Allo Sparky USBridge

[ambre]

Dear  DietPi  & Allo Team,

 

After a period of about 1 week after the update DietPi  6.2,  

 

I am again confronted with start-up problems. Namely during startup my TEAC DAC 501 is not properly recognized. As a result, only 44.1 or 48 kHz music.

 

It does not matter whether I first start the DAC and later the UsBridge. Ps. I use 2 power supplies (IFI I-power for the Bridge and standard power supply for the Sparky).

 

The order UsBridge first and then Sparky makes that much difference or can it do the opposite? If I turn on the DAC in advance and then turn on UsBridge, the DAC is also not properly recognized. Even if I turn off the DAC and then turn it on again.

Nb. Usually it goes well if I start the more or less all the devices at the same time.

 

What is the scanning frequency of the UsBridge if no DAC is detected during start-up and / or after switching off?

Will it be scanned every 30 seconds, for example, if a new DAC is connected or recognized? I think it is odd that after switching off my DAC, the UsBridge has to be switched off and on again.

 

I use the standard DietPi version 6.1 => 6.2 without the Allo Web GUI. And the USB Dac (In Audio is on USB 2.0).

Ps. I also use the Uptone Regen which further improved the SQ.

 

Since 2 days I am using the Allo USB to Gigabit adapter instead of normal Ethernet 10 / 100Mb. 

Can this be a possible cause?

 

Hopefully you can do something with my detailed explanation.

 

Awaiting your response.

 

But if the USB starts up well (especially with 2x power supplies ) the UsBridge sounds really fantastic.

 

Very best regards.

 

[simis307]

4 hours ago, rahul_kc said:

check the volumio version on settings ->system

volumio 2.348 onwards only this paramter settings will work.

volumio web GUI settings->system->check updates

this GUI system update was not working , now its solved.

Thanks for the response.

Yes, the system version is 2.348. (GUI check updates gives "No Updates Available  - You're already on the latest version")

 

[simis307]

8 hours ago, simis307 said:

Hi,

 

I have unpacked a new USBridge (w/ Volumio) and tried to get it running with my KEF X300AW. The USBridge booted and setup went smoothly. The KEFs are recognized and I can choose them in the GUI. However, there is no sound, only some cracks and pops.

 

I tried editing the file /boot/uenv.txt as suggested here and in Volumio forums by adding "aotg.aotg1_speed=1"

 

uenv.txt:

 

Unfortunately this didn't solve the issue. Did I miss a step?

 

Thanks.

 

I tested with a Dragonfly Black as well. At first I had a similar issue. However, after editing the uenv.txt file again to append the new parameter to the existing line of code instead of putting it on a new line, it works flawlessly.

 

The issue remains with the KEFs, confusingly. I have rebooted the USBridge, turned off/turned on/unplugged/replugged the KEFs.

[hurka]

HI allo Team!

Please confirm sparky oscillators before replacement.

25000 MHz  Ethernet

24000 MHz  usb

12000 MHz System 

I'm right?

[hsola80]

I got one of these about two weeks ago. Its finally all setup and ......... yea it does the job right. I am confused about one thing. Why is no one using the Ubuntu 15.04 image for sparky provided on the github page? I'm pretty sure it will make almost all problems dissapear as linux is amazing with drivers. I have a singxer su1 that goes into a LKS MH-DA004 DAC. I stuck the usb into both of em and drivers installed automatically. Then got Jriver and changed the driver to the one it says in the sound settings and you're done. It immediately played DSD128 natively but it wont play DSD256 yet (I havent looked into that problem yet but its not a big one cause i learned dsd is a crock of sh*t if the recording sucks). 

 

A few things you gotta do 

 

after flashing use gparted to increase the system partition to all the rest of the gigs you got. 

 

(startup is almost instant woohoo)

 

the you gotta change the website in etc/apt/sources.list to .... just read here https://superuser.com/questions/339537/where-can-i-get-the-repositories-for-old-ubuntu-versions

 

I'll let you figure out how to get gnome software center. otherwise you need the alsa mixer so you can unmute the usb audio device. 

 

Now you got a full workin version of ubuntu to mess with. It aint the fastest and it can hang a bit and you may need to restart a few times but it works perfectly. i havent tried foobar2000 or sayonara on it yet but they should work as well as audacity  etc. 

 

I gotta say dietpi with the web interface was really really really bad for many reasons. Didn't try volumio but why would i restrict myself to one player for no reason.  I wanna try deepin, aplinux, daphile and other linux for arm distros but it doesnt seem like they will work cause the rasberrypi distros dont work on sparky.....right?

 

but yea, ubuntu 15.04 for sparky ftw. the audio system is actually my dad's and hes got emerald physics 2.8 with classe audio amp. Regina Spektor and Norah Jones sounded crystal clear (also eugene hutz of gogol bordello playing illumination funnily enough). All the DSD recordings I dled were terrible (michael jackson (what how could quincy jones suck?) billy joel madonna interpol arctic monkeys) except for the bach cello suites one and nirvana unplugged. file size cannot change a crappy initial recording apparently. flac was more than enough. 

