GentooPlayer

[zackthedog]

1 hour ago, WuBai said:

So in the case of playing local files with APlayer, we still need to run Minimserver as well, correct? 

 

No, APlayer is like Audirvana, a standalone server and player.  It sees your library and plays the files.  Since it has a web gui there is no need for UPnP/DLNA or Minimserver.

[zackthedog]

1 hour ago, WuBai said:

Alright, got APlayer working and playing local files with Diretta.  I only had a chance to listen a short while but I can immediately say there is a positive difference compared to LMS + R2 in terms of clarity.  When people claim more details I'm usually apprehensive because for some people that might mean sharper highs or more noise which comes across to some as more detail, i.e. unnatural.  But not in this case at all, there are more details but I don't get that weird digital feeling in my body while listening.  My body and mind are still calm but I can hear more details.  Right now the depth isn't as great but the width has improved and the tautness of the bass has benefited as well.  I have a lot of tweaking and tuning and learning to do, but so far so good!

 

Yes.  LMS to me has a "glossy" sound that masks the original acoustic.  Aplayer or MPD are much more accurate IMO.

 

If you go back to page 184, bodiebill posted some AP2Renderer settings that helped me a lot and resolved all skipping and dropouts.  They might help with Aplayer itself, maybe he can comment.

 

 

[zackthedog]

25 minutes ago, WuBai said:

Big thanks for all the help.  I can't believe there existing such a small player/server software available that does everything I wanted and nothing extra.  I've only played around with it a little bit because technically I'm working right now, but I just had an entire track get pre-loaded to memory and play and wow, what a difference compared to LMS.  I can definitely hear what you mean when you say glossy.  So smooth that I was almost falling asleep last night listening.  Much to tweak and learn, I will check out bodiebill's settings as well.

 

Excellent!

[zackthedog]

6 hours ago, RichardT said:

Hi all,

 

I've enjoyed reading the recent posts about LMS vs MPD vs Aplayer etc. And the Holo Red was new to me - that looks really interesting.

 

I agree with others that MPD is generally less warm and more analytical than LMS. But there's lots of scope for altering the sound of LMS with ALSA settings. I recently owned a SoTM SMS-200 Neo. The default settings they use have a smaller input buffer - I'd never have thought to try it. But the impact in tightening up the otherwise slightly woolly LMS sound is profound (SoTM use just 1024Kb - that gets too hard for my taste but around 1200Kb feels right - still a long way below the default 2080kb and contrary to most opinions which advise larger buffers). However, I agree that making the output buffer large is a very good thing (several hundred Mb). So much so that I now use PiCorePlayer rather than GP on my Allo USBridge as it only occupies a tiny amount of RAM so allows me to have much larger output buffers (I'm still a GP user on my server). I can't use Diretta with PCP though.... I've yet to go back and see how much I'm missing from that...

 

As for the Holo Red - I'd love to hear how it compares to my tweaked USBridge. I've installed a DigiOne Signature in the USBridge as I didn't like the USB sound (Denafrips Ares 2 DAC). And the DigiOne Signature sounds significantly better in the USBridge than in a standard Pi (although the comparison was with a Pi4, not Pi3). The Holo Red is a much more substantial unit than the USBridge - I've found that increasing the mass of the USBridge by a few kg with concrete blocks on top plus using good vibration isolation improves the sound significantly. Finally, it is let down by the Shanti LPS cables - I've replaced those with silver coated copped (soldering required) and use multiple winds through large ferrite cores. That made as big a difference as going from a standard SMPS to the Shanti LPS and only cost about £20. If anyone else has this kit and is considering upgrading then I can recommend trying some of this first.

 

I'm using my old Allo USBridge as a host for Diretta with a Shanti, sent to Pi2AES as target.  I'd love to see some cable mods for the Shanti.  

 

Soldering doesn't bother me. ;-)

 

The Allo Bridge with Digione Sig hat is quite good, but I can't yet beat my Pi2AES as the renderer.  SUCH a good sound.  But the Holo Red is tempting... ;-)

[zackthedog]

10 hours ago, Dandou said:

My Allo beats my PI2AES, if I add iFi iGalvanic 3 between it and the DI-20HE. Comparison made with the PI2AES connected to the coaxial port of the DI-20HE. 

 

I optimize PI2AES by powering the HAT and the Rpi3 separately, each with its own LPS. 

