Raspberry Pi as server

Hi all,
I’m thinking of embarking on a little project to give me a silent, low power, always-on music server, partly because I’ve just remembered that I have a Raspberry Pi (RPi) 4B sitting unused in a cupboard.

In my current setup I have my music in lossless format stored on SSD in a NAS box which runs Asset UPnP to send stuff wirelessly to my NDX2 on t’other side of the room (it’s not possible nor practical to hard-wire the NDX2 into the router so let’s not go there. I can use Ethernet over mains but that seems to be frowned upon as a solution).

I’m thinking of buying a HiFiBerry Digi2 Pro HAT board to stick on my RPi with the music files on an SSD drive of some sort (stick, NVMe, flash etc) plugged into a USB 3 port on the RPi.

The Digi2 supports an RCA and a TOSLINK output, or a BNC if I choose to solder that onto the Digi2 myself (I’m fine with doing that).

So, to the questions:
What connection to use from the Digi2 to the NDX2: BNC, RCA, or Toslink?
The cables themselves seem to range from not very much to eye-watering. Any suggestions as a good starting point for a cable considering that initially at least this is only an experiment?
Any recommended power supply?

Thanks

WiFi performance of the NDX2 is usually reliable, so if it works for you I wouldn’t worry about Ethernet cables.
What do you want from the RPi that you don’t get from your NAS? You can run a UPnP server on a RPi in which case it wouldn’t need a direct connection to the streamer, but your NAS already does that.

Hi,
Yes, the wireless seems pretty good, but nice to have it confirmed.

The ideas for using the RPi were:
a) I have it sitting doing nothing
b) it would be a silent always-on solution (the NAS uses more power so goes to sleep when not in active use)
c) would be plugged directly into the NDX2 via nice short cables (I thought from reading comments on this forum and elsewhere that hard-wired in was supposed to be heading towards the optimal configuration)

I already have an Asset UPnP licence for the RPi, and (probably most significantly), I like a good fiddle :slightly_smiling_face:

I wouldn’t connect the pi to the ndx2 via a digi hat.

Run dhcp on the pi, connect the pi and ndx2 via a switch, and deliver via asset upnp over the mini network. (I assume both devices need ip addresses, hence the dhcp server).

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I run four RPi3B+s, with various HATs (2 analogue O/P and 2 SPDI/F). Software is MoOde Audio. one is WiFi, the others on Ethernet. FLAC files are stored on a Synology NAS.

All work nicely.

I do have 4 RPi 4B with the HiFiBerry DAC Pro analogue output HAT. It was given to me free, but my plan is to use one as a possible backup for the NDX2 (if needed), or to possible use it with powered speakers. The HiFiBerry SW is quite good and easy to use

I must admit I cant see what you are gaining in your example. You might as well plug the SSD straight into the NDX2 rear socket. You would then enable Server mode on the NDX2 and all the metadata would be read and presented in the usual Artists/Album manner.

I have run Asset on a RPi since it was released, many years ago. I still have it on a RPi2, so no WiFi/Bluetooth etc., just a wired connection, on the same sub-network as my NDS.

I would use that, with a local SSD mounted as the scanned library, wired by Ethernet through a switch along with your NDX2.
Keep Wifi for control functions.
The ND streamers were optimised for UPnP based feeds, rather than as DACs, plus S/PDIF has its limitations, as it was a compromise between Sony & Philips.

I’ve probably confused myself and come up with an overly complex idea.

I’ll try plugging a USB drive into the NDX2 as you suggest and see how I get along

This is what I do, and have the RPi mount the shares from my NAS… dbPoweramp does the UPnP… works very well indeed.

For high end hifi the Digi HAT isn’t really ideal, and it’s not designed to be optimal for high end hifi, it’s relatively noisy in timing which will couple to greater or lesser extents to a DAC… but don’t get me wrong it works and can sound good, just it will be a bit of a world away from the insight and breathability that a more stable and less noisy clock will give you with high end DACs.
Prevention is usually better than cure.

I love my RPi’s and use several for different applications including in hifi, but I am also aware of their limitations. They are designed to be affordable and flexible as well as aid experimentation … not precision appliances.

We use a HifiBerry Digi HAT to provide S/PDIF via coax to our SuperUniti.

Sounds excellent.

Also adds AirPlay etc. which the SU does not have natively.

Ah, very useful explanation, thanks Simon.
Since an implied objective was to keep the SQ as high as possible, then I guess my better options are to do nothing (hits the SQ objective but none of the others), stick the USB drive into the NDX2 directly and use its server capabilities to find and play track (gives up on the on-the-fly AIFF → WAV transcoding and other facilities provided by Asset), or go with the switch/ethernet option which introduces an additional power supply so may not hit the low power requirement.

Would your RPi solution really reduce power usage compared to what you have now?
A NAS (especially if used for music only) can usually be configured to minimise power usage and noise, as its workload is very low running only a UPnP server. For example, turn off other apps and put the cooling fan on the lowest setting.

The NDX2 built in server is still a good option. I don’t hear any loss of sound quality using it instead of a NAS/server. It does have some limitations: it’s a very basic server compared to Asset with limited metadata browsing options, and probably not ideal with large music libraries. It will increase the NDX2 power usage as it will prevent it from sleeping (although some people use this as a sneaky way of keeping the streamer permanently warmed up for optimum sound quality).

If you really want WAVs you could always convert a copy of your music library and put it on a USB drive for direct connection, although I’m not convinced that you’ll hear an improvement. I found it a little better with my old NDX, but struggled to hear any difference on NDX2.

Yes, or mount the USB into a RPi and then use UPnP server such as Asset on your RPi to stream to your streamer via Ethernet or WLAN. Your home network decouples your RPi from your streamer as it where… and I think that works fantastically well.

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Wozza “PPi” Simon? That’s a new one on me

I do tend to agree with you Chris. My whole reasoning for embarking on my proposal was based on the oft-repeated mantra, on this forum especially, that has in the past tended to rubbish any transport of music data from storage device to playback device that didn’t involve a hard-wired connection with or without a network switch stuck in there for lolz.

Since I can’t get a direct connection to my NDX2, and seeing as I have an RPi sitting doing nothing, I was trying to achieve the hard-wire quality outcome by moving the data files to be physically close to the playback device.

However, it would appear that using a HiFiBerry HAT may compromise SQ, and I’m not prepared to throw Allo DigiOne Signature money at the solution so it looks like I’ll be sticking with what I have (which will also save me trying to get a purchase order through the house accounts committee owing to the borderline business case)

It’s an iPad autocorrect version of RPi. :grinning:

Not sure that you can get them anymore…

I see the OP has an XPS, so in my experience it wont have the advantage of the lower power that an NDX2 has on its own when it would just use its SMPS.

Well, got the RPi rigged up via a switch playing music off an SSD via Asset UPnP into the NDX2.

Can’t say I’ve noticed any change in SQ, good or bad, but if there were any it would likely be drowned out by the noise of my wife’s tutting and eyes rolling.

I think domestic harmony needs to see this experiment dismantled and drawn to a close. Ah well, kept me quiet for a day or two.

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