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Re: Tinker, Tailor, Streamer, Pi.

Posted: Fri Jul 23, 2021 1:25 am
by antonio66
Savvy, I seriously do not get where people are coming from that say Roon degrades the sound, it's just not true. I've read the dCS app sounds better, again we've done a comparison, it's not true. What are you using now as your music player?

Re: Tinker, Tailor, Streamer, Pi.

Posted: Fri Jul 23, 2021 7:57 am
by CN211276
I am the one who has read reorts about Roon degrading SQ, but I think it could be where a Mscaler is in the system. I have also come across reports that it improves SQ and that the company might go bust with the loss of licence fees. That is the Internet for you. :grin:

Re: Tinker, Tailor, Streamer, Pi.

Posted: Fri Jul 23, 2021 8:28 am
by Fretless
I'm experimenting with the resampling/upsampling feature in the 'Playback Options' of Volumio. Setting the streamers to regenerate all audio data to 24bit/96KHz for output to the DACs.

On the whole this works rather well, creating a rounder, fuller, more organic sound. It is a bit dependent on the DAC, though: The Cambridge DacMagic Plus, Topping D30 and Teradak Chameleon all show noticeable improvement - but the Metrum Musette is happier with 16bit input, due to its internal 16bit R2R chips.

A lot of digital coax inputs max out at 96KHz and smaller processors like those in the Pi2B sound like they are struggling when asked to do resampling to 192KHz or above. The only setup where I can go for higher resolutions is the rig with the Intel i7 PC and Denafrips Ares II - but I haven't got around to seriously playing with that yet.

Volumio can resample up to 768KHz, which is 17x the resolution of CD-standard 44.1KHz. Although the resampling is carried out in the digital domain. Another experiment I am saving for the autumn is using Audacity to make Hi-res digital rips from the analogue output of a DAC. Don't know if that is too sensible, as what you effectively get is then the character of the outputting DAC itself.

Re: Tinker, Tailor, Streamer, Pi.

Posted: Fri Jul 23, 2021 11:15 am
by savvypaul
antonio66 wrote: Fri Jul 23, 2021 1:25 am Savvy, I seriously do not get where people are coming from that say Roon degrades the sound, it's just not true. I've read the dCS app sounds better, again we've done a comparison, it's not true. What are you using now as your music player?
I'm currently using LMS / Squeezelite. My priority is SQ rather than content links (that Roon, I can see, does very well).

A player that is getting a lot of mentions is Euphony Stylus.

But, I'm told that I will get bigger SQ benefits from improving on my MicroRendu.

Re: Tinker, Tailor, Streamer, Pi.

Posted: Fri Jul 23, 2021 7:19 pm
by CN211276
savvypaul wrote: Fri Jul 23, 2021 11:15 am
antonio66 wrote: Fri Jul 23, 2021 1:25 am Savvy, I seriously do not get where people are coming from that say Roon degrades the sound, it's just not true. I've read the dCS app sounds better, again we've done a comparison, it's not true. What are you using now as your music player?
I'm currently using LMS / Squeezelite. My priority is SQ rather than content links (that Roon, I can see, does very well).

A player that is getting a lot of mentions is Euphony Stylus.

But, I'm told that I will get bigger SQ benefits from improving on my MicroRendu.
My MicroRendu took a quantum leap, especially in the bass, when I replaced the MCRU PS with the Sbooster. I use BubbleUp. Had not heard of Euphony Stylus, seems interesting but not cheap.

Re: Tinker, Tailor, Streamer, Pi.

Posted: Sat Jul 24, 2021 1:41 am
by antonio66
savvypaul wrote: Fri Jul 23, 2021 11:15 am
antonio66 wrote: Fri Jul 23, 2021 1:25 am Savvy, I seriously do not get where people are coming from that say Roon degrades the sound, it's just not true. I've read the dCS app sounds better, again we've done a comparison, it's not true. What are you using now as your music player?
I'm currently using LMS / Squeezelite. My priority is SQ rather than content links (that Roon, I can see, does very well).

A player that is getting a lot of mentions is Euphony Stylus.

