Play 3. I'm very impressed with it. Sounds great, and so far has been a doddle to set up and use.

it's great kit, but stupidly expensive.

[t8yman]

It cost about the same as my squeezebox back in the day, so not that big of a shocker for me tbh. I spoke too soon regarding ease of use, the fucker is causing an IP conflict on my router, which causes the router to reboot randomly every now and then. I spent all afternoon yesterday setting up the music library on an externall HDD connected to the router via usb (a function my router offers, not really a NAS as such) with the aim of placating the wife (she never could get the squeezebox to do what she wanted) I set up the app on her phone, then as I was showing her, the bastard rebooted, proving me wrong at how simple it is to use.

Its my own fault, because my network is a little complicated, and not very well managed tbh, old fixed IP addresses here and there, firewall rules for long gone devices etc. I'm gonna have to do a factory reset on the router and add components one by one until it all functions correctly. My router broadcasts 2 different wifi networks, one at 500 and at 300 (for some reason) and I'm gonna have to find a way to make it as simple as possible, because it confuses me a lot of the time. each of those two wifi networks use different channels, either of which could be causing clash issues with the sonos.

When it works, its ace, and the sound is very impressive for a small unit.

[t8yman]

A lot of WIFI routers will offer dual band wireless signals... Usually one at 2.4ghz and one at 5ghz... But the underlying router settings are shared between the two wireless signals.

I would factory reset your router, get the MAC addresses for all you devices and create the ones that need them IP reservations on the router and set the devices to connect via DHCP. The ones that don't need reserved IPs can just be allowed to get them via DHCP get whatever IPs are available. Its better to setup reserved IPs on the router rather than setup static IP addresses on the devices if possible.

No matter what WIFI channel you are connected to or if you use the ethernet ports, the IP reservations should be the same across them all...

Hope that helps...

Yeah it was 2.4 and 5, I'm just home and tried rebooting the router and gradually adding the devices one after the other as I have seen advised on various help forums. That didnt work, so I have done a factory router reset, and am so far (fingers crossed) not having any issues, the internet radio has been playing constantly with no drops, and the library is indexing with no IP warnings so far.

I havent plugged everything in yet, but it seems more stable. Must have been those redundant fixed IP's I had put in.

Thanks for the pointers.

[eFestivals]

because my Raspberry Pi wasn't so much use for watching live footie and couldn't do stuff like netflix to keep the missus happy, I've now taken if it away from the TV and hooked up an old PC instead.

So now my Pi is now being used as a wireless DLNA music receiver in the kitchen, as a way to play music from the collection on the media server. It works particularly well for that as there's very limited wall and surface space to put anything of any size.

It's an extremely cheap way of achieving a 'wireless speaker' effect when I've got everything I need to do that. To achieve similar with Sonos kit would cost around £175 last time I looked.

Of course it's not the same quality. That's currently limited by the use of the Pi's internal DAC and audio output and the very cheap and nasty speakers that are plugged into it.

I'm just about to buy some new cheap speakers to use with it, and am going to give these a try as a cheap temporary solution:-

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/pc-accessories/pc-speakers/pc-speakers/logik-lpcs2113-2-1-pc-speakers-20759737-pdt.html

(I was planning to buy some different speakers for a tenner, but as these appear to be better I'll give them a go. You can't go wrong at ten quid, and they'll always be able to be put to use on one of the PCs in the house).

Anyway, the real point of this post is....

To get true quality sound via the Pi, what I really need is a USB DAC and then some quality powered speakers (or amp and speakers). Amps & speakers I know enough about, I know nothing about USB DACs ... does anyone here know anything about them?

Ideally, I'd like recommendations for a very cheapy, and for one at near £100. Does anyone have any recommendations?

(FYI: the music they'll be playing will be mp3's at 320kbps, so there's not a lot of point in me buying the very best that are available).

[t8yman]

Ive signed up for a spotify trial, and in conjunction with the sonos, its great. I'm amazed at how great the selection of music is. Some real old school 80's thrash metal, including some really obscure stuff. It was a real trip down memory lane. And I'm sure other genres are equally well represented.

[modey]

Spotify is great, I signed up for a trial a few months ago, and have been using trials ever since using the google email trick .

Really want a sonos but just can't justify that sort of money, so using spotify through my wdtv live linked to my surround sound system

Edited February 10, 2014 by modey

[t8yman]

the google email trick?

[modey]

Just register for a trial using your gmail account, once that trial is up register for another one using the same email address but putting a # +! Or something similar in the name ie example@gmail.com would become exam!ple@gmail.com

Gmail doesn't recognise symbols in the address so you will still get the emails but spotify recognises it as a new email address, so another free trial.

Obviously this can be done many times over putting the symbol in a different place

[eFestivals]

Really want a sonos but just can't justify that sort of money

don't buy a sonos - there's much better sounding kit at much cheaper prices.

What Sonos has going for it is ease of set-up, but it does nothing that you can't achieve by other means, and without much difficulty.

Edited February 11, 2014 by eFestivals

[windy_miller]

Just register for a trial using your gmail account, once that trial is up register for another one using the same email address but putting a # +! Or something similar in the name ie example@gmail.com would become exam!ple@gmail.com

Gmail doesn't recognise symbols in the address so you will still get the emails but spotify recognises it as a new email address, so another free trial.

Obviously this can be done many times over putting the symbol in a different place

You can also use a + and put stuff after it, e.g you could use example+spotify@gmail.com for your spotify account and example+ebay@gmail.com for your ebay account. If you start getting spam on one of these addresses, you know exactly which company has sold your details.

Edited February 11, 2014 by windy_miller

[modey]

don't buy a sonos - there's much better sounding kit at much cheaper prices.

What Sonos has going for it is ease of set-up, but it does nothing that you can't achieve by other means, and without much difficulty.

What would you say was much cheaper and better than a sonos?

[eFestivals]

What would you say was much cheaper and better than a sonos?

take your pick from the hi-fi mags recommendations.

how much you can save depends on exactly what you're wanting to achieve.

[modey]

Ah right, i thought you had something in mind.

[Spindles]

You can also use a + and put stuff after it, e.g you could use example+spotify@gmail.com for your spotify account and example+ebay@gmail.com for your ebay account. If you start getting spam on one of these addresses, you know exactly which company has sold your details.

That is a really good tip. I have used one shot email addresses for purchases in the past to identify the companies that pass on my details (and then never use them again).

[eFestivals]

That is a really good tip. I have used one shot email addresses for purchases in the past to identify the companies that pass on my details (and then never use them again).

i have a domain that I use especially for the purpose of signing up for maillists so I can see if the details 'leak' to somewhere else - and unlike that google trick it won't encounter problems related to email verification or list cleaning.

And via doing that I've seen email addresses leak from banks, telecom companies, utilities companies, retailers, and councils. There's not one sector of the economy it doesn't happen from.

Can anyone prove it's happened? Nope, cos when challenged those companies will remove the address you gave them from their lists and say "we didn't leak it cos we never had it".

[eFestivals]

does anyone know any websites that do hooky footie streams - but that aren't flash (so I can stream them on my tablet)?

[The Nal]

does anyone know any websites that do hooky footie streams - but that aren't flash (so I can stream them on my tablet)?

Try here

[Essex_George]

Does it have to be through a browser or can you use something like Sopcast?