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wtfplay


sligolad

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Looks interesting. I would like to try, but my AudioPC is in another room...

 

I strongly suggest you to take a cart and move the Pc close to the dac an give a try to this unique sounding player ... :-)

 

I'm a computer audio fan from long time, WTF give you a significant step in audio quality, for free.

 

Have a nice day, Massimiliano

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...
  • 1 month later...
I am happy to announce that wtfplay-live 0.5.1 has been released. No new

features this time, but the number of ISOs is growing: Intel Core i3/5/7

with AVX image and AMD optimised images are available.

 

 

You can download the images from wtfplay-project.org

The detailed release notes can be found at: wtfplay-project.org

 

 

Enjoy!

 

Thanks frd__

 

Been spending time revisiting JRiver and HQP lately. Both impressive players, but for SQ I keep coming back to Wtfplay, 0.5.1 sounding particularly good right now.

 

For me the ultra light, no frills approach just seems to make sense SQ-wise. Looking forward to seeing where this project goes, but really hope you keep Wtfplay true to its first principles.

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... No new features this time ...

 

I'm still addicted to WTF as a player! For some reasons it has a perfect match with my JLSounds interface/dac combination.

 

The only real feature I miss it'is gapless playout (yes, SSD greatly reduce the interruption but for live events it's really annoying)

 

All my best. Have a nice day, Massimiliano

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I'm still addicted to WTF as a player! For some reasons it has a perfect match with my JLSounds interface/dac combination.

The JL Sounds card also worked great here but swapped it for the latest DIYINHK card and another leap in performance.

The Low Frequencies unlocked by moving to this latest card has been amazing on the Lampi Big7

 

WTFPLAY has been the best player bar none to allow me to hear some of the most amazing music I never thought was present in my collection.

It just does not get in the way and allows exactly what is in the track to get through, each hardware change/mod in my chain has been so revealing using WTFPLAY I just cannot go back to other players.

 

For gapless playback Massimiliano I have taken steps for albums where it is a must to just go back and rip the whole CD as one track and it is worth all the effort rather than going to another player:-)

 

Cheers, Pearse.

Card Close_zpsjndivuez.jpg

Audio PC - Gigabyte H97M-D3H, i7 at 800Mhz, RAM at 800Mhz & PPA OCXO Mobo, Teradak ATX Linear for 20 pin ATX on Mobo, Paul Hynes SR7EHD 12v, 5v & 5v supply on Mobo, Stammheim 12x LT3045's for 1.3v to RAM direct supply, JCat V2 USB Card, WTFPlay Linux Audiophile Player control by MELE F10, Startech LEX to REX on 12v Paul Hynes with 2x SLC cards and out by POE to ISO/Regen, PPA Red USB Cable, Lampizator Big7, Nige design Lifepo4 powered amp, Raidho C1s.

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WTFPLAY has been the best player bar none to allow me to hear some of the most amazing music I never thought was present in my collection. For gapless playback Massimiliano I have taken steps for albums where it is a must to just go back and rip the whole CD as one track and it is worth all the effort rather than going to another player:-)

 

Best I've heard also. For me it's not so much the lack of gapless (which I guess is inevitable when loading each whole track into memory immediately before play and let's face it, live orchestras don't play gaplessly either...) but because Wtfplay sets my DAC's relays off audibly between tracks which gets annoying after a while. I understand this is because it doesn't play silence like some players. Interested in others' thoughts on optimum PC spec for wtfplay - Low power = better?

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... Interested in others' thoughts on optimum PC spec for wtfplay - Low power = better?

 

Probably a custom built source with full size cpu (Core2 ?) and a single thread spec ~1200-1500 represents the best option, especially if equipped with a passive heat sink.

 

But I'm too lazy to do it, so I still remain a fan of Laptop computers as audio source. WTF requires always connected keyboard and screen, so the beauty of an "integrated" solution is a must for me. I did some tests with the following units I have at home:

 

Lenovo ThinkPad T410, I5-520M

Asus BU201, I7-4650U

Apple MacBookPro, I7-4770HQ

Apple MacBookPro, I7-4558U

 

At this point in time I didn't notice any audio difference between sources.

 

The only differencies occours in terms of fan noise during HD files playout (16/44 are perfectly managed even by the I5). Asus (aestetically beautiful) is the worst of all, I suspect the ultrabook design force the engineers to use a very small fan unit, so as soon as the spinning rate increase the unit starts whistling. So I promptly sold it out and I'm waiting for the substitute (accidentally it will be a Dell M6700 I7-3740QM but my firts choice was Lenovo T440S or T450S).

