Another failed attempt: Yesterday I loaded Squeezeplug + Max2Play onto one of the newer quad-core Raspberry Pis and tested with a few 96k 5.1 FLACs. It sounded GREAT...except for the fact that the HDMI kept briefly disconnecting and reconnecting. I made a few changes and was encouraged when I got almost all the way through "Chicago V" without a dropout...and then it started dropping out like crazy.
PC for Multichannel Music Playback - What's your Setup?
- Thread starter The Bright Side
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Jim the Oldbie
My right elbow hurts.
Howdy Folks,
My setup is pretty conventional as far as the HTPC part goes. Windows 7 desktop, running Foobar for audio & JRiver for video, most media is stored on a Synology NAS box. But I just finished a major upgrade to the audio system it's connected to, and although it has its quirks, I'm enjoying it very very much.
I'm using an HDMI splitter into 2 miniDSP nanoAVR HD units into 2 Yamaha AVRs (modded for preamp outs) into 2 Outlaw Audio 7075 7-channel power amps into 5 Sony SS-M3 speakers, modified for full-active operation (passive crossovers removed), plus 2 no-name butt-ugly homebuilt sealed subs using 12" Kenwood car audio woofers, stuffed into a couple of old Large Advent boxes (remember those?) and tuned down to 16 Hz. Video consists of a new Zotac GTX960, driving the audio stuff plus a Samsung 55" 4K "Black-Friday cheapo" TV and an oldie-but-goodie Optoma HD73 720p projector.
Here's a link to a shorter story of the audio project, and here's one to the longer, "Jim slowly figures stuff out" version.
The whole thing is a little cranky, but man... This system pretty much just disappears most of the time. Sounds great with everything from Debussy to Soundgarden. It's hard to switch it off and go to bed most nights. :banana: And of course the multichannel stuff is just a blast. I'm having fun hanging out with fellow fanatics here at QQ.
-- Jim
My setup is pretty conventional as far as the HTPC part goes. Windows 7 desktop, running Foobar for audio & JRiver for video, most media is stored on a Synology NAS box. But I just finished a major upgrade to the audio system it's connected to, and although it has its quirks, I'm enjoying it very very much.
I'm using an HDMI splitter into 2 miniDSP nanoAVR HD units into 2 Yamaha AVRs (modded for preamp outs) into 2 Outlaw Audio 7075 7-channel power amps into 5 Sony SS-M3 speakers, modified for full-active operation (passive crossovers removed), plus 2 no-name butt-ugly homebuilt sealed subs using 12" Kenwood car audio woofers, stuffed into a couple of old Large Advent boxes (remember those?) and tuned down to 16 Hz. Video consists of a new Zotac GTX960, driving the audio stuff plus a Samsung 55" 4K "Black-Friday cheapo" TV and an oldie-but-goodie Optoma HD73 720p projector.
Here's a link to a shorter story of the audio project, and here's one to the longer, "Jim slowly figures stuff out" version.
The whole thing is a little cranky, but man... This system pretty much just disappears most of the time. Sounds great with everything from Debussy to Soundgarden. It's hard to switch it off and go to bed most nights. :banana: And of course the multichannel stuff is just a blast. I'm having fun hanging out with fellow fanatics here at QQ.
-- Jim
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Sounds pretty kickass JM gonna check out the links tomorrow it 3am here - but pretty freaking koooooooooooo :banana:
This is a bit off-topic since this is mostly about stereo, but if anyone is thinking about going this route for their normal CDs, it's pretty difficult to beat the Raspberry Pi hardware:
You need both of these:
- Raspberry Pi 2 Model B - $41.95 on Amazon
- 2.5 amp power supply - $9.99 on Amazon
and one of these:
- HifiBerry Digi+ (to provide S/PDIF output) $29.90
- HifiBerry DAC+ (if you only need analog out) $29.90
optional, but nice to have:
Case - $11.90
So, for $93.74 plus tax and shipping, you get a tiny little box with excellent sound quality that (if you go the S/PDIF route) will output 2.0 PCM up to 192k, Dolby Digital and DTS. You would think you could use the HDMI out for pure digital without having to buy an S/PDIF add-on, but for some reason HDMI is not bit-perfect, so it won't work with DTS or DD. I've had no problem with 192k PCM via coaxial but was getting dropouts with the optical. Not sure if it's a hardware limitation or just an inferior optical cable--some optical cables work with 192k, some don't. I just haven't had time to experiment with this one yet.
The software is free. The only other thing you'd need is storage, which could be an NAS, a Windows/Mac shared drive or something directly attached.
This effectively gives you a Logitech Squeezebox for $100 instead of the $300 they went for new or the even higher prices they go for now that they're out of production but still in demand. I can't say this strongly enough: If you have doubts about how useful music servers can be, it's because you've never used Logitech Media Server.
Interesting. But if you are planning to do any upsampling of the music files, a listener would want more CPU processing power than the Raspberry Pi can provide.
The more recent Pi is a quad core that's definitely capable of transcoding, at least in the sense of converting 192k down to 96k. Maybe it's more work to go in the other direction, I've never tried.
It's also capable of running Logitech Media Server reasonably well...the original Pi could technically run it, but everthing I've ever read suggests it's painful.
