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Post by MartinT on Sept 9, 2014 19:07:01 GMT
Looks good Martin. What does this extra board cost? Oops, forgot to say. €34.90 for the transformer coupled version, an incredibly reasonable €22.90 for the standard version. If you intend using optical, you don't need the more expensive one.
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Post by MartinT on Sept 16, 2014 13:42:18 GMT
How it Sounds
Here's what I'm running: Raspberry Pi Model B+, medium overclocked to 900MHz HiFiBerry Digi+ board Power Bank 5V 8800mAH phone battery Blue Jeans 1.5m co-ax cable Beresford Caiman-II DAC Volumio v1.41 with latest Wheezy updates Microsoft Surface 2 tablet (as controller for the Volumio interface and Metro Putty)
Playing some ripped red-book CDs into WAV format (bit perfect), the RPi really impresses with subtle detail and great soundstage. It loses only the nth degree of realism to the Ayre (not a fair comparison) and sounds to my ears better than the Logitech Touch with all the mods. This is an outstanding result considering the low cost and much greater flexibility. CPU usage with WAVs is a very low 2.2% (no decoding necessary).
Internet Radio with high bitrates, like the Radio Paradise Naim feed, sounds very good and is a great way to be introduced to new music. CPU usage is around 8%.
Hi-Res files take a step up in quality, sounding remarkably close to playing the DVD-As in the Ayre. Yes - Fragile, for instance, is outstanding with the complex music more separate and discernible no matter how busy it gets. CPU usage is around 5.2%.
mp3 files sound remarkably decent, considering the flak they receive. It depends on the encoding quality, of course, and I use 64-bit LAME with EAC encoding at 320bps. This brings them very close to CD quality, certainly good enough for my applications which are for the car and portable use. CPU usage is around 5.9%.
All in all, the RPi is making very pleasing sounds and I am enjoying playing file-based and internet streamed music on it.
My next task is to see how to get Spotify hi-bitrate stream running on it.
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Post by ChrisB on Sept 16, 2014 13:52:59 GMT
It's great that you have managed to surpass the Touch with it, Martin. The cracking of the Spotify nut will, I suspect, be the thing that will persuade a few more folks to have a go. I shall be taking the plunge in due course and then we'll see whether it's numptie-proof!
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Post by MartinT on Sept 16, 2014 14:07:38 GMT
Hah - Battlestations! Shields!
I'm trying to get a decent case to house it and support it properly, and will then take a couple more photos of it in action.
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Post by Pinch on Sept 16, 2014 14:18:22 GMT
Great stuff, Martin! I suspect the Digi+ is now an inevitability... Incidentally, the Camac case - that I picked up just because it offers good ventilation - accommodates the Pi with DAC+ quite happily, so should do the same for the Pi with Digi+.
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Post by MartinT on Sept 16, 2014 14:26:24 GMT
I was thinking of that case, Tom. We have something similar for the original B that we have at work. HiFiBerry have a new case coming out to accommodate the DAC+/Digi+ so I'm waiting to see what it looks like.