 

Lenovo 410 is a good boy but lack of horsepower for HD files. Both Apple works well but I don't consider a 3.000$ unit a reasonable choice to become an audio source.

 

Have a nice day. Massimiliano

 

PS. Stay tuned for the Dell M6700 behaviour

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Interested in others' thoughts on optimum PC spec for wtfplay - Low power = better?

There are various camps Norton but for me I always went for a decent motherboard with an i7 processor.

Several other guys use Mini ATX board with i3 and i5 processors but ultimately we all down clock the processor and memory to as low as it will go which tends to be 800Mhz in Bios.

 

wtfplay requires very little horsepower and any low power PC should be able to run it well.

Going with a decent ATX PC and processor with good memory means that by the time you down clock all the hardware it is hardly breaking a sweat and there is little to no heat or noise generated, no fans or big heat-sinks required.

 

The highest load I have placed on wtfplay has been 192 24 pcm files and DSD 2x and even with everything at 800 Mhz it plays back beautifully.

Cheers, Pearse.

Audio PC - Gigabyte H97M-D3H, i7 at 800Mhz, RAM at 800Mhz & PPA OCXO Mobo, Teradak ATX Linear for 20 pin ATX on Mobo, Paul Hynes SR7EHD 12v, 5v & 5v supply on Mobo, Stammheim 12x LT3045's for 1.3v to RAM direct supply, JCat V2 USB Card, WTFPlay Linux Audiophile Player control by MELE F10, Startech LEX to REX on 12v Paul Hynes with 2x SLC cards and out by POE to ISO/Regen, PPA Red USB Cable, Lampizator Big7, Nige design Lifepo4 powered amp, Raidho C1s.

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Thanks both re. PC spec. I'm using a fanless i7 (4790T I think) which sounds like a good choice from your comments. I thought maybe it was OTT for the job and introduced more noise into equation than a lower powered PC.

 

Can you explain about clocking down - is that something that's done in BIOS ?

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What make of motherboard do you have, from there I can give better advice as the Bios screens can be very confusing across different motherboard manufacturers?

Audio PC - Gigabyte H97M-D3H, i7 at 800Mhz, RAM at 800Mhz & PPA OCXO Mobo, Teradak ATX Linear for 20 pin ATX on Mobo, Paul Hynes SR7EHD 12v, 5v & 5v supply on Mobo, Stammheim 12x LT3045's for 1.3v to RAM direct supply, JCat V2 USB Card, WTFPlay Linux Audiophile Player control by MELE F10, Startech LEX to REX on 12v Paul Hynes with 2x SLC cards and out by POE to ISO/Regen, PPA Red USB Cable, Lampizator Big7, Nige design Lifepo4 powered amp, Raidho C1s.

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It's an Asus motherboard. Thanks.

I have not used an Asus for an audio PC for a while but I have an Asus on my AV PC which has the UEFI Bios.

 

If you are comfortable with navigating through a Bios then you should be able to get to CPU and memory settings.

When you get into the Bios you can go to Advanced mode tab in the bottom right.

Then select the AI Tweaker tab top left.

In there you can select Sync All Cores and type in 8 for 1 Core Ratio Limit, this will result in 800Mhz for CPU.

Then go to DRAM Frequency and from the drop down select 800Mhz

F10 save and exit should save these settings.

 

If it is an earlier Asus Bios then it will look different but if you can navigate to the CPU multiplier and System Memory Multiplier and type in the 8 values for both and save you will have made good progress.

 

If you are really comfortable with Bios you can go further and tweak the memory timings and switch off all C States, switch off all Hyper Threading, EIST, onboard Audio and various other default settings not needed for an audio PC.

 

It is worth doing some googling on Bios tweaks for your motherboard as at least you will find out how to restore to default if you do something wrong like removing the CMOS battery for a short period to restore if you really mess up.

 

You cannot go too wrong when downclocking a PC but it can be a frustrating learning curve but worth it once you get a handle on getting it all optimised for audio playback.

 

I have a load of screenshots for Gigabyte UEFI Bios settings for Wtfplay which I will post soon if anyone is interested in getting the best sound possible from Gigabyte board. The key is lowest power, lowest noise which wtfplay thrives on and gives back such a superior listening experience.

