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Spotify Box

evanhailey.com

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Re: Spotify Box

#71

Post by Tyr42 »

luxurytent wrote: post #42
mikewave wrote: post #13

For anyone else who wants to do this, just set up the absolutely amazing Volumio on your RPi or any other computer. https://volumio.org/ The web app is great for use in your house, the Spotify plugin is first class - it's supported as a target in your Spotify app, or you can browse straight from the webapp, which means even a guest on your wifi can easily pop on and help pick the music.

What kind of audio output does a raspberry pi support?

Something like this goes on top

https://elmwoodelectronics.ca/products/hifiberry-dac-rca?var...

For powered speakers you can get a DAC or you can use unpowered / passive speaker if you get a amp hat

Re: Spotify Box

#72

Post by weq »

foxpurple wrote: post #66
lucideer wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's called Bandcamp

Did this for years. Finally gave up last year. It’s so much work, discovery is a huge pain, listening on all devices is a pain. None of it was worth it. Now I just use Spotify and don’t care. I don’t need the extra work in my life.

all my friends use spotify and everytime i am with them i hear the same music. sure its the music they like, but its the same over and over and over again with no variation. They tell me spotify is great at discovery but i havnt heard it.

i listen to djs, radio stations and other internet channels that mix the music i like into new and exciting compositions.

Re: Spotify Box

#73

Post by TedDoesntTalk »

BitAstronaut wrote: post #63
wussboy wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure. But we’ll need some sort of centralized market or exchange on which to discover these artists and send them funds. Oh wait….

https://bandcamp.com https://rateyourmusic.com for discovery.

Thanks I just tried rateyourmusic. Interesting but so many ads…

Re: Spotify Box

#74

Post by yccs27 »

weq wrote: post #72
foxpurple wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did this for years. Finally gave up last year. It’s so much work, discovery is a huge pain, listening on all devices is a pain. None of it was worth it. Now I just use Spotify and don’t care. I don’t need the extra work in my life.

all my friends use spotify and everytime i am with them i hear the same music. sure its the music they like, but its the same over and over and over again with no variation. They tell me spotify is great at discovery but i havnt heard it. i listen to djs, radio stations and other internet channels that mix the music i like into new and exciting compositions.

Yeah, many people just don't care as much about discovering new music. I don't think it says much about Spotify though.

Re: Spotify Box

#75

Post by CameronNemo »

mikewave wrote: post #17
bigtones wrote: post #9

A $30 Raspberry Pi with free Volumio serves the same purpose for me, and I can attach a DAC hat to the top of the Pi for high fidelity audio - but this looks so much better with it's beautiful wood finish.

Any recommendations for the DAC? I'm using a USB sound card right now on my Volumio Pi but haven't been thrilled about it. What I really want is SPDIF coaxial or optical output, on the cheap.

I know somebody who got the spdif output working on the Quartz64 [1] with a minimally patched mainline Linux kernel. They needed some custom add on board, but it was cheap from what I understand (~$15).

Here is a pic of their design: https://0x0.st/-wXP.png

You can ping CounterPillow in the quartz64 room on libera.chat if you want more info. They mentioned that they might be open to shipping boards to people.

[1] https://wiki.pine64.org/wiki/Quartz64

Re: Spotify Box

#76

Post by judge2020 »

DiabloD3 wrote: post #54

We should just be cutting out the middlemen like Spotify, and buying music directly from musicians. Then, we can just use standards compliant hardware, of our choosing, to play the music in any format we want (many modern musicians release as flac, old school musicians still sell CDs; either play as lossless, or recompress to chosen target).

Many musicians already sell their music directly in unencrypted/no-drm formats*, mainly because of how widespread streaming is. The advent of music piracy is long over and the ones that still do it weren't going to use a music streaming service or purchase the record anyways.

* Obviously, not all of them, but i've purchased 'digital download' versions of albums from artists signed with UMG many times.

Re: Spotify Box

#77

Post by CameronNemo »

sneak wrote: post #33
mikewave wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any recommendations for the DAC? I'm using a USB sound card right now on my Volumio Pi but haven't been thrilled about it. What I really want is SPDIF coaxial or optical output, on the cheap.

You can use the DAC on the pi itself; you will not be able to tell the audio quality difference on any equipment you own (your ears included). There is a stereo mini jack audio output on the pi. Just use that and don't waste your money on audio woo. (This is also a standing bet of $5000 to anyone who can pass an ABX in front of me to discern the difference between the two in headphones of their own choosing. You pay…

I've never heard the pi DAC... I wonder how good it is. I have some great headphones and great ears. But yeah I agree the built in DAC should be fine for what people seem to be using this for (playing music in a group setting, or while doing chores).

Re: Spotify Box

#78

Post by ohgodplsno »

paxys wrote: post #29
briandoll wrote: post #2

I was wondering what the advantage is to building something like this, compared to just using a bluetooth adapter that connects via RCA cables (like this box does). I suppose one advantage is that if you walk far away from your stereo, you can loose bluetooth connection and drop audio, where this device has it's own WiFi connection and pulls Spotify audio directly, and is just manually controlled via your phone.

Bluetooth is terrible for music streaming. - Your phone has to be connected the entire time - Quality is flaky - It has to stay in range - You have to manually disconnect/reconnect it every time - You can't take calls while playing music - Only one person/phone can connect to the speaker at a time - It drains battery Having the speaker stream directly from the internet while having your phone (or multiple phones, or…

A single use speaker is not a game changer, it's just Spotify selling you useless gadgets. But if you're interested, I've got a mouse to sell to you that can only work on Word, and a keyboard that can only type the words "game changer".

In practice, this is just a terrible speaker that can only ever play Spotify. It's a waste of energy and resources that you will throw away within a year.

Re: Spotify Box

#79

Post by [deleted] »

ghostly_s wrote: post #40
mikewave wrote: post #13

For anyone else who wants to do this, just set up the absolutely amazing Volumio on your RPi or any other computer. https://volumio.org/ The web app is great for use in your house, the Spotify plugin is first class - it's supported as a target in your Spotify app, or you can browse straight from the webapp, which means even a guest on your wifi can easily pop on and help pick the music.

I wonder if there's something like this that supports Plex?

[deleted]

Re: Spotify Box

#80

Post by judge2020 »

gtirloni wrote: post #52

> Connecting to a Wi-Fi network is simple enough. Just download the Spotify Box app and give the pushbutton a press to start searching for networks. Then you can choose your Wi-Fi network through my app to get connected. This is the same process that iRobot does to connect their Roomba cleaners. Is it done over Bluetooth maybe?

There are a few methods for unknown device connections, but it's usually one of, or a combination of:

- a special qr code format that informs an app about the wifi network/wifi password (and other setup info)

- an app scans your wifi networks and joins the one that starts with the device's prefix (not supported on iOS except via a special api[0])

- app requests bluetooth permission, connects to the bluetooth accessory, and from there it exchanges temporary wifi AP info or does the entire setup over BLE

0: https://developer.apple.com/library/archive/qa/qa1942/_index...

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