LMS will also serve up stereo DSD, but I'm not really clear on all the permutations.
Yes, it is more work - and CPU cycles upsampling - vs. "the other direction" as you say.
I finally got off my cute little behind and posted my woes to the Kodi forums. One of the developers gave me a few tips, beginning with downloading the latest OpenELEC beta and ending with some suggested configuration changes.
I spent several hours listening to 4.0 and 5.1 material yesterday without a single dropout. The catch is that one of the configuration changes was to limit the HDMI output to 384000 bits per second...which makes 4.0 work at 96k but forces 5.1 to be downsampled to 48k. The downsampling does not cause any issues that I can hear and most importantly does not break gapless playback.
The developer hinted that if this configuration cures the dropouts it may be possible to make further changes to allow it to work with 5.1/96k without downsampling.
I still have not been able to get the Cubox-i4pro to work without bursts of static at 96k. 48k material works fine. Attempting to force downsampling of 96k to 48k results in different types of trouble depending on which software version I'm trying to use. No one over at Solid Run (makers of the Cubox) seems interested in helping.
So, the short version is that a $35 Raspberry Pi can, with a bit of fiddling, produce clean 5.1. As of now you have to settle for 48k, but I can't stress this enough: THIRTY-FIVE DOLLARS.
Hey all - I had asked this exact question several months ago and I got the answer...now I need the same answer for my son's laptop...
So, we are simply trying to play audio from laptop, through stereo system via HDMI. I recall having issues with my laptop as when all plugged in, no sound to stereo, still played through laptop speakers. Someone gave me the fix, and it worked...now my son has his laptop here and he is connecting to same stereo, with same HDMI cable...NO sound. Only through laptop speakers. Dammit. There is some simple setting in laptop to allow sound through stereo...can't find it.
Anyone?? So freaking frustrating...shouldn't have to change any settings. Not sure why so complicated??
So, we are simply trying to play audio from laptop, through stereo system via HDMI. I recall having issues with my laptop as when all plugged in, no sound to stereo, still played through laptop speakers. Someone gave me the fix, and it worked...now my son has his laptop here and he is connecting to same stereo, with same HDMI cable...NO sound. Only through laptop speakers. Dammit. There is some simple setting in laptop to allow sound through stereo...can't find it.
Anyone?? So freaking frustrating...shouldn't have to change any settings. Not sure why so complicated??
OS version? Typically in windows you can find sound settings in the control panel, and from there select your playback device. The HDMI should show up, so long as it's connected and your receiver is powered on so the laptop can see it.
That's exactly what everyone on line says....but, all things are connected, receiver is on...but the HDMI is not an option. For that matter....it's not even an option on mine...which works. Windows 8 for my son, 10 for me. MIne works, his doesn't. Neither show HDMI whatsoever....
OH.....make sure you're sending video out the HDMI out. Even if you don't want to.
Not sure what you mean my man...
Right click on a blank part of the desktop and click screen resolution. From there, you'll have the option to send video to different displays, set it to extend or be duplicated....you should be able to select your hdmi device under the display dropdown, and set it to be a duplicated display so that it'll just send the same display as you're viewing on the laptop screen. Once that's on, that turns on the hdmi output, and then it should show up as a sound device under teh sound settings.
Well, the video isn't the problem. When we plug in HDMI to laptop, instantly, a picture is duplicated on my TV, we just can't get sound to travel from laptop to stereo. We've bent over backwards trying different things....nothing works. To clarify - on my laptop, when HDMI is plugged in, we get picture duplicated on TV and we can get sound via Denon. We also get DENON AVR as a choice when right clicking on laptop speaker icon.
With my son's, we plug in HDMI, we get duplicate picture on TV, no sound through DENON, nor do we see DENON AVR as a choice when right clicking on laptop speaker icon. So...what gives?
These are the sort of things that make me want to blow something up....seriously.
With my son's, we plug in HDMI, we get duplicate picture on TV, no sound through DENON, nor do we see DENON AVR as a choice when right clicking on laptop speaker icon. So...what gives?
These are the sort of things that make me want to blow something up....seriously.
On the sound window when viewing the playback devices, right click on any device, and see if the option to show disabled devices is checked. If it isn't, check it, and maybe that will get it to show up as a disabled device. If that happens, you may be able to right click on it and select the option to enable it.
Doesn't your TV set has some sort of audio outputs? Mine does. I plug them into my BetaTheatre VCR.Well, the video isn't the problem. When we plug in HDMI to laptop, instantly, a picture is duplicated on my TV, we just can't get sound to travel from laptop to stereo. We've bent over backwards trying different things....nothing works. To clarify - on my laptop, when HDMI is plugged in, we get picture duplicated on TV and we can get sound via Denon. We also get DENON AVR as a choice when right clicking on laptop speaker icon.
With my son's, we plug in HDMI, we get duplicate picture on TV, no sound through DENON, nor do we see DENON AVR as a choice when right clicking on laptop speaker icon. So...what gives?
These are the sort of things that make me want to blow something up....seriously.
Well, the TV is routed to the DENON via HDMI.
yeah, already tried that....disabled devices has been checked. Nothing shows as disabled...
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