Did as Klaus suggested and all working well. Many thanks. VISUDO is a very strange editor tho!
I also tried copying a flac file to /dev/shm and compared with same from disc. To be honest I couldn't tell the difference but was surprised when playing off the disc version that the disc activity LED didn't flash for the whole 4 mins of the song. Normally its flicking every 2 seconds. I have a feeling it somehow knows there is a copy in shared storage even tho you are playing the disk one.
I also tried copying a flac file to /dev/shm and compared with same from disc. To be honest I couldn't tell the difference but was surprised when playing off the disc version that the disc activity LED didn't flash for the whole 4 mins of the song. Normally its flicking every 2 seconds. I have a feeling it somehow knows there is a copy in shared storage even tho you are playing the disk one.
How much RAM do you have?
Your flac was most probably already cached in a memory buffer. E.g. copying a file to /dev/null is a standard way of making sure the file gets cached. However, you cannot control when the file blocks get removed from the memory cache, unlike storing the file in a regular RAM disk.
Regarding the caching players - e.g. mplayer can cache arbitrary amount of data (-cache parameter), even a whole file if needed. I find it useful for caching data from DVD when the system is overloaded, or from an audio CD-DA when running at very low speed.
I seriously doubt you gain anything by storing the file in a RAM disk on a reasonably loaded machine, but it certainly cannot hurt
Just o note on VISUDO (it is always good to know what's going on) - it is just a wrapper opening the /etc/sudoers file in a default editor plus doing some sanity checks and locks. You can make it use a different editor by setting the EDITOR environment variable, e.g. the easy-to-use mcedit (provided you have installed midnight commander: apt-get install mc)
EDITOR=mcedit visudo
Your flac was most probably already cached in a memory buffer. E.g. copying a file to /dev/null is a standard way of making sure the file gets cached. However, you cannot control when the file blocks get removed from the memory cache, unlike storing the file in a regular RAM disk.
Regarding the caching players - e.g. mplayer can cache arbitrary amount of data (-cache parameter), even a whole file if needed. I find it useful for caching data from DVD when the system is overloaded, or from an audio CD-DA when running at very low speed.
I seriously doubt you gain anything by storing the file in a RAM disk on a reasonably loaded machine, but it certainly cannot hurt
Just o note on VISUDO (it is always good to know what's going on) - it is just a wrapper opening the /etc/sudoers file in a default editor plus doing some sanity checks and locks. You can make it use a different editor by setting the EDITOR environment variable, e.g. the easy-to-use mcedit (provided you have installed midnight commander: apt-get install mc)
EDITOR=mcedit visudo
Hi folks.
I am tempted to build a linux based streaming solution.
Or should I better buy a Squeezebox Duet, with its limit to
16/44.1? (mpd is also 16bit only - right?)
I mean most of the streaming boxes are Linux based anyhow.
I like the Squeezebox Duet featurewise pretty much. I am wondering if it possible to build a similar Linux based setup.
I also like the Duet remote control. From what I can see on the photos, this is IMO the missing link for accepting a streaming solution.
What's your opinion about it?
Cheers
I am tempted to build a linux based streaming solution.
Or should I better buy a Squeezebox Duet, with its limit to
16/44.1? (mpd is also 16bit only - right?)
I mean most of the streaming boxes are Linux based anyhow.
I like the Squeezebox Duet featurewise pretty much. I am wondering if it possible to build a similar Linux based setup.
I also like the Duet remote control. From what I can see on the photos, this is IMO the missing link for accepting a streaming solution.
What's your opinion about it?
Cheers
You can use a WiFi PDA such as the latest models from ASUS as your remote control. It will be much more user-friendly since a large touchscreen is ideal to navigate your music library.
For the user interface, since the PDA comes with a web browser you can install one of the many open source packages to control your music player via HTTP web pages. On a local network it's very fast.
I suggest the A696 which I own, nery neat, the WiFi works well, and it also has GPS so you can stick it on your windshield too.
I find it ironic that a full linux media PC is cheaper than a squeezebox and it also supports video and 24/192 !
For the user interface, since the PDA comes with a web browser you can install one of the many open source packages to control your music player via HTTP web pages. On a local network it's very fast.
