The AudioworX Starter Kit consists of hardware and software components which require basic setup before being able to function as a target amplifier that can interact with GTT. The following sections highlight them and provide steps for installation.
The AudioworX Starter Kit package consists of the following hardware components:
- Raspberry Pi 5 8 GB RAM variant (low-cost pocket-sized Linux computer),
- 27 W power adapter for the Raspberry Pi (USB Type-C),
- Micro SD Card with custom 64-bit Raspbian OS image (plugged into the Raspberry Pi 5),
- HiFiBerry DAC8x (Includes 4-stereo 3.5mm line audio output ports) mounted on the Raspberry Pi 5,
- HiFiBerry ADC8x Add-on (Includes 4-stereo 3.5mm line audio input ports) mounted on the Raspberry Pi 5,
- 6-channel power amplifier with power supply for passive speaker setups (JBL DSP 4086 or equivalent),
- Ethernet cable for connecting the Raspberry Pi 5 to the PC (recommended).
For the full Starter Kit experience, the user is expected to have access to:
- Speakers for audio output (6 passive speakers or 8 active speakers),
- A stereo analog audio source (PC or mobile phone with audio out).
The power amplifier is only required if the speakers being used for audio playback are passive. For active speaker setups (powered speakers), the Starter Kit can be used without the amplifier. Refer to Hardware Components Setup for more details.
The following is a list of software applications to be installed on a Windows PC to use the Starter Kit:
Download and install the above-mentioned pre-requisites on a Windows PC. For steps on how to install GTT and its pre-requisites, refer to Installing AudioworX Setup.
The GTT installation includes the AudioworX Starter Kit Utility tool (SKUtility), a graphical application that can be used to remotely operate the Starter Kit hardware over the network, for actions like verifying hardware connections, audio device configuration, resetting the AWX Amp application running on the Raspberry Pi, rebooting the Raspberry Pi, etc. This tool is described in detail in SKUtility Tool – Graphical Application and can be found in the following directory (default GTT installation folder):
C:\Program Files\Harman\HarmanAudioworX\StarterKit\StarterKitUtility\SKUtilityGUI.exe
The SKUtility tool can also be accessed directly from the Start-Menu by pressing the “Windows” key on the keyboard, followed by the keyword “SKUtilityGUI”. Below is a screenshot showing the same.
The SKUtility Tool is also available as a command-line application written in Python 3.12, installed in the same directory as the graphical application. For more information, refer to Starter Kit Utility Tool (SKUtility) Overview.