 

....i know nothing about audio engineering but it seems like any song with drums looses quality dramatically. must be something with encoding audio with too big of a dynamic range. i realized actual drums and recorded speaker drums cant be considered the same instrument. every other instrument can be recreated almost exactly. there aint no system that can recreate the full feel of a cymbal crash or hi hats or bass drum. never realized how detrimental drums are to the quality of an overall recording. but its ok they drums and they can stay in the basement as long as they want. 

 

OH and jriver streaming from my windows pc to sparky through LAN was instantly connected. no thinking involved unlike MPD DEAR LORD WHO INVENTED MPD I DONT LIKE YOU

 

hope this helps 

[Facel]

@hsola80 thanks for your interesting post.

I also have installed JRiver on the Sparky running DietPi.

I have a windows PC running Jriver as media-server and the sparky is a client.

(I am running the sparky headless)

I do not know if you have the same config but my main issue is that the sparky is not able to wake up the

media-server, instead of any windows client running Jriver.

 

I have not not tried to installed Ubuntu because I am not a Linux expert and I have spent sufficient time in order to have

Jriver running headless but maybe should I go ?

 

 

[hsola80]

@Facel glad ya enjoyed

 

I am no linux expert either. for example

 

I have no clue how you got Jriver on Dietpi

 

I definitely tried. You got it on the version of dietpi with the allo webgui? I coulda sworn I read that Jriver wasn't supported by dietpi on the dietpi forums. I flashed it and went through the whole install process as well. Also, Im not sure what you mean by headless.

 

I am not sure how you'd  get sparky to wake the server. Waking is always a special feature on all the remote clients I've used so maybe its a difficult thing to do? I decided to get a usb 3 external harddrive than deal with networking stuff cause I dont know much about networking at all. I couldnt even get a computer to network with itself like I needed too with MPD. 

[Facel]

• I simply followed the "Quick start guide for installing Jriver on ARM Raspberry"
• Headless mean that I do not have any Screen directly connected on the sparky - Its a little bit tricky because JRiver needs the desktop to be running in order to launch itself

[hsola80]

thats so wierd cause 

 

http://dietpi.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=2716&p=10452&hilit=jriver#p10452

 

they should really change that. but i still like ubuntu better cause dietpi seems too complicated. 

 

and that is why it seems to complicated for me. i cant wrap my head around a computer or music player being headless. do you login to some local ip address through a tablet/phone to control jriver? dietpi on sparky doesnt support a desktop gui environment right? im pretty sure i read that which is another reason i stayed away from it. 

 

what is your full system setup? ie dac amp speakers....

[Facel]

I use JRemote on my phone as remote control

Yes you can have a desktop environnment on dietpi.

My system with Sparky is Teac UD501 + Nytech amp + Jean Marie Reynaud loudspeakers

 

 

[hsola80]

Ahhh I see. So jriver is always on and loaded on the sparky, synced with your server library so you can add/remove on your pc, and then jremote is connected to client on sparky. is that right? It seems like there should be a way to get jriver client to wake the server. Theres so many freakin options youd think its in there somewhere. also..

 

http://dietpi.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=1368&p=5781&hilit=sparky+gpu#p5781

 

!?!?!?!

 

can you login to dietpi with your phone if you need to or do you have to connected a monitor if you wanna mess with it? does it auto update itself? i love sudo apt-get update but obviously you can make it do that weekly or whatever on its own. 

 

 

[ambre]

 

16 hours ago, hsola80 said:

Ahhh I see. So jriver

 Qua SQ especially converting to  DSD  is in my opinion  HQ-Player with the USbridge as NAA much better than Jriver.

[S4nd4m]

Hello, I would like to buy USBridge. Can you please tell me if it's compatible with Klipsch R-15PM? I want to use it with it's DAC. Main concern is compatibility with next/previous track feature on remote controller. Thank you for answer.

[Mike Pinkerton]

@Allo 

 

What is the normal temp? Mine is running at 52C, which is "running warm, but safe". My RPi with a BOSS hat is only running at 40C, which is "optimum". This is not streaming/playing anything (idle except for my ssh), and the RPi is currently streaming via RAAT. 

 

This seems high and worries me. 

[ALLOaudio]

@Mike Pinkerton

hello,

you can add a heat sink for your RPI if you want, there are plenty of options online, OR you can look into purchasing an aluminum case for RPI + BOSS from us... soon!

see the temperature results attached

 

Alu-case-Temp -RPI.doc

[Mike Pinkerton]

3 hours ago, ALLOaudio said:

@Mike Pinkerton

hello,

you can add a heat sink for your RPI if you want, there are plenty of options online, OR you can look into purchasing an aluminum case for RPI + BOSS from us... soon!

see the temperature results attached

 

Alu-case-Temp -RPI.doc

 

So you're saying that elevated temp is normal?

