GentooPlayer

[DomieMic65]

3 minutes ago, Dandou said:

With Picoreplayer, I set LMS on my Dell as a server, and Squeezelite on the Allo USBridge. 

I did not try it with Gentooplayer, but I'm sure that it will work. 

 

Do you think that using two RPIs provides a better sound quality, than using a computer and a RPI? 

No I can not tell that it will be any different!
The only reason that I use two rpis is that they are completely silent and in Gentooplayer you get very constant s/w updates: LMS etc..(as in piCore of cource) !

You run LMS in Windows? 

[Dandou]

Yes, I run LMS in Windows, but I suppressed in my set-up the noise of the computers and the LAN. 

[DomieMic65]

8 minutes ago, bodiebill said:

 

Sorry if I was unclear. I have only one RPi4, but GP complained when I did not fill in both IP addresses, so I put one IP address in both fields: server = player.

I just connect to a shared network ('NAS') drive on my Windows 10 PC.

I never had this "complain" you mention so I do not know if I understand 100% ... sorry!

[bodiebill]

3 minutes ago, DomieMic65 said:

I never had this "complain" you mention so I do not know if I understand 100% ... sorry!

 

Both are required for my (RPi4) GP setup:

 

Maybe @antonellocaroli can explain?

[Dandou]

Same for me. GentooPlayer never asked me to give an IP of a server. 

 

EDIT

But I don't use the same version, as I run it on a RBi3. I don't have this setting. 

[bodiebill]

4 minutes ago, Dandou said:

Yes, I run LMS with Windows, but I suppressed in my set-up the noise of the computers and the LAN. 

 

In that case it would make sense that RPi + RPi would sound better than PC + RPi if no sophisticated noise surpression is supplied?

[DomieMic65]

may be this is needed when you have multiple LMSs and players... I really do not know...

if you have only one LMS it sees all the Squeezelite players in the local network automatically 

[Dandou]

I use Roon in Squeezelite integrated mode. For GentooPlayer, Roon is like LMS. 

[Dandou]

39 minutes ago, bodiebill said:

In that case it would make sense that RPi + RPi would sound better than PC + RPi if no sophisticated noise surpression is supplied?

I don't know because I never tried that. But the problem with the noise is not only the computer that you use as a server. 

 

All the devices in the LAN that are not powered by a LPS spread high frequencies of electrical noise all over the LAN. This includes the Internet modem, the router, the decoder of the TV, the switches, all the computers… In addition, all the Ethernet cables of the LAN behave like antennas and add noise to the LAN. 

So when you stream from a server, even a very silent one, all the noise of the LAN still interferes with the stream, reaches the DAC and degrades the sound. 

[DomieMic65]

@antonellocaroliany idea what might the underlined issue be? Thnx!!!

[bodiebill]

1 hour ago, Dandou said:

So when you stream from a server, even a very silent one, all the noise of the LAN still interferes with the stream, reaches the DAC and degrades the sound. 

 

Agreed. So why fight a battle that can never be completely won, when the culprit can be avoided?

 

 

Actually, I was already switching off the network for serious listening before GP... using a small remote that turns off/on the downstream switch. 

[Dandou]

1 hour ago, bodiebill said:

Agreed. So why fight a battle that can never be completely won, when the culprit can be avoided?

First, the battle can be won. And there may be a few good reasons to do it. 

 

If you have a big library or need a sophisticated library management, playing the tracks from the streamer may not be a practical solution. (Imagine, for instance, that you want to sort your tracks in order to play all the performances in your library of a given work of Beethoven.) 

If you have a Delta-Sigma DAC, you may want to improve its sound with the high quality upsampling of HQPlayer. 

If you want to listen to the music of a streaming service with a Linux edition on the streamer that does not support this service. 

 

And in theory, you should get a better sound if you stream the track from the server, because less computing power is required from the streamer when it only renders the sound. In this case, the streamer itself is a more silent device.

But in practice, I do not hear this last improvement in my set-up. I just get an equal sound quality. 

 

There's a solution for Chord DACs that improves the sound by removing the noise, by optical conversion, after it was already rendered by the streamer. 

[zackthedog]

I just updated to 6.5 on my Allo USBridge Signature.  When I set the DAC to USB and enable MPD, then choose my DAC, it says "card status closed" and there is no sound.  What am I doing wrong?

[zackthedog]

1 hour ago, zackthedog said:

I just updated to 6.5 on my Allo USBridge Signature.  When I set the DAC to USB and enable MPD, then choose my DAC, it says "card status closed" and there is no sound.  What am I doing wrong?

 

Never mind!  It's working now.  Not sure what the issue was.

[antonellocaroli]

6 hours ago, bodiebill said:

 

Both are required for my (RPi4) GP setup:

 

Maybe @antonellocaroli can explain?

in the guide there are links that lead directly to the pages of the webinterface, setting the ip " clearly" after the links take you to the WI of the player and the server according to where they should be set some configurations in the guide, I do not know if I could explain.... 

[antonellocaroli]

5 hours ago, DomieMic65 said:

@antonellocaroliany idea what might the underlined issue be? Thnx!!!

is not a problem...

[bodiebill]

8 hours ago, Dandou said:

First, the battle can be won. And there may be a few good reasons to do it. 

 

Perhaps yes, but I found that I do not like this battle (the effort and the cost) after having fought it for many years. :-) 

 

And I agree that much depends on the use case.

 

8 hours ago, Dandou said:

If you have a big library or need a sophisticated library management, playing the tracks from the streamer may not be a practical solution. (Imagine, for instance, that you want to sort your tracks in order to play all the performances in your library of a given work of Beethoven.)

 

This I solve more or less by selecting and converting the tracks offline.

