Linamp: player with Winamp interface on Raspberry Pi 4 for playing music

Linamp is a unique Raspberry Pi 4-based music player that recreates the retro design of Winamp with advanced features including multi-format playback, including CD, Bluetooth and future Spotify integration.

Linamp Project

Unique Design and Functions

Enthusiast Rodmg developed the original music player "Linamp", the physical embodiment of the legendary Winamp based on Raspberry Pi 4. The device is capable of playing digital formats such as mp3, m4a, FLAC from the file system and SMB network shares. Its features include playlist management, real-time spectrum analyzer, track information, bitrate and sample rate display, and volume and balance adjustments.

Linamp retro Winamp player comes to life on Raspberry Pi 4

Advanced Features

Linamp also supports playing CDs using an external drive and ejecting information about tracks from the MusicBrainz database. In addition, the player can work via Bluetooth, and its creator plans to integrate support for Spotify in the future.

Linamp retro Winamp player comes to life on Raspberry Pi 4

Unique Case Design

The author used Onshape to design the sheet metal case and front cover. The body parts and front frame were manufactured by PCBWay. The original plan was to use physical buttons, but due to problems with the design and finding a suitable display, the enthusiast decided to make a full touch interface using a small 7.9″ ultra-wide touchscreen found on Amazon.

Internal Structure

Inside the Linamp there is a Raspberry Pi 4 with a 32 GB SD card and a set of passive radiators. The screen is connected via HDMI and USB (for power and touch input). Uses Apple USB-C to 3.5mm DAC with USB-C to USB-A adapter. The connectors are placed on the rear panel using extension cords, and a printed panel with connections is installed in the rectangular hole in the case.

Software

Linamp runs on the Debian-based Dietpi operating system, and the interface is built on Qt 6 using C++ and Qt widgets. During the manufacturing process, Rodmg developed and improved software using many libraries. The detailed programming process is described in the original note on the website Hackaday.io.

Glossary

The Raspberry Pi 4 is a single board computer developed by the Raspberry Pi Foundation for various projects.
Winamp is a legendary audio player for Windows, popular in the 90s and early 2000s.
Dietpi is an optimized Debian-based operating system for single board computers.
Qt 6 is a cross-platform software development environment.

Answers to questions

What is Linamp?

Linamp is a physical implementation of a retro music player created by enthusiast Rodmg based on a Raspberry Pi 4. It is capable of playing a variety of digital formats including mp3, m4a, FLAC, both local file system and from SMB network resources.

What are the main features of Linamp?

The main functions of Linamp are: file playlist management, real-time spectrum analyzer display, track information display (bitrate, sample rate), volume and balance control, and Play CDs using an external drive and get track data from MusicBrainz. Bluetooth is also supported.

What components does Linamp consist of?

Inside the Linamp is a Raspberry Pi 4 with a 32 GB SD card and passive heatsinks, an ultra-wide 7.9" touchscreen connected via HDMI and USB, an Apple USB-C DAC to 3.5 mm with adapter. The body and front cover are made of sheet metal, the parts of which are manufactured by PCBWay. operating system and software running Linamp?

Linamp runs on the Debian-based Dietpi operating system. The user interface is written in C++ using Qt 6 libraries and Qt widgets. The software was developed and improved by Rodmg using many libraries