Streaming music server sound quality compared?

Status
This old topic is closed. If you want to reopen this topic, contact a moderator using the "Report Post" button.
Hello
Has anyone done any tests on sound quality from music servers like Daphile, Moode, Volumino, Archpile and piCorePlayer as this would be a great help to me.
I would be using a pi 3 B+ and a MDac or a dual core 1.3ghz 2gb ram pc. and MDac for Daphile.
Any help appreciated.
thyristor44
 
Most open source music servers use Linux as the underlying operating system using ALSA, pulse audio and other bits and pieces of the operating system to manipulate the audio stream.

That being the case all those music servers will provide the same sound quality. They only differ in the user interface and features. Just pick one to whatever you think meets your particular requirements.

Operating Systems don't have a sound quality.
 
So.... you have the hardware....and access to those Distros....and a pair of ears....so why not compare them yourself and report your preferences....?

Not sure why you would want someone to do that for you ?
Even doing an A-B test with only one DAC I find difficult as I have forgotten what A sounded like by the time I get B wired in. If I had two equal DACs and systems it would be easier. But that still would only be an AB test.
Lack of resources is a problem to me but not everyone.
 
Yes, the music player is just a application that sits on top of the Linux operating system and all use the same system software processes, they provide a fancy user interface to display album art, track listings, graphic equaliser....etc...etc or include additional features like streaming to third party devices or from network attached storage. Not all the applications have the same features but they will all sound the same.
 
Again, same with the windows operating system, audio players uses the same sub systems and access the hardware via devices drivers or stream audio the same way.

However, some players will offer different settings such as replay gain, volume normalisation, equalisers, playback sample rates, CD ripping and a multitude of other plugins and DSP effects.

You can tailor the audio anyway you like. Musicbee and AIMP are popular for windows based machines.

@ rpi - I would imagine if the linux based players all have similar features then they would all use MPD and probably ALSA, Pulse Audio and all the other common linux audio sub systems.
 
Last edited:
Do you have subjective sound quality findings on Windows PC software players, and which are good and which to avoid ?.


Dan.


How can i not have? It is like asking me if i have a favourite cap :)

The actual preference is personal, system dependent and thus not really worth sharing. It also seems to create unneeded controversy as i intensely dislike some highly regarded players.
 
...
@ rpi - I would imagine if the linux based players all have similar features then they would all use MPD and probably ALSA, Pulse Audio and all the other common linux audio sub systems.


Sorry for advertising my own software ;) but Peppy player can leverage mpd, vlc and mplayer for audio playback on Windows and Linux. It has uniform player interface which allows to do that. You can also configure it for streaming using mpd and vlc. I'm also thinking to support omxplayer and gstreamer.


But in general I agree with you - they all use the same infrastructure - OS, drivers, ALSA etc.
 
FWIW, I've used Moode Audio, Volumio, Rune Audio, piCorePlayer and Kodi. I'd struggle to explain any sound quality difference between. But I am curious about your question and would be interested to learn if there is actually any material differences. I'm currently running with two systems. The first is Kodi as I can navigate the menus via my TV and also play Youtube music. The second is Moode because I can connect it to a bluetooth speaker. As suggested above, my choices are based solely on the interface and features. There's no obvious discernible difference in sound quality (at least, for me).
 
Every HW and SW and related settings can make and usually makes a difference.

The magnitude of impact depends on the attached audio system.

Either your DAC is that good that not any source originated issues matter any more or your system is that lowQ that actually nothing matters anyhow. :D
The vast majority of systems out there lie in between.


The key subject on the SW side is "efficiency".
From experience it's not the SW which is causing the perceived changes, it's the physical side effects caused
by inefficient software (-settings) causing the trouble. Inefficiencies are causing noise, non-linear load conditions,
jitter, heat (variations), power rail variations asf. You name it.
These physical conditions causing the differences. NOT the "0"s and NOT the "1"s of the audio data.

And please. No. Not all OSes are the same. Not at all. They all come with different SW, versions of software, differently compiled SW,
differently configured SW, asf asf. Then you've got systems with bloated SW to please a wider crowd by providing extra functions,
which do nothing more then increasing the inefficiency.

The same logic applies to applications such as squeezelite or MPD.

And yes, it does matter if e.g. squeezelite runs at 4% or 0.4% CPU load.
In absolute terms it shouldn't. Hey. It's just 4%. In relative terms you'd be running
squeezelite less efficient by factor 10. And this will matter somehow.

And yes, as one example out of many, it does matter if I simply turn off the USB stack on a RPI
and save 40% on the power side by doing so.


Bottom line.

"0=0" and "1=1" - it's all digital, is a position by somebody who really havn't understood the issues impacting the performance on an "audio interface".
You simply can't just look at the transport. You need to look at the entire chain. Because. Everything matters on audiophile systems.



When it comes to my choice of OS:
IMO piCoreplayer is one of the most efficient systems out there.
I have also been involved in optimizing Moode some time back.
From that work I'm very well aware that the maintainers need to accept compromises such as "functionality over efficiency".
With systems like Moode, Volumio or alike there'll always be a catch in terms of efficiency.
And that even applies to piCorePlayer, to a smaller extent though.
That's why I personally run my own no-compromise OS and tailormade squeezelite setup.


Enjoy.
 
Last edited:
Again, same with the windows operating system, audio players uses the same sub systems and access the hardware via devices drivers or stream audio the same way.

However, some players will offer different settings such as replay gain, volume normalisation, equalisers, playback sample rates, CD ripping and a multitude of other plugins and DSP effects.

Agreed. The audio stream, which is just binary data, is previously encoded to a certain format, MP3/AAC/FLAC or whatever. The players get the data and do the decoding, it will be always the same as before encoded (or it fails), regardless which player or OS.

What makes the difference is if the player does any post processing and then the processed data is eventually passed to the DAC which makes the final difference.
 
Status
This old topic is closed. If you want to reopen this topic, contact a moderator using the "Report Post" button.