[ALLOaudio]

yes, you can see the temperatures that we  published, but again, a few bucks can get you a heat sink for RPI... or get the case... it will improve, as you can see.

 

[hal9000]

Hi,

 

last week i received my USBridge with dietpi. My playback chain is as follows:

 

Roon Core --> HQPlayer --> USBridge (NAA) --> T+A DAC8 DSD

 

PCM works just fine up to 384khz, sounding significantly better than my previous pc-solution, but there is no way to play native or upsampled dsd content. I guess this is because the usbridge doesn't know about the dsd capabilities of the dac:

 

root@USBridgeWZ:~# cat /proc/asound/card1/stream*
T+A elektroakustik DAC 8 DSD HD-Audio at usb-aotg_hcd.1-1.1, high speed : USB Audio

Playback:
  Status: Stop
  Interface 2
    Altset 1
    Format: S32_LE
    Channels: 2
    Endpoint: 5 OUT (ASYNC)
    Rates: 32000, 44100, 48000, 88200, 96000, 176400, 192000, 352800, 384000
    Data packet interval: 125 us

 

any ideas? Maybe a dietpi kernel problem?

[ambre]

Hi,

Did you have the correct settings for playing DSD in HQ-Player respectively SDM enabled? 

[hal9000]

Hi,

i'm using the same settings which worked with the previous pc-solution up to DSD512.

[ambre]

Ho Again,

DOP of SDM pack none in HQ-player?

 

Just read that you use usb-aotg_hcd.1-1.1, high speed : USB Audio

 

Please check (via  SSH)  if in Audio te right USB is selected USB 1.1 or in yr case Audio USB 2.0

 

The same you can check if and check if aotg.aotg1_speed value is set to 0.

 

Good luck,

[hal9000]

42 minutes ago, ambre said:

Ho Again,

DOP of SDM pack none in HQ-player?

yes

 

Just read that you use usb-aotg_hcd.1-1.1, high speed : USB Audio

 

This seems to be the driver which is automatically selected by the system. Is there a way to configurate the right driver?

 

Please check (via  SSH)  if in Audio te right USB is selected USB 1.1 or in yr case Audio USB 2.0

 

The same you can check if and check if aotg.aotg1_speed value is set to 0.

 

Good luck,

 

Thank you

[ALLOsupport]

18 hours ago, hal9000 said:

 

Thank you

 

20 hours ago, hal9000 said:

Hi,

 

last week i received my USBridge with dietpi. My playback chain is as follows:

 

Roon Core --> HQPlayer --> USBridge (NAA) --> T+A DAC8 DSD

 

PCM works just fine up to 384khz, sounding significantly better than my previous pc-solution, but there is no way to play native or upsampled dsd content. I guess this is because the usbridge doesn't know about the dsd capabilities of the dac:

 

root@USBridgeWZ:~# cat /proc/asound/card1/stream*
T+A elektroakustik DAC 8 DSD HD-Audio at usb-aotg_hcd.1-1.1, high speed : USB Audio

Playback:
  Status: Stop
  Interface 2
    Altset 1
    Format: S32_LE
    Channels: 2
    Endpoint: 5 OUT (ASYNC)
    Rates: 32000, 44100, 48000, 88200, 96000, 176400, 192000, 352800, 384000
    Data packet interval: 125 us

 

any ideas? Maybe a dietpi kernel problem?

 

Hi refer our PM , your DAC id is listing  2ab6:0001

and not listing the Altset 2.

 

we have added few more dsd native DACs  support on USBridge.

driver available on below link.

https://github.com/sparky-sbc/sparky-test/tree/master/dsd-marantz

 

Denon DA-300USB

Marantz HD-DAC1

Marantz SA-14S1

TEAC UD-501/UD-503/NT-503

Esoteric D-05X

T+A DAC8DSD-V2.0

 

please test and update

[tboooe]

Has anyone tried the USBridge with the Uptone LPS1.2?  Right now, I am powering both the Sparky and USBridge with my HDPlex linear power supply.  If I get an LPS1.2 then I would use it to power the USBridge separately from the Sparky.  Thank you.

[pgbcincy]

20 hours ago, tboooe said:

Has anyone tried the USBridge with the Uptone LPS1.2?  Right now, I am powering both the Sparky and USBridge with my HDPlex linear power supply.  If I get an LPS1.2 then I would use it to power the USBridge separately from the Sparky.  Thank you.

 

Hey Tommy,

 

I have not tried this as I don't own a LPS-1.2

 

FYI The standard connector size is on the LPS-1 (and 1.2 I assume) is a little different than the USBridge connector.  So you will need to build your own cable, have a adaptor, or buy a adaptor cable, ghentaudio comes to mind.  I have 2 LPS-1 in my system but they power the more downstream components of the chain.