Radio Paradise FLAC stream on Raspberry Pi

[MikeyFresh]

Is the Radio Paradise FLAC stream playable on Raspberry Pi/Moode?

Over in the Moode Audio thread I recently posted about the possibility of the Radio Paradise FLAC stream becoming a feature in the imminent release of Moode 4.3, but based on comments from the developer it appears that will wait until RP publishes an API that he can more easily work with for proper integration.

However, a very similar lean-Linux distribution for Raspberry Pi called Volumio does have a working Radio Paradise plug-in right now that allows streaming a 16-bit/44.1kHz (CD-quality) FLAC channel on a Raspberry Pi!

Apparently this feature has been available in Volumio since sometime in May, but for some reason that has largely flown under the radar.

I won't say it's been 100% perfect for me, sometimes playback just stops and has to be restarted, though veteran internet radio enthusiasts might indicate thats nothing too surprising or unique.

After downloading and installing Volumio 2.4 onto a microSD card and booting it on a Raspberry Pi 3B+, it was a simple click to install and activate the Radio Paradise plug-in:



Then a look at the Browse tab for music sources reveals Radio Paradise with it's own badge/icon, fully separate of Volumio's other "Web Radio" stations:



Clicking the RP option above gives a choice of various different quality streams, including the lossless one:



Click that FLAC stream from the list and...



I will keep Volumio on one of my Raspberry Pi units for this feature alone. Radio Paradise is really great when you need someone else besides you to be the eclectic DJ, while you just chill out in an easy chair.
Beyond very highly recommended!

 

[billfort]

Very nice! It's great to see support out there for the Radio Paradise CD quality/FLAC stream, RP has become one of my main sources and to be honest, listening to their FLAC stream (off-line in the car or outside using a portable speaker) has formed the bulk of my listening this summer. "Beyond very highly recommended!" indeed.

 

[je2a3]

@MikeyFresh - I have Radio Paradise enabled on my second RPi3B+/Volumio serving the mono hi-fi system in the living room. I like having BOTH moOde and Volumio.

 

[airdronian]

Thanks for that - I may have to revisit Volumio sometime.

 

[Mortsnets]

I have Volumio for Spotify, adding the Radio Paradise plugin took about 2 minutes and now I'm listening to the Flac stream, thanks.

Wow my RPi + Allo Boss DAC sounds better than I thought it could.

 

[Don Ivey]

Very nice! It's great to see support out there for the Radio Paradise CD quality/FLAC stream, RP has become one of my main sources and to be honest, listening to their FLAC stream (off-line in the car or outside using a portable speaker) has formed the bulk of my listening this summer. "Beyond very highly recommended!" indeed.

I’ve recently discovered a new flac internet radio station you can access through Roon called Jukebox Radio 2. It sounds great and has become my new “go to” station. Give it a try and report back. Same sort of music as RP.

 

[MikeyFresh]

In late April we took a small detour in the Khadas Tone DAC thread to explore adding the Radio Paradise .flac streams to Moode's UPnP, and LMS renderers.

While I had tried that unsuccessfully a couple of times in the past, it now works, as I duplicated @Mortsnets's finding on the UPnP renderer, while @Thermionics did the same with the LMS Squeezelite renderer.

At that time there was no metadata (or album art) for some reason, no big deal if you just want to listen to great music, but if you are in explore mode then Volumio remained the better choice as their distro offers both the metadata and album art, if you hear something new you'd be able to easily identify it.

A few days ago I saw some comments on the AS forum saying the metadata had suddenly become available, and I can confirm that on Moode 6.5.2, though still no album art. I am currently digging the Mellow Mix on a rainy Saturday afternoon:



I also see comments that these Radio Paradise .flac streams are now suddenly available/working on Roon Radio too, so Roon users should add the following URLs as stations to access arguably the best free internet radio sound quality and content mix currently available:

Main Mix FLAC:
http://stream.radioparadise.com/flac

Mellow Mix FLAC:
http://stream.radioparadise.com/mellow-flac

Rock Mix FLAC:
http://stream.radioparadise.com/rock-flac

Eclectic Mix FLAC:
http://stream.radioparadise.com/eclectic-flac

I'm curious if a HFH member can test this using Roon Radio and report back if there is both metadata and album art or not.

