thoelf/linux-stream-player

Play local files or streamed music with room EQ on Linux.

The Linux Stream Player (LSP)

LSP is a set of scripts, third party programs and configurations that allows you to play music from files or streaming services on a headless Linux computer, from now on called the "server". You can control the music from a mobile app or a from web browser on another Linux computer, from now on called the "client".

LSP is designed to meet my personal goals for how I want to play digital music at home. The intention is not to make a solution for all sorts of use cases or to support other platforms and applications that the ones I use. Nevertheless, with some tweaking you should be able to adopt it to your needs.

LSP is tested to work with Ubuntu Server on the server and Ubuntu Desktop on the client.

Playing music locally on the server

LSP uses LMS (Logitech Media Server/Squeezebox server) with SqueezeLite as the player. Both programs are installed on the server and plays local and streamed music. My source of streamed music is mainly Deezer, but other streaming services (e.g. Spotify and Qobuz) are supported and available as plugins to LMS.

Personally, I prefer to run LMS in a Docker container. LMS can also be installed from a .deb file.

LMS/SqueezeLite is controlled from a web browser on the client or from a mobile app, for example the LMS app from the F-Droid app catalog. The LMS app requires you to use Material Skin (a plugin to LMS on the server). Material Skin is strongly recommended and is easily installed from the browser when you have installed LMS (the server).

In this play mode, the audio stream is piped from SqueezeLite to CamillaDSP (for room EQ) and then to the DAC. No resampling is taking place from the source to the DAC. This is based on the believe that it is better to leave any resamling to the DAC. In this play mode, your DAC must support the sample rate of the source.

Playing music on the client and streaming it to the server

In this play mode, the music is streamed from the client to the server. I use Firefox to stream music from the Deezer webpage. I use Firefox as the music playing browser, just to make my preferred browser (Brave) free for all other browsing activities.

If you prefer Spotify, you might be better off with the Spotify application for Linux on the client and spotifyd on the server. This works very well. If you follow that path, LSP might not be of great use for you.

You can use only LMS and SqueezeLite for your audio streaming. If doing so you cannot use the user interface, that for example Deezer among other streaming services, provide via their web pages. I have come to use LMS the most, but it can be good to have the ability to stream from the client.

When streaming from a browser, the environment for the browser on the client is set up so that the browser plays to the nullsink. The audio sent to the nullsink is inaudible on the client. While streaming to the nullsink on the client, it is still possible to play audio on the client from other audio players.

An audio stream is set up from the nullsink using cvlc. MPD on the server receives the stream and pipes it to CamillaDSP (for room EQ) and then to the DAC.

The audio stream is resampled to 44.1 kHz on the client. If you like, you can configure the OS for another static sample rate. In my case with Deezer, the source is always 44.1 kHz, so the stream is never resampled.

Controlling LSP

When all is set up and working, the browser starts automatically and the latest play mode is selected when you log in. The browser can also be started from Cairo dock, any other dock you prefer or just by runnning the start script. Another script (or button in a dock) is for selecting the play mode. The selection of play mode is shown using GNOME notifications.

In the files for the client there is a one-liner "script" for Conky, if you want to use Conky to show the selected player mode.

Room EQ with CamillaDSP

LSP uses CamillaDSP for room EQ. You can get the filter parameters from measurements using a USB microphone and REW. When starting out, you can start with no filters and then add filters in the future, by ear of from your own measurements. The frequence response in untreated rooms can have a big bump in the base region, which it should be able to lower by ear.

Links

• LMS on Docker hub:
  https://hub.docker.com/r/lmscommunity/logitechmediaserver
• LMS as a .deb file:
  https://www.mysqueezebox.com/download
• The LMS app on F-Droid:
  https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.craigd.lmsmaterial.app/
• Material Skin for LMS:
  https://github.com/CDrummond/lms-material
• SqueezeLite on GitHub:
  https://github.com/ralph-irving/squeezelite
• CamillaDSP on GitHub:
  https://github.com/HEnquist/camilladsp
• CamillaDSP on diyAudio:
  https://www.diyaudio.com/forums/pc-based/349818-camilladsp-cross-platform-iir-fir-engine-crossovers-correction-etc.html
• Room EQ Wizard, REW:
  https://www.roomeqwizard.com/

Installing and configuring the software

Follow the procedures in server_install.md to install software and files on the server. Follow the procedures in client_install.md to install software and files on the client.

A note about the software used or referenced

The software in LSP and all software used by LSP, is free and open source software. The REW application, which is not strictly needed, is closed source software that is free of cost, i.e. freeware. Donating to these projects are encouraged.