Call for testers! Daphile

[pre]

some daphile server hardware ideas to think:

 

x86- based boxes:

http://iqjar.com/jar/an-overview-and...cro-computers/

- no testing experiences from these

VIA Pico-ITX Epia-P910 x86 Windows, OS X, Linux, Android, etc.

Toradex Topaz SBC x86 Windows, OS X, Linux, Android, etc.

Intel NUC x86 Windows, OS X, Linux, Android, etc. http://www.pcpro.co.uk/reviews/bareb...9267/intel-nuc

 

This has been tested by the development team and Daphile works:

JETWAY JBC362F36W-2600-B (INTEL ATOM N2600

Jetway JBC362F36W-2600-B (Intel Atom N2600 1.6Ghz, WLAN, 2x Gigabit LAN) [FANLESS] *new* *[ Intel based [Fanless] ]

- personally I noticed that the aluminium cover gets pretty hot in use

 

*** one forum indicates that this works very well XS35V3L - Shuttle XPC Barebone http://www.shuttle.eu/fileadmin/reso...s/XS35V3_e.pdf

http://bilder.hifi-forum.de/medium/6...048_369522.jpg

na... - PC Systeme vergleichen und günstig kaufen. PC Systeme bei Shopping.com Deutschland.

http://www.alternate.de/Shuttle/XS35...duct/1040499/?

 

 

Russ,

your findings related to sound quality might be influenced by the regular power supply that normally is the weakest or cheapest point. Battery PS offers "filtered quality electricity"

 

I prefer a dedicated fanless barebone pc that should have the best possible power supply or even accu/battery driven and here some upgrade ideas:

 

XS35V3L - Shuttle XPC Barebone

where stock PS:

External 40W AC/DC power adapter (fanless), 19V / 2.1A

AC Input: 100~240V AC, 50~60Hz

Automatic voltage adjust

Dimensions: 89.5 x 37 x 26.5 mm (LWH)

DC Connector: 5.5/2.5mm (outer/inner diameter)

 

 

It could be upgraded with this PC audio PS:

HDPLEX Hi-End 100W Linear Power Supply, has switchable 19V/12V DC output

http://www.hd-plex.com/blog/htpc-har...arket/#respond

http://www.hd-plex.com/product/commo...wersupply.html

Free Shipping - HDPLEX INC (all orders for Europe customers will be shipped from our Hamburg,Germany)

 

Some fancy aluminium box components and PS: Fanless Computer Case - HDPLEX INC

- these kind of companies make the high end boxes to fancy brand companies

 

The high end PS shop where price has exploaded:

http://www.coreaudiotechnology.com/p...-power-supply/

[Holzohr]

@pre... strange the most of your links don't work here

 

The Shuttle XS35V3L (with a SSD) was the fastest way for me to realize a fanless noiseless Daphile system for the daily use. Still thinking (sometimes) about this case though HDPLEX H1 Series Fanless HTPC Case - HDPLEX INC

 

The Toshiba exhibits the best balance between performance and sound quality. When using the laptop battery, the Toshiba running Daphile gives me the best sounding digital playback I’ve heard through my Benchmark DAC2 HGC.

That's interesting. At first, I was trying Daphile on an Asus Eee PC 1101HA (1.3GHz Intel Atom Z520 and 1GB RAM). It was too weak for that USB-streaming. There were even hiccups with redbook stuff. Then I tried it on my Lenovo Edge E325 booting from USB stick. That rocked! When I remember right, once I was using it with the laptop battery. Hmmm I should try it again with the Lenovo and its laptop battery and compare but I'm too lazy these days.

[F.Natural]

I've been using Daphile on a Foxconn R10-4000 with a Schiit Modi DAC for several weeks now. I use Squeezelite on a desktop PC for streaming. As soon as it supports backup to internal drive and/or external USB drive it will be perfect. If I could SSH into it I could do the backups myself.

[amolan]

Hi F.Natural,

 

If you share your partition so you will be able to access your music drive from other PC, that´s how I feed music on my Daphile machin.

[kipeta]

​Main changes:

 

• Static IP configuration
  
• Option to use Squeezelite player
  
• Support for uncompressed FLAC in CD ripping
  
• Native HD AIFF playback fixed - "Clear library and rescan everything" required after upgrade
  
• Improved support for MMC/SD card readers
  
• Player "Power On Resume" feature adaptation
  
• Installation improvements
  

Read more about changes from web page.

 

Update via your Daphile web UI or download from www.daphile.com.

[amolan]

Hi Kipeta,

 

Sound´s promissing.

[RaceDoc]

Hello Kipeta,

 

now I managed to install Daphile onto an USB stick and played a little

bit to get comfortable with the "handling".

 

So far I am really impressed. Chapeau!

 

Is it possible to update to your newly finished actual version of Daphile

without a fresh installation?

In the menu point "firmware" I could not see an option like this.