 

[NSBulk]

I don't see album art with Roon, but I can see the artist and song info.

 

[Punker X]

Same here.. No art, but track info.

 

[MikeyFresh]

I don't see album art with Roon, but I can see the artist and song info.

Same here.. No art, but track info.

OK so for whatever reason, only Volumio has both the metadata and album art at this time, but at least Moode and Roon are now working with RP, and have the track information metadata.

 

[MikeyFresh]

Volumio's dedicated Android app looks great with Radio Paradise, however they only offer the Main Mix .flac stream, I wonder if there is way to add the other RP stations like you can in Moode?

 

[MikeyFresh]

Radio Paradise has now published separate links for FLAC streams with and without metadata (no mention of album art). They call the streams with metadata "experimental" and recommend if they cause any particular player to have dropouts or glitches, to revert to use of the original FLAC stream URLs (detailed a few posts back).

Main Mix FLAC (with metadata) (https://stream.radioparadise.com/flacm)
Mellow Mix FLAC (with metadata) (https://stream.radioparadise.com/mellow-flacm)
Rock Mix FLAC (with metadata) (https://stream.radioparadise.com/rock-flacm)
World Mix FLAC (with metadata) (https://stream.radioparadise.com/world-etc-flacm)

I just revised the links for my Moode RP FLAC stations and they are working fine with these metadata enriched streams, though still it appears that only Volumio offers album art.

 

[billfort]

Thanks Mike. I've been using the 'Main Mix' FLAC stream for a while now and love it - just a fantastic 'radio' station which seems to have a magic touch with spinning a song mix from many genres that just works as a cohesive whole - at least to my tastes. Didn't know their other streams now have this as well; this is great, more rabbit holes!

I run the Radio Paradise FLAC stream through Roon and HQPlayer for up-conversion to DSD256 into my DAC, which sounds fantastic, but in the past, I used to have the station up in a separate browser session so that I could see the track info when needed. I'll hear something I like in their mix that might be forgotten or unfamiliar to me, then go off on a journey of discovery with things like Tidal or stored/racked albums that can be so fulfilling.

Not having the album art functioning in these new streams within Roon is a bit disappointing but no big deal considering all that Roon brings to the table for me (HQPlayer, Tidal and maybe some-day, Qobuz integration) - the track info is what I needed.

 

[MikeyFresh]

Thanks Mike. I've been using the 'Main Mix' FLAC stream for a while now and love it - just a fantastic 'radio' station which seems to have a magic touch with spinning a song mix from many genres that just works as a cohesive whole - at least to my tastes. Didn't know their other streams now have this as well; this is great, more rabbit holes!

Yes I'm also a main mix type of guy, but the other streams are also enjoyable, I had a lengthy run with the mellow mix last weekend.

I used to have the station up in a separate browser session so that I could see the track info when needed.

I did the exact same thing, not ideal, but it worked in lieu of actual metadata in the stream.

Not having the album art functioning in these new streams within Roon is a bit disappointing but no big deal considering all that Roon brings to the table for me (HQPlayer, Tidal and maybe some-day, Qobuz integration) - the track info is what I needed.

I'd love to know how Volumio managed to get the album art working. While they do have a dedicated player app, you don't have to use it, connection via a web browser also shows the album art in Volumio:

 

[MikeyFresh]

I updated Volumio this morning, and afterwards I noticed they have now added the other Radio Paradise .flac streams to the existing Main Mix stream:



The overall look and layout of the UI was also polished up and improved a bit. You no longer have to navigate back to a home screen to switch between Radio Paradise and accessing your own home media server library, now there is a pane on the far left that offers direct access.



You can also still use the older "Classic" UI if you don't do a lot of switching around, that pane on the left using the newer "Contemporary" UI isn't really all that necessary, so I switched it back with 2 clicks in the Settings, and also added the background theme of a vinyl LP with just 2 more clicks: