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AudioLinux on Raspberry Pi3


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Opening this thread to discuss usage of AudioLinux on Raspberry pi3.

I bought and installed it during the Christmas Holidays:

  • Version 05 Headless

 

Release Notes are here:

http://www.audio-linux.com/html/rpi3.html

 

In my case it is currently running with a raspberry Pi3 with Allo Boss Dac, but also tested with IQaudIO PiDac+.

I use Squeezelite as a player, with a Logitech Media Server (LMS) installed on another raspberry in my LAN.

Streaming from QOBUZ using the LMS plugin.

My controller app is iPeng 9.6.1 on iPhone.

 

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Why is Audiolinux better than Volumio or others?

Main System: QNAP TS-451+ NAS > Silent Angel Bonn N8 > Sonore opticalModule Deluxe v2 > Corning SMF with Finisar FTLF1318P3BTL SFPs > Uptone EtherREGEN > exaSound PlayPoint and e32 Mk-II DAC > Meitner MTR-101 Plus monoblocks > Bamberg S5-MTM sealed standmount speakers. 

Crown XLi 1500 powering  AV123 Rocket UFW10 stereo subwoofers

Upgraded power on all switches, renderer and DAC. 

 

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4 hours ago, franz159 said:

My understanding is that it achieves better performance in terms of jitter/noise by optimising/minimising the usage of system resources, in my use case of the raspberry endpoint connected to the dac

Thanks Franz. It was my understanding that AL was preferred because it plays directly from RAM. But when I look at Volumio's web page, it says:

  • - The system is loaded entirely on RAM and optimized for lightweight operations
  • - Various Audio related tweaking for best audio performances

 

I'm wondering if you or anyone have compared AL to the latest edition of Volumio? 

Main System: QNAP TS-451+ NAS > Silent Angel Bonn N8 > Sonore opticalModule Deluxe v2 > Corning SMF with Finisar FTLF1318P3BTL SFPs > Uptone EtherREGEN > exaSound PlayPoint and e32 Mk-II DAC > Meitner MTR-101 Plus monoblocks > Bamberg S5-MTM sealed standmount speakers. 

Crown XLi 1500 powering  AV123 Rocket UFW10 stereo subwoofers

Upgraded power on all switches, renderer and DAC. 

 

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5 hours ago, audiobomber said:

Thanks Franz. It was my understanding that AL was preferred because it plays directly from RAM. But when I look at Volumio's web page, it says:

  • - The system is loaded entirely on RAM and optimized for lightweight operations
  • - Various Audio related tweaking for best audio performances

 

I'm wondering if you or anyone have compared AL to the latest edition of Volumio? 

In the few tests I have done, MoodeAudio (now at ver 4.4)  has always proven itself sonically better than Volumio.

Of course, I have not compared every single version of one vs the other...!

Now AL may lose a bit in terms of feature set and ease of configuration when compared to Moode, but it competes in terms of social results, at least with squeezelite which is the component I'm currently using as player with AL. 

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On 2/6/2019 at 8:10 PM, Yatsushiro said:

As you already have the LMS infrastructure, and have used Squeezelite, can I suggest you try PiCorePlayer ? It's a very small distro, runs in RAM, has a wide variety of plugins and a really involved support community.

 

I tried Rune, Moode, Volumio, ArchPhile etc, but always end up back with PCP. For the sake of an SD card, it's worth a try... 

Will do. I have downloaded it..

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  • 2 weeks later...

I was never impressed with Volumio on RPI3, last tried it in November. A very ordinary , dulled sound compared to USBridge or microRendu as Roon endpoint.  AL on RPI3  I tried later and found it to be superior to USBridge, close to microRendu.  I doubt a system using Allo Boss DAC could tell the difference. You do need a decent

linear power supply with RPI3 to get the best out of it whereas microRendu is relatively insensitive to power supply.