 

If it is not possible to update the USB installation

(which would be very sad) what is your recommodation

to install Daphile parallel to an existing WIN8.1 OS?

 

Thanks in advance for your help!

[obee]

Very promising!

[kipeta]

Hello Kipeta,

 

now I managed to install Daphile onto an USB stick and played a little

bit to get comfortable with the "handling".

 

So far I am really impressed. Chapeau!

 

Is it possible to update to your newly finished actual version of Daphile

without a fresh installation?

In the menu point "firmware" I could not see an option like this.

 

If it is not possible to update the USB installation

(which would be very sad) what is your recommodation

to install Daphile parallel to an existing WIN8.1 OS?

 

Thanks in advance for your help!

 

If you have created the USB flash Daphile with unetbootin (or similar) you can't update it via the web UI.

 

With new version I would actually recommend to make first a "read-only" installation by writing the ISO image directly to USB flash (with dd in Linux; see instruction; and I guess Win32 Disk Writer could do the same in Windows). If you boot with that and you have at least 1GB RAM you can make a full Daphile installation via the web UI to the same USB flash. It takes the whole USB flash into use and overwrites the "read-only" version. The end result is a full installation that you can update later via the web UI.

 

If you want a multiboot system on hard drive then you have to manually create the partitions Daphile needs (DaphileBoot ext4 1GB and DaphileData ext4 size at least 1GB but I would recommend a bit more and lot more if you plan to store music on it) and also take care that your existing boot loader is able "chainload" Daphile from DaphileBoot partition. Daphile installation system does not support multiboot configuration in anyway and you have to do it manually.

[kipeta]

Changes:

 

• Fixed: Previous version "Saving Settings" problem in some situations
  
• Fixed: MMC/SD (mmcblk) booting and installation
  
• Fixed: CIFS mounting in case "sec=ntlmssp" option required
  
• Support added for HFS+ (read-only) and Macintosh partition map
  
• Minor level kernel upgrade (improves kexec restart reliability)
  

[obee]

Changes:

 

• Fixed: Previous version "Saving Settings" problem in some situations
  
• Fixed: MMC/SD (mmcblk) booting and installation
  
• Fixed: CIFS mounting in case "sec=ntlmssp" option required
  
• Support added for HFS+ (read-only) and Macintosh partition map
  
• Minor level kernel upgrade (improves kexec restart reliability)
  

Hi kipeta,

A new version (14.01-b261935) is just available. Could you tell us what's the changes? Thanks

[russtafarian]

I tried the new release over the weekend. Even managed to get it properly installed on my 5 year old Asus netbook. I like the choice of squeezeplay and squeezelite for the audio device. Squeezelite does a better job muting track change clicks with DSD files. So far so good. Thanks.

 

Russ

[kipeta]

Hi kipeta,

A new version (14.01-b261935) is just available. Could you tell us what's the changes? Thanks

 

In the latest release notes I wrote 'Fixed: CIFS mounting in case "sec=ntlmssp" option required' but that isn't actually true. The quick update had one change related to that but there was still some problems with it. So there isn't any functional difference between the last two. Now I'm waiting a confirmation more patiently that it would be really fixed before I make a new release. Sorry for the confusion that caused.

[obee]

In the latest release notes I wrote 'Fixed: CIFS mounting in case "sec=ntlmssp" option required' but that isn't actually true. The quick update had one change related to that but there was still some problems with it. So there isn't any functional difference between the last two. Now I'm waiting a confirmation more patiently that it would be really fixed before I make a new release. Sorry for the confusion that caused.

No sorry. There's nothing you have to sorry about. I just wonder why there is another update.

Btw, I have installed Daphile and been using it extensively since yesterday. I found that if I "sync" two players (on two PCs), the music will have some problem in first 2-3 second when playback the first music. It get ok after that few seconds. The music just like "fast forward", kind of trying to catch up / synchronize the players. I just let you know this issue, although it's not critical / fatal. Thanks a lot!

[RaceDoc]

If you have created the USB flash Daphile with unetbootin (or similar) you can't update it via the web UI.

 

With new version I would actually recommend to make first a "read-only" installation by writing the ISO image directly to USB flash (with dd in Linux; see instruction; and I guess Win32 Disk Writer could do the same in Windows). If you boot with that and you have at least 1GB RAM you can make a full Daphile installation via the web UI to the same USB flash. It takes the whole USB flash into use and overwrites the "read-only" version. The end result is a full installation that you can update later via the web UI.

 

If you want a multiboot system on hard drive then you have to manually create the partitions Daphile needs (DaphileBoot ext4 1GB and DaphileData ext4 size at least 1GB but I would recommend a bit more and lot more if you plan to store music on it) and also take care that your existing boot loader is able "chainload" Daphile from DaphileBoot partition. Daphile installation system does not support multiboot configuration in anyway and you have to do it manually.

