A networked receiver for digital music
Roaring Cube
© Lead Image © Burmakin Andrey, 123RF.com
Build a networked receiver for your digital music collection with an old stereo, a Raspberry Pi, and the HiFiBerry.
Receivers are much like cars in some respects: While the world is busy talking about networked, autonomous, and electric vehicles, cars that simply drive reliably from A to B seem to be completely antiquated. Likewise, the HiFi amplifiers still found in many living rooms might deliver outstanding sound to your speakers, but their strong suit is not playing a digital music collection. In the end, you need to network your HiFi system. In this article, I show you how to build such a system with a Raspberry Pi and HiFiBerry.
In my case, I started out with a Philips FW362 [1] compact system built in 1999, with a twin cassette deck and a CD player (Figure 1). Even at the time of purchase, the stereo system was definitely not for audiophiles. The CD player died years ago, but the cassette deck now radiates retro charm.
Nevertheless, expanding the system by simply adding a network player is not the best idea; rather, I want to integrate a networked receiver with an integrated power amplifier. You can find a quite large selection of both device types today. The question therefore arises: What features do I need, and which devices offer them?
[...]
Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy Linux Magazine
US / Canada
UK / Australia
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
News
-
Red Hat Releases RHEL 10 Early
Red Hat quietly rolled out the official release of RHEL 10.0 a bit early.
-
openSUSE Joins End of 10
openSUSE has decided to not only join the End of 10 movement but it also will no longer support the Deepin Desktop Environment.
-
New Version of Flatpak Released
Flatpak 1.16.1 is now available as the latest, stable version with various improvements.
-
IBM Announces Powerhouse Linux Server
IBM has unleashed a seriously powerful Linux server with the LinuxONE Emperor 5.
-
Plasma Ends LTS Releases
The KDE Plasma development team is doing away with the LTS releases for a good reason.
-
Arch Linux Available for Windows Subsystem for Linux
If you've ever wanted to use a rolling release distribution with WSL, now's your chance.
-
System76 Releases COSMIC Alpha 7
With scores of bug fixes and a really cool workspaces feature, COSMIC is looking to soon migrate from alpha to beta.
-
OpenMandriva Lx 6.0 Available for Installation
The latest release of OpenMandriva has arrived with a new kernel, an updated Plasma desktop, and a server edition.
-
TrueNAS 25.04 Arrives with Thousands of Changes
One of the most popular Linux-based NAS solutions has rolled out the latest edition, based on Ubuntu 25.04.
-
Fedora 42 Available with Two New Spins
The latest release from the Fedora Project includes the usual updates, a new kernel, an official KDE Plasma spin, and a new System76 spin.