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I wonder how is the streamed audio being output to the speakers. As far as I know, non-HDMI Raspberry PI's audio capabilities just suck.
USB sound card
USB sound cards are not always of very good quality. They do transform the signal in various ways.

I mean, if you are serious about audio, you should not even be using a Pi in the first place.

Did you look at the speakers it has? Basically computer speakers from a cinema type setup.

This is very clearly a project about aesthetics and solving a problem that the individual had (integration of various audio systems - turntable + spotify), rather than one about quality of sound.

From an aesthetic perspective this is one hell of a well done job. Everything about it looks good. It won't sound incredible given the speakers used, so it is not necessary for the USB sound card and Pi to also provide a sublime and low-noise signal.

In fact one could argue that given the aesthetics, it not sounding perfect fits the design aesthetic of the project.

Sure, I have no issue with that. I just wanted to clarify that USB sound cards are sometimes very much sub-par in terms of audio quality and one should be very careful about their choice there.
> not always

Exactly. Some of them are pretty good.

This is all around awesome. Every bit of it, right down to the power strip[1] seems to be well-chosen to fit the aesthetic. Truly, a great mix of engineering and artistic skills.

1. http://audio.toddkumpf.com/power-strip#

Anyone have suggestions for a good, cheap-ish, USB DAC? I use my rpi for Airplay but the onboard DAC is not the best.
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anyone know what the 2 tracks in the video are?
Yellow Bird and Vibe Vendetta off of Pretty Light's A Color Map of the Sun.
The band is Pretty Lights, not Pretty Light's, for anyone else trying to look them up.