Since I moved my web development server to an old laptop running Linux back in June, I have had the machine that was Teighler sitting around. It had Debian, PHP, and Apache all ready to go...I looked at it and realized that all I would have to do is add Music Player Daemon, a controller for it, a sound card, and some more hard drive space and this beast would be ready to act a music jukebox!

I had an old SoundBlaster 16 card laying around. This card is OLD, it is one of the type with the controller for a CDROM on it, and it goes into an ISA slot. It is quite adequate for this application though, and it is compatable with Linux.

Noise was going to be an issue, so I added some dense polyester foam on the inner walls of the case to help shut out at least some hard drive squeal. I changed out the power supply fan for one that is thermally throttled e.g. the hotter it gets the faster it spins. The CPU fan was removed and replaced with a larger heatsink without a fan. Since this is only a P133, heat was not a major concern. That also means that energy usage will not be a major concern and the BIOS does have rudimentary power management features such as shutting off the disks after a certain amount of idle time.

There is an 8 GB disk for the software, logs, playlists, and such and a 20 GB disk for music files. These are just disks I had laying around. As long as you don't go ripping a whole CD collection to FLAC format, you can cram a heck of a lot of music into 20 gigs. If that runs out...there are two options: add another drive or use a networked drive. I can also listen to internet radio like RADIOSEVEN via this thing! Sweet!

I installed MPD and used the phpMP interface for controlling it via the web. I also installed an ncurses-based player (ncmpd) if I feel like running it via console. The machine is supposed to run headless through the network. Administration happens through SSH, song adding/deleting through Samba, and control through SSH or the Web.

Screenshot of the Web Interface

Front-On shot of the machine and my custom paint job.

Close-Up of the front bezel.

Rear end. The only necessary connections are AC, network, and audio output.

This "Musikmeister" (German for "Music Master" I believe) generally needs to be connected to an external amplifier, but the SB16 has an on-board amp capable of 2 watts/channel into a 4-ohm load. The internal amp and the line out can be used simultaneously.