wtfplay

[frd__]

On 8/18/2021 at 1:32 PM, bodiebill said:

Still interesting that Album Player console does not have the problem when playing in DoP mode, so maybe @frd__ has a suggestion?

Hi,

 

Sorry for late reply.

 

This may be related to way that wtfplay handles the sound device in Linux. When used via wtfcui, wtfplay plays a single file at the time. This means that the sound device is opened before the file is played and closed after the playback is finished. I suspect that AP keeps the sound device open all the time (as long as it is running).

 

To be honest a lot of those unwanted artifacts depend on the design of USB DAC itself. There are DACs that are completely resistant and silent when switching clocks, switching between DSD/PCP modes, etc...

F

[bodiebill]

8 hours ago, frd__ said:

Hi,

 

Sorry for late reply.

 

This may be related to way that wtfplay handles the sound device in Linux. When used via wtfcui, wtfplay plays a single file at the time. This means that the sound device is opened before the file is played and closed after the playback is finished. I suspect that AP keeps the sound device open all the time (as long as it is running).

 

To be honest a lot of those unwanted artifacts depend on the design of USB DAC itself. There are DACs that are completely resistant and silent when switching clocks, switching between DSD/PCP modes, etc...

F

 

Thanks Fryderyk, good to know.

[bodiebill]

On 8/18/2021 at 12:02 PM, seeteeyou said:

Check this out if your files coming from SACD rips

 

https://audiophilestyle.com/forums/topic/28569-sacd-ripping-using-an-oppo-or-pioneer-yes-its-true/page/196/?tab=comments#comment-1028387

 

Downloads

 

https://github.com/EuFlo/sacd-ripper/releases

 

Indeed works great: no more clicking pops at the end of each track, thanks!

 

I used this fork of sacd_extract:

http://www.mediafire.com/file/8zrgu401lb78on0/sacd_extract.zip/file

and run it on Windows.

[seeteeyou]

FYI - @Awesome Donkey is admin on JRiver forums and he compiled that particular fork himself and then shared it with everyone

 

https://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php/topic,127038.msg881015.html#msg881015

https://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php/topic,127078.msg881461.html#msg881461

[tongpohmy]

As this player is very lightweight, a stupid question, i using asrock j4105 soc now, do i need a powerful cpu and motherboard for better sound?

[Khordo]

Maybe i'm wrong, but no you don't ! 

OOTB WTFPlay sounds astonishing...There is no oversampling etc...So you do not need an heavy CPU to enjoy it.
I would say that having a better will change nothing regarding the sound...If your processor works well with WTFPlay (from 44 to 192 and DSD Files), you do not need to upgrade.
 

[bodiebill]

Agreed. Or perhaps I would sooner downgrade (use a low-footprint NUC, underclock, lower voltage, etc.) than upgrade for best results with wtfplay.

 

If there would be an image for the Raspberry Pi, I would use it!

[tongpohmy]

I have two cheap audio interface, steinberg ur22c work well with wtf but audient id 4 mk ii no sound, i plan to upgrade to rme products, anyone play wtf with rme audio interface?

[Armsan]

Hello Frd,

Please, which image should I use to boot with Xeon CPUs?

Thanks.

[Armsan]

On 8/2/2020 at 11:27 AM, LLiu said:

Thanks Frd regarding the USB info, I am putting the USB card option on hold as I am looking into the option of extracting I2S signal from the mobo PCIE lane using Pink Faun I2S bridge. I am wondering would the WTF player support this output at the software level? If not I will go back to the USB option.

 

https://www.pinkfaun.com/shop/bridge/69-4072-i2s-bridge.html#/additional_clock_for_bridge-no/bracket_height-79_2_mm_3_118_inch/compatible_i2s_dac_s-please_select_your_dac

 

 

 

Inspired by Slainte, I tried to boot my server, Supermicro mobo, Xeon 4 cores CPU with 4G Apacer ECC ram, on legacy mode, I found similar differences noticed by Slainte, I just loved the legacy mode boot sound, it brings you closer to the music. As for why it sounds better in my system? that's beyond me ..... 

Lliu, which image did you download to boot in your Xeon CPU? Thanks.

[pm325]

10 hours ago, Armsan said:

I am wondering would the WTF player support this output at the software level?

My PinkFaun I2S bridge (old revision, 2014) works perfectly under Wtfplay (recognised as "hd audio" card). Just one note - this card initialize by Linux from "cold boot" only, but without any restrictions under Windows

[frd__]

@ArmsanAny core*  should boot fine Xeon CPUs without any problems. PS. I am sorry for late reply. I was not looking at the forum for a while.

[Armsan]

2 hours ago, frd__ said:

@ArmsanAny core*  should boot fine Xeon CPUs without any problems. PS. I am sorry for late reply. I was not looking at the forum for a while.

No problem frd. I will try. Thank You very much.

[tongpohmy]

Hi all,

 

  i upgade my usb interface to SSL2, the sound is fantistic, i like so much the sound but sometimes i have click and pop, anyone know how it caused this issue?

[LowOrbit]

Hi Fred

 

Just wanted to report my recent experiences pushing the envelope a little with your great player.

