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Post by goozoo on May 4, 2017 15:24:56 GMT -5
A while back, Dan and Lonnie had mentioned that they were interested in doing something with the Raspberry Pi as a media streamer; and we're talking more than a bad science project. Has anyone heard anything about this progressing to more than an idea on a napkin? Just thought I would ask.
Oh, BTW...in case you haven't heard they have been working on a new product line; they call it BasX. You might find a few references on this board. (SARCASM for those that need it)
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klinemj
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Post by klinemj on May 4, 2017 16:25:50 GMT -5
No word on the Pi. And, in case you are interested, there is plenty more about BasX on Emotiva.com - not just this board. You can go buy several of the BasX products...if you want.
Mark
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Post by MusicHead on May 4, 2017 16:52:45 GMT -5
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Post by wilburthegoose on May 5, 2017 7:51:47 GMT -5
I use the Raspberry Pi with my Roon music server. I have a HiFi Berry Digi+ card attached. (See www.hifiberry.com/)Provides (to me) a perfect digital stream to my home office Denon AVR-4311 (with Emotiva powered monitors!). I like it so much, I've been thinking of building another one to connect to my XMC-1 (see www.hifiberry.com/blog/go-symmetrical/ !) Only issue I have is that I need to reimage the microSD card once in a while (twice in a year). This is not a big deal! |
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Post by goozoo on May 5, 2017 9:11:12 GMT -5
No word on the Pi. And, in case you are interested, there is plenty more about BasX on Emotiva.com - not just this board. You can go buy several of the BasX products...if you want. Mark I was being sarcastic Mark. Seems like these days that's all you read about on this board from Emo...BasX this and BasX that; yet they keep touting being so busy with all these other products. It will be interesting if it ever becomes anything more than an idea given the hardware limitations of the Pi for HD audio streaming. |
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klinemj
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Post by klinemj on May 5, 2017 9:38:18 GMT -5
I was being sarcastic Mark. Seems like these days that's all you read about on this board from Emo...BasX this and BasX that; yet they keep touting being so busy with all these other products. It will be interesting if it ever becomes anything more than an idea given the hardware limitations of the Pi for HD audio streaming. Well, they have been busy, with BasX, Airmotiv, upgrading the XMC-1, getting ready for the RMC-1, etc. I would be willing to bet they are working on some new DAC's also. Just my bet. And, you see a lot of BasX traffic here because it's pretty much a big hit for many folks for many needs, and you saw a lot of BasX focus from Emotiva because they invested in a lot to launch it - so...of course they are going to promote it. Re. the Pi-based streamer - frankly, I doubt we'll ever see an Emotiva Pi-based product. Why? It's easy enough for people to build their own for so cheap that I don't think there's really a market for it. The big deal (for me and many) seems to be the interface...is it easy to use? what all does it draw from? Between Sonos, Tidal (running on a PC or a Pi), Volumio, and Roon - I don't think there's really a niche for Emotiva to "live in" AND make $ off of. And, Emotiva is more of a hardware company than an interface company. I just don't see that they really would have anything special to offer. Recall they had a prototype streamer at the last Emofest or the next to last one. A lot of folks were pretty excited, and ultimately Emotiva said "you know, there's just not a space we can play in and make $." They said if they could actually offer something unique, they might reconsider. Personally, I don't see the "something unique" they could offer that's based on Pi. If anything, I could see it be an optional module one could buy and put into the RMC-1's slots for optional modules they have talked about. As a stand alone product? Doubtful. That's my 2 cents. I may be wrong. Mark |
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Post by Casey Leedom on May 5, 2017 9:55:07 GMT -5
That's a bit harsh goozoo. Running a business is hard. At it's core you have to figure out how you're going to spend money to make money without putting yourself so deep in the hole that your business collapses from debt. This means that you have to be careful about hiring (labor is often the single biggest ticket item in a business's balance sheet) even though that limited hiring will impact the projects which will eventually bring the money in. I look at Emotiva's current [perceived] "focus" on the BasX line as an effort to broaden its core value proposition of "affordable high-end audio" in a highly leveraged manner. They are of course also engaging in forays into higher end products, but those have to be folded into the mix in a manner which doesn't sick the ship. I'm sure that the Gross Profit Margin on the RMC-1 will be much higher than that of any BasX product, but they'll sell a ton more of the BasX products and almost certainly see a lot more total revenue and profit from the BasX line. The Emersa product line, when it arrives, will be an interesting blend. Higher end than the BasX product line, but not RMC-1. If I were advising them, I would say that they probably need to come up with a product line name for products like the RMC-1 in order to clearly communicate to customers that the products belong to the highest end which Emotive produces. Who knows. Perhaps they'll go with "Reference" as that name. The interesting thing about doing this is that it immediately creates the questions "Where does the XMC-2 fit?" and "What's the Reference Amplifier?" But in reality, those questions were already here, we just didn't have the language to ask the questions till a name was provided for the highest end product line. But back to the issue at hand: yes, Emotiva is resource limited on how many projects it can pursue at any one point in time. And they have to carefully analyze where to spend those resource in order to keep the business going. Right now, the BasX product line is coming out with multiple waves of products which makes it look like that's all they're doing. But these product launches were years in the making. And there are other upcoming product launches of other product lines which are in various stages of completion which we can't see. (And probably shouldn't see given the way engineering schedules change.) When those product launches start happening, it'll seem like the BasX line is getting short shrift. Casey |
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Post by Casey Leedom on May 5, 2017 10:04:17 GMT -5
Oh, and on the Music Streamer thingie, yes, I'd love to see something. I agree with Mark that it's easy to toss something together, but I'd personally like to just buy something off the shelf. I work in the computer field in my Day Job. When I go home at night I just want to press the play button.
