Saturday 12 October 2024

GUEST POST: A Raspberry Pi Music System that Punches Above its Weight - Wax by Jeffrey Barish

[Hey everyone, the community of Raspberry Pi audio applications has grown tremendously over the years! SBC's similar to the Pi running on Linux OS are almost ubiquitous inside streamer components these days. Jeffrey Barish recently contacted me about his novel software which looks like a fantastic system for managing a music library that imports art, rich metadata, and other information that can be run in a small all-in-one box with DAC output! Here's his write-up and introduction to Wax.]


Using a Raspberry Pi as the basis for a music system is not novel. Raspberry Pi OS is based on Linux, so at least 20 audio player programs should be compatible. If you listen only to pop and you are satisfied with a program that allows you to simply select and play an album, then you will probably be satisfied with almost any of these programs. However, if you are a serious music lover – and especially if your collection includes classical music – then you are probably looking for more.

Serious music lovers like to know something about the music they are playing. They like to know the identities of the artists performing the music. These capabilities are available in some proprietary solutions, but those products are expensive, they might require additional components (e.g., a DAC or disk drives), and some require that users pay an ongoing fee. This article describes a new program for the Raspberry Pi that provides an inexpensive solution with these and many more capabilities.

Saturday 5 October 2024

Pacific Audio Fest 2024: Part III - parting thoughts, audiophile education, speaker:amp price ratio & the future?

Hypothetical scene in Seattle...

Another year, another Pacific Audio Fest in the annals of audio shows. Looking back, this show would be the 6th of this sort I've attended and subsequently discussed on this blog over the last decade, let's see:

Rocky Mountain Audio Fest 2019 - final RMAF
[Pandemic Years]

It's interesting reviewing some of those others over the years. I think most audiophiles will recognize that over time, not really much has changed, has it? Sure, the companies come and go, we've seen the ebb and flow of themes both in this blog as well as at the shows (for example, jitter was more of an uncertainty when AudioQuest introduced their JitterBug device in 2015). We've seen the rise of "high-end" computers and streamers (also discussed here), and these days I noticed that the companies are not as aggressive in the marketing as these products mature. Streaming may have reduced the need for local libraries, or simply that consumers themselves are comfortable with digital audio quality, the lack of sonic difference (and the "Bits Are Bits" reality).