But, I'm told that I will get bigger SQ benefits from improving on my MicroRendu.
Music player apps are of interest to me at the moment, even though I don't know much about them, I'm using MusicBee at the moment, which I felt gave better sound quality than Foobar2000, although I am unsure whether or not I had the settings set to the max. I cannot for the life of me understand all the display setting options on MusicBee, so just left as is, there doesn't appear to be too many option for sound quality so I've got it set to Wasapi Exclusive and DSD speakers output, although for some strange reason, yesterday there was no sound output, and had to put back in DSD speakers, this morning it is ok. Going back to you, would SOtM be an improvement over MicroRendu, I looked into them and I read very good reports, problem for me was it would not read a hard drive, so my music would have to be streamed from a computer, I wanted to get away from computers, and just use a phone or tablet to control the system. Then of course you've got your usual suspects, dCS Bridge, Auralic, Aurender although these come at a price, but if you did want to push the boat out a little, this is a well thought of piece, and I would have thought at fair price https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/284332641983 ... OSw~Sxgx3u~
Do let us know anything you come across in any of your searches.
Sorry should have mentioned Fretless recommends Volumio for me on my mini pc, unsure if it is what you would need, for me I would rather wait till I get back to the uk for someone to help me install it.
Roon - my brother liked this because it was FAST and easy to use, not only that he got a lifetime sub before the price rise, our thinking, if used for 10yrs it's gonna cost you less than £1 per week for the convenience.
My brain can't be working too well this morning, I'm all over the place with this post :doh: Audirvana is supposed to be good, I did get the free trial but could not download my music library for some reason, asked on their forum, nobody helped so never got chance with that one, I'm sure you would have more success, since I know bugger all about setting these things up.
Hope my post was helpful :lol:

Re: Tinker, Tailor, Streamer, Pi.

Posted: Sat Jul 24, 2021 7:07 am
by antonio66
Bit of an in depth review of the Antipodes DX here, but some of the info might simply be helpful to you
https://www.hifi-advice.com/blog/review ... ic-server/

Re: Tinker, Tailor, Streamer, Pi.

Posted: Sat Jul 24, 2021 8:13 am
by CN211276
antonio66 wrote: Sat Jul 24, 2021 1:41 am I wanted to get away from computers, and just use a phone or tablet to control the system.
Exactly the same with me. When the MicroRendu took over from my PC the difference in SQ was night and day, as well as convenience. I have read reports about the MR being as good as its PS and this is bourne out by my experience. Ever since I have had the MR, nearly four years, I have used BubbleUp which is simple enough for a computer numpty like me and integrates easily with Qobuz, Tidal and my NAS. Radio Paradise is far less straight forward. I am aware of alternatives but music playing apps are a bit of a mystery to me. I would not consider anything which woud need to be operated from the PC.

Re: Tinker, Tailor, Streamer, Pi.

Posted: Sat Jul 24, 2021 1:03 pm
by antonio66
You must stream your music from the NAS, something I do not want to do. I have all my music on an external hard drive, so whatever product I choose would have to have internal storage or be able to read my HD through usb. It must also have an ethernet connection so I can stream music, and use a phone to control whichever service I was using ie Tidal, Spotify ect.

Changing the subject I did try the Hiby music app, needed a downloader to get it, but again it could not find my library, I inserted the file number, but it came up invalid, then there was nowhere else to go, no re-input or anything so just had to close it down and delete.
May give it another go sometime, does anyone know if the Windows downloader app will do the job, I got one off the internet

Re: Tinker, Tailor, Streamer, Pi.

Posted: Sat Jul 24, 2021 1:42 pm
by savvypaul
I can get an update for.my server software that will enable Orange Squeeze to pull my music on hard disk and my Qobuz favourites list into one searchable folder, so I'm going to do that. At the same time, I will also fit an SSD, and a little more RAM. All fairly low cost

I have an MCRU supply for my Microrendu, which I thought better than the iFi switching supply that I was using. I will see if I can get a lend of an sbooster.

The optical rendu is getting a lot of praise. Some saying that it surpasses other end points at £2k plus. There also seems to be an option to add optical modules to my existing rendu. I'll do a bit more digging on that

I was considering Room as a gateway to HQplayer, but SQ reports on the latter are mixed, which suggest that, for the moment, it may be a matter of different rather than better.

Hopefully, can now get out and about to hear the various options, rather than just reading t'internet.