 

First Screen select AI Tweaker.JPG

AI Tweaker select Sync all Cores.jpg

AI Tweaker select 800 from memory.JPG

Audio PC - Gigabyte H97M-D3H, i7 at 800Mhz, RAM at 800Mhz & PPA OCXO Mobo, Teradak ATX Linear for 20 pin ATX on Mobo, Paul Hynes SR7EHD 12v, 5v & 5v supply on Mobo, Stammheim 12x LT3045's for 1.3v to RAM direct supply, JCat V2 USB Card, WTFPlay Linux Audiophile Player control by MELE F10, Startech LEX to REX on 12v Paul Hynes with 2x SLC cards and out by POE to ISO/Regen, PPA Red USB Cable, Lampizator Big7, Nige design Lifepo4 powered amp, Raidho C1s.

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sligolad

 

Then go to DRAM Frequency and from the drop down select 800Mhz

 

What does this do? I have left mine at Auto.

 

I have my cpu at sync all cores at 800 Mhz and turned off unwanted services. I have kept hyper threading and some C states as XXhighend requires these to work with. Turbo is off.

 

The key is lowest power, lowest noise which wtfplay thrives on and gives back such a superior listening experience.

 

Agree with you but you still need a powerful processor(i7 or later) and quality power supply. Linear power supplies seem to be the answer now for superior listening.

 

Its hard to get specific Bios settings online as people have different audio programs and computer cpu's. All react differently with each other. What I have done so far definitely improved the sound albeit slow to boot up and load files. All play back perfectly though.

 

I have yet to try wtfplay but it certainly is on the right approach to better sound. I tried Daphile but it only plays music files from Ram not the OS. Both are required in Ram to make a big difference.

 

Robert

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i've tried different cpu/ram/bios Settings.

 

finally the best Sound i have with the same Settings like sligolad is using.

 

cpu/ram @800mhz/ram@ 1.3v with 5 5 5 20 Timings.

 

every thing related to energy-saving ,HT and Turbo+ all on-board stuff in bios is disabled.

 

with wtfplay i can listen dsd256 files without any Problem, cpu-load is around 5%!

 

 

shpongle

Gigabyte-GA-Z97 Sniper with separate usb-dac out,5v usb-power disabeld in Bios. i3 4130T(35 W)@800mhz,16gb ram@800mhz @1.25v. Cpu+Ram powered by Pico-160w+Voltcraft Lab.PSU.

Cpu-Fan+Music Hdd with 2 separate  LPsu. JLsounds Dac-Kit: USB-I2S XMOS-board+ AK4490 DAC+DVR603 FB+2 JLS LPSU. Player: wtfplay and Daphile

 

Tubeamp: Lua 4040 C . LS: Chario Academy II. Conections/Filters: Reson DNM / Fisch Audio.

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sligolad

 

What does this do? I have left mine at Auto.

 

Robert

It drops the RAM Memory speed as low as it can go and therefore the RAM chips require less power, music which gets loaded to RAM loads a little slower but with the end result of a lower noise floor in the playback.

 

As Shpongle mentioned tighter timings (lower values) help as well but a little more difficult to find the lowest timings that work with your RAM. Only for those dedicated to play in this area with some patience.

 

I have mine running at 6 6 6 19 reliably.

Memory Timings.JPG

Audio PC - Gigabyte H97M-D3H, i7 at 800Mhz, RAM at 800Mhz & PPA OCXO Mobo, Teradak ATX Linear for 20 pin ATX on Mobo, Paul Hynes SR7EHD 12v, 5v & 5v supply on Mobo, Stammheim 12x LT3045's for 1.3v to RAM direct supply, JCat V2 USB Card, WTFPlay Linux Audiophile Player control by MELE F10, Startech LEX to REX on 12v Paul Hynes with 2x SLC cards and out by POE to ISO/Regen, PPA Red USB Cable, Lampizator Big7, Nige design Lifepo4 powered amp, Raidho C1s.

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It drops the RAM Memory speed as low as it can go and therefore the RAM chips require less power, music which gets loaded to RAM loads a little slower but with the end result of a lower noise floor in the playback.

 

As Shpongle mentioned tighter timings (lower values) help as well but a little more difficult to find the lowest timings that work with your RAM. Only for those dedicated to play in this area with some patience.

