Tricky Stuff

Your Raspberry Pi is now working as a small audio amplifier. In practice, however, you will probably find yourself continually tripping over shortcomings. For example, the Amp2 had massive problems with volume control in a first installation in the test. As soon as the volume exceeded or fell below certain thresholds, audible dropouts occurred in the playback. With the current version of the system in a new installation, everything worked flawlessly. The AAmp60 did not exhibit any of these problems.

In practice, new Bluetooth devices are likely to enter your household from time to time (e.g., if you have visitors). To grant them access to the amplifier, you need to enable the pairing feature in each case. Turning pairing on permanently is not a good idea – or do you really want your neighbor to play back their favorite opera on your speakers?

The user interface also lacks password protection and other security measures. Users on the network can therefore reconfigure the Raspberry Pi or play music without restrictions.

To switch to the CD player, you have to enable the appropriate audio input from the user interface. At the time of writing, HiFiBerryOS does not switch over automatically as soon as a signal is present. Unlike a standalone amplifier, listening pleasure requires a few clicks up front, which, in my experience, is too much for many users.

Shutdown

The intended way to shut down HiFiBerryOS after use is by selecting General | Power | Shut Down. In practice, however, people often simply unplug the power cord or turn off the powerstrip for devices of this type – especially users who find the user interface too complex. In the test, cutting the power did not cause any permanent damage, and the Raspberry Pi repeatedly booted without any problems.

The developers of the HiFiBerryOS also point out in a blog post that the system does not write very much data to the SD card and that damage is very rare [10]. Just in case, I keep a second SD card with a copy of the system next to my DIY boombox.

Modul 9 now also offers a power controller, still in the testing or beta phase [11], that lets you shut down the Raspberry Pi in a controlled manner at the push of a button.

Conclusions

HiFiBerry amplifiers quickly transform a Raspberry Pi into an oversized boombox, allowing you to extend the service life of your legacy hi-fi components at a low cost. HiFiBerryOS also removes the need to set up Bluetooth and other complex services manually.

The system also offers access to numerous services, including Spotify and various internet radio stations. However, minor quirks make the use of multiple input sources difficult to control.