Yes. It’s way better than chromecasting. I’ve had so many issues with chromecast audio disconnecting. But flinging plex was so responsive. Part of the reason I built this project.
@OttoKerner I had to google what a “daemon” was.
I had done everything correctly I think. More than once, including the fix for node you sent me the link to. (Thanks) it had updated my older version of node even though I specifically installed the 9 version and it was confirmed installed… And still didn’t work.
Somehow I was just to impatient waiting for it to show up within the network for casting. I took longer than at other times so not sure what I actually did to make this work…
So it turns out this is achievable for a pi and Linux noob who hates CLI interface…so much has been left out of descriptions about what this even is, but is exactly what I required in the end.
It’s a little weird imo that it requires Rasperry Pi Os as something lighter would make more sense, but I don’t want to risk more frustration by attempting to change it.
When I’ve finished putting this in a box and connecting the amp, I might post a “how to for noobs.”
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Have just walked this path myself after trying out Volumio, Rune, moode and several of the other competitors. All were lacking something, and all sucked at integration with my Plex-server to fetch audio! Have used the Plex server on-and-off over the years, and very regularly for about a year, since I was able to easily run it on my NAS via a Docker container! The one that worked the best for me out of these Pi-players was actually Volumio, especially liked the phone-app, much more user-friendly on a phone than just a plain web-interface! Volumio sucks on the OS-setup though, running an unsupported version of Raspbian at this point, and the betas on Buster being so-so!
All of them have issues with packages that should be held back, but are not, and updating the OS will break it totally! This sucks, and tells me they are not doing it right!
Started using the PlexAmp on my iPhone recently, and really liked the simplicity of the interface! But thought it was kind of limited to the device it ran on. Saw that I could cast to my chromecast, but if you search here, you start seeing all the limitations (no gapless for example).
By accident saw that Plexamp existed for the Raspberry Pi, and got really excited! But boy was I in for a ride!
The first issue I ran into was of course the nodejs issue, dependency on an old package, but after putting a hold on the package in the OS, it now seems to work rather well! The second issue was the “server.json” dependency! This was the most time-consuming nut for me to crack! This since I do not run Windows anymore! So I had to setup a machine with dual-boot to fix this! Then it was a pain to find the old version of Plexamp (1.1.0 Windows installer) that actually would work to do this!
But after getting it working, I can say that it works really well!
Have 3 improvements I would like to have added:
- Fix dependency on the nodejs to allow for normal OS-updates!
- Incorporate a better way to get the “server.json” or other authentication file! Maybe have the existing Plex server or PlexAmp “eject” a valid file in some way via a trigger?
- Multiroom audio! If this is fixed, I will send my Sonos systems to the electronics scrap-heap! Maybe Shairport-sync could be used? Have not tinkered with that yet though. Sonos do not care about their users own music-collections anymore! They used to be an engineering company that cared, but seems the investors took over, and now they just want you to pay, pay, pay! Funny though, it does work with Plex-server, which seems to contradict this!
If this gets implemented, it would also be a great candidate to replace the aging/dying Logitech Squeezebox-systems!.
Wanted to share the process of an end-to-end install on a fresh install of Raspberry Pi OS on Buster, but I am not trusted to create a new topic.
This is actually one of the only ways I was able to post anything, find an existing thread about Plexamp on Pi that was not closed!
Maybe I will post the “howto” at some point in the future, when I do gain that privilege! But who knows, it might be obsolete at that point!
If someone has a trick on how to gain posting-privileges faster, please let me know, and I will post the “howto”!
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Here is the guide: PlexAmp-installer for Raspberry Pi with armv7l HW
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Hello odinb1,
I am looking to go down this path also and learned about an ‘Allo BOSS DAC’ for the rpi that filters noise from the rpi’s power supply.
I learned that ethernet noise can also affect usb output on the rpi, so I was curious how your experience was with sound quality coming from the rpi?
If this comes up to become a good route for me as well I can look into addressing some of the issues with the process.
Thanks for adding your experiences thus far!
You’ll find a lot of this knowledge is theoretical and better tempered by actual experience. Oh it can be proved it does indeed improve the signal, just within your system, and to your ears it could well be a non existent issue. I’m running the justboom hat off the pi with stock power supply and have zero noise.
Hi Mikeymop! I run a Hifiberry Digi+ clone for about $15, referenced in the guide, since it comes with the Wolfson DAC. To sort the PSU-noise-issue, I run a filtered PSU on that Pi. The ifi to be exact! It runs with filters. I have no noise-issues!
The noise also depends a lot on the grid where you live! If your neighbors run a lot of machinery, it tends to be noisier!
To be honest, if you find a good quality PSU, with enough amps (3A should do it), that should be enough in most cases! The PSU tend to become a lot noisier if you run it at or close to max capacity, so a 2A or lower PSU would in most cases be very noisy on the Raspberry Pi!
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Most of the RPi audio stuff around are just a trap for your wallet!
Audio is much more than Khz, jitter and noise.
RPi is an audio problematic from day one because of his clock implementation.
If you stuck with it the best way is to use it in slave mode than to spend more and more.
Another solution is to use Amanero or XMOS so to buffer the stream and to use reclock from your DAC.
HiFi Berry, Allo and all others were okay before they make the prices close enough to real audio enthusiastic brands like JLsounds or Soekris. Khadas Tone Board (Tone 1 now) is the best sonic solution with all the goodness from both “worlds” for its price.
Ofcourse even the cheapest Chord will make your life much pleasant even with RPi.
BTW, Plexamp general concept is unfocused. ROON and LMS are example of how to do it software wise. Sonos is other example of full concept with clean focus… NAD’s Bluesound also doing it well.
Plexamp is useless for the moment because of missing renderer, multiroom, synchronisation, bitperfect and gapless playback with no excuses and so on.
Anyway it’s looks promising with all the good Plex things.
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