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Post by MikeMusic on Sept 16, 2014 14:28:26 GMT
You keep humming the tune and I'll join in sometime later - when it is utterly simple for the hard of thinking
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Post by John on Sept 16, 2014 14:47:52 GMT
Its great it now beating the Touch that is pretty good going
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seanm
Rank: Trio
Posts: 162
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Post by seanm on Sept 20, 2014 14:09:20 GMT
OK, I'm playing catch up with Martin, and have a little progress to report.... A new B+ arrived on Monday and last evening I set up Volumio on it. Initially had problems, it booted but the ethernet interface was not working. This made "headless" (no kb/mouse or monitor) operation tricky... it seems that I'd downloaded an outdated install image from volumio.org/get-started/I found v1.41 here sourceforge.net/projects/volumio/files/Raspberry%20PI/1.4/Volumio1.41PI.zip/downloadWhich solved the problem In the process of writing this, I now understand the problem... Between the B and B+ models some hardware has changed including the ethernet controller. Probably a case of more haste and less speed on my part... Martin and/or volumio probably explained this. doh! Anyway, the B+ now boots..... I was able to access and configure it via the web interface. Within minutes I'd pointed it at the music collection of the NAS. At this stage there are no DACs, Amps or speakers nearby, however, playback via the onboard HW and headphone socket worked and confirmed the basic end to end concept. Music is all flac, playback at CD rates was fine, 24@88.2kHz stuttered while it was building the library, but was fine afterwards. 24@192 stutters full stop. I assume the CPU is running out of steam since it is currently running at standard clock speed. This is all a little academic, since it will not be used like this The DAC+ and Digi+ boards from HifiBerry were ordered last weekend, and shipped about Thursday. Progress will have to wait until these arrive. However, there are some further experiments to be done... wireless vs wired networking and as a side project, experimenting with HD video playback (if possible?). I also want to measure the current it draws from the power supply since I hope to make it battery powered and want to estimate run time. Sean
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Post by chukka on Sept 20, 2014 16:46:06 GMT
Great stuff, chukka, keep us informed. A photo or two of your setup would be great. sure, sorry for the wait.. hmmm ... having trouble uploading images... is that possible on this forum ? sorry if this is a bit big
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Post by John on Sept 20, 2014 16:54:45 GMT
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Post by MartinT on Sept 26, 2014 10:51:09 GMT
Bash Vulnerability Warning Involving Raspberry Pis
There is a high level vulnerability in Linux Bash (its command line interpreter) which could lead to your RPi being taken over if it's connected to the internet (as most of them are). You can check if yours is vulnerable by running this command line test using Putty or similar:
env x='() { :;}; echo vulnerable' bash -c "echo this is a test"
If it returns "vulnerable" then your RPi is vulnerable. Upgrade Bash with the following commands:
sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install bash
Then run the command line test again, which should return "bash: warning: x: ignoring function definition attempt, bash: error importing function definition for `x'". You're now safe!
Thanks to the chaps at CIX for their valuable warning.
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Post by Pinch on Sept 26, 2014 21:49:38 GMT
Done! Thanks for passing it on
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Post by MartinT on Oct 23, 2014 17:36:14 GMT
It's been a while since I've reported back, but I thought I'd add that I've been experimenting with the RPi/Digi+ connection to my Caiman-II DAC and discovered that it sounds even better when connected via optical. Stan has been saying that he worked hard on getting the bandwidth in the optical receiver way higher than standard TOSlink specs and I think he has managed just that. Coupled with the better sound from optical, I've changed from default settings to upsampling at 24/96 in Volumio using Best Sinc Interpolator mode (although I'm not sure about this as Volumio keeps going back to Fastest Sinc Interpolator).
Playing FLAC rips from CD, upsampling still keeps the RPi CPU running at a reasonable 36%. More importantly, the sound is less congested and fine detail is now coming through very well indeed. This little beast keeps getting better.
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Post by John on Oct 23, 2014 18:40:29 GMT
Glad the experiment worked
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Post by Sovereign on Oct 23, 2014 21:04:37 GMT
Thanks for your thorough thread here Martin. This is a outs I will go down when I get a chance. My only source is a DAC that I made which is connected to my MacBook Pro. and I hear there are some improvements to be had, along with added convenience.
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Post by MartinT on Oct 23, 2014 21:10:36 GMT
It's great fun and you learn quite a bit of Linux as you dig deeper, too!
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Post by MartinT on Oct 24, 2014 12:39:23 GMT
At last - there is now a case from HiFiBerry for the B+ with either DAC+ or Digi+. I have ordered one.
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Post by MartinT on Oct 24, 2014 16:33:34 GMT
I've changed from default settings to upsampling at 24/96 in Volumio using Best Sinc Interpolator mode (although I'm not sure about this as Volumio keeps going back to Fastest Sinc Interpolator). Ok, I've got to the bottom of this: it could be that Volumio will only allow the "Fastest Sinc Interpolator" setting for the RPi as any better than this (even Medium) gives unacceptable stuttering with a CPU load of 95%. I forced it by editing the samplerate_converter "Fastest Sinc Interpolator" line in the mpd.conf file:
sudo nano /etc/mpd.conf ...but I hastily put it back to the original setting again!
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Post by chukka on Nov 1, 2014 18:22:38 GMT
volumio 1.5 now supports Spotify ;-)
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