WiiM Pro, Raspberry Pi 4 8GB

[Brantome]

Just set up LMS on a 8GB Raspberry Pi 4 in a nice metal case with a 1TB SSD containing my ripped CDs, some LPs and more MP3s I should get round to replacing…





Who needs Roon?

 

[Brantome]

And why did I get the 1TB SSD for the Pi when my music library already also resides on the Synology NAS in the background? Partly to show you can host your library internally on a small form factor server alongside LMS, and partly because I could

 

[bird]

What interface/client are you using in that second picture?

 

[Brantome]

What interface/client are you using in that second picture?

LMS and its material skin. The use of LMS has been mentioned quite a bit in the forum, especially by @d6jg

 

[bird]

Alright, and then you stream to the WiiM via UPnP?

 

[Brantome]

Alright, and then you stream to the WiiM via UPnP?

Yeah, using LMS’s upnpbridge plugin, but hopefully that won’t be for too long as a squeezelite client is on WiiM’s roadmap.

 

[Seattle Techie]

Nice, love the small form factor server. Does the pi need cooling or are you just running silent?

 

[Brantome]

The case came with a fan, but it seems to run cool and pretty quiet. It’s upstairs well away from my hifi system downstairs anyway (the WiiM Pro was just in the photo for a comparison of size).

I got the case from Amazon https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0BRSQV68H

 

[d6jg]

IMHO LMS with the UPnP/DLNA Bridge and Material skin is as good, if not better, than any UPnP server / WiiM combo due to the fact it does not rely on WiiM app in any way. The Material skin gui is a joy to use and if the MAI (Music & Artist Info) plugin is added it then has a lot of Roon like features.
It would be improved still further when WiiM add native Squeezelite support.

But I would say that wouldn’t I? Hell yes

 

[simbun]

IMHO LMS with the UPnP/DLNA Bridge and Material skin is as good, if not better, than any UPnP server / WiiM combo due to the fact it does not rely on WiiM app in any way.

I'm not sure I follow; the only reason you'd need to use the WiiM app after the initial setup is if you wanted to group speakers, which you'd need to do in LMS too.
I think it's definitely one of the best free solutions, but as soon as you've purchased a decent control app then the stability (and flexibility depending on your server of choice) of a true UPnP solution can't be beat.

The Material skin gui is a joy to use and if the MAI (Music & Artist Info) plugin is added it then has a lot of Roon like features.

As soon as there's a requirement for additional embedded metadata (artist bio, album reviews, lyrics e.t.c.) then that's a whole other category of competition, one which I don't really have any experience of, but it would defintely be high on my shortlist (higher than Roon).

One thing I'm looking into at the moment is adding my MinimServer play history into Last.fm so I can then use that service for other recommendations (via the web interface), I see that LMS has a plugin to do the same but is there any integration of the recommendations through the LMS GUI, or would you also need to go via the last.fm web interface?

It would be improved still further when WiiM add native Squeezelite support.

I think that could be a game changer for LMS.

 

[d6jg]

I'm not sure I follow; the only reason you'd need to use the WiiM app after the initial setup is if you wanted to group speakers, which you'd need to do in LMS too.
I think it's definitely one of the best free solutions, but as soon as you've purchased a decent control app then the stability (and flexibility depending on your server of choice) of a true UPnP solution can't be beat.


As soon as there's a requirement for additional embedded metadata (artist bio, album reviews, lyrics e.t.c.) then that's a whole other category of competition, one which I don't really have any experience of, but it would defintely be high on my shortlist (higher than Roon).

One thing I'm looking into at the moment is adding my MinimServer play history into Last.fm so I can then use that service for other recommendations (via the web interface), I see that LMS has a plugin to do the same but is there any integration of the recommendations through the LMS GUI, or would you also need to go via the last.fm web interface?


I think that could be a game changer for LMS.

I can’t answer the Last.fm question. It’s not something I have ever played around with.

Pushing Squeezelite onto a WiiM device would indeed open the door to a new market for WiiM. We don’t currently have many choices at all for new native players and due to their age some of the original players are starting to fail.

