Question: Does Bluetooth Output use the Audio output from the DAC Hat?

[Wheel_nut]

My set up is a Raspberry Pi 3 B with a HiFiBerry DAC+ I2S HAT running moOde 7.30.

When I direct the MPD Audio Output  > Bluetooth in BlueZ Config, Is the MPD Audio using the higher quality DACs on the HiFiBerry DAC+ Hat? ... or is it using the RPi Onboard DAC which is of lower quality?

My Audio Config is set to I2S Audio Device > HiFiBerry DAC+

Robin

[Tim Curtis]

The DAC is not being used at all. MPD is sending its output PCM stream to the Bluetooth adapter for transmission to a Bluetooth Speaker.

[Wheel_nut]

The DAC is not being used at all. MPD is sending its output PCM stream to the Bluetooth adapter for transmission to a Bluetooth Speaker.

Hi Tim,

Encouraged by your reply, I have set up a "slave" moOde player on a Raspberry Pi 1B (Yes, a ONE B) which I have connected via Samba to the Library in my "master" moOde player which runs on a RPi 3B.

My plan is to use either the native Audio Jack on the RPi 1B or a Bluetooth adapter to feed a Speaker to use as an Alarm Clock. All successful so far except that I cannot get any Audio output from the native Audio Socket on the RPi 1B.

The I2S Audio Device is set to "None" which I expected to leave the Audio output on the native RPi 1B socket. I have tried turning the HDMI Pory Off, just in case the Audio was being sent to the HDMI Socket but to mno avail.

You may question the sanity of using the RPi 1B but I have a box full of these and time on my hands and it seems like good idea  

Robin

[Tim Curtis]

In MPD Config set Output device to "Pi Headphone jack". It should be present in the dropdown list.

[Wheel_nut]

In MPD Config set Output device to "Pi Headphone jack". It should be present in the dropdown list.

Bingo! That did it! I was expecting to have to SSH and change it but chuffed that my diagnosis that it was being directed to the HDMI Port was correct.

Now for the last hurdle; Since the RPi 1B doesn't have a native Bluetooth adapter, is it possible to use a USB connected Bluetooth Transmitter and redirect the MPD output PCM stream to the USB Bluetooth adapter without using the RPi 1B DAC?

Robin

[Tim Curtis]

Bluetooth just provides the network connection between two devices. The receiving Bluetooth device which in your case is a Pi-1B configured to output to the integrated Headphone jack will output the PCM stream sent by your 3B to the Headphone jack or whatever device was configured in MPD Config.

Example

Pi-3B -> MPD -> Bluetooth Connection -> Pi-1B -> Bluez-alsa player -> Headphone jack

[Wheel_nut]

Bluetooth just provides the network connection between two devices. The receiving Bluetooth device which in your case is a Pi-1B configured to output to the integrated Headphone jack will output the PCM stream sent by your 3B to the Headphone jack or whatever device was configured in MPD Config.

Example

Pi-3B -> MPD -> Bluetooth Connection -> Pi-1B -> Bluez-alsa player -> Headphone jack

That's not quite what I am trying to do. I am only using the RPi 3B as a NAS Samba server to save duplicating the Music Library in the RPi 1B. The connection is not Bluetooth but over my WiFi Network.The distance between the two RPi units is too far for Bluetooth directly from the RPi 3B to the Speaker.

What I want to do is to add a USB Bluetooth Transmitter to the RPi 1B to output its MPD PCM stream to the Bluetooth Speaker without using the RPi 1B DAC. I have a USB Bluetooth 5.0 Transmitter which redirects the Audio stream when plugged into my Windows PC and I wondered whether it would be possible to configure the RPi 1B to do this.

I hope this makes sense ... Robin

[TheOldPresbyope]

Bluetooth just provides the network connection between two devices. The receiving Bluetooth device which in your case is a Pi-1B configured to output to the integrated Headphone jack will output the PCM stream sent by your 3B to the Headphone jack or whatever device was configured in MPD Config.

Example

Pi-3B -> MPD -> Bluetooth Connection -> Pi-1B -> Bluez-alsa player -> Headphone jack

That's not quite what I am trying to do. I am only using the RPi 3B as a NAS Samba server to save duplicating the Music Library in the RPi 1B. The connection is not Bluetooth but over my WiFi Network.The distance between the two RPi units is too far for Bluetooth directly from the RPi 3B to the Speaker.

What I want to do is to add a USB Bluetooth Transmitter to the RPi 1B to output its MPD PCM stream to the Bluetooth Speaker without using the RPi 1B DAC. I have a USB Bluetooth 5.0 Transmitter which redirects the Audio stream when plugged into my Windows PC and I wondered whether it would be possible to configure the RPi 1B to do this.

I hope this makes sense ... Robin

If the USB transmitter declares itself to be an audio device then you should be good to go.

Example: I have a Creative Tech BT-W2 Bluetooth Audio transmitter.

In moOde's MPD Config panel, this shows up in the dropdown list of output devices. Select it and I'm transmitting audio to my Sennheiser BT headphones.

Note that the default plughw ALSA output mode is pretty much a necessity with this device since it recognizes 16bit /48kHz output rate only.

Regards,
Kent

[Tim Curtis]

Right. You have like below which should work fine.

Pi-3B -> Samba -> Pi-1B -> Bluetooth -> Speaker

[Wheel_nut]

If the USB transmitter declares itself to be an audio device then you should be good to go.

Example: I have a Creative Tech BT-W2 Bluetooth Audio transmitter.

In moOde's MPD Config panel, this shows up in the dropdown list of output devices. Select it and I'm transmitting audio to my Sennheiser BT headphones.

Note that the default plughw ALSA output mode is pretty much a necessity with this device since it recognizes 16bit /48kHz output rate only.

Regards,
Kent

Hi Kent, It does indeed appear as "Wireless Music Adapter" in the MPD Config dropdown and I now have it working to my Bose Sounddock over Bluetooth. Yes, I know that it is a bit like putting a Jaguar V12 Engine into a Cement Mixer but I have the satisfaction of upcycling a RPi 1B to replace a tinny bedroom Radio.

I intend to have a play with the Multi-room feature of the upcoming v7.4 but for now, I have a very neat solution bodged from the contents of my toybox and without using the on-board DAC of the RPI 1B.

Thanks to you and Tim for taking the time to understand my simplistic explanation of what I was trying to do.

Back to enjoying the Music  

Robin