 

The iFi Galvanic 3 is no longer available unfortunately.  And while I don't doubt it sounds good, I'm not sure I see the need for the Audio-GD unit when the Pi2AES measures just as well if not better on its own.  I'd be interested to hear it but I'm not in the market for an extra device at the moment.

 

I tried the Pi2AES with separate power supplies but didn't really feel it was an improvement.  I like it just the way Mike sells it. ;-)

 

I *am* liking what Diretta does, though.  Quieter background, better focus, instruments and voices in higher relief, more clearly defined.

[zackthedog]

6 hours ago, odelay said:

Album Player / AP2Renderer
 

Just trying it for the first time via GentooPlayer. I like the sound better than MPD. I’m using Minimserver, BubbleUpnp on x86 PC (single PC). 
 

But I’m getting pops between tracks on DSD (DSF) albums (not PCM albums). It’s the same for gapless and non-gapless albums. I don’t have this issue with MPD. 

 

I would like to play with settings to see if there’s anything I can do to fix it. But can’t find them.

 

How do see change the player’s settings? Any suggestions? 

 

For AP2Renderer point your browser to IPAddress:7779

For APlayer it's IPAddress:7778

 

If you go back to p. 184 in this thread you'll see some settings bodiebill posted that got rid of dropouts with AP2Renderer for me.

 

[zackthedog]

deleted

[zackthedog]

I have two machines, an Allo Bridge (Rpi3) and a Pi2AES (Rpi4).  The update to 8.20 went fine on the Rpi3 but failed on the Rpi4.  "Failure merge world" or something like that, I have lost the message.  Any ideas?

[zackthedog]

6 hours ago, musicfriend said:

Hello, can someone me explain, what the meaning is from the different settings under 06.Player/Audiosetting UpMpdCli

under Openhome and under Qobuz Stream Quality (there are only numbers and no text). I haven't been able to find an explanation for this anywhere.

 

 

Thank you

musicfriend

 

 

OpenHome is a protocol used by various controller apps, like Lumin, to engage the Qobuz stream.  Stream quality is whatever resolution you want as the highest for best Qobuz sound quality.

[zackthedog]

22 hours ago, WuBai said:

I did manage to get 8.2 sounding good with 6.1.1 eventually.  It actually forced me to learn more tweaks and try out different things so that is good.  I am now using Profile 3 on my Target and Host.  Also, I never realized how much of an impact these two TWK tweaks made before.

 

 

Thanks for this.  I too found 8.2 rather harsh sounding.  At the same time I had made some changes in my homebrew amplifiers and thought maybe that was the cause.  I will try 6.1.1.  Are those the settings you are using in TWK, or something different?

[zackthedog]

2 hours ago, WuBai said:

Yes these are in TWK.  Also, these Diretta Host settings really made a positive impact.

 

Thank you.  The Pi2AES sounds ***much better*** with 6.1.1 and the TWKs.  I was trying the PI2AES alone because with 8.2, Diretta sounded really bad!  I'll try these and the other kernel in the host.

[zackthedog]

7 hours ago, WuBai said:

Zack, if you are trying to 'take the edge off' then I would also recommend one other tweak that can help.  Not sure if this works for PI2AES but I'm using R2 and in my ALSA settings I set my Buffer Time to 499

 

Thanks, I'll try it.  Not so much "edge" as the music feeling small and constricted.  Much more open and relaxed with 6.1.1.  More air and ease in the top end.

[zackthedog]

12 hours ago, Wladimir said:

Always happy to share my observations if I have conditions to conduct a proper comparison :)

 

Now I just noticed that I've missed the EUPNOR variant, so I jumped at it and right off the bat I can tell that for me it's the most transparent and precise of them all. In other words, it provides the best separation and spatial information.

 

It also has the bottom weight of the RCU - MAYBE not as grunty as that, but it's at least very close and it perhaps might be just my imagination, or that the bass is simply cleaner with EUPNOR (which I feel is closest to the truth).

 

The best part is that the upper mids (~3-5kHz) forwardness (that I had with EUPRCU) is not present anymore, so the whole tonal balance is more for my liking.

 

I should add that this applies to my current setup with RPi3b v1.2, non-CLTO with Profile2 selected (which according to documentation assigns the priorities according to the kernel defaults).

