About: I like to find out how things work. I like to see if I can learn new things through that.

Since I was a kid, I have always loved homes that have built in speaker systems where the whole house is synchronized with one song. I always thought that was something only those that could shell out thousands of dollars could accomplish.

Then came SONOS. I thought the SONOS systems were the answer to not having my home torn down just to have a sound system that would play my music in harmony... Then I saw the pricetag, to do what I want with SONOS is an impossibility for me, I cannot justify that amount just for a bit of comfort... Ok, so my hope of finaly doing this in my house was crushed just as fast as it was raised.

Recently, we had some upgrades done to the house and I thought it an opportune time to see what could be done about my sound-deprivation. By no means am I an audiophile so I was not looking for something that would blow your pants off, but I did want something functional, something that sounded nice and of course, didn't kill my bank account.

I found information about the Squeeze box players, and how they do not make them anymore, then found that you could use your Raspberry Pi with many different distributions to create different types of music players, but none really fit my needs as they required much programing and I did not have the time to "make it work" as I should. Then, out of the many searches trying to find the Logitech Media Server installation, I came across Max2Play. It promised to do everything I needed and wanted along with a few extras as well.

I know some of you reading are PRO's at working with the Raspberry Pi or at making things. Others are complete beginners and may not have even the slightest idea where to begin.

I wanted to do a FULL INSTRUCTABLES for this system,

the intent being of course, that anyone can pick it up and make it with little effort.

The hardest thing is finding out exactly what to do, I intend to make this a one-stop-shop so you can be encouraged to make it yourself.

I have broken down the steps below in case you want to skip to a certain section...

SOFTWARE SETUP, SERVER, PLAYER. STEPS 1 - 10

Basic Tools and Image for the Pi.

Step 1 - Max2Play Image

Step 2 - SD Formatting

Step 3 -Image Burning

Booting and Initial Setup.

Step 4 - Boot up and Config

Step 5 - Filesystem Mount

Step 6 - Wifi/LAN

Server Setup.

Step 7 - Squeezebox Server Install

Step 8 - Squeezebox Server Setup

Step 9 - Testing and Sync'ing

Step 10 - Adding Services

BUILD YOUR SETUP. STEPS 11-15

Step 11 - Power Supply

Step 12 - Internal Components

Step 13 - Cable management

Step 14 - Sound cards

Step 15 - Implementation

Step 16 - MAKE MORE

Step 17 - Controls anyone? Use your old device as a controller

Step 18 - BONUS! Fire Stick as sound device... Or other ANDROID device!





PARTS USED

Raspi 3 kit (pi, case, charger) - $45

Logitech speakers with sub - $30 - Optional

Refurbished microSD - $5

I added a cheap soundcard 3x$7 so that's $2.33 per card - Optional