Related: I finished my Raspberry Pi 3B+ build today. Standard 3 B+ board. HiFiBerry DIGI+ Pro I2C digital interface. C4 Labs Zebra Black Ice + Zebra Top Black Ice Hat (supporting a local business...plus it's super-flexible and inexpensive). While I'm currently running Raspbian Stretch + SqueezeLite (not quite ready to jump to Moode), I will play around with it on the older Pi that is running Wheezy and needs to be updated.

WP_20180323_13_06_32_Rich.jpg

-D
 
Related: I finished my Raspberry Pi 3B+ build today. Standard 3 B+ board. HiFiBerry DIGI+ Pro I2C digital interface. C4 Labs Zebra Black Ice + Zebra Top Black Ice Hat (supporting a local business...plus it's super-flexible and inexpensive). While I'm currently running Raspbian Stretch + SqueezeLite (not quite ready to jump to Moode), I will play around with it on the older Pi that is running Wheezy and needs to be updated.

View attachment 5320

-D

Are you planning to tackle the Moode 4.0 "build recipe", or do you already have a disk image on hand of an older Moode 3.x (Jessie) release that you can use?

I have still not figured out why the 4.0 build I did will not boot on the new 3B+ board when others are reporting they have that working, but for now I simply stuck it back in a 3B and have been using it that way.

I saw Moode's developer posted recently that he will update the distro to the recent version of Stretch that will make it compatible with the 3B+ boards. But it will take some time and he didn't say if that meant it would wait until the 4.1 release which he had previously indicated would be fairly quick to roll out, or if 3B+ compatibility would take even longer than that.

Do you use the Digi+ Pro board's SPDIF output, or do you connect an I²S DAC HAT?
 
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Are you planning to tackle the Moode 4.0 "build recipe", or do you already have a disk image on hand of an older Moode 3.x (Jessie) release that you can use?

I have still not figured out why the 4.0 build I did will not boot on the new 3B+ board when others are reporting they have that working, but for now I simply stuck it back in a 3B and have been using it that way.

I saw Moode's developer posted recently that he will update the distro to the recent version of Stretch that will make it compatible with the 3B+ boards, but it will take some time and he didn't say if that meant it would wait until the 4.1 release which he had previously indicated would be fairly quick to roll out.

Do you use the Digi+ Pro board's SPDIF output, or do you connect an I²S DAC HAT?

I'll have to wait until Moode is updated to match the most recent kernel and new board, as apparently the 3B+ will only work with Stretch (no backwards-compatibility with Jessie) per this thread.

I'm using the SPDIF output on the Digi+ Pro into an external DAC (right now I'm bench-testing with a Gigawork DAC into a Kenwood C2 Basic, into Fostex TH-X00 cans). Sounds fantastic on Joe Jackson's Body & Soul album.

-D
 
Related: I finished my Raspberry Pi 3B+ build today. Standard 3 B+ board. HiFiBerry DIGI+ Pro I2C digital interface. C4 Labs Zebra Black Ice + Zebra Top Black Ice Hat

I totally dig it.

A C4 Labs Zebra Zero Black Ice case houses my RPi Zero W running Moode 3.84:

P3231186.jpg
 
I'll have to wait until Moode is updated to match the most recent kernel and new board, as apparently the 3B+ will only work with Stretch (no backwards-compatibility with Jessie) per this thread.

According to this post by the developer Tim Curtis, it looks like 3B+ support will be included in Moode 4.1, but only for fresh/new builds off of the latest version of Stretch.

Any previous builds of 4.0 (like the one I did unfortunately) will be able to receive an in-place update to 4.1, however that update will continue to be incompatible with the new 3B+ boards because they were done on the Stretch version from 11/29/17.

So it looks like I will have to rebuild 4.1 from scratch when available, in order to use one of my new 3B+ boards.

Using the Moode 4.0 that I built off the older version of Stretch-Lite from 11/29/17, the below did not work for me (though others said it did work for them in gaining 3B+ compatibility on their 4.0 build):

pi@moode:~ $ sudo apt-get update
pi@moode: ~ $ sudo apt-get upgrade


However, I also see now some references to the following additional command that might work for me:

pi@moode: ~ $ sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

So I guess it won't hurt to give that a try at some point, though I had already put the old 3B board back in the enclosure and so for now thats how it sits.
 
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However, I also see now some references to the following additional command that might work for me:

pi@moode: ~ $ sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

Happy Holidays to everyone!

