Unexpected behavior: JRMC under VMWare

[Paul R]

have an instance of JRMC installed under Debian 7 that is a VM. Originally created with VMWare Fusion Pro on a Mac, but running on just about everything you can imagine. PC, Windows, Linux, ESX.

 

On each and every on of those, the darn little tiny Linux guest running JRMC sounds good. *Really* good. As in, better than finicky tuned Windows, Carefully managed Macs.

 

This is - annoying. Mostly because it is unexpected, but Very Annoying.

 

Anyone else seeing this kind of behavior with any audio player?

 

-Paul

[EuroDriver]

on the Italian NextHardware Forum, that are quite a few reports of SQ improvements to HQ Player when used on PC's running RAM Disk. In the German Akitives Hoeren forum there are reports of SQ improvement's when windows is setup on a virtual hard drive, eliminating or at least greatly reducing access to the HD or SSD

 

Debian 7 set up as a VM would be a not too different animal in that the OS would not be accessing the SSD but everything is resident in RAM

 

Seems like many setups which reduces HD / SSD activity and is resident inn RAM improve SQ noticeably

[Paul R]

on the Italian NextHardware Forum, that are quite a few reports of SQ improvements to HQ Player when used on PC's running RAM Disk. In the German Akitives Hoeren forum there are reports of SQ improvement's when windows is setup on a virtual hard drive, eliminating or at least greatly reducing access to the HD or SSD

 

Debian 7 set up as a VM would be a not too different animal in that the OS would not be accessing the SSD but everything is resident in RAM

 

Seems like many setups which reduces HD / SSD activity and is resident inn RAM improve SQ noticeably

 

Actually, it uses an emulated disk, which is just an operating system file that the VMWare program treats like a disk. The end result is a little more disk access, though I admit, it is very much buffered. I am hypothesizing that the VM smooths out the CPU and disk usage, but in terms of creating electrical noise, it is working the CPU quite a bit harder.

 

This is very puzzling to me.

[Paul R]

SSD activity and is resident inn RAM improve SQ noticeably

 

I am confused by your comment here- there is no SSD involved, though I have tried it in diskless machines using SAN resources.

 

If anything, running under a VM icreases real disk activity. By the way, usual practice is to starve VMs in terms of memory and CPU. Totally and completely the opposite of what conventional audio server thinking is.

 

In other words, I am finding exactly the opposite of what you are stating, and what I expected.

[CatManDo]

I am confused by your comment here-

 

roseekchd is a spambot posting fake replies, copying text from a post above and then adding an invisible link (which you can see when quoting his post).

 

It's a very annoying phenomenon on CA.

[JMotzi]

have an instance of JRMC installed under Debian 7 that is a VM....

 

Hi Paul,

 

Exactly how do you set that up? Are you running to a USB DAC or something else?

 

Thanks,

 

JM

[Paul R]

Hi Paul,

 

Exactly how do you set that up? Are you running to a USB DAC or something else?

 

Thanks,

 

JM

 

ESX, Fusion, and Workstation.

 

Not definitive testing at this point, but USB to a Wavelength Proton, iFi Micro iDSD, Benchmark HGC, a Peachtree DACIT, afew other combinations.

[JMotzi]

ESX, Fusion, and Workstation.

 

Sorry to be slow to understand.... you are running the Debian version of JRMC under Debian which is running as a virtual machine with Fusion (mac) or Workstation (Windows) or ESX (server machine)?

 

JM

[Paul R]

Sorry to be slow to understand.... you are running the Debian version of JRMC under Debian which is running as a virtual machine with Fusion (mac) or Workstation (Windows) or ESX (server machine)?

 

JM

 

Yes. Annoying that it sounds good isn't it? (sigh)

[PewterTA]

my guess is probably what's happening is you're noticing less "hardware" drivers messing around within the OS. Along with dealing with the cpu scheduler that is also playing some part into it.

 

The fact that it sounds better is interesting. I would think that the cpu scheduling would hurt the sound quality, but I guess not necessarily. My thinking is the generic-ness of the drivers being used is maybe where a good bit of the benefit is coming into play?

 

If it was me I would V2P the box and see what it sounds like running just by itself. I have a p2v of Win2k+AO box and when used to listen to music.... it's good...very good. Though it's not as good as the actual machine due to all the hardware upgrades I've done on it. I'm thinking to put ESXi on that hardware and see what the p2v'd machine sounds like then. Just haven't had time to do that yet.