General Help with WiiM ultra

[Mr Ee]

actually just need to get the blasted WiiM ultra out the box and experiment.

It's still in the box!!!
Get to it!

 

[hoohoohoo]

Fantastic info.

I’ve never had a Raspberry Pi before. I assume it not to difficult to setup?

Is it worth picking up the latest RP 5 or can I get away with a 4

Looks like I’ve got some work to do this week end.

Lastly, from your experience with the RP, is there a limit to the size of hard drive you can connect to it?
I’m thinking about an ssd?

Any experience with running LMS on Windows?

Cheers

A couple of things to think about before committing to a RPi.

By the time that you've put together a RPi (board, case, power supply, RAM, storage, etc), it's only a stone's throw to a NUC. You can get this pre-assembed and be up and running quickly. With RPi, you're going to be running ARM-based Raspian Linux or Ubuntu Linux and you can do the same on a NUC with x86 Ubuntu Linux or you can run x86 Windows. With Ubuntu Linux, you can run LMS using docker or you can run LMS natively. In effect, you're buying a mini-server. RPi's are OK, but I have 2 in storage that will likely never be used again -- pay for shipping and they're yours .

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=beelink+n100 - lowest cost
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=beelink+ryzen - adding performance and expandability

To help you manage Ubuntu without needing a screen display after the initial install, consider adding Cockpit or Webmin and you can manage from a web browser on any device.

 

[simbun]

I assume LMS is just a bit better than other offerings.

Just in case it's not clear, the LMS solution replaces the need for WiiM Home App (which isn't necessarily a bad thing, especially for local content) as such your content won't appear in the WHA like it would with other servers.
Before you spend money on hardware test the solutions on your desktop.

 

[castalla]

A couple of things to think about before committing to a RPi.

By the time that you've put together a RPi (board, case, power supply, RAM, storage, etc), it's only a stone's throw to a NUC. You can get this pre-assembed and be up and running quickly. With RPi, you're going to be running ARM-based Raspian Linux or Ubuntu Linux and you can do the same on a NUC with x86 Ubuntu Linux or you can run x86 Windows. With Ubuntu Linux, you can run LMS using docker or you can run LMS natively. In effect, you're buying a mini-server. RPi's are OK, but I have 2 in storage that will likely never be used again -- pay for shipping and they're yours .

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=beelink+n100 - lowest cost
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=beelink+ryzen - adding performance and expandability

To help you manage Ubuntu without needing a screen display after the initial install, consider adding Cockpit or Webmin and you can manage from a web browser on any device.

If you use a RPi you can install/run Picoreplayer - easy configuration menus compared to standard Linux stuff.

 

[d6jg]

A couple of things to think about before committing to a RPi.

By the time that you've put together a RPi (board, case, power supply, RAM, storage, etc), it's only a stone's throw to a NUC. You can get this pre-assembed and be up and running quickly. With RPi, you're going to be running ARM-based Raspian Linux or Ubuntu Linux and you can do the same on a NUC with x86 Ubuntu Linux or you can run x86 Windows. With Ubuntu Linux, you can run LMS using docker or you can run LMS natively. In effect, you're buying a mini-server. RPi's are OK, but I have 2 in storage that will likely never be used again -- pay for shipping and they're yours .

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=beelink+n100 - lowest cost
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=beelink+ryzen - adding performance and expandability

To help you manage Ubuntu without needing a screen display after the initial install, consider adding Cockpit or Webmin and you can manage from a web browser on any device.

I take your point but a Pi4 starter kit is about £60. Cheapest usable NUC is quite a bit more than that, more than double that, plus as @castalla says piCorePlayer requires zero Linux skills.

 

[hoohoohoo]

If you use a RPi you can install/run Picoreplayer - easy configuration menus compared to standard Linux stuff.

