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SB Touch: Two new mods on the blog

80.133.154.24

Hi SB-Touch folks.
I added two new modification scripts to my SB modification blog.
1. buffer (Chapter 1.4.)
This mod will reduce the buffer size chosen by Logitech by factor 5.
You'll be able to toggle buffer sizes to do some ABX testing easily.

2. screen (Chapter 1.5.)
This mod will let you turning off the LCD part and the backlight of the
screen. That's a bit more effective then the Touch screensaver.
After a reboot you'll be back to normal.

Please let me know what you think. Constructive feedback and improvement proposals are always welcome.

Enjoy.
P.S.
My current favorite test track:
Jan Garbarek / Marilyn Mazur - Elixir - Track 2: Pathway
This one comes with a pretty good recording quality and a great
overtone spectrum.

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soundcheck's audio@vise - Squeezebox Touch Modifications

Edits: 10/20/10

Follow Ups:

Sounds great! - fedward 23:06:43 10/25/10 (1)
Thank you Klaus, these "tweaks" made a significant improvement to the "transparency" of the sound. My cMP/cPlay computer never sounded this good. To be fair to "cics" I think what he has accomplished (on the Windows XP platform) is tremendous and he has been incredibly gracious with his time and efforts and conversation, but at this price point (of the Touch) it is tough to beat. It's not cics fault. He has taken conventional PC parts and the Windows XP platform as far as it can go. But all the carefully chosen hardware and multiple linear PSUs (of which road I never went down) and the extreme underclocking and BIOS settings and software configurations - it was making my head spin.

At a fraction of the cost, I bought a Touch, a good linear PSU, applied your software tweaks, and at a fraction of the time and effort and setup headaches, it sounds better (than the cMP box).

Sure, there are some people here that have a cMP box more tweaked out than I had (with batteries and modified Juli@'s), as well as the Mac camp with Pure Music, that may have a better sounding transport than the Touch - but I just don't have the money nor time and energy to obsess about that.

At this price point, I am extremely satisfied with the Touch and am very grateful to you Klaus for helping me squeeze more quality out of this with such simple effort.

Prost!

Also, just to add, I was only able to set the buffer to 4000. At 3000 my 24/88 and 24/96 files would stutter every few seconds. Is this what you experienced? I did not try 3000 in combination with the "screen" tweak yet, do you think shutting off the screen will allow me to go down to 3000?
- RE: Sounds great! - soundchekk 01:13:12 10/26/10 (0)
  I mentioned that before. Cics basic stuff was never as good as my own Linux solution - which was existing before Cics even started his journey - I mentioned that quite a while ago.
  
  He was and IMO still is limited by the wrong OS.
  
  As soon as I realized that the Touch has higher "audiophile" potential compared to my Linux/FitPc approach, I jumped on that train.
  
  Why should I spent all my energy on a less promising project!?!?
  
  I honestly never expected that it gets that good soundwise. Not to forget the huge comfort gain on handling your collection, internet services and control of all that.
  
  Buffer dimensioning:
  
  You're right.You're not the first one coming back on this one.
  With 3000us you'll get to the limits. It requires two more tweaks (I havn't launched them yet) to get 3000us stable.
  
  Cheers
  
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  soundcheck's audio@vise - Squeezebox Touch Modifications
RE: SB Touch: Two new mods on the blog - John Swenson 09:51:19 10/21/10 (1)
I haven't had time to test out the screen off part, it looks like its setting a GPIO bit, do you know what this line is connected to?

I've been trying to work with the driver to actually shut down the hardware but every time I try it it knocks out something else which is needed for proper playing of music.

Hopefully this weekend I can take the Touch apart and try this and see what its actually doing.

John S.
- RE: SB Touch: Two new mods on the blog - soundchekk 02:20:56 10/22/10 (0)
  Hi John.
  
  I switch off LCD and backlight as part of GPIO. (as far as the driver allows it)
  
  The GPIO handles some more audio relevant IO threads. You just can't pull the plug of the entire GPIO. Jive would probably die what would made the watchdog kicking in with a reboot.
  
  I didn't manage yet to get the Touch touch-surface turned off. I couldn't find a switch for that one.
  
  In any case try also the buffer "3000" tweak. You'll probably like it.
  
  BTW: Perhaps you could check with the SB folks if they can make the
  snd-usb-audio an external module as done with the wlan module.
  This way "maintenance" becomes much easier.
  Do you know at what revision/date your patch will make it into the
  kernel?
  
  Cheers
  
  --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  soundcheck's audio@vise - Squeezebox Touch Modifications
RE: SB Touch: Two new mods on the blog - soundchekk 07:02:35 10/21/10 (0)
Thx for the flowers. ;)

Soon I'll launch a complete toolbox to make things easier
and consistent.

I might add something around USB-audio to the "toolbox". I thought
about it already. You just have to route the traffic to the USB-device.

John S. prepared an asound.conf, which routes the USB
output correctly. He also handed in a pretty recent Alsa USB
driver. There's hope for your devices. Let see if the Logitech guys
take care on that one sooner or later.

However - A great number of USB devices won't work and probably won't ever work. All those devs with mixers on board, those with firmware-load
and special drivers/quirks and 16bit devices with e.g 27xx family receivers (at least I didn't get mine to work, John says it should work.
No idea. A 24bit stream on a 16bit device!?!?)

All those limitations are the reasons why Logitech won't ever support USB devices. They'd open a can of worms, they'd never be able to manage.

You'll be in the lucky position that your products will work.
You'll for sure have a real great and inexpensive transport at hand. ;)

When it comes to USB tweak potential: Even if I wanted to, I wouldn't be able to apply some of my Linux USB tweaks to it. The kernel is not accessible from my side.

However: SPDIF/Toslink is that good, that I'm wondering if an USB
"interface" would do any better. I should rephrase that one. Let say I'm more then happy with the current situation. I consider the price/performance ratio outstanding.

Cheers

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soundcheck's audio@vise - Squeezebox Touch Modifications
Great stuff, what about the ALSA USB stuff - Gordon Rankin 05:21:46 10/21/10 (3)
sc,

Great stuff and well presented. I figure that using a async USB dac with the SB Touch maybe more than it is powerful for... but how about those instructions?

Thanks
Gordon
J. Gordon Rankin
- RE: Great stuff, what about the ALSA USB stuff - soundchekk 01:23:36 10/26/10 (1)
  Gordon.
  
  I finished a new output script.
  
  With the next blog update (end of this week) there'll be a tool to switch
  
  analog/digital/usb very easily.
  
  Cheers
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  soundcheck's audio@vise - Squeezebox Touch Modifications
  - RE: Great stuff, what about the ALSA USB stuff - sonics 03:16:13 10/26/10 (0)
    I can compare a full equipped CMP/Cics PC ( multiple buffered Psu's and a lipofer feeded Juli@, etc. ) and even the unmodified Touch sounds better a lot.
    Now , with soundchecks tweaks and a big linear Psu, into a buffalo 32, there is no chance for the PC,
- RE: Great stuff, what about the ALSA USB stuff - soundchekk 07:57:03 10/21/10 (0)
  This response was meant for you.
  
  Cheers
  
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  soundcheck's audio@vise - Squeezebox Touch Modifications

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