 

Btw has anybody experimented with all the new profiles? I only tried profile 3-4 (using just 2 CPU's), but it didn't yield any subjective improvements, more to the contrary.. If anyone has any more experience, I would be grateful for sharing 🙏

 

I see what you mean about .37.  I tried your kernel and it's very precise and clear, detailed but not annoying. ;-)  I'm back to 6.1.1-RT.  The instruments are a touch less focused, but it's a bit more open and relaxed, for me.

[zackthedog]

On 8/4/2023 at 5:05 PM, Ossanboy said:

198 pages and no one wants to explain to help

 

Your question was very broad and I think a little overwhelming for people to answer.  It also would probably be better posted in the Mercury Streamer thread to Mercury users can offer specific advice.

 

I posted instructions on page 8 there for formatting and accessing an NVME drive in the Mercury to use it as a music storage device as well as a streamer.  I was able to do this with Gentooplayer but as far as I can tell there is no easy way to do this Volumio or other Pi software without some coding knowledge.

 

Assuming you have Gentooplayer installed, I would follow those instructions to create a shareable NVME drive.  After that, you have to select your DAC (Hifi Digiberry Pro), your player (LMS, MPD, whatever), etc.  The player you choose will determine what client software you use.  A squeezelite player requires a Logitech client to configure and play.  For MPD and upmpdcli, you can use a suitable MPD or DLNA/UPnP client.  Lumin is a good playback client for portable devices but you need to install/activate Minimserver and BubbleUpnP in Gentooplayer.

 

GP isn't plug-and-play like Volumio or Ropieee, but it offers many more options to use the Mercury as a streamer and server.

 

If you get the basics set up, some of us can help you refine the process.

[zackthedog]

4 hours ago, jeep972 said:

coo! I'm waiting for mine. I hope you will give us your impressions !

 

 

 

Where can you get a Holo Red?  Everywhere I look seems to be out of stock...

[zackthedog]

I just updated to 8.30 on Pi2AES.  I am trying to install squeeze2upnp but I get this:

 

[zackthedog]

That worked, thank you!

[zackthedog]

OMG!  Audirvana directly on my GP renderer!  This is fantastic.  I miss the handy drag-and-drop function, but I can toss some albums into the Media folder for playback, and Qobuz works fine.  MUCH cleaner sound than feeding it with my old Mac Mini.  It took all of ten minutes to install and start playing.  Thanks, Antonello, this is really great.

[zackthedog]

I've pulled out an old Allo USBridge and loaded 8.60.  Unfortunately the sound is glitchy, like that old ethernet issue with the Allo.  Is there a fix for this?

[zackthedog]

2 hours ago, zackthedog said:

I've pulled out an old Allo USBridge and loaded 8.60.  Unfortunately the sound is glitchy, like that old ethernet issue with the Allo.  Is there a fix for this?

 

Ah, the problem only occurs when using the built-in Audirvana Studio Linux.  The glitching occurs while the streaming file is loading, then stops when the file is fully loaded.  If I use Audirvana on my Mac and the Allo as a renderer only, there is no problem.  So maybe the Allo isn't powerful enough to use embedded Audirvana?

[zackthedog]

21 minutes ago, zackthedog said:

 

Ah, the problem only occurs when using the built-in Audirvana Studio Linux.  The glitching occurs while the streaming file is loading, then stops when the file is fully loaded.  If I use Audirvana on my Mac and the Allo as a renderer only, there is no problem.  So maybe the Allo isn't powerful enough to use embedded Audirvana?

 

But even if I use Minimserver and MPD with Lumin it's still glitchy.

[zackthedog]

1 minute ago, antonellocaroli said:

@zackthedog 

this problem with Allo has always been there, especially with certain dacs... i for one use it almost every day without clicking... but i actually use it as an endpoint...

can you post the systeminfo?

