What is it?

This project provides a backend to stream music on systems running Linux (including Raspberry Pi 4+) and REST API to control the playqueue and playback, as well as an ability to discover new content.

At this point, it only supports Qobuz as a streaming platform, and you must have a valid subscription.

The target audience for this are DIY HiFi enthusiasts familiar with linux and command line.

Features

• Supports Qobuz as a streaming platform, including:
  • Search, new content discovery (New releases, Qobuz playlists, playlists by category, etc.)
  • Add / remove favorites
  • Autoplay
  • Weekly Q playlist
• Supports OGG/FLAC playback, up to 192Khz / 24bit (FLAC limitation), bit perfect playback*
• Gapless playback for the songs of the same audio format
• Supports MusicCast device volume control and automatic turn on / off
• Works on Raspberry Pi (used on RPi 4 with Raspberry OS bullseye), low CPU & memory usage. The main part is written in C++.
• Kalinka Music App is a player control application that runs on multiple platforms.

Installation

Debian-package

A deb package for arm64 (Raspbian) is provided in the Releases section.

A debian package can be built by running make in the root directory. Note, that there's no cross-compilation, the package is built for the platform it is being built for.

Make sure you update the config file /opt/kalinka/kalinka_conf.yaml after you install the package (see below).

The service can be restarted with sudo systemctl restart kalinka.service, to check the status of the service and the last log lines use systemctl status kalinka.service.

To check the full log: journalctl -u kalinka.service.

Running from sources

Prepare environment

1. Clone the repository, git clone https://github.com/madenvel/KalinkaPlayer.git

2. Install pre-requisites

   sudo apt install python3 g++ libasound2-dev libflac-dev libflac++-dev libcurlpp-dev libspdlog-dev libfmt-dev python3-dev

3. Create python virtual environment:

   cd KalinkaPlayer
   python3 -m venv .venv
   source .venv/bin/activate
   pip install -r requirements.txt

4. Build the native player:

   cd native_player
   make
   cd ../

5. Create a config file based on the example

6. Run the server

   nohup ./run_server.py &

   The log will be saved to nohup.out. If you were running the server on Raspberry Pi, you can logout now.

7. Download and install the app (see KalinkaApp project) and goto Settings -> Connection menu - your service should show up under the name you specified. Pick it from the list and tap "Connect".

8. Enjoy!

Notes

• Audio engine uses ALSA directly and relies on its configuration. If automatic resampling is set up, it will likely affect the app but it should still work.
• I run this on Raspberry Pi 4 with HiFiBerry Digi2 card configured as recommended in their manual. This software would likely work with any card that works with ALSA but there might be issues.