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Post by MartinT on Nov 8, 2017 13:10:06 GMT
Digital is progressing but nowhere near as good as vinyl yet or R2R for that matter. . . Spotify, Tidal etc are not for serious listening IMO and as for all this hi res nonsense, give me CD rips to WAV any day. I have some epic LPs that do sound extraordinarily good, such as my Sheffield Lab Thelma Houston and James Newton Howard direct cuts and a few others. However, on the whole my good CDs are every bit as good played on the Ayre. SACDs are better still, but remain variable in quality. I would say there is nothing to choose between them at their best. For classical it's a different story. CDs easily outperform LPs due to the quiet noise floor and wide dynamic range. I would have agreed with you about Spotify until very recently. However, I have found myself playing Spotify exclusively in recent listening sessions due to material I don't have in my collection and I have thoroughly enjoyed the experience. The DigiOne is going to take it up a further notch in SQ. |
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Post by Deleted on Nov 9, 2017 16:00:50 GMT
FLAC is lossless compression so should be the same as WAV only smaller. Yes, I know about the CPU overhead but I also now know that clocking and low jitter are by far the most important things. I use the Lossless uncompressed setting on dB when ripping. WAV are an utter waste of HDD Space to me. |
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Post by Tim on Nov 9, 2017 20:14:22 GMT
I am skipping past file-based, it never really struck a chord with me. All that pointless ripping! Spotify (or another streaming service) is my new beginning. Don't discount this entirely Martin, as much as I love Spotify a lot of music ripped to FLAC trounces all over their equivalent Spotify albums, startlingly so in some cases when you do a Pepsi challenge. I'm assuming Volumio plays FLAC, so rip a few of your favourite CDs, fire them through the Pi from a USB pendrive and it might make you think "hmmm maybe?" It is a thankless task, I have backups galore as I'm never doing it again, but the rewards now make it worth it and not so pointless. Might make life easier when you can't be arsed to go looking for a CD/many CDs during a long listening session, or when your Ayre finally gives up the ghost or repairs become cost prohibitive. And Brooky, I disagree with you regarding turntables, but that's my opinion (and ears) just as it's yours. But a top flight turntable and all the ancillary gear is like a second mortgage to some, get file based audio right and for most people the sound is comparable if not better than vinyl and for a fraction of the cost. That's before you take convenience into consideration. Again, if you totally prefer vinyl that's fine, as it's a user experience some cannot do without, but to allude it's a level playing field is misguided as money is a factor for the majority and they're not even in the same ball park financially. Nostalgia has a very high price tag - sonically, well we'll never agree there I'm afraid. I notice you didn't include file based audio in your 'come to my shop' challenge?  |
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Post by MartinT on Nov 9, 2017 22:29:18 GMT
Yes Tim, I'm still playing with the possibilities. The thing is that the Ayre still plays supreme so there's really no point in my ripping my own CDs. Spotify then makes up for the albums I don't have. I'm very happy to have both and still put an LP on occasionally. So I'm back to being platform agnostic (but now have three platforms).
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Post by MartinT on Nov 9, 2017 22:38:33 GMT
I had all the pieces I needed tonight to get the Allo DigiOne going except for the Pi 3, so I built it with the Pi 2. I heard everything I'd heard when John brought his one over, so I don't think the Pi 2 versus Pi 3 makes much, if any, difference. The Allo case is nice in smoked finish and I used some sorbothane feet to finish it off, plus some damping on top.
Once again the DigiOne leaves the Digi+ Pro behind by taking a step up in realism and spacial cues. I was surprised to hear studio acoustics and multi-tape effects so clearly from Spotify. I've been reading about digital noise floors losing vital detail - well, right now I'm still discovering new aspects that I've only previously heard on well recorded CDs.
As I've already said, I have three platforms so I'm a happy bunny. The best thing is that I'm listening to more new music.
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Post by Tim on Nov 10, 2017 0:11:13 GMT
The best thing is that I'm listening to more new music. Yup, that's what you use Spotify for (well, one of the many reasons anyway). And with the other equipment, all your bases are covered |
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Post by John on Nov 10, 2017 5:17:23 GMT
Using a pendrive to play files on the digione via USB causes quite a bit of noise. I had to use the IFI silencer to get decent sounds via the pendrive
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Post by MartinT on Nov 10, 2017 6:44:17 GMT
I'll try it, John, but I have avoided USB drives on the Pi because they don't sound as good as network shares.
If you have a USB socket in your router (my BT Hub does), then you can put a big USB drive there as a network share for music.
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Post by Clive on Nov 10, 2017 7:38:38 GMT
I realise USB is supposed to be a no-no on the Pi but I get good results with a WD 1GB USB drive plugged into the Pi, it's powered by the Pi. Certainly no noise.
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Post by John on Nov 10, 2017 8:25:54 GMT
If you have a USB socket in your router (my BT Hub does), then you can put a big USB drive there as a network share for music. That's a good idea |
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Post by MartinT on Nov 10, 2017 13:25:36 GMT
My Pi 3 will arrive today so I shall rebuild the DigiOne using the new Pi and will also use a superfast class 10 UHS-1 SD card. At the moment, my 10,000mAH phone battery is working nicely. However, I'd like to go lead-acid the same as the Caiman SEG so have ordered a 12V-5V DC-DC converter and another 12V Yucel battery. Clearly, the Chinese can't spell "Dual"...  |
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Post by John on Nov 10, 2017 15:29:18 GMT
let us know the result Martin
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Post by Deleted on Nov 10, 2017 17:41:53 GMT
O dear all this is going right over my head..  |
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Post by MartinT on Nov 10, 2017 17:51:30 GMT
Cleaner, quieter power for the Pi  |
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Post by Tim on Nov 10, 2017 18:35:42 GMT
Using a pendrive to play files on the digione via USB causes quite a bit of noise. That's interesting John, I wouldn't have thought that. Is that just with the DigiOne or have you experienced that with other builds? |
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Post by John on Nov 10, 2017 20:14:02 GMT
It's my first build
I only stream from the pi now and does this really well. I probably like Martin listen to pi via Spotify the most
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Post by Tim on Nov 10, 2017 20:34:54 GMT
Hmmm, intriguing I've never experienced noise from a USB flashdrive before on any of my builds John, but then I've not used a Pi - I wonder why and if it's a common issue? I did consider buying a Pi, but to be honest I'm more than happy with what I have so there's no need for any further expense. I spent about two years titivating various Windows machines (I think I've built about 6 in all and tried 3 laptops), so don't fancy starting to learn a whole new game. Great to see it catching on though, whichever way folk go. If I was starting from scratch now I'd probably go the Pi route, but I'm done here apart from changing a hard drive (running out of room on my 2TB) or case. Just happy to be enjoying the music again |
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Post by MartinT on Nov 10, 2017 21:38:39 GMT
That's fine, Tim. For starting out, the Pi is great and very flexible. However, there are many other solutions out there.
By the way, we had no trouble playing from a USB drive last Saturday.
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Post by Tim on Nov 10, 2017 22:15:56 GMT
However, there are many other solutions out there. Hell yeah, 6 years ago when I started very little out there, now there's a sea of options, which must be a minefield for a new user. Pi for the win for a newbie really IMO, not much initial layout and lot's of forum help to boot with great sound. My journey was pretty much all self discovery, but I kind of like that. I did have many 'tearing the hair out' moments though! |
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Post by MartinT on Nov 19, 2017 16:57:41 GMT
Lesson for today: do NOT let a lead-acid battery run flat. I accidentally left the DAC running for a few days and the battery was so dead it wouldn't charge. Seem to have persuaded it to now.
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