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?
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