I spend a lot of time in my garage tinkering and like to listen to music while I'm out there. Typically I used my iPhone with Rhapsody, but as you can image the sound is not so good. I heard about a project of turning a RaspberryPi into an AirPlay device. I thought this would be a great "add-on" to my RPi already in the garage for motioning and controlling my garagedoor opener. (see here for that project: https://github.com/smanders7/garagedooropener). I use AirPlay a lot around my house mainly with Rhapsody. I have been a Rhapsody subscriber for many, many years. I use it with an Airport Express on my main receiver in my Family Room. I occasionally use AirPlay to stream music/video to a couple of Apple TVs too. I also have a squeezebox there in case I don't want my Phone to be used as the source.
Quick Analysis:
- RPi audio out is PWM which is not very good quality...at all.
- But its in my garage, does it matter?
- I have an extra set of Bookshelf speakers in a closet, could I reuse those?
- Would need an external AMP
- This looks cool http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?Partnumber=300-383
- 50 Watts by 2 for a total of 100W
- Plenty of power, probably overkill, still an investment at $90.
- I have a nice USB DAC with Burr Brown chips call TotalBit Head that is lightly used. Could I repurpose it. Would standard sound drivers on RPi be enough?
- Is it quick to get working?
- I have a set of older computer speakers that are technically amplified
Decision for now:
Get AirPlay working with existing sound on RPi and with Computer Speakers to get proof-of-concept working. Also see how much I use it before investing time and maybe money.
Status:
Last night I was able to get the AirPlay software all running with the PC speakers connected. I'm a little surprised I have to really crank up the Speaker Volume high to get any significant sound. The volume on the iPhone is all the way up. Anyway, we will see how it goes. BTW, I used this guide to get it going, but I skipped the 3rd DAC part.