In revisiting this last night using the new Pi3B+ board and some pointers from the folks on the DIYaudio forum, I now have Moode 4.0 running smoothly on the new Pi3B+ board, though officially still unsupported as evidenced by the "Unknown Pi model" in the Platform Information pane's hardware revision field:

Screen Shot 2018-04-01 at 2.04.24 PM.png

It turned out the following command did the trick: pi@moode: ~ $ sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

What that did apparently (and likely what I should have done from the start) is upgrade the version of Raspbian Stretch to the latest 3.13.18 distribution.

I had originally followed the build instructions warning that only the 11.29.17 version of Stretch would work, however it seems that warning was really just to let you know that later distributions were untested/unsupported by the developer.

In any event, this does seem to work just fine and I only see references to the WiFi still being broken as remaining issues. Not relevant in this install as it utilizes Ethernet, but I'm sure that will be straightened out easily enough as it comes down to the distro's default country code for WiFi being "GB", which will work nicely in the U.K. but probably nowhere else.

I will be curious to see if Moode's in-place updater function will now work on this instance of 4.0 when the 4.1 update is made available: specifically will it retain compatibility with the new 3B+ board? That would be too easy for me, however the developer had warned previously that older builds would likely need to be scrapped and rebuilt from scratch. I'm hoping thats not the case now that this build is running on the latest Raspbian Stretch distro.

I also note an improved look to the (free) web browser interface:

Screen Shot 2018-04-01 at 2.24.00 PM.png

Beyond Moode itself, I do find this newer 3B+ version of the RPi board to be superior in terms of snappy response. While not in the category of "revolutionary" by the Raspberry Pi foundation's own description, this evolutionary update to the board is a solid improvement with the new slightly faster CPU, and Gigabit Ethernet.

I also suspect those making use of the newly improved 802.11ac WiFi capability might find an even greater advantage in using a new Pi 3B+ as opposed to the older boards.
 
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Moode 4.1 is now available, announced on the new Moode Audio Player forum, which will replace the Moode thread on DIYaudio for support and development issues.

Tim has said he won't close the DIYaudio thread, so members there can continue to discuss Moode indefinitely, but for support and further development purposes Moode will now use it's own forum.

The "Check For Update" button within the System Config tab in Moode's web GUI did not work for me on my instance of 4.0, however Tim provided the following command to be used via SSH to run an update script:

sudo /var/www/command/updater.sh r40a

The above command yields the following over SSH:

Screen Shot 2018-04-07 at 7.40.55 PM.png

That ran the update in 19 minutes, and after a reboot (drum roll)... success:

Screen Shot 2018-04-07 at 8.15.20 PM.png

So I won't have to rebuild/compile this from scratch, after the reboot my JRiver server recognized this endpoint/renderer straight off, and a shuffle mode playlist launched with no hitch or glitch.

Moode 4.1 on the new Raspberry Pi 3B+ is a go!
 
Very nice ! I didn't know the forum was up yet.

A while back somewhere in the forum here I mentioned about trying the Pi with my main rig, and being a bit surprised how well it did. Not perfect mind you. Recently I did the Gen 5 USB update to my Bifrost, and noted there was a difference in presentation - more detail. But this set off a little change in my perception and had me changing settings in Audirvana to adjust. I've now changed the interconnect to tune it a bit.

I may want to revisit the whole Pi thing and perhaps look at a new implementation. Allo HAT maybe. Decent case. Clean power. :chin
 
Allo HAT maybe. Decent case. Clean power. :chin

Certainly something to be said for skipping the USB interface entirely and using an I²S connected DAC instead, the RPi's GPIO "HAT" architecture makes that easy. I've got two very cheap DAC "HATs", a $50 Greek made MamboBerry and a $40 Swiss made HiFiBerry, and they are both far better than you'd expect for that kind of outlay.

My next I²S DAC "HAT" will be far more ambitious, I eagerly await the DSD compatible RPi DAC forthcoming from IanCanada, thats likely what I will get although unclear at this point what options I'd go for. He will probably offer a version with Lundahl LL1674 output transformers:

39952907144_316e1f5c99_z.jpg

But thats a very expensive part, it could take the price tag higher than I'm willing to go for an RPi. I think he got the idea from the TauDAC guy in Germany, that piece is about $900 if I'm not mistaken. Too much for Raspberry Pi.

Another possibility if I decide to do an upscale I²S DAC "HAT" for RPi is the Terra-Berry2+ from Japan, initially sort of unobtainium in North America, but now available via the Volumio web shop at a more realistic $256.