This could be either a separate box I just hide behind the RMC-1 with Ethernet in and attach to the RMC-1 USB input, or as an integrated RMC-1 Module with Ethernet in which hides all the cables. There's no need for a special display. Just run several of the current Music Streaming Clients on it and let people use the one they want and use their phones/pads for display. If it were me, I'd start with the Squeeze Client, a Roon End Point and a DNLA Client. There are probably a couple of others which are freely available.
Casey
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Post by garbulky on May 5, 2017 11:07:22 GMT -5
Yeah I think the streamer is probably way back on the back burner. A streamer requires software support and support for a wide variety of formats - no easy for a company to do especially at the price points people would find it palatable.
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Post by frenchyfranky on May 5, 2017 11:37:02 GMT -5
I remember to reading Dan Laufman or Lonnie about this Pi streamer project they wanted to know from us about the needs and features we thought about it. At this moment they tease me enough about this embryonic project idea but since that nothing more. I'm also curious to know if it dead in the egg. |
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Post by adaboy on May 5, 2017 14:44:47 GMT -5
No word on the Pi. And, in case you are interested, there is plenty more about BasX on Emotiva.com - not just this board. You can go buy several of the BasX products...if you want. Mark I was being sarcastic Mark. Seems like these days that's all you read about on this board from Emo...BasX this and BasX that; yet they keep touting being so busy with all these other products. It will be interesting if it ever becomes anything more than an idea given the hardware limitations of the Pi for HD audio streaming. I wonder if you meant the Emersa line as the BasX line is moving along. I got the joke though. |
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Post by Dan Laufman on May 5, 2017 19:36:14 GMT -5
Hi kids,
Well , we love the Pi and streaming in general, but it takes a little bit more than that to justify the time, energy and expense needed to develop a fully realized product solution.
We're hard at work on a streaming solution, but it will be a while before we make an official announcement.
As far as product development is concerned, any of you that follow us at all know we have been bringing out product after product over the last year, with more to come.
