It’s not that usb is bad per say, it’s just that I discovered something that I liked better for sound in wired connection arrangement.
As for skimming around discovering new music, I prefer one of the more recent Bluetooth setups I have. It wasn’t that way a few years ago, couldn’t stand it then. There’s even a low latency setup out there I read about earlier while looking for some specs on the newer ones. It was something like 4ms if I remember.
Usb dac works fine at the office with a headphone setup, use it every day there.
I would think a IIs connection would be something to head towards if possible, and that likely would mean that the DAC shares an enclosure with the player. I would also hope there’s something nicer to use by now than the ARM 32 board that cost $90. I haven’t been looking so I have no idea what’s out there now.
Like I’ve said before in similar situations, it’s your ears and bank account, certainly not mine!
As for skimming around discovering new music, I prefer one of the more recent Bluetooth setups I have. It wasn’t that way a few years ago, couldn’t stand it then. There’s even a low latency setup out there I read about earlier while looking for some specs on the newer ones. It was something like 4ms if I remember.
Usb dac works fine at the office with a headphone setup, use it every day there.
I would think a IIs connection would be something to head towards if possible, and that likely would mean that the DAC shares an enclosure with the player. I would also hope there’s something nicer to use by now than the ARM 32 board that cost $90. I haven’t been looking so I have no idea what’s out there now.
Like I’ve said before in similar situations, it’s your ears and bank account, certainly not mine!
I bet this would make a nice streamer https://www.ebay.com/itm/133362879983 Its new, fanless and the guy has more than 10 units.
Its got an Atom proc with correspondingly abysmal performance (dont understand how it can even run W7, but it does); unsure how that would effect hi-rez audio. I know that proc works running Daphile for ordinary CD ripped stuff. I wonder if Daphile would handle the touch screen, using its "local display" option? Fat 11" screen for old guys like me to play something without having to get their glasses!
Its got an Atom proc with correspondingly abysmal performance (dont understand how it can even run W7, but it does); unsure how that would effect hi-rez audio. I know that proc works running Daphile for ordinary CD ripped stuff. I wonder if Daphile would handle the touch screen, using its "local display" option? Fat 11" screen for old guys like me to play something without having to get their glasses!
Giving up the integrated screen and local operation as an all-in-one , one could try https://www.ebay.com/itm/334098723444 At PassMark 1400, its "Celeron" proc has 10X the power of that N270. I'd bet it'd make a nice "streamer" with Daphile or one of the other x86 software packages, like Volumio. They're new, the guy has 7 of them. Would support a all your music on a micro-SD architecture.
How would it sound compared to doing virtually the same thing on a Pi? Who knows... I've got my Atom D510 (PassMark 400) based streamer box, running Daphile with all my CD ripped FLACs on its 500G HDD. It's perfectly responsive using a browser to control and sounds just fine to me, USB connected to a XMOS I2S amplifier interface. Have to assume even better via a JLSounds board.
How would it sound compared to doing virtually the same thing on a Pi? Who knows... I've got my Atom D510 (PassMark 400) based streamer box, running Daphile with all my CD ripped FLACs on its 500G HDD. It's perfectly responsive using a browser to control and sounds just fine to me, USB connected to a XMOS I2S amplifier interface. Have to assume even better via a JLSounds board.
Isn't the ARM platform a better choice? Also many free audio OS'es for ARM.
I tested Volumio a while back on a relatively powerful x86 computer and found it to function with many issues whereas its Cubox and RPi version ran without any trouble. Could be the odd wrong computer for the purpose (I think it was a NUC6CAYH).
I tested Volumio a while back on a relatively powerful x86 computer and found it to function with many issues whereas its Cubox and RPi version ran without any trouble. Could be the odd wrong computer for the purpose (I think it was a NUC6CAYH).
Unsure. I've run both as sources and for some reason, I think the IA systems sound better. But, that may be Daphile, not the hardware FAIK. Previously I postulated that procs / MBs - as a source system - can have their own sound, even though that's not intuitive. Like others, I'm looking to stumble into the right combo for the best SQ I can get - without paying for a commercial, audiophile specific product.
An atom N450 based mini laptop PC running Daphile. Just copied my entire FLAC collection to the 500GB bootable HDD inside. Plays my FLAC Zappa album perfectly all the way through; No issues, no glitching, no interface lag...
So, apparently, you can use just about any POS, otherwise worthless PC that you can find and Daphile likely will run on it, be UI controllable at the machine as well as from any other system on your network - if its got wireless, a requirement for setup. I've also discovered Daphile likes 2 GB memory better than 1. I picked this one up for $10 at a thrift store, bought a 2G stick for it for another $10 off ebay. Cant believe I listened to that whole album - with headphones - to prove the point; truly bottom of the barrel hardware, almost plug 'n play setup - works just fine.
