OLD: mpdPup - Simplified MPD Music Server/Jukebox - v0.9.2
Hey RayCTech,
I remember you now, was interested in your AMT's, are they going to be available for DIY'ers soon?
Apologies for the OT. Just been reading your posts here, I have an Alix 2D2, I follow, but just nod and smile and nod cause that's about all I got when you fellas start on about compiling!
Great Work!
Cheers,
Drew.
I remember you now, was interested in your AMT's, are they going to be available for DIY'ers soon?
Apologies for the OT. Just been reading your posts here, I have an Alix 2D2, I follow, but just nod and smile and nod cause that's about all I got when you fellas start on about compiling!
Great Work!
Cheers,
Drew.
Haha that would be a problem yes.RayCtech wrote:Ooops... I have discovered some potential issues with Intel platforms that I do not have on the CuBox...
In the ARM kernel I have also disabled USB HUB support (disabled printers, wi-fi, OSS etc.. etc.. mostly everything except USB 2.0 Audio and ALSA and proper storage devices), and that may be a issue as most Intel based hardware uses USB HUBs and the USB ports are then dependent of this...
I think I'm ordering both an intel and an arm box so I'll compile kernel's for both anyway. Think I'm going for a beaglebone for now though since nobody knows when a new batch of cuboxes is available. Also it has much more support which will be a time saver, drawback only 100mbit ethernet so I guess ill just set at 10% buffering before playing. Ill upgrade later to something gigabit, I like the tegra 3, could run vst on cuda for digital crossovers/drc.
For alix users, there are some industrial miniboards with the newer AMD G series, the 1 GHz version with gigabit ethernet and 1Gb+ memory which still draw below 10 watts. So you could even fit a linear psu with superregs at not too high a cost. It may provide a faster and possibly better streaming experience.
Sure Drew.PET-240 wrote:Hey edbk,
Can you throw a couple links up for the mobo's you mentioned please?
Taw
Drew.
This is with supplying power by a lineair high quality PS in mind so powerusage focused.
ARM:
Beaglebone:
http://beagleboard.org/static/beaglebon ... README.htm
Can buy these everywhere, farnell, digikey etc for $89
10/100 ethernet on chip seperate from usb, can be powered by just 5V 1A if you dont run devices off usb power etc
Kontron Tegra 3:
http://emea.kontron.com/products/boards ... 0mitx.html
Pretty cool if you would wanna run crossovers/room correction
The Ouya (Tegra 3) would be very cool ofcourse at just $99, hackable and will run about everything very soon I'd guess:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ouya
The Cubox RayCtech is using:
http://www.solid-run.com/products/cubox
No idea when they will be available again, coolest option available right now I think but your on your own for building kernels etc, although RayCtech?
X86:
Intel Atom N2600/N2800 options seem a bit dissapointing, Jetway has a N2600 board but the M/B draws a lot of power so your better of with an older Atom on say a Gigabyte board. The Intel N2800 board can run on around 9V/1.5A but cant change voltages/clockspeeds. No real good options here so far.
AMD eOntario (G-series):
Jetway has 2 boards with em but Jetway doesnt seem energy efficient with their mainboards.
fit-PC3 LP:
http://www.fit-pc.com/web/fit-pc/fit-pc3-info/#techinfo
7-15 watts depending on extra options, $400ish but a complete minibox
Kontron again:
http://us.kontron.com/products/boards+a ... mmitx.html
Advantech:
http://www.advantech.com/products/MIO-5 ... 96A5E.aspx
State ~7 watts total consumption for the lower clocked cpu's
Yeah only the beaglebone (not its bigger brother beageleboard) has non shared ethernet. All the nVidia Tegra boards have their own ethernet ports aswell.RayCtech wrote: Do not waste money on the boards without GigaBit network.
The boards without GigaBit network have a completely crippled I/O system.
Everything is connected via a USB HUB - so the USB 2.0 Audio adapter must share resources with network, SD / CF / SATA etc..