 

8 hours ago, Dandou said:

If you have a Delta-Sigma DAC, you may want to improve its sound with the high quality upsampling of HQPlayer. 

 

Why do you only mention DS DACs? Doesn't the same apply to R2R DACs? Especially NOS?

 

I used HQPlayer for many years upsampling everything to DSD256, but now get results at least as good with PCM up to 24/96 and a more minimalist setup.

 

8 hours ago, Dandou said:

If you want to listen to the music of a streaming service with a Linux edition on the streamer that does not support this service. 

 

Can you give an example?

 

8 hours ago, Dandou said:

And in theory, you should get a better sound if you stream the track from the server, because less computing power is required from the streamer when it only renders the sound. In this case, the streamer itself is a more silent device.

 

This again I achieve by upsampling offline (using xrecode3).

 

8 hours ago, Dandou said:

But in practice, I do not hear this last improvement in my set-up. I just get an equal sound quality. 

 

That is a great achievement. I am nearly there, but not yet.

 

8 hours ago, Dandou said:

There's a solution for Chord DACs that improves the sound by removing the noise, by optical conversion, after it was already rendered by the streamer. 

 

Interesting. It seems that my DDC (Audio-GD DI-20HE, with its regenerative PS) performs a similar function. And my DAC (Spring 3) has a PLL, but this is more to conquer jitter.

 

To get back OT:

The PI2AES already minimizes the electrical noise (see GoldenSound review), especially when it is drastically underclocked using the GentooPlayer TWK settings.

[bodiebill]

5 hours ago, antonellocaroli said:

in the guide there are links that lead directly to the pages of the webinterface, setting the ip " clearly" after the links take you to the WI of the player and the server according to where they should be set some configurations in the guide, I do not know if I could explain.... 

 

Ah, I understand, thanks!

[Dandou]

@bodiebill , 

 

I did not understand how you solved the problem of the library management offline. 

Can you explain?

 

Regarding HQPlayer, I mentioned the DS DACs, because it really improves their sound. 

I tried it with Pegasus, and upsampled up to DSD512 and PCM 1536, but did not hear a significant improvement that will justify the burden. 

 

Regarding the streaming services, how can you listen to Qobuz, for instance, without streaming the sound through the LAN? 

 

Regarding xrecode3, I think that you did not understand me. 

In a local playback, the streamer needs also to decode the tracks , and overall the playback requires more computing power than only rendering them. This makes the streamer more noisy. 

But as I told you, I can't hear this difference with my system. I was told that it becomes audible with superior systems. 

 

The solution for the Chord DACs, places the optical converters between the streamer and the DAC. It's a Canadian company that produces these devices. It has the advantage to remove the noise of all the set-up, including the streamer. 

The improvement becomes audible with high-end systems. 

[bodiebill]

1 hour ago, Dandou said:

I did not understand how you solved the problem of the library management offline. 

Can you explain?

I am using a fully customized version of JRiver MC. For instance for many composers the works can be listed in chronological order. I just pick the work(s) I want and convert with xrecode3 (f.i. to 24/96 wav, very fast, almost like copying) to a folder RTBP (ready to be played). This I load into f.i. PlayDir or moc.

 

Regarding HQPlayer, I mentioned the DS DACs, because it really improves their sound. 

I tried it with Pegasus, and upsampled up to DSD512 and PCM 1536, but did not hear a significant improvement that will justify the burden. 

Same experience here with the Pegasus.

 

Regarding the streaming services, how can you listen to Qobuz, for instance, without streaming the sound through the LAN? 

I only listen to Qobuz occasionaly, when I like to browse or discover new things. In that case of course I keep the network active. But 80% of my listening is done without network.

 

Regarding xrecode3, I think that you did not understand me. 

In a local playback, the streamer needs also to decode the tracks , and overall the playback requires more computing power than only rendering them. This makes the streamer more noisy.

xrecode3 runs on the PC so the local playback (on the RPi) is done with files that are already converted. So the streamer does not need to recode the tracks at all.

 

But as I told you, I can't hear this difference with my system. I was told that it becomes audible with superior systems.

That is good news! Maybe I have one? :-)

 

(Sorry to answer above in-line. It did not work in the ususal way this time.)

[Dandou]

I see that you organized your files very well to take a full advantage of MOC and Dir2Play. You are right to do so, because these two modes are really superior. I started using Gentooplayer only two or three months ago. I may follow your example, and organize my files in order to use these modes more often  in the future. 

[bodiebill]

deleted :-|

[odelay]

Has anyone had any problems mounting local drives on 6.50?
 

I haven’t had this issue before, but I am currently unable to mount local SD cards (either through the internal SD card reader or USB adapters). 

Drives were generally recognised, but their partitions weren’t. When formatted in exFAT or NTFS, only a vFAT partition of 5.8Mb was recognised. 

I tried a fresh install of 6.50 in case my settings messed something up, but had no joy. 

Any suggestions? 
 

P.S. I long over-due thanks to Filippo for making it so easy to limit CPU speeds! That’s changed my world! 

[bodiebill]

Another one for @antonellocaroli...

I followed these instructions to install and configure CamillaDSP and CamillaGUI:

https://sites.google.com/view/gentooplayer-documentation/info-software/camilladsp

However, after starting and enabling all services and rebooting, the section below is still not appearing in the WI.

Any idea?

 

[antonellocaroli]

2 minutes ago, bodiebill said:

Another one for @antonellocaroli...

I followed these instructions to install and configure CamillaDSP and CamillaGUI:

https://sites.google.com/view/gentooplayer-documentation/info-software/camilladsp

However, after starting and enabling all services and rebooting, the section below is still not appearing in the WI.

Any idea?

 

yes, I removed it, if you have installed camilladsp, you will now find it directly in the audiocard selection in the player...