Noob question, please help

[Cobbwebbros]

Hi people,

My father and I are working on a project for a portable music player made from a raspberryPi. Our idea is simple. Have a small computer, with a hard drive with all our music on, connect to our bluetooth speaker and be able to choose what song we want.

I just came across rune audio and it seems absolutely perfect for my needs but I have a few questions.

1) Can you play music straight from Rune audio to a bluetooth speaker from a raspberry pi
2) Will I need any other audio devices (like a hifi-berry or something), if so, what?

Thanks a lot.

[janui]

Hi Cobbwebbros,

1) Can you play music straight from Rune audio to a bluetooth speaker from a raspberry pi

No, I am afraid that Bluetooth support for audio on Linux is not mature. We are trying to get a version of RuneAudio working with Bluetooth support, but it is proving much more complex than we expected.

2) Will I need any other audio devices (like a hifi-berry or something), if so, what?

An add-on card like a HiFiBerry or a USB DAC will be required because the standard audio outputs on a Raspberry Pi are very poor. It need not be expensive, see this thread for some idea's: dac-choice-t6831.html.
Using a Pi Zero is a good idea, the other Pi models will probably need more power than your amplifier operate correctly. For portable devices the power supply is always a challenge, this will also be your limiting factor for audio power output. You need to work it out like this: 2x3W output power with a 5V supply = 1.2A, then a Pi Zero @±700mA plus a USB memory stick @±300mA. The total power requirement in this example is around 2A at 5V.
I suggest you also look at the all-in-one DAC/amplifier cards for a Pi Zero (see https://www.hifiberry.com/shop/boards/miniamp/ and https://www.justboom.co/product/justboom-amp-zero-phat/).
janui