Changing between multiple audio sources

General Discussion
1

Hello,

I am trying to create a simple device that would act as a digital audio source selector.

I have three audio sources -

  1. optical SPDIF (from my TV audio feed)
  2. coaxial SPDIF (from a digital phono preamp)
  3. ethernet (Roon)

There is a HAT I can purchase that adds both coaxial and optical SPDIF inputs to a RPI, called the HiFiberry Digi+ I/O. It also adds outputs for coaxial and optical SPDIF.

I see that people have used DietPi as a Roon bridge/endpoint. I would like to do that. I would also like the ability to send a command over IP to the DietPi that would switch to one of the other two audio sources, as listed above, on demand within a reasonable timeframe (<5 seconds would be fine - i.e. not needing a system reboot).

I have searched quite a bit through DietPi documentation to see if I could find a similar use case, or some pointers on audio input switching, but haven’t really had any luck. The HAT is tricky to find, and will probably cost $100 or so, in addition to the RPi unit and case. However, this would be the ideal solution to my problem if I can make it work, so I wanted to see if it’s possible, and if there are any ideas on how to accomplish this. Any advice or pointers would be very much appreciated. Even a hard ‘no, that’s not possible’ would be helpful to steer me away from this potential option.

Kind regards,
Sean

2

If I’m not mistaken, you are the first one looking for something like this. Not sure if there will be a solution from our community. You might look into official RPI community as well, as DietPi is working similar compare to plain RPI OS.

3

Hi Sean,

I think you can probably do 1+2 in your list. I don’t think you will need to even ‘switch’.

Another option would be to plug into an amp (suggest a wiim basic for 1+2 and a pro should do everything you want and then some) It may do a better job and/or compliment the Pi. My own experience is without using HAT’s.

I have basically no experience with Roon, I just installed it and found it wasn’t for me - I don’t see how your going to be able to switch from Roon to your other configs without a reboot or a delay of more than 5 seconds.

Good luck and I’d be interested to hear what you come up with or decide to do :slight_smile:

4

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