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"Smartifying" my hi-fi system

blog.rgsilva.com

41–50 of 67 posts

Re: "Smartifying" my hi-fi system

#41
post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But then you a) need another machine, and b) can’t use the skip buttons.

I do it all the time. The skip buttons on my Linux computer will work with my iPhone being the owner of the stream. And vice versa.

It’s mentioned several times in the article that the author wants the physical skip buttons on the HiFi system to work.

Re: "Smartifying" my hi-fi system

#43

This was what the Google Chromecast Audio was amazing for. £30, a fibre optic output. Then they killed it. I still have one and use it every day, and they’re fairly sought after so prices on eBay are more than twice the retail price

I’m running three of them, they work perfectly with audio in sync outdoors and different rooms indoors. I wish there was some equivalent still available.

Mopidy does a great job, either on its own as a player of streams, MP3 files from the local drive or a NAS, or for connecting to various online services. I think you can even integrate shairport-sync to cast to it, but have only got that working on the hifiberry snapcast clients individually.

The only issue I've had with mopidy in general was getting it to work with Spotify. The API changed recently, and doesn't seem to work anymore via raspotify. I set up Tidal instead, and was good to go in ten minutes.

Also, you can send the output to snapcast and have multiple devices in separate rooms playing music synchronously.

There are various web-interfaces, or just use MPD to control the mopidy server.

Re: "Smartifying" my hi-fi system

#44
I'm not sure what hifi system OP has, but another way to do this is by emulating the iPod remote mode over USB. It saves a bunch of trouble with emulating files. Denon/Marantz products have supported (and i believe still do) for a very long time

Re: "Smartifying" my hi-fi system

#45
A much easier way to achieve this goal is to get an FM transmitter - a device that reads audio from Bluetooth or minijack and broadcasts it at low power over wideband FM. They cost around $10-$50.

Re: "Smartifying" my hi-fi system

#46

This is like a 21st century version of those cassette tapes with 3.5mm jacks; the ones you could use to play CDs from your Sony discman through your car's stereo. Great work OP!

>.> I still use one of those. I drive a 2001 Mustang, so it doesn't even have aux input (let alone Bluetooth). They work great, to be honest.

I replaced the head unit w/ a Pioneer DIN all-in-one. They are cheap, have USB etc. Also frees up the CD player slot for a tray to hold a mobile device and more.

Re: "Smartifying" my hi-fi system

#47
post #44

I'm not sure what hifi system OP has, but another way to do this is by emulating the iPod remote mode over USB. It saves a bunch of trouble with emulating files. Denon/Marantz products have supported (and i believe still do) for a very long time

Is there ready software for this?

Re: "Smartifying" my hi-fi system

#48

This is quite a yak shave. You can run Spotify on one computer and have it output to speakers connected to another computer using Spotify. Remote control. I do it all the time. So you can run Spotify on your desktop, and control it from Spotify on your work laptop.

In case anyone is unfamiliar, Spotify Connect is Spotify's solution for casting and remote controlling one or more Spotify speakers from a Spotify client on the same network. Any Spotify client can act as a speaker, and the system seamlessly connects to other smart home speaker systems like Google Home. When multiple Spotify clients connect to the same Connect session, they collaboratively control the music that play…

It's both incredibly convenient, and the most impressively disguised DRM. If two users attempt to share the same account, Spotify will helpfully make one of them a remote control for the other rather than being able to listen independently.

Re: "Smartifying" my hi-fi system

#49
I'm glad you enjoyed this project.

Spotify max bitrate is 320Kbps compressed lossy audio.

If the physical buttons on your player induce euphoria with every touch and this feeling in no way is lost to hedonic adaptation... This project could be defended in the court of hackernews.

It sounds like you learned a lot during this. That is good. I am glad for you. I have done similar things. They made similar levels of sense(arguably approaching none).

Not for nothing, if you actually care about the 'fidelity' part of hi-fi... Meh... I'm glad you had fun bro. I wish I could waste such time without endless guilt. Maybe in another life.

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