So, apparently, you can use just about any POS, otherwise worthless PC that you can find and Daphile likely will run on it, be UI controllable at the machine as well as from any other system on your network - if its got wireless, a requirement for setup. I've also discovered Daphile likes 2 GB memory better than 1. I picked this one up for $10 at a thrift store, bought a 2G stick for it for another $10 off ebay. Cant believe I listened to that whole album - with headphones - to prove the point; truly bottom of the barrel hardware, almost plug 'n play setup - works just fine.
I have a similar device that I actually found in the trash a few years back. I forget if it had windows or was a Linux type of system. It had some proprietary software on it for whatever it was used for, but I have thought about trying to use it like you have, just haven’t had a need. Should be decent, especially if the usb/dac power comes from somewhere else.
What's amusing about this software is even if you're using an outboard dac, you can have an independent channel through the inboard one, playing something else entirely. I wouldnt be surprised if it would handle as many dacs as there are USB connections on the host PC hardware.
I've noticed Daphile easily shares its music file system with my linux PC, so I can listen to anything on the Daphile box via the linux machine's audio - and then use my BT connected headphones for after-hours listening of my music collection. I'm pretty sure it'll pipe music through any other Daphile box on your network, so only one of them needs the source media, or an active connection to a NAS.
I tried to get it running on the chromebook I just put Linux Mint on, but it stops short of putting up the hotspot IP address on that hardware. I've had that same problem on other hardware and it seems to resolve after a few retries - the hotspot is there, connectable but wont actually serve up its configuration web page until it says so on the screen.
I've noticed Daphile easily shares its music file system with my linux PC, so I can listen to anything on the Daphile box via the linux machine's audio - and then use my BT connected headphones for after-hours listening of my music collection. I'm pretty sure it'll pipe music through any other Daphile box on your network, so only one of them needs the source media, or an active connection to a NAS.
I tried to get it running on the chromebook I just put Linux Mint on, but it stops short of putting up the hotspot IP address on that hardware. I've had that same problem on other hardware and it seems to resolve after a few retries - the hotspot is there, connectable but wont actually serve up its configuration web page until it says so on the screen.
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Testing Compute Module 4 with its IO board as we speak.... On Rune Audio R1. Although not being an RPi afficionado it runs very fluent and fast.
Any thoughts on using mini computer like ASUS PN41 with a quad core celeron running windows and something like unified remote to control it?
I found an older win7 pro tablet that has a touchscreen, ssd, and from what I’ve gathered searching around is that Daphile seems to be limited to web based interface, via another device(?), am intrigued that you have your machine using its own display.
I wonder if the touchscreen tablet would follow in the same manner?
jjasniew, I actually found your post in the Daphile thread that here you’d answered that…
I was actually hoping to find someone who’d done that before on a touchscreen windows tablet to know if it had been a success, but I think it’ll be worth trying.
I was actually hoping to find someone who’d done that before on a touchscreen windows tablet to know if it had been a success, but I think it’ll be worth trying.
From what I've read, you can use the "Enable player control application" on a system with a touch screen, so it's worth a try. However, the possibility exists for it to not be perfect, because Daphile's app doesn't have a touch screen calibration routine for the mouse pointer.
Perhaps if this tablet's screen is small enough, so will any error be, between where you finger lands and any menu button.
I too had a lot of wifi-related issues over the years with regards to streaming audio and video. I even went as far as setting up a separate 802.11a network that no other family members had access to. It helped somewhat, but still wasn't 100% stable. What solved it in the end was getting a pair of cheap TP-Link HomePlug AV2 devices. One sits near the modem and one near the AV rig, and they transmit ethernet over the power lines. Rock solid although throughput varies, usually around 300Mbps. WAF through the roof, and 5 years later they're still happily trucking along.
Some have reported issues with noise getting injected into SMPS from their use, but so far haven't noticed any issues with it.
As for streaming i'm still using a Logitech Duet, my living room setup these days has a number of sources all sending via toslink, into a 8-way automatic switcher (selects the source playing, also priority-based) with coax spdif out into an Abbas 4.1SE DAC feeding a Dennis Had KT88 SEP directly sans preamp. I don't think i can drive the amp quite into clipping, although the Abbas has a hot output(4.5 Vrms). Plenty loud on my 92 db Dali Evidence 470. The Duet is definitely the weak link however, it'd be interesting to try a snazzy transport without the switcher in the chain.
Some have reported issues with noise getting injected into SMPS from their use, but so far haven't noticed any issues with it.
