Hi there, I’m new on this board I but use MC since several years and like to give you an overview what I did with MC on a PI3.
I’m using MC since release 17 on Windows and when r22 came out I also implemented the system on a PI3. My intention was to have a system running 24/7 with a fairly good performance and sound quality and not to get a system with a highend sound. Following what FREDDIEKABERMAN posted here I like to sum up my experience with the PI3.
Starting short after MC22 came out I bought a PI3 and installed it out of the box without any further modifications. The installation was done very quickly according to MWILLEMS instructions (thanks). As FREDDIEKABERMAN told us I also experienced lots of drop outs when connecting a USB DAC (MusicalFidelity VDAC II). I first thought it only may occur due to the fact that my music (flac 24/96khz) resides on a network drive (Synology NAS). Then I tried to read the music from a USB disk connected to the PI3 but the dropouts didn’t disappear. I played around with buffer options and playing from disk versus storage without success.
Next action was to install a Hifiberry DAC+ pro with analog outputs and I experienced a major step forward. From now on I had very seldom dropouts and when I switched to playing the music directly from the network storage instead of playing from internal storage they disappeared completely.
The system is far away from being error free or as comfortable like the Windows version but the music plays constantly without dropouts and that’s important! Errors which still remain are that MC stops working regularly when it is started headless through VNC connection. On the other hand when it is connected to a TV via HDMI cable there is a small amount of hum which can be heard in silent moments within the music if using higher volumes on the amp. To prevent this I have to start the system through a TV connection and then I disconnect the TV and do the rest via JREMOTE. The sound quality is fairly good and very close to what I hear from my Windows/HTPC running a RME HDSP9632 sound card and that’s a real surprise for me. Possibly a difference is more hearable when using a real high end system (see my configuration below).
I’m now waiting that the Theaterview will be implemented for the LINUX version and for sure then I also need to establish a remote control system for the PI3.
To improve the sound quality in the next weeks I will try a Hifiberry DIGI+ and feed the music signal to an external DAC via SPDIF/TOSLINK. If this will bring me closer or exceed to the performance of my HDSP9632 and the problems described above are sorted out then a PI3/MC version can be a real good solution with low power consumption, good music quality and perfect handling.
Configuration: Synology NAS, HTPC/Win7/RME HDSP9632/MC22, RPI3/LXPANEL 0.7.2/MC22, Audionet SAM, Piega P4
