Improving my crappy Snapcast setup

2023-05-13

About a month ago, I introduced you to the amazing open source multi-room audio player Snapcast , but only presented a very minimal, crappy setup. Today, we are changing this, as I want to share my new and improved setup...

This time around, I opted for a Raspberry Pi as the dedicated head of operation and want to be able to connect to it just like you know it from a normal Bluetooth/AirPlay speaker, which then distributes the signal to all connected clients. The Pi therefore needs to run the Snapcast server along with a piece of software that handles the signal input. I chose Cornrow , which is a hassle-free Bluetooth audio daemon for single-board computers (SBCs), and couldn't be happier with it. The clients are still the same amazing and zero-setup apps available for almost all platforms plus the Pi itself (via the audio jack), if you want. The whole structure of my setup can be seen below:

Here is how to set everything up just like I have it:

Flash a fresh Raspberry Pi OS Lite image to an SD card via the RPI Imager (enable SSH and enter Wi-Fi credentials to connect to it right away)
Connect to the system via ssh USERNAME@HOSTNAME.local
Update the system via sudo apt update && sudo apt full-upgrade -y
Update the firmware via sudo rpi-update
Install snapserver from the repositories via sudo apt install snapserver -y (the service should be enabled automatically)
Install Cornrow this way:
- Download the newest .deb package from GitHub via wget https://github.com/mincequi/cornrow/releases/download/v0.8.1/cornrowd_0.8.1_armhf.deb
- Install it via sudo apt install ./cornrowd_0.8.1_armhf.deb -y
- Set up the service via sudo systemctl unmask cornrowd.service && sudo systemctl enable cornrowd.service

Modify the Cornrow config to use AirPlay and stream to a local TCP connection:

[bluetooth_source]
codecs = [ 0x0 ]
sample_rates = [ 44100, 44800 ]

[airplay_source]
name = "musicpi"
port = 0
buffer_time = 2000

#[alsa_sink]
#device = "default"

[tcp_sink]
host = "127.0.0.1"
port = 4953

Modify the Snapcast config to accept the TCP stream:

[stream]
#source = pipe:///tmp/snapfifo?name=default
source = tcp://127.0.0.1:4953?name=musicpi&sampleformat=44100:16:2

If you have problems to connect to the Raspi after deleting the pairing from your client device (like an Android phone), unpair it from the server as follows:
- Hop into bluetoothctl
- List all paired devices in the new prompt via paired-devices
- Unpair all misbehaving devices by finding their MAC address (format aa:bb:cc:dd:ee:ff ) and removing them via remove MACADDRESS
If you want to Raspi to output audio via it's audiojack too, simply install the client there as well via sudo apt install snapclient -y (the service should be enabled automatically)
Reboot the Pi and enjoy this simple, but amazing setup

With that said, consider giving it a try yourself and have a lovely day...

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