[HOW-TO] Spotify Connect Web for Moode

[JonPike]

I'm getting confused by all these "incarnations" of Spotify Connect developments.

Out of curiosity to experiment, I found this one
https://github.com/dtcooper/raspotify
which requires a 1 line installation:
curl -sL https://dtcooper.github.io/raspotify/install.sh | sh
I only changed a couple of lines in the "/etc/default/raspotify" configuration file:

# /etc/default/raspotify -- Arguments/configuration for librespot
# Device name on Spotify Connect
DEVICE_NAME="moodeXraspotify"
# Bitrate, one of 96 (low quality), 160 (default quality), or 320 (high quality)
BITRATE="320"

...and I was up and running in less than 10 minutes on Moode 4.0

Good to see the work going on to polish this up...   Here's some notes from my perspective.

FWIW,  I have been using the dtcooper Raspotify method with little problems for quite a while now.  Hadn't noticed the gap/start song issues,  but then,  I realized that I hadn't been listening to any albums that have gapless play.  I now notice there are a few seconds extra between tracks.  I haven't noticed major disconnects or other issues, when it works it's pretty stable.  For me.

And,  after getting to Clapton's "Unplugged" album on the interesting "DR+ altamontstudios"  playlist on Spotify (* check end of post for more info)  I can see the issue clearly.  I'm only getting 2-5 sec gaps even on my slow Pi 1B+ box.  Maybe my much faster than the 2.4Ghz Wi-fi internet connection helps to feed that buffer faster, and those with slower net access have to suffer longer. 

For overall setup and performance,   I've had the "it just works"  experience with my Allo Boss I2C DAC based system,  but had no sound when using my Creative Labs X-Fi HD USB soundcard.   I discovered that the ALSA address the X-Fi ended up on was different and needed manual setting,  like someone else reported. 

Code:

#
# To choose a different output device (ie a USB audio dongle or HDMI audio out),
# use `--device` with something like `--device hw:0,1`. Your mileage may vary.
#
#OPTIONS="--username <USERNAME> --password <PASSWORD>"

Logging into the Pi with SSH, I used the aplay -l  and aplay -L commands to get info on my audio devices,  and I then was able to edit in an OPTIONS= line as shown above,  with the right address.  I didn't quite figure out why an added DAC like the Allo comes up on a findable device port,  while my USB one didn't, and needed a specific line.  The other odd thing was that the example line above from the Raspotify readme didn't work either,  and instead of  

Code:

OPTIONS="--device hw:1,0"

I had to use OPTIONS= "--device plughw:1,0" ,  a slightly different command.   Tada...   music!


* - I ran across a comment by someone regarding the "Loudness Wars", etc... and they mentioned their playlist on Spotify.  All tracks are very high DR, >14, and nice to remind oneself how much difference a lot of dynamic headroom can make to a piece of music.  Search for "DR+"  the name will be altamontstudios.   I also just discovered a huge playlist called "High Dynamic Range",  with a picture of an old Marantz receiver.   If you are wondering what all this Loudness Wars / DR ratings stuff is, anyway,  google it, read a bit,  check out the Dynamic Range Database site.