Newbie needs help

[Cebolla]

12 hours ago, left channel said:

As for what SMG does or does not suggest, my impression is that Andrew's goal is a UI so intuitive you'll only need instructions from the developers of the hosted apps. And in the end, that's where the problem lies: in my experience yes the ultraRendu doesn't react well to changes, but long after it's recovered Squeezelite is apparently still confused for quite some time. That's not really a SMG or Sonore problem, mostly.

 

I'd say Squeezelite not behaving itself on the ultraRendu, while not a SMG problem, is most definitely a Sonore problem!

[Cebolla]

16 hours ago, birdland45 said:

I'm a newbie to computer audio and would like some help.  I tried to search but I haven't found anything describing exactly what I would to do.

 

Background

I used to use a portable laptop connected via USB to my W4S DAC to play music.  However, Ii wanted to get rid of the computer aspect.  So first, I recently purchased an ultraRendu and ultraDigital so I could use the superior I2S input on the W4S DAC and go up to DSD256.  I used JRiver and DLNA on the ultraRendu to play music from my desktop to test things out.  I used the new Panel interface of JRiver to control playback via my iPhone.  Of course, I still have a computer involved.  I really wanted a self-contained quiet setup.  Hence, I purchased a sonicTransporter i5.  This is where I am running into problems.

 

There are two ways I can go since I do not want to use Roon if I can help it.  I can either use Minimserver or Squeezebox server on the sonicTransporter but I have been unable to set either up properly.  I initially had issues because I was trying to use a USB thumb drive on the ST i5 but it was not recognized so I finally connected my USB disk drive to the ST and even though it was formatted as NTFS, it was recognized and I could mount it on the ST.

 

I have no idea what has to be done on the ST and the ultraRendu to get either the minimserver or Squeezebox server working properly OR which player I can use on my iPhone to send the data from the ST to the ultraRendu.

 

For Squeezebox, I did install it and was able to get it to see my music on the mounted drive on the ST and I could even see the data on my PC.  However, I could not get squeezelite installed properly on the ultraRendu.  It was always showing up as stopped.  I do not know if I need some other app installed as well on the ultraRendu.  Of course, the ST says it cannot find a player which I assume is the ultraRendu or maybe it is supposed to be an app on the iPhone.

 

For minimserver, I did not get very far and do not know what I need to do on both the ST or the ultraRendu or which player to use.  I could not find the mounted drive on my PC and was not sure how to enter in the actual network mapping under explorer to see that the drive it actually being exported from the ST.  I probably could have figured out what the string is that I require but really that is only for verification and it doesn't really get me that much closer to getting everything set up so I can just play music.

 

As you can see, I need help.

 

If anyone can offer some help or point me to some articles which explain one or both ways of doing things so I can decide which method I would rather use, it would be very much appreciated.

 

In case it matters, the music I have is:

 

- FLAC - from CD quality all the way to 24b/352kHz

- DSD - DSD64 to DSD256

- Apple uncompressed

 

Regards,

Walter

 

Hi Walter,

 

First thing I should point out that in your setup, the network audio file player is actually in the ultraRendu, so either Squeezelite or the UPnP/DLNA renderer (depending on which you have selected to output to the attached DAC). Any related app on the iPhone would be a 'controller' rather than a 'player'.

 

The sonicTransporter's Squeezebox server, specifically the Logitech Media Server application, has a built-in web server to allow you to control any Squeezebox type player (eg the ultraRendu's Squeezelite) connected to it, from a web browser running on any machine on the network - so even using your iPhone's web browser. The same LMS web server also provides some pages for configuring LMS's advanced settings.The default web address for LMS's built-in controller web page is:

aaa.bbb.ccc.ddd:9000

where aaa.bbb.ccc.ddd is the IP address of the networked machine it's running on, eg your sonicTransporter.

 

Since you appear to be having an issue with the Squeezelite player in your ultraRendu, LMS's built-in controller would presumably have no player selected/available in the player drop down box (circled):

 

LMS's controller might not look as good as some third party Squeezebox controller apps, such as iPeng, but it is still quite useable.

 

 

 

14 hours ago, birdland45 said:

I think I just did not set something up properly on the ultraRendu or the ST or both.  The fact that I could see the music on my desktop PC served from the ST via LMS was promising.  I think the problem was at the setup on the ultraRendu end.  I should have tried to get iPeng 9 to connect to the ST to see if at least that worked.

 

Does one require a account to make this work?

 

If you can access LMS's controller page from your iPhone's web browser, then it's likely that it has been set correctly on the sonicTransporter. If you haven't worked it out already, iPeng 9 is just a more sophisticated Squeezebox controller app that you can use instead of the LMS provided one. So no need to consider iPeng just yet. You certainly don't require a Squeezebox (mysqueezebox.com) account to get this all working, if that's what you mean by "account".

 

 

So, it looks like there could well be a problem with your ultraRendu's settings. Have you actually selected the Squeezelite player as the output mode on the ultraRendu, using the Audio App Switcher as indicated in the user manual and on Sonore's own help page on this forum linked to in @R1200CL  post?

 

John

 

 

[Cebolla]

Have you found similar problems running Squeezelite on a platform other the ultraRendu (eg on a normal desktop/laptop computer)? If not, then it is very much a Sonore problem with the ultraRendu's  (lack of) control of resetting its own Squeezelite application and they really ought to sort it out.

 

LMS is connected to by the Squeezebox player type devices, not the other way around. So the Squeezelite application should be by default be trying to automatically discover & connect to the LMS available on the same network on its startup. 

[Cebolla]

Does the Squeezelite output mode once defunct affect the use of any of the other output modes on the ultraRendu. For example, is the DLNA ouput mode selectable & still working when selected?

 

If so, then it may be worth seeing what the OP's issue is with getting MinimServer going on the sonicTransporter.

Or may be (bit more complicated, perhaps) still go with LMS, but also install the UPnPBridge LMS plugin on the sonicTransporter & configure the plugin to provide its Squeezelite emulator for the ultraRendu's UPnP/DLNA renderer.