 

I have used WTFPlay for a long while though not exclusively for a variety of reasons and always enjoyed the excellent performance and simplicity.

 

Currently I am using the software to send music upsampled offline using PGGB to 16fs to a Chord Dave. The results are fantastic even though I note that WTFPlay does not officially support such high data rates. Probaby the best sound I have attained at home. The only issue I get is that sometimes longer tracks (approaching max length for a .wav container) terminate prematurely. This isn't a crash as the next track in the playlist will load up and play as normal. The computer running this has 24gb of ram and all the files are 24bit at either 705 or 768k. I would expect that individual files would not fill the whole available ram but maybe you can clarify that?

 

Shorter tracks play without issue. When I get an hour spare I will play around with the frame/period parameters to see if I can iron out this behaviour. 

 

Other than the above issue and the wish for gapless, this is such a great replay solution I intend to continue using it and once again my thanks for making this available to the community.

[frd__]

Hi LowOrbit,

 

Thanks for bringing this issue up. May I ask you for a few additional details?

1. How large is that WAV file that you have trouble with (in Megabytes)?
2. Does the playback of this file stops always at the same place? For example, playback stops always after 100 seconds? Or is more or less random?
3. Have you tried playing that file without wtffui? I mean running wtfplay directly from the command line? If not, would you be able to do that? I am curious if there any messages printed on the screen when the playback fails? For example: "Segmentation fault" would be a pretty good indication that the player crashes :)

F

[LowOrbit]

22 hours ago, frd__ said:

Hi LowOrbit,

 

Thanks for bringing this issue up. May I ask you for a few additional details?

1. How large is that WAV file that you have trouble with (in Megabytes)?
2. Does the playback of this file stops always at the same place? For example, playback stops always after 100 seconds? Or is more or less random?
3. Have you tried playing that file without wtffui? I mean running wtfplay directly from the command line? If not, would you be able to do that? I am curious if there any messages printed on the screen when the playback fails? For example: "Segmentation fault" would be a pretty good indication that the player crashes :)

F

Hi Frd

 

I will do some testing at the weekend to give you answers to these questions. Just to say meanwhile that this is not one specific file but many, from multiple albums. The one commonality is that they are all long tracks so large files. And the abrupt premature ending of replay occurs close the the end of the file. I'll pull together the specifics you ask for asap.

 

Thanks for responding so quickly.

 

Mark

[LowOrbit]

On 1/26/2022 at 10:13 AM, frd__ said:

Hi LowOrbit,

 

Thanks for bringing this issue up. May I ask you for a few additional details?

1. How large is that WAV file that you have trouble with (in Megabytes)?
2. Does the playback of this file stops always at the same place? For example, playback stops always after 100 seconds? Or is more or less random?
3. Have you tried playing that file without wtffui? I mean running wtfplay directly from the command line? If not, would you be able to do that? I am curious if there any messages printed on the screen when the playback fails? For example: "Segmentation fault" would be a pretty good indication that the player crashes :)

F

Hi Fryderick

 

OK - I made an hour this morning.

 

So, hw is Asus PRIME microATX B460-A running Intel i3 10100 10th gen cpu and 24gb ram. Media files are on ntfs format SATA drives. USB interface is an Audiowise SRC-DX converting to SPDIF.

 

I tested several of the tracks I most recently experienced this issue with. All are upsampled to 768/24bit, so the files themselves are large. All tracks were tested in kernel 43 of WTF.

 

1. the smallest .wav file tested is 2.07gb. This track is 8 minutes and 3 seconds long.

2. I tried three tracks, ran each twice - all replay fine until 7minutes 44 seconds. Playback terminates and wtfcui moves along to the next track. That track also runs fine until 7.44

3. No messages are printed when using the command line to play one of these files. Playback also terminates at 7.44 and returns to the command prompt.

 

I can send you a file if you would like to experiment. 

 

Regards

Mark

 

[frd__]

Hi Mark,

 

Many thanks for the update. I can see the pattern here.  No need to send me the track. I will be able create such file myself and see what happens. I will let you know once I find something.

 

Kind Regards,

Fryderyk

 

[frd__]

Hi Mark,

 

I think I know what's going on. The player loads only the first chunk of data from the WAV file. Those data chunks are limited to 2GB in size. 2GB of 2ch/24bit/768kHz makes approx 7 minutes and 46 seconds, which is very close to what you are observing. I know how to fix the issue.

 

F

[LowOrbit]

Hi Fryderick

 

That makes sense. If you can fix it, that would be fantastic.  
 

I really appreciate you looking into this issue on what is probably a marginal use case.

 

Best wishes

Mark

[frd__]

Mark, Just one more question: what are the largest wav files that you use?

[LowOrbit]

8 hours ago, frd__ said:

Mark, Just one more question: what are the largest wav files that you use?

4gb is the max size for a wav file. I have tracks which ended up split across two or more files, but until we get WTF gapless 😁 that isn't  a related issue.

[Slainte]

Don't mention the g-word. :D

 

[Slainte]

On another note, with foobar2000 you can merge different files into one flac or wav file.

With XRECODE you can even merge different dsf files into one.

So who needs gapless play ;)