But not to overlook the clean power aspect you mentioned, the iFi iPower does a great job for all of $49, but it's still a SMPS. A cheap LPS like the Singapore made Jays Audio LPS-25VA is a nice step up for all of $150.

However I was shocked at how good the UpTone Audio LPS-1 made the RPi 3 sound. But at $395 probably above and beyond what most sane people would spend on a power supply for the RPi platform, especially since there is still a switching regulator on the RPi 3 board that requires extensive knowledge and modification to remove/replace, and the LPS-1 was recently updated to 1.2 status and with that a bump in price to $435.
 
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Had to keep messing around with the Pi. It now sports Spotify Connect, and on the forum it appears that Tim is considering building that in at some point. Something he didn't seem interested in a year or so ago. I guess if enough people talk about it, it might happen. My install wasn't flawless, mostly because of me being a bit thickheaded. But the process I found in the forum works.

I like Spotify software better than Tidal's, and the Connect feature works really well. With this, Moode is now doing essentially what my Mac does. (It's dedicated to audio) The Mac is 10 next year and if it dies, I doubt I buy another.

MoodeSpot.png

Time to take an image of this build and try the update to 4.1 and see if it breaks anything.
 
I like Spotify software better than Tidal's, and the Connect feature works really well. With this, Moode is now doing essentially what my Mac does. (It's dedicated to audio) The Mac is 10 next year and if it dies, I doubt I buy another.

View attachment 5822

Time to take an image of this build and try the update to 4.1 and see if it breaks anything.

Go for it, I've found Moode 4.1 to be very stable in MPD/UPnP mode, I'm currently in the midst of a continuously running random/shuffle playlist over 10 days old and counting:

Screen Shot 2018-04-18 at 7.18.04 PM.jpg

So 4.1 has passed the stress test and then some, though I don't have any experience in using it with Spotify Connect as yet. Whats involved there, do I need a Spotify Premium subscription for that?
 
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Go for it, I've found Moode 4.1 to be very stable in MPD/UPnP mode, I'm currently in the midst of a continuously running random/shuffle playlist over 10 days old and counting:

View attachment 5825

So 4.1 has passed the stress test and then some, though I don't have any experience in using it with Spotify Connect as yet. Whats involved there, do I need a Spotify Premium subscription for that?
Yes, the Connect feature (among others) requires a premium membership. It's very handy - lets me control the app running on the Mac with my phone, and will also connect to Chromecast Audio. I found that when I had cancelled my subscription and went Tidal for a while, I missed the flexibility in the summer where I would often be out on the deck with a portable speaker and Chromecast Audio connecting.

In the Moode forum you see in the config file that it specifies the 320 kbps bitrate - that's what you get with Premium.
 
Well, that couldn't have been easier. Ran one command and it upgraded from 4.0 to 4.1 in place; AND the Spotify Connect installation is intact.
I-love-it-when-a-plan-comes-together.jpg
 
I added a bit of code to Moode 4.1 that Tim Curtis provided this morning which allows Moode's web browser based UI to scan and index DLNA/UPnP libraries.

Although I do use the superb JRemote control point app to access my JRiver server from my phone and tablet, it's always nice to have complete browse/control of a server based library using Moode's simple web browser based UI, however the standard configuration only showed local and NAS shares in the Browse pane.

After adding Tim's code, a UPNP pathway/folder immediately appeared and I'm now scanning/indexing the 13,000+ tracks. Hopefully it works with no glitches, Tim said this was once in Moode's standard configuration a very long time ago but was removed/replaced in favor of NAS shares, no reason though why the current version can't have both.

So I'm in a holding pattern during the scan/index of 13,000+ tracks, the Browse pane says "Updating":

Screen Shot 2018-04-22 at 12.12.51 PM.jpg
 
Screen shots from the forthcoming Moode 4.2, cool new radio station logo JPEG thumbnails:

moode-r42p-4.jpg

Sharp looking playback pane:

moode-r42p-1.jpg

Enhanced Bluetooth implementation including Pi to Pi or MPD output to Bluetooth speaker :

moode-r42b-bt4-outbound-audioinfo.png
 
Looking forward to the update. Saw on the Twitter feed that Tim is going to be testing a new Allo DAC.
 
Update.jpg
Will moOde 4.2 be available via the clickable "CHECK FOR" software update button on the left hand corner?

BTW, I suspect the Airplay issue I was having had something to do with USB connected DACs. Airplay/moOde 4.1 does not work with the AQ Dragonfly Black, XtremPro X1 and Topping D30. But Airplay works with the Xiang Sheng DAC 01A.
 
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