Cant find any other decent looking armada 510 boards though apart from the cubox.. HP, Wyse etc have thin clients but dont know if they're hackable. There's this one but can find much on it apart from some comments on it being expensive:
http://compulab.co.il/products/sbcs/sbc-a510/
HI multiblitzmultiblitz wrote:
Have you tried the tweaks in the voyage thread ? I implemented your tweaks....without them, I would not be impressed at all. Your work was gold worth !
I am glad to hear the tweaks helped. I have not tried the voyage tweaks or RT core. I plan to drill further into this in a few weeks. I am building amps and over the past month had to learn to be a cabinet maker to build the wood bases for my monoblocks. What a great hobby. Building hardware one day, tweaking operating systems the next and then wood working. So much to learn.
I am very interested in Raytech's work in optimizing USB. It did not make sense that WaveIO on USB2 should depend on nrpack setting. Could it be that there are simply flaws in the USB implementation that Raytech has eliminated by stripping it down to its essential core? Have not had time to consider it but curious to see if we can put this into the Alix.
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Well...I would LOVE to follow your way, but I am a complete Linux newbie...could you give a little guidance what you did and how we can benefit from your learnings ?RayCtech wrote: I have had a lot of trouble to be able to build the kernel and the base filesystem.
How is your big machine sounding compared to thsi small one ?
By the way: Just started my comparison W7/Jriver and Z68 MAchine vs Alix 1D2. Both with Sotm-card and in both card the card got its own linear PSU.
The W7 machine seems to have mor contour and enegery in the bass area. Besides, this: Mids and treble sound much more "technical". Not really harsh, but like a metal can. 3d-effect is there, but limited, the room is OK, but not very deep.
The 1D2: Seems to have the same transperancy, but completly natural sounding. It is simply "there". Soft, but not hazy or with less information, actually with more information regarding the 3D-effect. The room is much, much deeper. The only thing is that the BAss has not the same energy, is clearly softer. But sofar I have not changed the caps or anything.
I will repeat this test, need to twek the W7 machine toward integer settings and install jplay. Need to tweak the Alix-Bios as well to integer and play with the memory setting / latencies.
Would be interested to listen to the ARM-Boards, but I am not sure if they would meet the quality of the SOTM-Card...if yes, this would be the ultimate solution, i guess.
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You were able to force it to get an IP on that system, manually, correct? If you only want to do it for the sake of comparison it should be possible then.multiblitz wrote:I would love to do that....but the DHCP/Ip-adress issue is preventing me to compare...I need a new kernel/better driver support for the z68 support...
Basically you'd need to follow the same steps to force it to get an IP address before you run the the mpd wizard. Set the system up. When it reboots it will again fail to get an IP address based on your last report. Start X by typing 'xwin' at the command line. Run the network wizard again so that it gets an address. After that go back to the command line and enter these two commands:
Code: Select all
mount-a
mpd
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After typing 'mount -a' you should have something under /mnt/music, are your music directories showing up when you type the following (if the music is in a subdirectory you should add it):multiblitz wrote:thx...just did my first try...i am connected, but mpad does not see any albums....when and how does mpd create the libary ?
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ls /mnt/music/
mpc status (will tell you if the database is being updated)
mpc update (will force an update if it hasn't started)
mpc listall (shows you all the tracks in the library, if a fresh database is being populated this will grow rapidly)
Once you're sure the DB is being updated you can refresh the local cache in the MPaD settings - it will grab whatever the current DB state is.
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Ok...made it work, thanks a lot.
I took Misa Criolla with Jose Carreras, some Opus 3 recordings, John Pfeiffer (Classic Sampler). So basically Jazz and Classic, all very good recordings. "So Nice" - Dianna Krall etc.
Setting of MPDpup the same on both machines.
Finally I asked my wife for her impressions and she basically confirmed what I hear (both with Sotm-card with own linear PSU):
1. Z68 Board with MPDpup: Much, much better than W7/Jriver. The metal can is gone. You finally can listen Music and not to effects / compensations effects.
2. Alix 1d2: Does everything what the Z68 does, but with more liquidity / naturalness and better 3D. A pure Music Machine, eventhough no mods on the motherboard made and PSU is a 8 $ switching PSU.
