For some years now I've been using Raspberry Pis to stream Spotify, Tidal and more recently, Qobuz, using the Logitech Media Server. I originally used a Behringer USB interface but switched to an Audio Injector Stereo card, which mounts directly onto the Pi and provides RCA outs and inputs as well as gain controls. I thought I'd make a post here to show the latest devices from Audio Injector. The first is an extremely low-cost board that works with the Raspberry Pi Zero 2W, as well as the Pis 3, 4 and I assume, the Pi 5. I set one of these up for my son with a Pi Zero 2W. It runs the Logitech Media Server (LMS) and uses a "player" known as Squeezelite to connect to the sound card. The board is called the Audio Injector Zero and It has a DAC and ADC that operate at up to 96kHz and 24 bits. [ATTACH]1392[/ATTACH] This photo shows it with a pair of RCA sockets connected to the output. Additionally, volume pots can be added for inputs and outputs as well as for a 1/4" jack. This Zero card is much easier to box than the old Stereo cards because the connectors are not hard-mounted to the board. For my own sound system, I'm using the Audio Injector Pro card which handles up to 192kHz 24 bit audio, so is ideal for the Qobuz streaming service. It requires a "pre-amp" board. There are two options available a balanced "XLR Preamp" and an unbalanced "RCA Preamp". I've ordered both, however only the XLR version has arrived, so I'm using that (ideally, I'll be using the RCA board for my stetreo and the XLR for other projects). Here is the XLR board mounted to the Pro Board. The Pro mounts on the Pi 3 and above. [ATTACH]1393[/ATTACH] There's a relay used on the XLR board and, I believe, on the RCA board, as speaker protection for when the Pi is rebooted or switched on/off. The relay itself makes a click, so a box might help with that. In order to stop the relay engaging between tracks when streaming, it necessary to disengage (mute) "auto-mute" in alsamixer on the Pi. Again, LMS can be run on the Pi itself or any other computer on the local network and Squeezelite on the Pi. Control of the player can be done via a web interface, or via an app. There is also an excellent "material skin" plugin for LMS, that works great in web browser on a phone. For this, you need to enable the material skin plugin in LMS (as well as the plugin for what ever streaming service you use) and load the web page as the-ip-address-of-your-server/material. eg. 192.168.1.22/material. The sound is excellent. Links: [URL]https://www.audioinjector.net[/URL] [URL]https://wiki.slimdevices.com/index.php/Logitech_Media_Server.html[/URL] players for LMS (including squeezelite): [URL]https://sourceforge.net/projects/lmsclients/files/squeezelite/[/URL]