I suggest the A696 which I own, nery neat, the WiFi works well, and it also has GPS so you can stick it on your windshield too.
I find it ironic that a full linux media PC is cheaper than a squeezebox and it also supports video and 24/192 !
I get this in response to the ps command:
5616 19 0 - /bin/bash /usr/bin/audacious
5617 130 - 90 /usr/bin/audacious.bin
That looks as if it has the right rtprio
Thanks for the tip on the visodo editor, mcedit is certainly easier.
I think you are right about the flac being cached after the copy. I will have to devise another way to compare, maybe another copy on disc that has been renamed.
5616 19 0 - /bin/bash /usr/bin/audacious
5617 130 - 90 /usr/bin/audacious.bin
That looks as if it has the right rtprio
Thanks for the tip on the visodo editor, mcedit is certainly easier.
I think you are right about the flac being cached after the copy. I will have to devise another way to compare, maybe another copy on disc that has been renamed.
No, haven't got round to a wav vs. flac comparison yet.
USB feeds into a PCM2706, I2S into a TDA1543 and SS buffer. The pre is an autoformer and power amp 41HZ Amp11 T-amp (much modified), speakers Fostex FE208sigma/T90 tweeter in BIB cabs. All very DIY and sounding sweet to my ears!!
I assume you meant my hardware rather than software setup!
USB feeds into a PCM2706, I2S into a TDA1543 and SS buffer. The pre is an autoformer and power amp 41HZ Amp11 T-amp (much modified), speakers Fostex FE208sigma/T90 tweeter in BIB cabs. All very DIY and sounding sweet to my ears!!
I assume you meant my hardware rather than software setup!
DDDAC Xubuntu troubleshooting
Hey Soundcheck,
Doede told me to get in touch with you. I'd do it by email/PM, but I don't have enough posts here yet for this site to let me do that.
I've converted over to Xubuntu from Windows for my music listening on an old PC with only 256MB RAM. This has worked great until I completed my DDDAC. The DDDAC works well on Windows, but when I try it with Xubuntu it doesn't seem to identify the PCM2707 chip. I have another USB DAC that uses a PCM 2702 and Xubuntu identifies and has drivers no problem.
Xubuntu seems to try to load a "default" USB driver with the DDDAC, but no music with this.
Many thanks for any help you or others here can provide.
~Ben
Hey Soundcheck,
Doede told me to get in touch with you. I'd do it by email/PM, but I don't have enough posts here yet for this site to let me do that.
I've converted over to Xubuntu from Windows for my music listening on an old PC with only 256MB RAM. This has worked great until I completed my DDDAC. The DDDAC works well on Windows, but when I try it with Xubuntu it doesn't seem to identify the PCM2707 chip. I have another USB DAC that uses a PCM 2702 and Xubuntu identifies and has drivers no problem.
Xubuntu seems to try to load a "default" USB driver with the DDDAC, but no music with this.
Many thanks for any help you or others here can provide.
~Ben
ChrisMmm said:The weakest link in my audio set-up is my ears
Hello Chris,
If you want to test your ears then you should go to live acoustic performances preferably of very small groups and listen carefully to highly qualified musicians that use top class instruments. (Do you know how expensive these can be?) Try to sit at the same distance as you do at home with your speakers. Than ask your self if you can distinguish the live instruments from the reproduced music.
My ears are more than half a century old and have lost considerable in sensitivity and high frequency response. Nevertheless this test easily tells me that our reproduction systems still have a long way to go. (I use Brutus/Twindac/T-amp/Bastanis). The point is that the human ear is much, much better than most people realize.
Kind regards,
Eddie
BTW I am curious about your Fostex FE208sigma/T90 tweeter in BIB cabs. I used this Fostex for a long time in many different cabinets.
Usually the usb-driver works without any problems.
I never had a problem with it.
Do some checks:
Open a terminal first.
type
$ lsusb
It should bring up your TI 2707 id on one of the listed ports.
> Your DAC is recognised!
$ lsmod | snd
This should list snd-usb-audio driver .
> Now you know that your driver is loaded
$ cat /proc/asound/cards
> this lists the recognised soundcards, usually 2. One with index 0
one with index 1. One of these will be your usb-card.
Make sure that you have selected the respective card within your application.