 

[OldNick]

Just wanted to jump on this thread to say I'm an LMS convert. Set it up on a Surface Pro with material skin and upnp bridge to the Wiim Pro and it works a treat. Gapless and full 24/192 res. No more compromises.

 

[Brantome]

Just wanted to jump on this thread to say I'm an LMS convert. Set it up on a Surface Pro with material skin and upnp bridge to the Wiim Pro and it works a treat. Gapless and full 24/192 res. No more compromises.

Hopefully we don’t have much longer to wait before we can ditch the upnpbridge plugin and use the native Squeezelite client on our WiiMs - it’s currently under development

 

[delage]

And why did I get the 1TB SSD for the Pi when my music library already also resides on the Synology NAS in the background? Partly to show you can host your library internally on a small form factor server alongside LMS, and partly because I could

I do this too. I have my home file server running LMS with a number of music folders. I then use resilio to mirror my music folders all over the place. I actually carry a copy on my mobile phone with the android app. Great thing with resilio is I can manage my music anywhere and it instantly mirrors changes to everywhere else I keep a copy of my music (eg, my laptop and mobile and wife's laptop too).

 

[shinedou]

I'm not sure I follow; the only reason you'd need to use the WiiM app after the initial setup is if you wanted to group speakers, which you'd need to do in LMS too.
I think it's definitely one of the best free solutions, but as soon as you've purchased a decent control app then the stability (and flexibility depending on your server of choice) of a true UPnP solution can't be beat.


As soon as there's a requirement for additional embedded metadata (artist bio, album reviews, lyrics e.t.c.) then that's a whole other category of competition, one which I don't really have any experience of, but it would defintely be high on my shortlist (higher than Roon).

One thing I'm looking into at the moment is adding my MinimServer play history into Last.fm so I can then use that service for other recommendations (via the web interface), I see that LMS has a plugin to do the same but is there any integration of the recommendations through the LMS GUI, or would you also need to go via the last.fm web interface?


I think that could be a game changer for LMS.

A little different than what you are wanting to do with LastFM but I use the LastMix plugin in LMS. It uses the Don't Stop the Music (DSTM) feature in LMS to add songs to the queue based on the songs that I am playing. It uses LastFM's similar artist\song feature based on what I already have in my Play Queue and then adds songs from my local library AND my streaming services. It will use Spotify or Tidal or Qobuz that you have setup in LMS. As long as you are playing it will add these streaming songs intermixed with your local files. It works really well and I discover new music this way.

Another great thing about LMS is you can add albums or just tracks to your local library from Tidal or Spotify and they will show up right along you local library so when you do find a song or artist that you like you can add it and it will show up in your LMS library.

 

[Hiphiman]

I would appreciate some advice please. I managed to get a Raspberry Pi 4B with the intention of experimenting with LMS by connecting it to my WiiM Mini (I did not like the idea of having to continuously run a fan with the Raspberry Pi 5). I have been able to put it together and have the latest version of Raspberry OS running, however I am struggling from there on. I have entered some of the suggestions on the internet to install LMS through the terminal in RaspOS but it does not seem to be going too well. Also, there does not seem to be much consistency between websites around how this should be done. I realise that I will need to understand how to install a uPNP bridge too because I have a Mini. Does anyone know a reliable source for what I am hoping to achieve?

 

[Brantome]

I believe you’re better installing piCorePlayer as I did rather than using the vanilla Raspberry OS. This and related pages are a good source for doing so

Getting started | piCorePlayer documentation

 

[Brantome]

Once you have LMS up an running on piCorePlayer using its default skin, you should then instal the Material skin plugin and use that going forward to install any other plugins like UPNPBridge

 

[castalla]

I believe you’re better installing piCorePlayer as I did rather than using the vanilla Raspberry OS. This and related pages are a good source for doing so

Getting started | piCorePlayer documentation

Picoreplayer running LMS is the way to go.

 

[Hiphiman]

Thank you for the rapid reply. So piCorePlayer needs to be installed on an SD card instead of Raspberry OS? Sorry for the newbie questions.