Loxberry with LMS plugin or MusicServer4Lox?

[punctuele]

Hello,
can anybody list the advantages/disadvantages of choosing for either Loxberry with LMS plugin or the Musicserver4Lox?
I know the first can run on a Raspi, while the other runs on NUC.
Is the one or the other easier to use (interface, ..)?
Is the one or the other better in communicating with the Miniserver (for messages from doorbell,..)?

I would like to setup a multiroom audio system with the ability to have sounds sent from the miniserver for certain events.

Thanks for the insight.
Wouter

[Christian Fenzl]

MS4L is much more integrated as LMS plugin and Squeezelite Plugin. It provides directly integrated features.

MS4L is thought to be a central music server on one host, whereas LMS plugin and Squeezelite plugins are thought to be decentralized, having a Raspberry at every zone.

[hismastersvoice]

The basic is the same LMS and Squeezlite.
You can play TTS/Bell etc.
You can send information’s like Power/Mode/Artist/Titel etc.
You can use internal Player and also external Player (Squeezelite/UPnP)

The difference is…
Setup up to 7 Soundcards with 8 Channel each @WebUI
Creating of Zone-Soundcard @WebUI with multiple channels (Stereo/Mono/ Sereo-Mono-Mix)
PowerManger -> Player on/off (saves energy) / Amps on/off via MiniServer-VI or URL
Equalizer -> 15 Band Equalizer
T5-Standard implementation
FritzBox-CallMonitor implementation

Also a different is that you can only setup around 5-6 Zones on a Raspberry if LMS is also installed, more Zones have to be at a second Raspberry.
On an x86 base like a Nuc you can setup more Zones. Depends on your Hardware, but without problems >10 Zones.

[punctuele]

Thanks for the insights already!
I do not have any amplifier yet, so I was thinking for the Raspi with hifiberry amp+, and a picoreplayer on it for each zone (and one could serve as LMS server (and loxberry/MS4Lox).
At the moment I foresee 4 (wired) zones in the house and 3 (wired to a different place) zones in our office building next door.
I still need to do a calculation of the hardware cost for the different options.

If I would want to integrate one zone as surround, can this be handled by any of the two, or do I need a separate amplifier anyway?

thx.

[hismastersvoice]

If I would want to integrate one zone as surround, can this be handled by any of the two, or do I need a separate amplifier anyway?

With both soulutions it isn`t possible to use sourround-system direct.
I guess you use the sourround for TV, and if you connect it direct you get long delays for TV-Sound.
But you can use the sourround-amp via UPnP as an external Zone.