If all these tests are positive you might need to check alsamixer.
Hope this helps.
Cheers
I never had a problem with it.
Do some checks:
Open a terminal first.
type
$ lsusb
It should bring up your TI 2707 id on one of the listed ports.
> Your DAC is recognised!
$ lsmod | snd
This should list snd-usb-audio driver .
> Now you know that your driver is loaded
$ cat /proc/asound/cards
> this lists the recognised soundcards, usually 2. One with index 0
one with index 1. One of these will be your usb-card.
Make sure that you have selected the respective card within your application.
If all these tests are positive you might need to check alsamixer.
Hope this helps.
Cheers
lsmod | snd
>didn't show snd-usb-audio or anything else. guess this means the driver isn't loading. can you give me or point me toward a step-by-step troubleshooting and/or manual fix?
>when i just booted to follow your instructions, i got an error message on startup saying "xine could not load an audio driver". this was the first time it said that.
cheers,
Ben
>didn't show snd-usb-audio or anything else. guess this means the driver isn't loading. can you give me or point me toward a step-by-step troubleshooting and/or manual fix?
>when i just booted to follow your instructions, i got an error message on startup saying "xine could not load an audio driver". this was the first time it said that.
cheers,
Ben
Well, it should be
lsmod | grep snd
I understand some procedures in linux are very different from windows, nevertheless I would suggest we should strive to understand what the commands are doing, instead of just copying.
E.g. most commands have manual pages documentation, invoked via "man command".
man lsmod
lsmod — program to show the status of modules in the Linux Kernel
man grep
grep, egrep, fgrep, rgrep - print lines matching a pattern
We are looking for sound drivers (modules) which contain snd in their name. The output of modules list is filtered by grep, searching for the snd string.
lsmod | grep snd
I understand some procedures in linux are very different from windows, nevertheless I would suggest we should strive to understand what the commands are doing, instead of just copying.
E.g. most commands have manual pages documentation, invoked via "man command".
man lsmod
lsmod — program to show the status of modules in the Linux Kernel
man grep
grep, egrep, fgrep, rgrep - print lines matching a pattern
We are looking for sound drivers (modules) which contain snd in their name. The output of modules list is filtered by grep, searching for the snd string.
Thanks, Phofman!
grep worked well, and the snd-usb-audio driver had, in fact loaded.
With the rest of Soundcheck's comments, I suspected it was an alsamixer problem. Found a useful alsa troubleshooting guide, but the problem turned out to be the driver selection.
I used the "asoundconf list" and "asoundconf set-default-audio" command to set the default audio driver to the default snd-usb-audio driver. The DDDAC now works.
I'm still a little confused on two fronts, though.
1) I had tried these commands several times previously to no avail. Not sure why it would work now rather than the other times. The only difference I can think of is that I was in a different directory in the terminal this time, /snd I think. Would directory matter when it comes to those commands?
2) The gain/volume is less than it should be, I think. I can still get enough volume for most of my needs, but I'd like to get to the bottom of it. I went into alsamixer and the volume settings were -26dB or so. I changed them to 0dB - full volume - and exited, but the playback volume didn't change in response. Am I missing something here? I'm using the latest Amarok, if that matters.
Thanks again for your help, guys!
Ben
grep worked well, and the snd-usb-audio driver had, in fact loaded.
With the rest of Soundcheck's comments, I suspected it was an alsamixer problem. Found a useful alsa troubleshooting guide, but the problem turned out to be the driver selection.
I used the "asoundconf list" and "asoundconf set-default-audio" command to set the default audio driver to the default snd-usb-audio driver. The DDDAC now works.
I'm still a little confused on two fronts, though.
1) I had tried these commands several times previously to no avail. Not sure why it would work now rather than the other times. The only difference I can think of is that I was in a different directory in the terminal this time, /snd I think. Would directory matter when it comes to those commands?
2) The gain/volume is less than it should be, I think. I can still get enough volume for most of my needs, but I'd like to get to the bottom of it. I went into alsamixer and the volume settings were -26dB or so. I changed them to 0dB - full volume - and exited, but the playback volume didn't change in response. Am I missing something here? I'm using the latest Amarok, if that matters.
Thanks again for your help, guys!
Ben
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