As for streaming i'm still using a Logitech Duet, my living room setup these days has a number of sources all sending via toslink, into a 8-way automatic switcher (selects the source playing, also priority-based) with coax spdif out into an Abbas 4.1SE DAC feeding a Dennis Had KT88 SEP directly sans preamp. I don't think i can drive the amp quite into clipping, although the Abbas has a hot output(4.5 Vrms). Plenty loud on my 92 db Dali Evidence 470. The Duet is definitely the weak link however, it'd be interesting to try a snazzy transport without the switcher in the chain.
Thanks, that’s good to hear!
Now to figure out if my iPhone will pick up the wireless from the daphile unit once it is loaded.
Unless the ui can be switched on without the remote connection first?
And from what I have seen, there’s a way to just keep running from usb memory, such as to preserve the windows machine, is that a correct assumption?
Haven’t had to do a lot of hacking in my time, a little out of my lane, so sorry for the inquest.
Here an Igel 23 inch Point Of Sale system (found it new in box/unused) working good with LibreELEC for x86. Just a joke but it works OK. A tad too OK I might add. Haven't seen it before as the trend is to leave displays away.
And yes this is a 23 inch touchscreen! True appliance feeling. Fanless of course, quad core J1900 @ 2.42 GHz, 2 gb RAM and 4 gb SSD. Since it has VESA mounting holes it can be attached to the wall without much hassle. It boots extremely fast and also shuts down fast. What started as a joke seems to have potential.
And yes this is a 23 inch touchscreen! True appliance feeling. Fanless of course, quad core J1900 @ 2.42 GHz, 2 gb RAM and 4 gb SSD. Since it has VESA mounting holes it can be attached to the wall without much hassle. It boots extremely fast and also shuts down fast. What started as a joke seems to have potential.
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Phase, when you first boot the USB stick, Daphile gives an option to enter in directly your router's SSID and password. This assumes your router is setup for DHCP and will hand out an IP address to Daphile. This bypasses the ordinary "hot-spot" setup method; I tried it and it works.
Once on your network, Daphile then displays the IP address it obtained from your router, so you dont have to dig through that to find it. Enter that into your browser and the Daphile setup screen then displays. From there, you can install it to the system HDD, or even back onto the USB you booted from, AFAIR.
As with any install, just be careful where you choose to put it. If back onto the USB, or onto another USB in another port, you Windows system will remain untouched.
Looks good jean-paul! Hopefully it has a good quiet power supply in there already. My POS system box didnt sound as nice as my laptop. I'm unwilling to create +5, +3.3 from a +12 linear, using linear regulators to see if the POS system's sound improves, though no doubt it would.
Once on your network, Daphile then displays the IP address it obtained from your router, so you dont have to dig through that to find it. Enter that into your browser and the Daphile setup screen then displays. From there, you can install it to the system HDD, or even back onto the USB you booted from, AFAIR.
As with any install, just be careful where you choose to put it. If back onto the USB, or onto another USB in another port, you Windows system will remain untouched.
Looks good jean-paul! Hopefully it has a good quiet power supply in there already. My POS system box didnt sound as nice as my laptop. I'm unwilling to create +5, +3.3 from a +12 linear, using linear regulators to see if the POS system's sound improves, though no doubt it would.
Thank you jjasniew for that detailed information, am going to perform the installation tomorrow, am excited to see how it works. I will be at a location without access to a network, will be trying to utilize an iPhone for the remote part of the setup.
I have been reading the Daphile thread, am not quite out of the development part yet, but ready to learn more hopefully as the pages go on…
I have been reading the Daphile thread, am not quite out of the development part yet, but ready to learn more hopefully as the pages go on…
I made a I2S isolator hat for a Raspberry Pi 4, signal goes through a HDMI cable to my DAC. For software I used Pulseaudio+JACK on the Pi. This way I can connect with either Linux or Windows machines on my network.
Pi4 is headless and has a realtime kernel and I avoid wifi sound transfer. This setup seems to work best for me. It's basically a networked sound service, and both Linux/Windows machines auto-connect to it on startup.
The Pi4 barelly registers activity with 3 machines sending streams to it at the same time (24/96).
The only thing left to integrate is my Android phone. I think I read that there's a custom ROM that uses Pulseaudio as a sound server, but didn't look into it.
Pi4 is headless and has a realtime kernel and I avoid wifi sound transfer. This setup seems to work best for me. It's basically a networked sound service, and both Linux/Windows machines auto-connect to it on startup.
The Pi4 barelly registers activity with 3 machines sending streams to it at the same time (24/96).
The only thing left to integrate is my Android phone. I think I read that there's a custom ROM that uses Pulseaudio as a sound server, but didn't look into it.