Peace,
Big Dan
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fattykidd
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Post by fattykidd on May 5, 2017 22:49:28 GMT -5
I was being sarcastic Mark. Seems like these days that's all you read about on this board from Emo...BasX this and BasX that; yet they keep touting being so busy with all these other products. It will be interesting if it ever becomes anything more than an idea given the hardware limitations of the Pi for HD audio streaming. I wonder if you meant the Emersa line as the BasX line is moving along. I got the joke though. Is Emersa actually a thing ? Or did it get totally scrapped too.. |
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Post by adaboy on May 6, 2017 6:40:58 GMT -5
I wonder if you meant the Emersa line as the BasX line is moving along. I got the joke though. Is Emersa actually a thing ? Or did it get totally scrapped too.. Emotiva says it is, nothing has materialized yet so keep your fingers crossed for late 2017. |
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klinemj
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Post by klinemj on May 6, 2017 6:50:38 GMT -5
Hi kids, Well , we love the Pi and streaming in general, but it takes a little bit more than that to justify the time, energy and expense needed to develop a fully realized product solution. We're hard at work on a streaming solution, but it will be a while before we make an official announcement. As far as product development is concerned, any of you that follow us at all know we have been bringing out product after product over the last year, with more to come. Peace, Big Dan Whatever you are working on, I hope it is not coupled with a built-in DAC...or if it is, have it offered/optional as a stand-alone streamer w/o a DAC. I see so many streaming solutions that want to be the streamer and DAC in one, but I don't want their DAC...I like my own! Mark |
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Post by adaboy on May 6, 2017 6:53:33 GMT -5
Hi kids, Well , we love the Pi and streaming in general, but it takes a little bit more than that to justify the time, energy and expense needed to develop a fully realized product solution. We're hard at work on a streaming solution, but it will be a while before we make an official announcement. As far as product development is concerned, any of you that follow us at all know we have been bringing out product after product over the last year, with more to come. Peace, Big Dan Whatever you are working on, I hope it is not coupled with a built-in DAC...or if it is, have it offered/optional as a stand-alone streamer w/o a DAC. I see so many streaming solutions that want to be the streamer and DAC in one, but I don't want their DAC...I like my own! Mark Maybe you can defeat the built-in dac. That would be a good option. |
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klinemj
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Post by klinemj on May 6, 2017 8:11:38 GMT -5
Whatever you are working on, I hope it is not coupled with a built-in DAC...or if it is, have it offered/optional as a stand-alone streamer w/o a DAC. I see so many streaming solutions that want to be the streamer and DAC in one, but I don't want their DAC...I like my own! Mark Maybe you can defeat the built-in dac. That would be a good option. Well, pretty much every digital player can do this...most have digital outputs in addition to analog ones. But, I don't want to pay for the DAC inside it, or the parts for the analog outs. I just want a streamer. And even then, it needs to be special vs. what is out there already, and the interface cannot be a step back vs. what I have. Mark |
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Post by adaboy on May 6, 2017 9:28:48 GMT -5
Maybe you can defeat the built-in dac. That would be a good option. Well, pretty much every digital player can do this...most have digital outputs in addition to analog ones. But, I don't want to pay for the DAC inside it, or the parts for the analog outs. I just want a streamer. And even then, it needs to be special vs. what is out there already, and the interface cannot be a step back vs. what I have. Mark Yeah as I was typing that I was like you could always defeat it but I totally see your point. Would be nice not to have to pay for something we're not going to use. Everybody and their grandma has a dac so yeah that I'd be interested in just a streamer... |
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Post by DYohn on May 6, 2017 9:36:41 GMT -5
I don't want to pay for the DAC inside it, or the parts for the analog outs. I just want a streamer. And even then, it needs to be special vs. what is out there already, and the interface cannot be a step back vs. what I have. Mark Mark, What do you consider "special"? |
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klinemj
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Post by klinemj on May 6, 2017 10:38:54 GMT -5
I don't want to pay for the DAC inside it, or the parts for the analog outs. I just want a streamer. And even then, it needs to be special vs. what is out there already, and the interface cannot be a step back vs. what I have. Mark Mark, What do you consider "special"? It needs to offer me something I don't have today all in one box at a fair price. Here is what I have today and the limits I find important for me (for others, YMMV...). I have Sonos, and it lets me access my ripped tunes on a NAS, Tidal "basics", internet radio (including any AM/FM station in the world that broadcasts via the net), my XM radio services, and other services my wife and kids use (Pandora, Spotify, etc.). It does have a DAC (and some of my units also have an amp), but I use its digital out for critical listening. And, I can control it via a very easy to use app on my phone or tablet or PC. Limits? Only CD quality and it cannot handle MQA (which I access via Tidal Masters so far...see below). I also have a HTPC, and I can (via jRiver) access any music on my NAS and via Tidal I can acccess MQA "masters" and output it via USB to my DAC. And, I can access music that is above CD quality and send it via USB to my DAC. Limits? 2nd box. More wires I don't otherwise need. Have to use projector to see display (or run 2nd display to near where I sit...more wires, more power, more things to go wrong...)...and use klunky wireless keyboard. And, recent attempts to solve this via apps on my tablet to control the HTPC...really klunky and not worth it! Also, i only use the PC for this, so every time I turn it on, it needs some kind of update...Norton or system (given I don't always need to listen to Tidal Masters...it is not frequent I turn on the PC). I also can stream via my Oppo 105. But, the interface sucks...big limit, won't use it...for anything streaming. So, put all the functionality I have into 1 box with at most 1 wire in (or wireless in) and 1 wire out to my DAC...and with an interface as easy as Sonos and controllable via an app on my tablet/phone...that would be special. For me. Mark |
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