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In Reply to: RE: cPlay - the open source high-end audio player using ASIO posted by cics on May 05, 2008 at 12:31:58
I wanted to say a final thanks to the innovators on this site. I have taken a different direction, inspired by the extreme slimming of xp and the hardware by the leaders here.
Early on I chose not to use the Julie@ card and the reference MBs. I used a USB dac. As a result it was not possible to use JackWong's amazing iso. Following on the progression to use a minimalist MB and OS, I have gone the route of replacing xp with linux, and the CICS hdw with an industrial embedded processor called ALIX. I first used VoyageMPD, but now have gone to a very simple to use minimalist OS called mpdpup. Music is on a NAS, the Alix processor ($90) does not even need a heat sink as it has no video, sound, hdd or anything but cpu eth0 and usb. ASIO is replaced by alsa. The entire OS with player is 60mb and runs in memory. It boot from a CF card. The gui for the player is on yet another machine at your chair. Can be anything from a pc to your iphone. The sound is the best I have experienced. It may or may not duplicate what Jack Wong has created on XP, but its likely right up there at a fraction of the effort and price.
I post this here not out of disrespect, but quite the opposite. I think this forum has pushed the limit of great sound at great price. But it is not for everyone. I hit a wall, and others may as well. I mention this as I think there is another avenue for those that are, like me, locked into USB dacs to continue the theme that CICS has created and this group has perfected.
I am keeping a couple of CICS machines to plug in from time to time.
Thanks again to Serge, Rick, Jack and all the innovators that helped me get such amazing sound.
Follow Ups:
hi, your Alix device sounds interesting, do you have more details about how to put it together or a link to somewhere for more info ?
cheers
Thanks for sharing.
I suppose that the only disadvantage of the device you suggest is computational power which restricts playback to bit-perfect...also, perhaps, interface.
A similar route would be to have a network audio adapter between the computer of your choice and an Alsa recognized DAC. The NAA device would be similar to the one you suggest acting as a fifo buffer, is attached through ethernet to the PC, comunicates asynchronously and is galvanically isolated. It would run a no-gui version of Ubuntu Server with LAN-in and USB-out.
The computer can be Win or OSx based with player and, eventually, DSP of your choice.
Bibo01
You are correct. It is limited in power and best suited to NOS playback (which is my preference). Doing bit perfect playback of any source material, the cpu idles at 1%. Resampling 44.1 to 96 using Fastest Sync is possible at 90% cpu. > Best Sync (Secret Rabbit code) is not possible.
NOS (or bit-perfect to the source) playback is fine. With the most common sigma delta converters, oversamplig is then done at chip level.
I also like NOS DACs. However, they have some limitation in the highs at redbook resolution.
With the Network Audio Adapter method I described earlier all computation is done by the PC source. Undoubtedly, there are some advantages to separate it from audio adapter. PC source does not need to be a dedicated machine anymore with undervolt/underclock. It can also be in a different room and easily remoted.
If it's required - especially with NOS DACs-, the PC source can use oversampling and employs extra DSP (like DRC or XO).
Ultimately, it depends on user's requirements and audio chain structure.
Actually a very interesting idea. I believe there is merit in splitting up the processing chain to isolate the functions. For example, to gain experience I put everything on one dual core machine running Ubuntu. (GMPC/MPD and the HDD with music). Sound not nearly as good. Even after killing superfluous processes, prioritizing threads and allocating mpd on one cpu the sound was very detailed but not this natural breathing reality that you get when you strip it down to just mpd on a bare bones processor.
Your solution would be a very good alternative for those looking for the real time DSP. Personnally I am doing the dbpoweramp approach to reformat before it hits the playback chain. Took some 192 high quality material and reformated to 96 to accomodate my elderly 1541a DAC. Wonderful.
especially for the folks using USB.
Wish I could give it a try. My curiosity is killing me but I am kind of committed to what I have at this point.
I think this is part of the same project and I am glad to read of your experiment.
Congratulations on your success!
Sounds very interesting. Would like to learn more.
Why not start a separate thread?
There are a couple of threads on this.
The mpdpup thread is currently experimenting with linux/mpd/alsa settings for sound quality.
http://208.109.22.214/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=70052&start=165&sid=5db937f03461866b66f653f12b8c1691
I started a thread in AA to discuss tuning on Alix for sound quality.
http://www.audioasylum.com/forums/pcaudio/messages/10/109926.html
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