Regards,

Dave

 

Audio system

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I am using a standard, minimal Raspbian Lite installation running MinimServer and upmpdcli (and thus MPD) on a RPi 3 B+ with

dtparam=audio=off

dtoverlay=i2s-mmap
dtoverlay=allo-digionedtoverlay=pi3-disable-bt
force_turbo=1
arm_freq=1000 
sdram_freq=400 
gpu_mem=16

in  /boot/config.txt and with

sudo /opt/vc/bin/tvservice --off

,

vm.swappiness = 1
fs.inotify.max_user_watches = 524288

and

@audio - rtprio 99
@audio - memlock unlimited 
@audio - nice -10 

added to /etc/rc.local, /etc/sysctl.conf and /etc/security/limits.d/audio.conf, respectively. My latency measures using the current standard kernel (4.14.98) and during transcoding of 24bits/96kHz .flac files to .wav through MinimServer are:

pi@rpi6:~ $ sudo cyclictest  -l 10000 -m -Sp98 -i100 -d0
# /dev/cpu_dma_latency set to 0us
policy: fifo: loadavg: 0.13 0.14 0.09 1/156 813          

T: 0 (  810) P:98 I:100 C:  10000 Min:      5 Act:    6 Avg:    7 Max:      53
T: 1 (  811) P:98 I:100 C:   9980 Min:      6 Act:    8 Avg:    7 Max:      38
T: 2 (  812) P:98 I:100 C:   9861 Min:      5 Act:    6 Avg:    7 Max:      25
T: 3 (  813) P:98 I:100 C:   9679 Min:      5 Act:   10 Avg:    7 Max:      54

I have tried Volumio but I do not like its user interface and control app. The RPi 3 B+ hosts an Allo DigiOne Signature and is powered by an UpTone Audio LPS-1.2 (clean side) and by an UpTone Audio JS-2 (RPI side). The JS-2 also powers the LPS-1.2.   

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12 minutes ago, Yatsushiro said:

I use the RT kernel on all my RPi2 & 3s, running on wifi. The only devices I don't are PiZeros.

 

Yet to have a problem...

Is it also fine to run a LMS on the real-time kernel distribution? I would like to run server and player on the same RPi. Thanks, nbpf

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I already have another RPI on my LAN, which is also used for file sharing with Samba where I keep my FLAC library: I run LMS on it and I only run squeezelite on the AudioLinux raspberry acting as the endpoint where the digital-analogue conversion takes place using an Allo Boss dac going into a Micro Zotl 2 used as headphone amp.

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1 minute ago, Yatsushiro said:

I don't think it is recommended, but it's worth a try. Are you on ethernet or wifi?

 

If it doesn't work it's easy enough to revert to the standard kernel.

I am on wifi. I have never used LMS or Squeezelite, thus I am a bit slow. Now installing LMS. More later.

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I understand this is off-topic but, if the OP further tolerates this: LMS and Squeezelite are running, a USB drive is mounted. How do I select a file for replay? I do not see any files and the log files suggests that perhaps no albums have been found. Thanks, nbpf 

[19-02-23 16:26:15.3110] main::main (205) Starting Logitech Media Server scanner (v7.9.2, 1543258616, Mon Nov 26 20:30:03 CET 2018) perl 5.024000
[19-02-23 16:26:15.6931] Slim::Schema::forceCommit (2147) Warning: Trying to commit transactions before DB is initialized!
[19-02-23 16:26:15.9443] Slim::Music::Import::runImporter (511) Starting Slim::Media::MediaFolderScan scan
[19-02-23 16:26:15.9449] Slim::Music::Import::endImporter (644) Completed Slim::Media::MediaFolderScan Scan in 0 seconds.
[19-02-23 16:26:15.9472] Slim::Music::Import::runImporter (511) Starting Slim::Plugin::FullTextSearch::Plugin scan
[19-02-23 16:26:15.9489] Slim::Plugin::FullTextSearch::Plugin::_rebuildIndex (413) Starting fulltext index build
[19-02-23 16:26:15.9494] Slim::Plugin::FullTextSearch::Plugin::_rebuildIndex (417) Initialize fulltext table
[19-02-23 16:26:15.9519] Slim::Plugin::FullTextSearch::Plugin::_rebuildIndex (430) Create fulltext index for tracks
[19-02-23 16:26:16.0952] Slim::Plugin::FullTextSearch::Plugin::_rebuildIndex (440) Create fulltext index for albums
[19-02-23 16:26:16.0969] Slim::Plugin::FullTextSearch::Plugin::_rebuildIndex (449) Create fulltext index for contributors
[19-02-23 16:26:16.0985] Slim::Plugin::FullTextSearch::Plugin::_rebuildIndex (459) Create fulltext index for playlists
[19-02-23 16:26:16.1061] Slim::Plugin::FullTextSearch::Plugin::_rebuildIndex (494) Optimize fulltext index
[19-02-23 16:26:16.1169] Slim::Plugin::FullTextSearch::Plugin::_rebuildIndex (509) Fulltext index build done!
[19-02-23 16:26:16.1176] Slim::Music::Import::endImporter (644) Completed Slim::Plugin::FullTextSearch::Plugin Scan in 0 seconds.
[19-02-23 16:26:16.1198] Slim::Music::Artwork::precacheAllArtwork (619) Starting precacheArtwork for 0 albums
[19-02-23 16:26:16.1204] Slim::Music::Import::endImporter (644) Completed precacheArtwork Scan in 0 seconds.
[19-02-23 16:26:16.1213] Slim::Music::Import::runScanPostProcessing (435) Starting Database optimization.
[19-02-23 16:26:16.2356] Slim::Music::Import::endImporter (644) Completed dbOptimize Scan in 0 seconds.

