Adding HiRes streamer to Mac/Airport Airplay system (latest - WiiM Pro )

[hjames]

Based on that thread above, and the recent hiccup in my system,
Maybe its time for a new thread off this tree ...

(from another thread - https://audiokarma.org/forums/index.php?threads/nas-or-roon.951907/)

Yes, every time I read someone posting about a Roon feature, I say to myself, "...ok, but LMS does that, and it is free..."
I wonder how many Roon users have ever used LMS, especially with the Material Skin?

I'm not a Roon system person, but I have to wonder -
"Can I stand up an LMS system in an Apple environment?"
https://audiokarma.org/forums/index.php?threads/standing-up-lms-in-a-mac-environment.952521/

 

[hjames]

Returning to this thread after much time mostly running well. Lately, it seems my PiCorePlayer/LMS system drops Shairport compatibility after a while.
I can be streaming music to it as an output device via my iTunes library (control the music choices from Remote app on phone, or from my MacMini directly),
but after a while, if I interrupt it to play another song or playlist, it drops Airplay connectivity, tho I can still play my favorite Radio selections, or apps of Radio Paradise or Qobuz ...
When I pick a song on Tunes, it no longer feeds/sees the PCP as an Airplay device.

I can run upstairs to my office, restart the PCP, and iI can see it as an airplay device for a while again, but thats a pain when I am legs up with a book and a drink ... cat on my lap, etc ...

 

[hjames]

Update to all of this - I had tried the BlueSound Node 2i streamer but at nearly $500 I thought it too pricey, so I wound up building a raspberry Pi4 unit running PiCorePlayer and LMS, based on help from a lot of folks here. But it has not worked well for 6 weeks or so since, apparently, some kind of auto-Update broke things, and frankly I haven't had time to spend a half day or so wiping the smart card and reinstalling it again. (Yeah, I know, backups - hush!)

Based on conversations in the other threads, I bought a WiiM Pro streamer this week - pretty inexpensive ($149), its painless, and works great with my sources (Qobuz, Radio Paradise, some Web radio sites, and as an end point for my iTunes library (2TB) running on a mac mini upstairs in my office, via WiFi.
But the Topping D10S DAC I was running with the USB out of the raspberry Pi4 doesn't work with the Wim Pro, no powered USB out feed, and since I'd been happy with the Topping brand, I ordered a Topping E30 II DAC - still quite inexpensive ($149!)

It arrived yesterday while I was at the MidAtlantic Meetup - so I tried to connect it quietly (amp off) around 10PM last night. There is no USB out of the WiiM Pro, so I tried Coaxial first, but settled on Optical/SPDIF. But the #$@%$ thing insisting on showing me output Volume level display instead of the bit rate/high res data I care more about. Off to bed!

Fussed with it more this morning and discovered it was defaulting to Preamp Mode, not DAC mode. So, I read the so-called manual/flyer, found out how to force it into DAC mode, and got the display I care about - and the sound is quite nice too!



DAC on top, Streamer underneath -
WiiM Pro streamer is managed via iPhone and iPad app ...