 

I have mine running at 6 6 6 19 reliably.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]29689[/ATTACH]

 

"Auto" on my PC seems to result in values of 5,5,5,14 - does that mean it's fine as is?

 

Also does CPU cache ratio min/max matter? Should I be aiming for 800mhz here too?

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"Auto" on my PC seems to result in values of 5,5,5,14 - does that mean it's fine as is?

 

Also does CPU cache ratio min/max matter? Should I be aiming for 800mhz here too?

Sounds like you have good quality RAM there Norton so looks good.

 

I leave CPU Cache Ratio (also known as Uncore Ratio) alone, disabling all C States would be a better option if you feel up to it.

Audio PC - Gigabyte H97M-D3H, i7 at 800Mhz, RAM at 800Mhz & PPA OCXO Mobo, Teradak ATX Linear for 20 pin ATX on Mobo, Paul Hynes SR7EHD 12v, 5v & 5v supply on Mobo, Stammheim 12x LT3045's for 1.3v to RAM direct supply, JCat V2 USB Card, WTFPlay Linux Audiophile Player control by MELE F10, Startech LEX to REX on 12v Paul Hynes with 2x SLC cards and out by POE to ISO/Regen, PPA Red USB Cable, Lampizator Big7, Nige design Lifepo4 powered amp, Raidho C1s.

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Sounds like you have good quality RAM there Norton so looks good.

 

I leave CPU Cache Ratio (also known as Uncore Ratio) alone, disabling all C States would be a better option if you feel up to it.

 

Thanks for your help; together, the BIOS changes do make an immediately obvious difference, with a cleaner more refined sound.

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The more I listen to Wtfplay, the more I find that it's PCM it really excels at.

Vs. other players - with DSD it's certainly up there, but with PCM (whether RBCD or 24/192) the SQ is really special.

Pity I no lomger have my Hugo, I reckon it might be a great combination.

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The more I listen to Wtfplay, the more I find that it's PCM it really excels at...

 

Agree. After a long journey across most of the hd audio files, with WTF I'm now back to my cd collection. Rock (my preferred genre) suffers from terrible recordings and in some cases a miracle should occour to have a decent listening session, but in most of the cases wtf provides an outstanding performance. In particular, I noticed a very different sound in the rendenring of applause during live sessions, different than any other player (physical or sw) I had.

 

Have a nice day. Massimiliano

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Agree. After a long journey across most of the hd audio files, with WTF I'm now back to my cd collection. Rock (my preferred genre) suffers from terrible recordings and in some cases a miracle should occour to have a decent listening session, but in most of the cases wtf provides an outstanding performance. In particular, I noticed a very different sound in the rendenring of applause during live sessions, different than any other player (physical or sw) I had.

 

Have a nice day. Massimiliano

 

Bughead does a great job too with WAV, if you can compare.

Dedicated Line DSD/DXD | Audirvana+ | iFi iDSD Nano | SET Tube Amp | Totem Mites

Surround: VLC | M-Audio FastTrack Pro | Mac Opt | Panasonic SA-HE100 | Logitech Z623

DIY: SET Tube Amp | Low-Noise Linear Regulated Power Supply | USB, Power, Speaker Cables | Speaker Stands | Acoustic Panels

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  • 1 month later...

Well I took the plunge yesterday and loaded up WTFPLAY and whoa what a sound. Took me by surprise inner detail I've never heard in fact depth I've never heard. This was caused by frustration with Xxhighend endless settings and issues with Intona sound.

 

Surprisingly easy to get working and quick to respond, my only issue is volume is quite high. I can manage it but would like to reduce it to optimise volume pot in Benchmark.

 

I've adjusted Bios settings per Sligolad above.

 

How do I get "alsamixer" to work? I thought it might be with the wtfplay download. Does "alsamixer" effect sound quality?

 

I tried typing alsamixer after command line but it says cannot open mixer: no such file or directory.

 

Robert

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Best I've heard also.

Hey @Norton, since you have also experimented with BugHead, what are your thoughts on BH compared to WTFPlay?

Dedicated Line DSD/DXD | Audirvana+ | iFi iDSD Nano | SET Tube Amp | Totem Mites

Surround: VLC | M-Audio FastTrack Pro | Mac Opt | Panasonic SA-HE100 | Logitech Z623

DIY: SET Tube Amp | Low-Noise Linear Regulated Power Supply | USB, Power, Speaker Cables | Speaker Stands | Acoustic Panels

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