Hi all, two out of three of my Pine64 devices are usefully employed. The Pinebook Pro gets most use. It runs the Manjaro kde desktop and has been a really useful tool for all sorts of things. Frequent updates come through from Manjaro - bringing improvements all the time.
The Rock64 works quietly away in the corner. It runs on Armbian Bullseye and has be very reliable, including periodic loss of power. It runs the postfix email server.
Anyway to the point. Pine64. I have seen frequent blogs and how-to's about using the Raspberry Pi for an Audio wireless connection to any speaker.
Can we use the Pine64 for this purpose. I would probably need a dac on it, and power supply. Has anyone done this? Do you see any problems?
The Pine64 is no cost while the Raspberry Pi would be an additional cost for this idea.
04-01-2022, 03:53 PM
(This post was last modified: 04-01-2022, 03:55 PM by TRS-80.)
There are lots of ways to do this. Easiest being, I suppose, a USB DAC -> amp (do they make integrated ones?) -> speaker(s). But then you have the issue of controlling the amp volume (unless it's integrated, maybe).
So what I like is a HAT, something like a HiFiBerry AMP, which includes the DAC and AMP, together. Advantage is, software (remote) control of the amp volume. Disadvantage is that these sort of devices mostly come in RPi GPIO form factor.
If the Pine64 has matching RPi form factor (at least, GPIO) you are golden for second option (sorry but I can't be arsed to look that up). 
I ran that way on living room RPi for a few years, using it mostly for Kodi actually (streaming to main living room TV). But more recently, I finally collected enough 'round tuits' to implement some whole home, synchronized network audio, which was something I have wanted to do for a long time now. Think Sonos, except implemented completely in F/LOSS. It's awesome! I could give more details about that, but maybe you should walk before you run.
(04-01-2022, 03:53 PM)TRS-80 Wrote: There are lots of ways to do this. Easiest being, I suppose, a USB DAC -> amp (do they make integrated ones?) -> speaker(s). But then you have the issue of controlling the amp volume (unless it's integrated, maybe).
So what I like is a HAT, something like a HiFiBerry AMP, which includes the DAC and AMP, together. Advantage is, software (remote) control of the amp volume. Disadvantage is that these sort of devices mostly come in RPi GPIO form factor.
If the Pine64 has matching RPi form factor (at least, GPIO) you are golden for second option (sorry but I can't be arsed to look that up).
I ran that way on living room RPi for a few years, using it mostly for Kodi actually (streaming to main living room TV). But more recently, I finally collected enough 'round tuits' to implement some whole home, synchronized network audio, which was something I have wanted to do for a long time now. Think Sonos, except implemented completely in F/LOSS. It's awesome! I could give more details about that, but maybe you should walk before you run.
Sounds very nice, but beyond my resources. I have a nice speaker enclosure with onboard amp. It sounds very good and does not get a lot of use. The wireless audio set up may be what I need to enjoy it.
Any idea how this connects to the Pine64? If these are available, and will push on to matching board pins - it may be the go.
https://pine64.com/product/pine64-stereo...pot-board/
(04-01-2022, 04:25 PM)S265 Wrote: (04-01-2022, 03:53 PM)TRS-80 Wrote: There are lots of ways to do this. Easiest being, I suppose, a USB DAC -> amp (do they make integrated ones?) -> speaker(s). But then you have the issue of controlling the amp volume (unless it's integrated, maybe).
So what I like is a HAT, something like a HiFiBerry AMP, which includes the DAC and AMP, together. Advantage is, software (remote) control of the amp volume. Disadvantage is that these sort of devices mostly come in RPi GPIO form factor.
If the Pine64 has matching RPi form factor (at least, GPIO) you are golden for second option (sorry but I can't be arsed to look that up).
I ran that way on living room RPi for a few years, using it mostly for Kodi actually (streaming to main living room TV). But more recently, I finally collected enough 'round tuits' to implement some whole home, synchronized network audio, which was something I have wanted to do for a long time now. Think Sonos, except implemented completely in F/LOSS. It's awesome! I could give more details about that, but maybe you should walk before you run.
Sounds very nice, but beyond my resources. I have a nice speaker enclosure with onboard amp. It sounds very good and does not get a lot of use. The wireless audio set up may be what I need to enjoy it.
Any idea how this connects to the Pine64? If these are available, and will push on to matching board pins - it may be the go.
https://pine64.com/product/pine64-stereo...pot-board/
Update. I have been experimenting with volumio on the Pine64. No DAC hat is fitted. The process has taken a while, and is ongoing. New volumio releases do not seem to include Pine64. Thus I am using the following. (v2.916)
https://community.volumio.org/t/volumio-...odule/8190
The system boots well, but some aspects of the sound system have caused some grief. I found myself resetting volumio a lot to active new settings for the sound card.
Overall I am happy. Both headphone socket and usb sound output are now working. Usb sound is going to the Xonar U7 DAC and thence to the Cambridge Audio portable speaker. It sounds very nice. New releases of volumio are limited to Rasperry Pi and Tinkerboard etc. etc. I hope to try these in the not too distant future. If I can set up an Audio connection to the speaker (this may be the hotspot configuration) I may stay with the Pine.
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