 

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@nbpf,  is your USB disk mounted correctly?

Can you "navigate" using unix "cd" commands to the folder containing your music on the USB drive?

If so, you need to configure that folder as the music library folder using LMS web interface on port 9000 (eg http://192.168.1.20:9000, of course specifying your raspberry IP address on your LAN).


I also happen to have LMS running on a raspbian machine with a USB disk attached and it looks like this...

 

Mounted disk:

pi@Rasp3Nas:~ $ mount
/dev/mmcblk0p2 on / type ext4 (rw,noatime,data=ordered)
devtmpfs on /dev type devtmpfs (rw,relatime,size=470116k,nr_inodes=117529,mode=755)
.........
/dev/sda1 on /media/Seagate2T type fuseblk (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,noatime,user_id=0,group_id=0,default_permissions,allow_other,blksize=4096,uhelper=udisks)
tmpfs on /run/user/1000 type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,size=94944k,mode=700,uid=1000,gid=1000)

 

Music folder on raspbian:

ls /media/Seagate2T/Music
001-musica-classica                      
001b-compilation-classica                
001c-compilation-classica -per-autori    
002-musica-leggera                       
002b-musica-leggera-mp3                  
003-musica-jazz                          
005-discoteque-ideale-de-radio-clasique  
006-Bach-edition                         
pi@Rasp3Nas:~ $ 

 

LMS Media Folder configuration:

1850623116_LMSsetting.thumb.png.9e57495b829c6f947b830c1f0f550d3c.png

 

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4 minutes ago, franz159 said:

@nbpf,  is your USB disk mounted correctly?

Can you "navigate" using unix "cd" commands to the folder containing your music on the USB drive?

If so, you need to configure that folder as the music library folder using LMS web interface on port 9000 (eg http://192.168.1.30:9000, of course specifying your raspberry IP address on your LAN).

Thanks, I had not realized that the LMS server has to be accessed through port 9000. Now replay works fine through the DigiOne Signature. Any recommended control point for Android? Best, nbpf

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2 minutes ago, nbpf said:

Thanks, I had not realized that the LMS server has to be accessed through port 9000. Now replay works fine through the DigiOne Signature. Any recommended control point for Android? Best, nbpf

How do you like the SIgnature? Does it worth the extra investment in your opinion?

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3 minutes ago, franz159 said:

How do you like the SIgnature? Does it worth the extra investment in your opinion?

It is a difficult decision, in my view. I have posted a lot of praise and admonition for the DigiOne Signature on  https://audiophilestyle.com/forums/topic/49667-allo-digione-signature/. In a nutshell, I do think that the Signature is an improvement over the standard DigiOne, even with a ifi 5V/2.5A power supply for its clean side. On the other hand, the USB C power connectors are awkward and the quality control has been sub-optimal. Also, you have to consider that, with the Signature, you will be tempted to invest more an more money in power supplies: the idea is that the cleaner the power supply for the "clean" side of the Signature, the better. Thus, it is a very personal decision and I find it difficult to come up with a recommendation without knowing your expectations, interests and budget. By the way, the piCorePlayer sounds indeed very good! Thanks, nbpf 

 

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20 minutes ago, soundbyte said:

Squeezer.

Thanks, I'll give it a try! At this point I am trying to figure out what's wrong wit the LMS indexing. It shows all my folders but only a few dozens of albums. Also it does not appear to be possible to tell the server which fields to index and which ones to disregard. I am used to MinimServer which is probably unbeatable for classical music but LMS seems a bit limited. Perhaps something just went wrong when building the database. The sound quality is comparable with that of my current system, I'll need some extensive and careful listening to decide which one I prefer.  

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