Tin
Club Member
In the coming months, I will be closing on my new house. With that, I gotta have some tunes in the garage, since I already have the living room and basement covered in that department. First, a little background before I continue. Since 2003, Logitech made various iterations of a device called the Squeezebox, which was nothing more than a network-based hifi music player. The Squeezeboxes ranged in price from $250 all the way up to $1100 depending on which model chosen. As of November last year, Logitech stopped production, and now the Squeezeboxes command stupid high prices. Products which once sold for $250 are now going for $1000+. The Squeezebox was the first and only device of its kind, nothing out there came close in terms of sound quality, convenience, and affordability. With the hole Logitech left in the market, another path needs to be taken to have a simple network music player.
Last summer, I purchased a Raspberry Pi mini computer for the purpose of being a small XBMC box. While XBMC ran and played high def video smoothly, the interface was clunky and choppy due to the underpowered ARM processor. Since it didnt run well, I put the RPi in a drawer and sort of forgot about it for a few months. A few nights ago, I decided to revisit the RPi forum and check out some of the projects, and, to my delight, Squeezelite was compiled for Raspbian. Everything I needed to roll my own Squeezebox was there, time to bust out the Pi and get working. Fast forward to last night. I installed Raspian Wheezy hardfloat to an 8GB SD card, installed Squeezelite, modified an init script I found to start Squeezelite on boot, and pointed ALSA to a USB/SPDIF device for digital audio output. Profit! This thing works beautifully playing through my Benchmark DAC1, no audible difference between it and my Squeezebox Duet. Logitech Media Server sees it just as any other Squeezebox. I can even sync it up with my other Squeezeboxes and have whole house audio. My next step will be a cheap USB DAC from eBay, plenty of them out there for $20 or less. Aside from that, Ill just need a USB wifi adapter, and I should be good to go. Lets break it all down:
Raspberry Pi: $35
PCM2704 USB DAC: $20
8GB Class 10 SD Card: $8
HP Touchpad Charger: $10
USB wifi adapter: $10
RPi case: $15
A little Linux CLI magic: Priceless
--------------------------------------
total: $98
Thats not bad at all for just under $100. Costs can be cut in some areas, such as the charger, case, wifi, and USB DAC. You can run wired ethernet, use an old cell phone charger, and use the plain Jane analog audio-out on the RPi, but dont expect it to sound more than mediocre. With all that in place, I still need speakers and an amp. I have some empty cabinets in my basement that are made for 8" full-range speakers, and believe I found the perfect candidates for them. Im planning on using the GRS 8FR-8 found here: http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?partnumber=292-430 While those do sound good on their own, they do need a tweeter up high, so I found these mylar horn tweeters that should fit the bill nicely: http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?partnumber=279-060 The last thing Ill need is an amp, and these Lepai T-amps are fantastic bang for the buck: http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?partnumber=310-300 The Lepai uses the TA2020 chip, which is found in amps as cheap as this all the way to those running 4 figures. Its as close to the tube sound as you can get without going tubes. The tally for the speakers and amp?
GRS 8FR-8: $28/pr
Lepai amp: $25
Nuance 1/2" mylar tweeter: $5/pr
3.3uF crossover caps $3/pr
0.20mH woofer inductor: $8/pr
--------------------------------------
total: $69
Wow, nice system for under $200
. Of course, I could go other ways buying something used off of Craigslist, which is perfectly fine of course. Even then, itll be hard to match the sound quality of this system for that kind of dough. The Lepai should match up great with the speakers, as theyre relatively efficient enough for the 15W the amp puts out. I should be moving within the next 2 months. Itll be nice having a good sounding system in the garage.
Last summer, I purchased a Raspberry Pi mini computer for the purpose of being a small XBMC box. While XBMC ran and played high def video smoothly, the interface was clunky and choppy due to the underpowered ARM processor. Since it didnt run well, I put the RPi in a drawer and sort of forgot about it for a few months. A few nights ago, I decided to revisit the RPi forum and check out some of the projects, and, to my delight, Squeezelite was compiled for Raspbian. Everything I needed to roll my own Squeezebox was there, time to bust out the Pi and get working. Fast forward to last night. I installed Raspian Wheezy hardfloat to an 8GB SD card, installed Squeezelite, modified an init script I found to start Squeezelite on boot, and pointed ALSA to a USB/SPDIF device for digital audio output. Profit! This thing works beautifully playing through my Benchmark DAC1, no audible difference between it and my Squeezebox Duet. Logitech Media Server sees it just as any other Squeezebox. I can even sync it up with my other Squeezeboxes and have whole house audio. My next step will be a cheap USB DAC from eBay, plenty of them out there for $20 or less. Aside from that, Ill just need a USB wifi adapter, and I should be good to go. Lets break it all down:
Raspberry Pi: $35
PCM2704 USB DAC: $20
8GB Class 10 SD Card: $8
HP Touchpad Charger: $10
USB wifi adapter: $10
RPi case: $15
A little Linux CLI magic: Priceless
--------------------------------------
total: $98
Thats not bad at all for just under $100. Costs can be cut in some areas, such as the charger, case, wifi, and USB DAC. You can run wired ethernet, use an old cell phone charger, and use the plain Jane analog audio-out on the RPi, but dont expect it to sound more than mediocre. With all that in place, I still need speakers and an amp. I have some empty cabinets in my basement that are made for 8" full-range speakers, and believe I found the perfect candidates for them. Im planning on using the GRS 8FR-8 found here: http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?partnumber=292-430 While those do sound good on their own, they do need a tweeter up high, so I found these mylar horn tweeters that should fit the bill nicely: http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?partnumber=279-060 The last thing Ill need is an amp, and these Lepai T-amps are fantastic bang for the buck: http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?partnumber=310-300 The Lepai uses the TA2020 chip, which is found in amps as cheap as this all the way to those running 4 figures. Its as close to the tube sound as you can get without going tubes. The tally for the speakers and amp?
GRS 8FR-8: $28/pr
Lepai amp: $25
Nuance 1/2" mylar tweeter: $5/pr
3.3uF crossover caps $3/pr
0.20mH woofer inductor: $8/pr
--------------------------------------
total: $69
Wow, nice system for under $200
. Of course, I could go other ways buying something used off of Craigslist, which is perfectly fine of course. Even then, itll be hard to match the sound quality of this system for that kind of dough. The Lepai should match up great with the speakers, as theyre relatively efficient enough for the 15W the amp puts out. I should be moving within the next 2 months. Itll be nice having a good sounding system in the garage.