 

Hello Kipeta,

 

now I went the route via the Win32 Disk imager and could successfully

create a booting USB Flash stick with the latest Daphile version.

 

The computer starts with that but stops with "Waiting for Network Connection..."!

 

The Music PC is connected via LAN wire to the router. What can I do else?

 

So far I can not "see" the Daphile Live version and logically can not make an

installation or anything else.

[RaceDoc]

Okay... update...

 

now after some hours I got the right message in Daphile

but still could not manage to get access to the web GUI...

not with another PC nor with the iPad.

 

The Windows computers now can "see" Daphile but tells me

that there is "something unknown" wrong so I could not find

a network link.

 

Is there no possibility to start the installation process from

the (stick booted) Daphile computer without any network

mess?

[Guest]

How are the Kernel parameters section, in set-up, useful to users?

 

Are these values adjustable?

[kipeta]

Okay... update...

 

now after some hours I got the right message in Daphile

but still could not manage to get access to the web GUI...

not with another PC nor with the iPad.

 

The Windows computers now can "see" Daphile but tells me

that there is "something unknown" wrong so I could not find

a network link.

 

Is there no possibility to start the installation process from

the (stick booted) Daphile computer without any network

mess?

 

What do you mean with comment that Windows computers can "see" it? Do you have DHCP server enabled on your router?

 

Daphile is targeted for headless (no local UI) operation and even the installation is meant to be done via the web UI. That's is why it is necessary to get it connected first.

 

Please contact me via the form on the Daphile web site. You'll probably get quicker response.

[kipeta]

How are the Kernel parameters section, in set-up, useful to users?

 

Are these values adjustable?

 

There are all adjustable parameters related to the kernel audio drivers. Be careful with them, you must really know what you are doing.

 

Some users have experienced that nrpacks value of snd-usb-audio effects on audio quality. It might be a DAC dependent thing.

[kipeta]

...I found that if I "sync" two players (on two PCs), the music will have some problem in first 2-3 second when playback the first music. It get ok after that few seconds. The music just like "fast forward", kind of trying to catch up / synchronize the players. I just let you know this issue, although it's not critical / fatal. Thanks a lot!

 

I haven't noticed this by myself. How are your PC connected to each other? Wireless?

 

Does this depend on the file format?

[kipeta]

Bug fixes:

• CIFS "sec=ntlsssp" case should finally work
  
• Some audio device initialization failure cases
  
• Media server start-up failure case
  
• Occasional disappearance of network drives
  

Other changes:

• Power down monitor 1min after network connection
  
• File system clean up – smaller ISO files
  

Update via your Daphile web UI or download from www.daphile.com.

[obee]

I haven't noticed this by myself. How are your PC connected to each other? Wireless?

 

Does this depend on the file format?

They are connected via wired network (100Mbps), the file formats are WAV or FLAC of 44.1 red book.

[kipeta]

They are connected via wired network (100Mbps), the file formats are WAV or FLAC of 44.1 red book.

I did the following test:

- Daphile server running from USB flash on HP nc6400 laptop

- Daphile client running from SSD on Shuttle Atom XS35GTV2

- Daphile server got all music from CIFS share of the Linux home server

- All PC connected in 1Gbps ethernet network

I synced the server and client players and played different test tracks and I could not repeat the problem you described. I tried both SqueezePlay and Squeezelite players with success. I even verified the gapless playback with one live album (Dire Straits: Alchemy).

 

And I would think that the reason for your problem would be 100Mbps network. Does your setup differ a lot from my experiment?

[obee]

I did the following test:

- Daphile server running from USB flash on HP nc6400 laptop

- Daphile client running from SSD on Shuttle Atom XS35GTV2

- Daphile server got all music from CIFS share of the Linux home server

- All PC connected in 1Gbps ethernet network

I synced the server and client players and played different test tracks and I could not repeat the problem you described. I tried both SqueezePlay and Squeezelite players with success. I even verified the gapless playback with one live album (Dire Straits: Alchemy).

 

And I would think that the reason for your problem would be 100Mbps network. Does your setup differ a lot from my experiment?

I think so, let me try another configuration. Thanks a lot.

btw, may I ask what's the difference between squeezelite and squeezeplay?

[pre]

I’ve spent the last week playing around with Daphile.

 

The Toshiba exhibits the best balance between performance and sound quality. When using the laptop battery, the Toshiba running Daphile gives me the best sounding digital playback I’ve heard through my Benchmark DAC2 HGC. That’s encouraging. I’ll add more observations as they come up.

 

Russ

 

Kipeta,

 

Related to above, could it be possible to have the battery remainings level bar close to volume bar or just elsewhere like below the shutdown button?

 

The system is eating so low enery that It might be practical to run the daphile from old ultra light laptop that has still fresh battery. Like Thinkpad X-series where the battery lasts well when system is on ssd and screen is black like in Daphile.

 

Accu/Battery driven laptop would be the best linear power supply source. :-)