The Raspberry Pi 4 ... what's new?

I've gone from a mini Linux box with Logitech Media server to a PiCore player on a Raspberry 3:
https://www.picoreplayer.org/

and I'm now going to go back to Ubuntu but this time on Raspberry 4!

So, what's better?  Hopefully native DSD / USB playback.

Why now?


3 more gigs of RAM in the Pi, a fanless case, and much better Ubuntu support.  Also, 128 GB Micro SD cards are ridiculously cheap, around $20 now. Wow! I won't use it for music, but it means I can install almost anything, even a real GUI with browser and use it as a living room PC.

In my previous Linux box I was able to get DSD native working, but the setup still requires a fan and shoebox like computer. In other words, it was noisy.  The PiCore player was a compromise. Had a tiny fan, and ran LMS well enough, but the native (as opposed to DSP over SPDIF) DSD playback never worked. Part of this has to do with how Linux handles DAC drivers. They have to be baked into the kernel, and the Mytek DAC I have was not supported in TC Linux.

Still a work in progress!