In the mid 90s, I started to build PC based audio machines using WIndows and built in cards... then moved to Firewire... then moved to USB... but it always felt a little bit too much like a computer. (*)
I've been using Android tablets for quite a few years now as a streamer... with the USB OTG connection to a DAC. Running Tidal HiFi and FooBar... plays nicely. Usually I buy them at Costco when they go on sale for 200 bucks and I'll put in a 512FB sdCard into them. They do great for audio and are pretty good when I travel to get my email... ( hot spot my cell phone ).
But the hardware has a fatal flaw, IMHO, it only comes with a single USB port, so getting USB OTG and Power to work together at the same time is a crapshoot. Now, normally, a single charge should be good enough for ten hours or so of music, but it still bothers me. Also, sometimes I've ran into issues where the cable was borderline and the tablet would stop driving music to the DAC. Getting better cables seems to have solved the problem (knock on wood), and also newer tablets are more reliable (I'm running a one and a three year old -both Samsung).
So, I tried Raspbian with a Raspberry. It works great and it's actually more of DIY world, so it satisfies my needs nicely
BUT
It still a hassle, I wanted something that would not require me to make it look like it was a "computer" nor that ran into those pesky issues with USB OTG and power...
So, last May I got a Chromebook at Costco for 200 bucks... and I put a 1TB uSDCard in it. It has two USB-C connections and two USB-A ports as well... so I can charge it, use a remote mouse, connect via USB-OTG and the form factor is a little bit less obvious when I close the lid. I've also taken it to a couple of trips and It works quite well, having the keyboard makes it far easier to use for other tasks.... emailing is sure far easier than on a tablet/smart phone.
The Chromebook also runs dual ARM A7xx chips which makes them a bit better than even the latest Raspberry 5. Not up to par with the expensive Android tablets perhaps, but I don't run many applications.
The only downside with Chrome OS is that it wants my Google account password... I think I need to fix that when I get around to it.
I've been so happy, that I just bought another one today on the Black Friday sale.
I've been reading that it's quite easy to make them run as Linux machines (**)
So, for the time being, I'm moving to using Chrome OS as a music streamer, and will keep playing with Raspbian... but I don't know that I will play with the Android tablets much more.
What is your experience using these OS/platforms for music streaming?
(*) My home theater uses a Windows 10 laptop with an i7 to play DVDs and music. It can do Netflix, Foobar, VLC, etc... and it's hooked up via coax to a surround decoder AND via USB to an 8 channel DAC that drives the surround decoder via analog 7.1 as well. It works well but our latest smart TVs do Netflix and Plex so the laptop doesn't get the love it used to - unless I want to run the full 7.1 system. Hopefully my latest experiments with eARC will work, otherwise I might have to upgrade the surround decoder...
(**) I knew several people, developers, that for years have been buying Macbooks only to use them as Linux machines.
I've been using Android tablets for quite a few years now as a streamer... with the USB OTG connection to a DAC. Running Tidal HiFi and FooBar... plays nicely. Usually I buy them at Costco when they go on sale for 200 bucks and I'll put in a 512FB sdCard into them. They do great for audio and are pretty good when I travel to get my email... ( hot spot my cell phone ).
But the hardware has a fatal flaw, IMHO, it only comes with a single USB port, so getting USB OTG and Power to work together at the same time is a crapshoot. Now, normally, a single charge should be good enough for ten hours or so of music, but it still bothers me. Also, sometimes I've ran into issues where the cable was borderline and the tablet would stop driving music to the DAC. Getting better cables seems to have solved the problem (knock on wood), and also newer tablets are more reliable (I'm running a one and a three year old -both Samsung).
So, I tried Raspbian with a Raspberry. It works great and it's actually more of DIY world, so it satisfies my needs nicely
BUT
It still a hassle, I wanted something that would not require me to make it look like it was a "computer" nor that ran into those pesky issues with USB OTG and power...
So, last May I got a Chromebook at Costco for 200 bucks... and I put a 1TB uSDCard in it. It has two USB-C connections and two USB-A ports as well... so I can charge it, use a remote mouse, connect via USB-OTG and the form factor is a little bit less obvious when I close the lid. I've also taken it to a couple of trips and It works quite well, having the keyboard makes it far easier to use for other tasks.... emailing is sure far easier than on a tablet/smart phone.
The Chromebook also runs dual ARM A7xx chips which makes them a bit better than even the latest Raspberry 5. Not up to par with the expensive Android tablets perhaps, but I don't run many applications.
The only downside with Chrome OS is that it wants my Google account password... I think I need to fix that when I get around to it.
I've been so happy, that I just bought another one today on the Black Friday sale.
I've been reading that it's quite easy to make them run as Linux machines (**)
So, for the time being, I'm moving to using Chrome OS as a music streamer, and will keep playing with Raspbian... but I don't know that I will play with the Android tablets much more.
What is your experience using these OS/platforms for music streaming?
(*) My home theater uses a Windows 10 laptop with an i7 to play DVDs and music. It can do Netflix, Foobar, VLC, etc... and it's hooked up via coax to a surround decoder AND via USB to an 8 channel DAC that drives the surround decoder via analog 7.1 as well. It works well but our latest smart TVs do Netflix and Plex so the laptop doesn't get the love it used to - unless I want to run the full 7.1 system. Hopefully my latest experiments with eARC will work, otherwise I might have to upgrade the surround decoder...
(**) I knew several people, developers, that for years have been buying Macbooks only to use them as Linux machines.