Linux Music Servers

[Natural Sound]

We have a thread that discusses the Mac Mini and Windows based servers. Not much being said about Linux servers? I have a fanless mini ITX computer running Ubuntu at the house and I love it. Because its fanless its super quiet. It uses an intel atom chip and integrated graphics. Nothing fancy, just a basic computer that does what I need it to do.

Are any of you guys using a Linux OS based music server? I would imagine you could strip down one of the popular distro's and have a decent little setup for music.

[Doc B.]

And at a bargain price!

http://www.bottlehead.com/smf/index.php/topic,2736.0.html

[Natural Sound]

Sounds like a fun project for a geek like me. My only issue is with the Ethernet hookup from the Alix to my router (in another room). My house simply isn't wired for it and the Alix doesn't have wireless capabilities. Then again, I think I have an unused wireless bridge around here somewhere. Hmmm... I need to ponder this for a bit.

Thanks Doc.

[Jim R.]

Tom,

Often these SBCs have mini PCI slots for adding ethernet and sometimes even firewire interfaces.  I use one of the Alix boxes configured with Monowall as the firewall in our community's shared network and it has been running for probably 4 years now without a hitch.

They do make nice, basic music servers, but also have their limitations.  They are generally limited in memory and processing power, which although fine for straight, native rate playback of music files, can not do things like EQ, SRC, etc. so you have to have a dac that can accept up to the same maximum sample rate of the highest resolution file you have -- though they will do 24/192 no problem.

As for the stripped down distro -- there already is one, and a very good one based on debian -- Voyage/MPD.  Just google voyage linux and you'll find the wiki, which can take you through all the steps.

I had two of the same Alix servers that Doc does but sold them a while back -- only because I didn't really have the time or inclination to keep playing around with things and because the mmac mini does it for mme.

Also, if anybody is interested in Doc's alix board, I have a d-link D323 NAS with a pair of 1 tb drives in it that I have hacked to run NFS, so it is pretty much plug and play (if you know what you're doing with linux networking) with the alix board

-- Jim

[Natural Sound]

They do make nice, basic music servers, but also have their limitations.  They are generally limited in memory and processing power, which although fine for straight, native rate playback of music files, can not do things like EQ, SRC, etc. so you have to have a dac that can accept up to the same maximum sample rate of the highest resolution file you have -- though they will do 24/192 no problem.

Drats, thats what I was afraid of. My current DAC is limited to 16/44. From what you are saying I wont be able to play 24/96 files downloaded from, say HD Tracks unless I upgraded my DAC?

[Doc B.]

Yeah, you will need an outboard sound card like an EMU 0404 USB or similar to play anything, even 16/44. I have one, but it is doing duty in the lab these days.

[Jim R.]

Tom,

It all depends on how the dac handles higher res formats -- some just truncate the data, some don't, and I honestly don't know what they do with the sample rate, but SRC, if it works, is just bad on the linux boxes.  Really just not enough horsepower and working memory for the real-time flooating point ops so you would have to pre-re-sample (if you will) all your files down before playing them.

My Tranquility SE dac handled all the resolutions I tried, but only the native 16/44/48 ones sounded their best.

Unfortunately, I think this really falls into the "you just have to try and see" caategory, at least in my limited linux music server experience.

It is also a very significant performance improvement to go to a linear or battery DC supply.

HTH,

Jim

[porcupunctis]

This thread caught my attention because of the recent release (and complete sellout) of the Raspberry Pi computer module.  This is basically a credit-card size fan-less computer designed to run scaled-down Linux distros and serve as a cheap (25 or 35 dollars) way to get kids learning about computers.

At 700Mz it can't do a whole lot at once but it can do quite a bit if dedicated to task.  This seems like a great experimenter's platform and as soon as I can get my hands on one (or two or three), I'm going to start experimenting.

Has anyone else considered this route for a Linux music server?

[Natural Sound]

Randall,

That board looks very similar to the Alix board only smaller. I see no reason why you couldn't use it with Voyage/MPD as a micro music server. Let us know how it works out for you. From the little I've read about this computer card you may have a hard time getting your hands on one though.

In a complex world thats often over complicated I've always enjoyed taking the minimalist approach. I guess thats why I like the Bottlehead methodology so much. Use the fewest amount of parts in the signal path, use high quality parts, make it affordable to many and leave lots of room for experimentation and upgrades. It sounds like Raspberry Pi follows this same philosophy.  

Keep us informed and let us know what you think.    

EDIT: I just noticed that the Raspberry Pi is ARM based and not x86 architecture. Voyage is x86 based.

[2wo]

I an using a Vortexbox, which is a Linux based system...John

[Yoder]

Yeah, you will need an outboard sound card like an EMU 0404 USB or similar to play anything, even 16/44. I have one, but it is doing duty in the lab these days.

Hey Dan, not sure if you have seen this or not: http://www.audiodesignguide.com/HiResolution/EMU0404/index.html He talks about using the 0404 to play 24/192 files, and he also has a link to a free "test library of hi-res music" Here is the music link for those who need some free hi-res: http://www.2l.no/hires/index.html

Anyway, I cannot really understand much of what he says because of the language barrier and the fact that he does not really explain what is going on, and his schematics are beyond my level of comprehension. At any rate, it may be something worth trying once the BH DAC is out and completed in my household. Curious what your thoughts are on his 0404 ideas.

Ron

[Natural Sound]

I've been using Unix/Linux now for about twenty years. I really like the philosophy of open source software. I wont get into my disdain for Microsoft. This isn't the time or the place for that. Well anyway, for $90 I couldn't pass up Doc's generous offer. A couple of weeks ago I sent him the dough and a box arrived a few days later via the brown truck. This weekend I finally had a chance to spend some time getting it configured. I'm happy to report that ALIX is now feeding beautiful music to my Crack/HD-600 system with the d/a decoding duties being taken care of by a VA Labs DAC. The file server in the other room is running on my Mini-ITX Atom running Ubuntu Linux. I'm using my iPod touch as a wireless remote to control the headless ALIX unit via the MPoD app. Its a match made in heaven. I'm really liking what I'm hearing so far. This should hold me over while I investigate the Mac Mini options [hint, hint, Jim] and the anticipated release of the Bottlehead DAC. 

This is fun. Thanks again Doc!

[Doc B.]

Thank you! I'm am so glad that it went to someone who used it as I had intended.

[Noskipallwd]

I an using a Vortexbox, which is a Linux based system...John

John I was wondering if you are using a Vortexbox appliance, or did you install it on another system? I received an atom based mini and was considering installing vortexbox and using it with my Logitech Squeezebox. Are you happy with it's performance?

Cheers,
Shawn

[2wo]

Hi Shawn, I have the Appliance, I had looked at the Atom but at the time the Appliance was not much more $. I like it lot it was very easy to get going and is a good pairing with a Squeezebox as it uses Squeeze-server, or whatever they call it these days, as the interface to play the music. I have a Duet, so I can use the remote to control it which is very cool. it even works without the Duet. If you have wireless, you can use any DAC with the remote. I can give you the details of my rather simple setup if you are interested. As to the performance, I have not compared it to a fully tweaked Mac Mini But I was running i-tunes on a stand alone PC and this is much better...John