 

Profile: Profile not Setting

RamSystem: Ramsystem not enabled

Free memory: 520MB of total 957MB

 

Kernel: 6.1.73-GentooPlayer-ST+

───────────────────────────────────────

GentooPlayer | 16:53 | Fri 26/04/24

───────────────────────────────────────

v8.60-225 | Raspberry Pi 3B/3B+ (aarch64)

───────────────────────────────────────

eth0 | 192.168.4.47

───────────────────────────────────────

 

Players/soft. Info:

Squeezelite-R2 [Disabled]

Squeezelite [Disabled]

Networkaudiod [Disabled]

LogitechMediaServer [Disabled]

BubbleUpnp [Enabled]

HQPlayer Embedded [Disabled]

Mpd [Enabled]

UpMpdCli [Enabled]

RoonBridge [Disabled]

RoonServer [Disabled]

myMPD [Disabled]

minimserver [Enabled]

shairport-sync [Disabled]

spotify-connect [Disabled]

web-interface [Enabled]

Samba [Disabled]

gmediarender [Disabled]

camillagui [Disabled]

aplayer [Disabled]

aprenderer [Disabled]

gstreciver [Disabled]

HotSpot [Enabled] [it is recommended to disable]

 

GP-Service Info:

gpchronystop [Enabled]

gphavagedstop [Enabled]

gpireteonline [Enabled]

gpkernel1 [Enabled]

gprtclock [Enabled]

gpsetrestart [Enabled]

gp_starter [Enabled]

-

 

Started Service:

upmpdcli

bubbleupnp

dhcpcd

netmount

mpd

local

 

Stopped Service:

chronyd

clockup

gpkernel1

gprtclock

gpireteonline

gpchronystop

gphavagedstop

gp_starter

gpsetrestart

 

Crashed Service:

 

─────────────────────────────────────────────────────

Boot Options:

dwc_otg.lpm_enable=0 console=tty1 root=PARTUUID=cbdca251-02 rootfstype=ext4 elevator=deadline fsck.repair=yes rootwait net.ifnames=0

─────────────────────────────────────────────────────

*** Scanning for playback devices ***

Card 0, ID `x20', name `xCORE USB Audio 2.0'

Device 0, ID `USB Audio', name `USB Audio', 1 subdevices (1 available)

2 channels, sampling rate 44100..384000 Hz

Sample formats: S32_LE, SPECIAL, DSD_U32_BE

Buffer size range from 16 to 768000

Period size range from 8 to 384000

 

Subdevice 0, name `subdevice #0'

─────────────────────────────────────────────────────

 

AUDIO CARDS INFO:

CARD TYPE ADDRESS NAME

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

card0 USB Audio card usb1 --> 20b1:000a XMOS xCORE USB

card0 STATUS --> closed

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

─────────────────────────────────────────────────────

K-00:17:f7:00:a8:73

─────────────────────────────────────────────────────

 

─────────────────────────────────────────────────────

Filesystem Type Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on

/dev/root ext4 29G 5.4G 22G 20% /

devtmpfs devtmpfs 10M 0 10M 0% /dev

tmpfs tmpfs 192M 484K 192M 1% /run

shm tmpfs 479M 0 479M 0% /dev/shm

/dev/mmcblk0p1 vfat 591M 229M 362M 39% /boot

─────────────────────────────────────────────────────

 

Raspberry Pi Compute Module 3 Plus Rev 1.0

CPU(s): 4

On-line CPU(s) list: 0-3

CPU(s) scaling MHz: 100%

Thread(s) per core: 1

Vendor ID: ARM

Model: 4

Model name: Cortex-A53

─────────────────────────────────────────────────────

CPU-specific microarchitecture:

 

─────────────────────────────────────────────────────

Gentooplayer CPU Info

Use cpu-governor to change CPU / performance options

─────────────────────────────────────────────────────

Architecture | aarch64

Temp | 52'c : 125'f | Optimal.

Governor | performance

 

Current Freq Min Freq Max Freq

CPU0 | 1200 MHz 600 MHz 1200 MHz

CPU1 | 1200 MHz 600 MHz 1200 MHz

CPU2 | 1200 MHz 600 MHz 1200 MHz

CPU3 | 1200 MHz 600 MHz 1200 MHz

─────────────────────────────────────────────────────

 

COMMAND %CPU

java 17.1

java 2.8

mpd 1.4

init 0.3

[zackthedog]

39 minutes ago, antonellocaroli said:

yes, nothing in particular, I repeat with some dacs, this problem occurs...I have no solution.

 

Okay, thank you!

[zackthedog]

Okay, now I am reviving an RPi 4.  Installed 8.60, system is registered by GP-Update fails (FAILED UP).  What's happening?  Thanks!

[zackthedog]

5 minutes ago, zackthedog said:

Okay, now I am reviving an RPi 4. Installed 8.60, system is registered by GP-Update fails (FAILED UP). What's happening? Thanks!

 

Never mind!  I re-entered the key, now it works.  Sorry!