The combination of Mpdpup + Alix1d2 + Sotm card seems to have a synergistic effect. The sotm card brings you a richer tone, that vibrates more fluently. It unreveals what is possible with Alix and MPDpup. Without you have a very good solution, but not what I would consider "high-end". but for 300$ to jump in the leagues of ultra-high-end....well not a bad deal...
What's next ?
It will take some time, but I will:
- Buy another Alix-Board, mod it to compared to standard (and to have one in stock if mine breaks at some point of time...and there are some friends who wait for testing it themselves)
- Bring the Alix as well onto a lnear PSU
- Try with the same routine Atom-based boards and compare them with Alix...today they loose IP-adress as well...
...and start to rip like hell....
I took Misa Criolla with Jose Carreras, some Opus 3 recordings, John Pfeiffer (Classic Sampler). So basically Jazz and Classic, all very good recordings. "So Nice" - Dianna Krall etc.
Setting of MPDpup the same on both machines.
Finally I asked my wife for her impressions and she basically confirmed what I hear (both with Sotm-card with own linear PSU):
1. Z68 Board with MPDpup: Much, much better than W7/Jriver. The metal can is gone. You finally can listen Music and not to effects / compensations effects.
2. Alix 1d2: Does everything what the Z68 does, but with more liquidity / naturalness and better 3D. A pure Music Machine, eventhough no mods on the motherboard made and PSU is a 8 $ switching PSU.
The combination of Mpdpup + Alix1d2 + Sotm card seems to have a synergistic effect. The sotm card brings you a richer tone, that vibrates more fluently. It unreveals what is possible with Alix and MPDpup. Without you have a very good solution, but not what I would consider "high-end". but for 300$ to jump in the leagues of ultra-high-end....well not a bad deal...
What's next ?
It will take some time, but I will:
- Buy another Alix-Board, mod it to compared to standard (and to have one in stock if mine breaks at some point of time...and there are some friends who wait for testing it themselves)
- Bring the Alix as well onto a lnear PSU
- Try with the same routine Atom-based boards and compare them with Alix...today they loose IP-adress as well...
...and start to rip like hell....
I can vouch for the leap in SQ moving from Win 7/JRiver to mpdpup.
I spent a whole load of my life trying to minimise the extraneous guff in Windows not needed for a dedicated music transport, breaking Windows many times in the process and although I improved SQ significantly by so doing, the 5 minute mpdpup install, load GMPC and play with such beautiful SQ so much better, was an eye-opener. Using Atom D510 dual core board and WaveIO USB-S/PDIF converter.
Will never return to Windows!
Actually I am now embarking on tweaking mpdpup! Already gained significantly with kind help from Walter with NRpacks, settings in mpd.conf et al. That's not scratching the surface of what can be achieved, I am sure. Resampling to 32/176.4 has also made great improvement (thanks RayCtech)
Difficult for me to know what Idolse has included/excluded from the Kernel (but whatever it is an excellent result), but I wonder if there is worthwhile mileage in tweaking thread priority and may be turning off any processes in mpdpup not strictly needed (for me anyhow)? My problem is that I know how to do that in Windows but not in Linux.
Have any users experimented on those fronts?
Jonathan
I spent a whole load of my life trying to minimise the extraneous guff in Windows not needed for a dedicated music transport, breaking Windows many times in the process and although I improved SQ significantly by so doing, the 5 minute mpdpup install, load GMPC and play with such beautiful SQ so much better, was an eye-opener. Using Atom D510 dual core board and WaveIO USB-S/PDIF converter.
Will never return to Windows!
Actually I am now embarking on tweaking mpdpup! Already gained significantly with kind help from Walter with NRpacks, settings in mpd.conf et al. That's not scratching the surface of what can be achieved, I am sure. Resampling to 32/176.4 has also made great improvement (thanks RayCtech)
Difficult for me to know what Idolse has included/excluded from the Kernel (but whatever it is an excellent result), but I wonder if there is worthwhile mileage in tweaking thread priority and may be turning off any processes in mpdpup not strictly needed (for me anyhow)? My problem is that I know how to do that in Windows but not in Linux.
Have any users experimented on those fronts?
Jonathan