Article: Geek Speak: How To Build A BeagleBone Black MPD Music Server

[The Computer Audiophile]

You can view the page at http://www.computeraudiophile.com/content.php?r=533-Geek-Speak-How-To-Build-A-BeagleBone-Black-MPD-Music-Server

[k-man]

Wow! That's a nice set of instructions for both Mac and Windows users. And it's gracious of you to mention me and Richard in your article.

 

This is one hardware tweak I encourage, particular anyone who wants to try different power supply options:

 

Beaglebone Battery Cape BB-BONE-BATT-01 - CIRCUITCO - DAUGTHER CARD, BEAGLEBONE BATTERY | Newark

 

This works fine with the Beaglebone Black, but the extra width of the board means it is incompatible with the current cases. Up to four AA batteries or NiMH batteries are ideal. Once it's secure, it's also not easy to get access to the Boot or Reset buttons on the Beaglebone, but there is a easy Power ON/OFF switch on the Cape.

 

[maelob]

Chris pardon my ignorance, so are you saying I can build this stuff and stream music from NAS? will it sound better than my multi tasked macbook. Will it play ALAC files? how about hi res Flac? for that price I would try it just out of curiosity.

[beetlemania]

What is this device? I gather it must be used with either a PC or Mac, what are its advantages and disadvantages?

[Richard Dale]

It is best to use a linear power supply with the BeagleBone, and I think the one linked to in the article is a switching one. I bought a linear PSU from Item Audio in the UK with a UK power plug. I'm not sure where you can buy a linear PSU for American voltages or with a suitable plug for Europe or America.

 

For UK readers, Farnell sell a suitable linear power supply for 10.60 UKP:

AC-DC LINEAR PSU, 5V 1A UNIVERSAL - S2226ST - STONTRONICS

 

I bought my linear power supply from Item Audio for 19 UKP:

http://www.itemaudio.com/index.php/p....html?sef=hcfp

 

It may be the same model as the Farnell one, I'm not sure.

 

Tigal sell an alternative case for 29 euros + VAT:

TIGAL - Tigal - BeagleBone Black Case (BeagleBone Black case in aluminium anodized black)

 

It makes my BeagleBone look a bit like an Apple TV, and I think it is a bit prettier than the Logic Supply one.

[Richard Dale]

Chris pardon my ignorance, so are you saying I can build this stuff and stream music from NAS? will it sound better than my multi tasked macbook. Will it play ALAC files? how about hi res Flac? for that price I would try it just out of curiosity.

 

You can play ALAC and hi res FLAC files with MPD on the BeagleBone. However, the CPU isn't very powerful compared with the Intel CPU you would find in a modern MacBook. I use AIFF files for best sound quality as they need less processing to decode them for playing. When I am playing an AIFF file and I use the Linux 'top' utility to see what percentage of the CPU that MPD is using, it is generally between about 0.7 and 2.0%, rising to 4% or so when doing NFS reads of the music tracks stored on the NAS. With ALAC or FLAC or streaming internet radio, it would be more like 6-7%. MPD doesn't read an entire track into memory before playing it, and so you need to make sure your NAS NFS setup is well tuned to avoid drop outs as the music plays.

 

I have replaced my 7 year old MacBook with Decibel and Bitperfect with a BeagleBone and I prefer the sound. I feel the treble is higher resolution, but I needed to spend quite a bit of time tuning the Linux setup to get to that state. I am not sure if it would sound better than a modern MacBook or MacMini with Audirvana and tuned for exclusive integer mode etc.

[kaka]

And what does it sound like? Is anything sacrificed for the small form factor?

[cmiu]

On Android devices you can use Droid MPD Client.

 

As shell client ncmpcpp is way better but it needs a little time to learn the shortcuts (like a text based JR or F2k). you can google arround find a nice interface setup that fits you and copy it to ~/.ncmpcpp/config

You can see some examples here https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=66488

 

You can find a list of Clients Windows and OSX on mpd home page Music Player Daemon - Clients

 

PS: you forgot to add

dsd_usb "yes" in the mpd.conf device configuration

for dsd capable dacs.

[ron spencer]

Nice article...so one could stream 192/24 files to this thing without any issues? Audio is HDMI only right? If you had an old amp in basement with no HDMI could this still work?

[ron spencer]

So this item will play up to 192/24 files ok?

 

Also, if an amp does not have HDMI, is there an adapter for the microHDMI to move the audio to RCA?

 

thanks for this!!!

[ron spencer]

Where can a north american get a linear power supply? Is it necessary?

[andyv]

Will this work with an asynch USB DAC?

[silverarrows]

This is exactly what I was looking for. I ordered a BeagleBone Black not really knowing what I was going to do with it but had something like this in mind, and along comes this. Lots to learn. Hopefully my Halide Bridge will work in this setup. Anxiously waiting for all the parts to come through in the mail.

[The Computer Audiophile]

Will this work with an asynch USB DAC?

Certainly. Not every async DAC but most with the XMOS chip.

[The Computer Audiophile]

This is exactly what I was looking for. I ordered a BeagleBone Black not really knowing what I was going to do with it but had something like this in mind, and along comes this. Lots to learn. Hopefully my Halide Bridge will work in this setup. Anxiously waiting for all the parts to come through in the mail.

Halide will work just fine.

