Raspberry Pi as Hi-Fi player with RuneAudio

This Instructable will show you how to turn your Raspberry Pi in a Hi-Fi music player with surprising sound quality when used in combination with an USB DAC.
We are going to introduce here RuneAudio, a free and open source software that we developed to replace the personal computer as digital source with a dedicated, cheap, silent and low-consumption board, running a custom-build Linux distribution. It's a new-born project but it already offers many features, it is under active development and it counts on a fresh but growing community.
Raspberry Pi as Hi-Fi player with RuneAudio
As many other open source projects, RuneAudio came out from personal needs: we all were using a laptop as digital source before, but we weren’t happy about absolute sound quality and ease of use. Our girlfriends didn’t like it either, as messing around with laptop and cables in the living room was dramatically lowering the WAF of our Hi-Fi systems πŸ™‚ We thought that our work could be useful for many other people out there with the same needs, so we set up an open source project, encouraging people to download it for free and to contribute to the development.

RuneAudio project has two main and clear goals.
Our first goal is sound quality: we are working hard to get the best results from the Raspberry Pi and the other supported platforms, using Arch Linux as the base of our RuneOS and optimizing it as best we can for audio reproduction.
Our second main goal is to make it easy to use for everyone, so we developed a handly web interface (RuneUI) who lets users control the playback and system settings with absolute no need to use Linux command line. The web interface is cross-platform and responsive (it adapts to screen size), making it accessible from every kind of device (desktop computers, notebooks, tablets and smartphones). The installation process is as easy as writing an .img file to your SD card.

So let's begin with the (short) quick start guide.

Step 1: Download and extract

Download latest RuneAudio image release for your Raspberry Pi from the official website:

Once download is completed, extract the content of the .zip file with a compressed file manipulation utility (for instance: 7-Zip on Windows, Zipeg on Mac, Unzip on Linux). You will now have an .img (raw disk image) file.

Step 2: Write the image to the SD card

Write the extracted .img file to your SD card, following the instruction of one of the following guides on elinux.org:

Make sure your SD card is not write protected before writing the image on it or before plugging it in your device.
When the write process has finished, safe unmount the SD card and plug it into your device.

Step 3: Set up the Raspberry Pi

  1. If you have a USB DAC plug it into a USB port, otherwise just plug the analog jack;
  2. If you have a USB storage, plug it into a USB port. In case of USB hard drive it’s strongly suggested the use of an external power supply if available or at least a USB powered hub;
  3. Plug your ethernet connector in
  4. Plug the PSU to the device
  5. Power the device on

Done!
RuneAudio will now boot on your device for the first time, acquiring an IP address (with enabled DHCP on your LAN).

Step 4: Access the web interface – RuneUI

Raspberry Pi as Hi-Fi player with RuneAudio

RuneAudio comes with its web interface – RuneUI, developed by RuneAudio team – which permits you to browse your music library, control the playback and configure the player. It works on any device and virtually any platform with a modern web browser installed (desktop PCs, notebooks, netbooks, tablets and smartphones).

You can reach the PlayerUI in several ways:

Once inside, the Playback main view shows up.
We are not going to write here a manual of the web interface because it is designed to be easy to use and intuitive, so here there are just some hints.
You will notice three tabs on the bottom: Browse, Playback and Playlist. These are the main and most used sections of the RuneUI during music reproduction.

For more detail: Raspberry Pi as Hi-Fi player with RuneAudio


About The Author

Ibrar Ayyub

I am an experienced technical writer with a Master's degree in computer science from BZU Multan University. I have written for various industries, mainly home automation and engineering. My writing style is clear and simple, and I am skilled in using infographics and diagrams. I am a great researcher and am able to present information in a well-organized and logical manner.

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