Allo Sparky USBridge

[franz159]

What software would you recommend on the player side? I see the clear advantage of this as a Roon Endpoint, but what if (like me) you are not yet invested in Roon?

[franz159]

7 hours ago, allo.com said:

You can use any player...usbridge can be configured as airplay , upnp/dlna

Thanks.

After LMS, and RuneAudio, in the past few years I have been using Moode which provides me a number of features including an easy MPD interface, UPNP and mini-DLNA support.

I will start looking in more detail on options to manage them in Diet-Pi.

 

Ideally, if I can attach a USB disk and use miniDLNA to index my 2Tb Music folder, I will start from there - with Lumin App as controller.
In second instance, if supported, I would need BubbleUPnP server to manage Tidal streaming.

 

franz

 

[franz159]

On 27/07/2017 at 11:09 AM, k-man said:

A smaller investment would be HQPlayer Desktop, and USBridge to be configured as NAA/endpoint. No cost options would be either Logitech Media Server/Squeezelite, or Music Payer Daemon.

 

All these options can be easily installed/uninstalled in the DietPi configuration screen.

 

 At the moment I cannot consider introducing a laptop or a mac in my  chain, which wold be required for a Roon or HQPlayer solution.

I'm very keen to experiment with USBridge but I'd like the Sparky to also act as a player, getting my music from a connected 2Tb USB drive (I do not have a NAS currently).

I guess I can achieve that either with Volumio or LMS running on the Sparky.

[franz159]

48 minutes ago, DarwinOSX said:

The DarKo review of the DigiOne pushed me over the edge and I just ordered a USBridge using the 10% off code.  It will connect  to the USB port of my Kef LS50W's which I'm currently using with a SonicTransporter.

It seems this is at least the equal of some devices that are 2 or 3 times as much.  Of course they have the advantage of using off the shelf software and being made and sold from India.

10% off code? 

[franz159]

8 hours ago, Mark V. said:

O.K. but is it possible to have the USBridge connected via LAN to the Mac Mini while Roon and Remote for Roon running on Android phone are connected to Wifi network?

 

If all devices are on the same LAN, they "talk" to each other irrespectively of "how" they are connected (wifi or wired).

However, IMO, the overall result depends by the overall quality/effective bandwidth of your network.

If you are afraid that your wifi may not be too good, you should connect both wired to the router

If you have enough free ports on the router (and the possibility to run the wires in your place) you should not need to add a new router.

Otherwise, if maybe you already have a network cable from the router  reaching your system, to avoid adding another cable you could add a simple network "switch" and connect both the mac mini and the USBridge to the lan using the switch.

I'm using this for example

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00QR6XFHQ/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

 

[franz159]

3 hours ago, H-Man said:

I have now had my USBridge for three weeks, running with DietPi. I have also had an UltraRendu for two weeks and I have had the ability to compare them in my two setups

.......

Let me begin by saying that both units are good and both made my 2012 tweaked MacMini look bad. The difference I can hear between the units is very small, which is obviously a huge deal considering the price difference between the units. Having said this I do think the UltraRendu is slightly better.  The difference is more notable in my MBL system but one can hear it in the KEF system as well.

.........

When I ordered my USBridge I made a mistake and ordered with Volumio, which does not work with Roon on the Sparky platform (yet), so I had to change to DietPi. 
 

Thank you, I do agree that this is a fantastici achievement for USBridge.

Just a clarification: what player/software were you using on USBridge?

Dii you use it only as a Roon endpoint, or did you tested also other ways, eg Logitech Media Server or DLNA/mpd?

 

Thanks

[franz159]

10 hours ago, mikey8811 said:

This is my last attempt at trying to get information to determine if the USBridge will work in my setup. I've posted here and on other fora and haven't managed to get a precise answer. I've also sent allo.com a PM on this board and some emails and have not received an answer. It would be scary if they didn't know.

 

I am wondering if Diet Pi (or Volumio) will work installed on an Allo USBridge in my current system. I understand Diet Pi is preferred to Volumio from other posts although Volumio looks like it's easier to install.

My music library is stored on files on USB drives attached to a 32 bit MacBook running Mac OS X 10.6.8 and on a 32 bit Windows VIsta PC. These are all on my LAN. I have an older version of LMS installed on the Mac because I used to have a Squeezebox Touch. I cannot install or run the latest versions of LMS or Minim Server because they will not work on either of my Mac or PC OSes (I know, I need to upgrade my computers).

I am using an Auralic Aries which runs on Lightning Server which doesn't need installation on the above computers to work. It accesses my music as SMB and Windows equivalent shared network folders.

So if I purchase an Allo USBridge with Diet Pi preinstalled on it, will it work in a similar way?

If not, what else do I need? Do I need a server and/or player software? If so, what are the system requirements? Will the software work on 32 bit computers?

 

Thanks

 

Mike,

      as somebody else has briefly mentioned already, you have at least a couple of options:

 

1) use Logitech Media Server

2) use DLNA

 

Both of them can be installed in DietPi.

In fact if you look at http://dietpi.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=5#p5

You will find under the section "Media Systems"

- SqueezeBox - Also known as Logitech Media Server.

- ReadyMedia - (MiniDLNA) Media streaming server (DLNA, UPnP)

 

To my understanding, both LMS and DLNA allow for the configuration of multiple "media folders", which would be the folders on the various USB disks on your LAN where you keep your music.

 

I'm not sure of what is the size of your music library, but I would also consider the option of "consolidating" the libary in a single USB disk to be attached directly to the Allo.com Sparky.  

Please note that this is not necessary (so you can use multiple folders scattered in your LAN) , but putting all together would simplify the system and its maintenance IMHO.

 

In conclusion, since you are already familiar with LMS (and already have and know controller apps such as  iPeng) I would suggest to start using option 1 above, that is LMS running on SparKy, controlled with iPeng.

 

My 0.02

 

Franz

 

PS: When I will buy the Sparky (and I know I will at some point), this is how I will start.

I used to have a Squeezebox Touch, and while I do not miss the device per se, I sometime miss iPeng....

[franz159]

@Allo.com
A question on BubbleUPnPServer.
I was wondering if the installation approach using "Optware-ng" as described here, making usage of the ipkg package installer (see here), could work on Sparky, being the A9 processor a member of the ARMv7 architecture family.

This is not a deal breaker for me , but by allowing the creation of an OpenHome renderer, it is a relatively easy way to stream Tidal (I've been doing so on a Raspberry for a couple of years now ).

[franz159]

<OT>

@Allo.com:

any news available on the status of your new dac announced in July?

 

http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/digital-line-level/310338-dac-allo-ess9028q2m-rpi.html

 

Thanks!

</OT>

[franz159]

11 minutes ago, Rockefoten said:

I got spotify connect to work with my USB bridge running Dietpi.  I manually installed Raspotify using the instructions on the github page rather than using the installer which appears to check it is running on a RPi

Anybody knows if BubbleUPnP server (for Tidal/Qobuz) can be installed under DietPi?