[The Computer Audiophile]

Nice article...so one could stream 192/24 files to this thing without any issues? Audio is HDMI only right? If you had an old amp in basement with no HDMI could this still work?

24/192 is no problem. I use a USB DAC for digital output not the HDMI output.

[The Computer Audiophile]

What is this device? I gather it must be used with either a PC or Mac, what are its advantages and disadvantages?

Actually this can be used without a PC or Mac. Use a control point like an iPhone or iPad to select music on a NAS and send it to a BeagleBone Black. This solution is really anti PC or Mac.

[slowdown5646]

Is there any way to make this wifi-capable without hogging up the USB port? It'd be a really nice little music server if it wasn't restricted by ethernet.

 

Also is there a way I could share [music] files with the BBB and another computer? I don't actually have a NAS so this would be extremely convenient as well.

[_rcadog_]

Hello there,

this is my first post here on CA so sorry about my lameness...

I have thinking about these days: is there any simple, configurable, embedded like solution to connect in some remarkably good USB dacs in my network without the feeling of wallet emptying pain?

It so simple to answer, just go up on coputeraudiophile.com and you get many many solutions like this BBB thing. I have ordered it in a sec when i read your article.

 

I em using Mac these days and i think there is a simpler solution to put a system image on a device on this system. The Disk Utility has a panel called "Restore" (if you select a device on left side you can see it). Select the system image for source and select the SD card for destination. Click restore and you are done.

 

Many thanks for sharing us this brilliant solution!!!

 

There is one more thing with the commands "sudo" and "su". There is no need to be used like "sudo su" (however it is working). i do not want to go in deeply how a unix like system working here, just su is for switch to super user is enough where you write "sudo su".

 

have a good Sound!

[andyv]

This looks like an absolutely superb project.

 

What are the chances of something being developed for this device that makes it a DLNA renderer with (asynch) USB output?

 

With such a thing, people who like JRiver could then stream straight to it, rather than tie up a pc/laptop. Or if you had a UPnP server running on a NAS you'd be able to stream.

 

I notice there is such a project on the Beagle Board contest site here - anyone know anything about it?

[Richard Dale]

Is there any way to make this wifi-capable without hogging up the USB port? It'd be a really nice little music server if it wasn't restricted by ethernet.

 

Also is there a way I could share [music] files with the BBB and another computer? I don't actually have a NAS so this would be extremely convenient as well.

 

If you want more USB ports to use with a WiFi dongle, then maybe the BeagleBone isn't the best solution.

 

I use a Raspberry Pi as a NAS with my BeagleBone, but I could have used another BeagleBone instead.

 

Debian Linux works fine with both the SMB and NFS file sharing protocols (and Apple AFP too). So it should be possible to set up any other computers that you have, to share their files.

[k-man]

Is there any way to make this wifi-capable without hogging up the USB port? It'd be a really nice little music server if it wasn't restricted by ethernet.

 

Slowdown5646,

 

There were a few Wifi Capes (add-on boards) designed for the Beaglebone, but I just looked at the support website and found they are incompatible with the Beaglebone Black :-(

 

BeagleBone Black Capes - eLinux.org

 

The alternative would be to attach a Wifi router to the Beaglebone Black and either get it to join an existing connection, or connect your Computer via Wifi. I admit this is the less elegant solution, and I have not tried this approach.

 

The Wandboard is an embedded solution that has inbuilt Wifi and bluetooth. Chris has mentioned it is a great board to use, and if you are able to get a Debian Wheezy image, then the instructions to configure the OS should be very similar to the Beaglebone Black.

 

Also is there a way I could share [music] files with the BBB and another computer? I don't actually have a NAS so this would be extremely convenient as well.

 

On a Mac this should work:

 

Open System Preferences.

Open Sharing (In the Internet and Wireless section).

Select File Sharing and ensure it is ticked to enable On.

Under "Sharing Folders:" Click the "+" button and Select your Music Folder. Click Add.

Select "Options..." and Click on "Share files and folders using SMB. Click Done.

 

Follow the Beaglebone Black OS configuration.

 

I'm assuming Windows users can enable File Sharing with an easier method.

[Audio_ELF]

Is there any way to make this wifi-capable without hogging up the USB port? It'd be a really nice little music server if it wasn't restricted by ethernet.

You could attach it to a Wireless bridge via its Ethernet connection. An Apple AirPort Express works well in this role.

 

Also is there a way I could share [music] files with the BBB and another computer? I don't actually have a NAS so this would be extremely convenient as well.

You can set up a Windows Networking share on any Windows or Mac OSX computer.

 

Eloise

[djn04]

Is there any way to make this wifi-capable without hogging up the USB port? It'd be a really nice little music server if it wasn't restricted by ethernet.

 

Also is there a way I could share [music] files with the BBB and another computer? I don't actually have a NAS so this would be extremely convenient as well.

 

You could use a travel router set up as a client. I used the trendnet travel router and was able to send 24/192 to my auraliti pk90 without dropouts.

 

I wonder how the bbb run off battery would compare to the auraliti pk90?

[ron spencer]

could you use the DragonFly as the DAC? Any then run a split RCA wire from teh DragonFly? I have a Sonos system at home, but it would be nice to run hires through this mini system. Would this DAC work? Or is there a recommended usb only DAC.