@castalla - Free RPis to good home...send shipping box I have a bunch of NUCs that are much more interesting to me than RPis. The RPis have been in their storage boxes almost since I picked up a couple of them with good intentions. The first one I ran as a DNS server for a couple of months and the second one didn't even get set up. They just bored me and all the projects guys were talking about could just be done in a VM or docker container from my chesterfield/sofa/couch/divan I run LMS/navidrome/Plex/Emby/etc on one of the NUCs to pull music off a NAS and Tailscale to access them remotely. We truly live in a wonderful age with so many cool things.

I take your point but a Pi4 starter kit is about £60. Cheapest usable NUC is quite a bit more than that, more than double that, plus as @castalla says piCorePlayer requires zero Linux skills.

@d6jg - Well...for apples to apples, you need to add the cost of 500GB of SSD storage . Hopefully the picoreplayer menus can handle external storage So not double and now you have an external storage dongle...but, same here, I see your point. In the end, for an audiophile, a couple of extra pounds/dollars/shekels/dinars for a NUC or RPi means cutting corners on a cable or DAC or more likely not.

 

[d6jg]

@castalla - Free RPis to good home...send shipping box I have a bunch of NUCs that are much more interesting to me than RPis. The RPis have been in their storage boxes almost since I picked up a couple of them with good intentions. The first one I ran as a DNS server for a couple of months and the second one didn't even get set up. They just bored me and all the projects guys were talking about could just be done in a VM or docker container from my chesterfield/sofa/couch/divan I run LMS/navidrome/Plex/Emby/etc on one of the NUCs to pull music off a NAS and Tailscale to access them remotely. We truly live in a wonderful age with so many cool things.


@d6jg - Well...for apples to apples, you need to add the cost of 500GB of SSD storage . Hopefully the picoreplayer menus can handle external storage So not double and now you have an external storage dongle...but, same here, I see your point. In the end, for an audiophile, a couple of extra pounds/dollars/shekels/dinars for a NUC or RPi means cutting corners on a cable or DAC or more likely not.

Even without storage a NUC is considerably more costly to buy and to run. Apples v apples.
FYI piCorePlayer allows attached storage or mounted NAS drive etc. but it depends what you want to run. A NUC would be more suitable if you wanted it to do all the things you mention I agree.

 

[castalla]

@castalla - Free RPis to good home...send shipping box I have a bunch of NUCs that are much more interesting to me than RPis. The RPis have been in their storage boxes almost since I picked up a couple of them with good intentions. The first one I ran as a DNS server for a couple of months and the second one didn't even get set up. They just bored me and all the projects guys were talking about could just be done in a VM or docker container from my chesterfield/sofa/couch/divan I run LMS/navidrome/Plex/Emby/etc on one of the NUCs to pull music off a NAS and Tailscale to access them remotely. We truly live in a wonderful age with so many cool things.


@d6jg - Well...for apples to apples, you need to add the cost of 500GB of SSD storage . Hopefully the picoreplayer menus can handle external storage So not double and now you have an external storage dongle...but, same here, I see your point. In the end, for an audiophile, a couple of extra pounds/dollars/shekels/dinars for a NUC or RPi means cutting corners on a cable or DAC or more likely not.

I already have several unemployed Pi's! Now run LMS mainly on a mini headless PC with win10. Only a few local files on usb stick.
Thanks for the offer .

 

[STEREOmole]

I'd base any sections on the size of your music collection that you're serving up. Ripping my CDs and tagging them correctly with artwork was a 3 to 4 year project done in my spare time. I also have quite a few digital only albums from Bandcamp, and have been ripping some out of print LPs.

For a collection that's over 1.5tb, you really need a NAS running a DLNA server (minimserver) or a repurposed Linux PC with a big hard drive running minimserver in my opinion. You could also use the Linux PC to rip CDs with soundjuicer, and tag the files with easytag if you choose to go that route.

The advantage to a DLNA server with the WIIM is that your entire collection shows up instantly over WIFI, and the streaming is full resolution and flawless. It works great for massive music collections. If your music collection is 30 albums, a USB drive plugged into the WIIM might work just fine.