Sound Quality on Allo Boss Rev.1.2 between Rune / Volumio

[janui]

Hi there PhilHill, dror & andfor,

The moral of the story is: when you're down in the tiny details you miss the bigger picture. The fact is that no matter how bit-perfect and pristine your source is, the source is not the sound. The sound is fluctuations in air pressure coming out of the speakers, bouncing around the room and hitting your eardrums.

I completely agree.
But I am interested in a potential difference (regardless of whether it is better or worse) in sound when some MPD configuration details are changed.
I would be interested if PhilHill would be prepared to carry out a test? If so...
Log in via SSH and edit mpd.conf:

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nano /etc/mpd.conf

Add the code (anywhere):

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resampler {
plugin "soxr"
quality "very high"
}

Then restart MPD with the commands:

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systemctl stop mpd
systemctl daemon-reload
systemctl start mpd

Just check that you can play some music, there should be no effect in the sound. SoXr does nothing unless resampling takes place within MPD.
Now for the tests which could change the sound. Modify mpd.conf again and remove the following lines one by one and listen after each change (don’t forget to restart MPD after each change). They are in the output section for the Allo Boss DAC:

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auto_resample "no"
auto_format "no"

After this you could also modify the line containing 'device "hw:0,0"' (0.0, may be 1.0 or some other number). After modification it should look something like this:

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device "plughw:0,0"

For an explanation, see here: https://www-uxsup.csx.cam.ac.uk/pub/doc ... #id2935295 and here: http://www.volkerschatz.com/noise/alsa.html
If there are differences in the sound you can see what is happening to the MPD output with the command:

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cat /proc/asound/card?/pcm0p/sub0/hw_params

where the '?' should be the first number in the 'device "hw:0,0"' line. This command only provides output when music is actually playing. If you get so far, please share your findings.
To reset mpd.conf back to the standard just go to the MPD menu in the Rune UI and follow the instructions.
janui

[PhilHill]

Hi Janui,

as mentioned in my Post before, after inserting
SOXR to mpd.conf,
MPD does not come back to life.
Restart with activated DEV(eloper) option in UI brings back an Error with Socket ?

Maybe MPD needs to be compiled with Sox support?

kind Regards,
Phil.

[PhilHill]

and again...

found in DMESG:

[ 6.551274] snd-allo-boss-dac soc:sound: ASoC: CODEC DAI pcm512x-hifi not registered
[ 6.551288] snd-allo-boss-dac soc:sound: snd_soc_register_card() failed: -517
[ 6.641858] snd-allo-boss-dac soc:sound: pcm512x-hifi <-> 3f203000.i2s mapping ok


anything to do with failure of SOXR in MPD.conf ?

[hondagx35]

Hi PhilHill,

@Frank
I'd like to DSD native to pcm5122.
If I set this, only white Noise is heard.
How to add ?

Native DSD over I2S is not possible without special hardware and drivers.

Maybe MPD needs to be compiled with Sox support?

No, but it has to be a more recent version than yours.

MPD 0.20 released
Posted at: January 4, 2017

Music Player Daemon 0.20 has been released.

This new major release contains a big number of improvements, for example:

various protocol extensions
ID3 and APE tags can be read from remote files (including HTTP/NFS/SMB)
improved error reporting (both to the log and to the client)
audio/L16 and WavPack-DSD support
improved multi-channel support
DSD_U32 support
new soxr resampler plugin

Frank

[PhilHill]

super...
und wie geht das ohne Kollateralschäden ?

:: mpd and mpd-rune are in conflict. Remove mpd-rune?

Gruß,
Phil.

[PhilHill]

Hi,

Did some Homework..
(and began from Scratch after reckless approach with 'pacman -Syu' ...haha....

now running Kernel 4.9.77-1-ARCH

DMESG differs slightly.
(don't know if this is a Pain at all)

[ 6.122996] snd-allo-boss-dac soc:sound: ASoC: CPU DAI (null) not registered - will retry
[ 6.123006] snd-allo-boss-dac soc:sound: snd_soc_register_card() failed: -517
[ 6.124761] snd-allo-boss-dac soc:sound: ASoC: CODEC DAI pcm512x-hifi not registered - will retry
[ 6.124771] snd-allo-boss-dac soc:sound: snd_soc_register_card() failed: -517
[ 6.126119] 1-004d supply AVDD not found, using dummy regulator
[ 6.126159] 1-004d supply DVDD not found, using dummy regulator
[ 6.126198] 1-004d supply CPVDD not found, using dummy regulator
[ 6.232218] snd-allo-boss-dac soc:sound: pcm512x-hifi <-> 3f203000.i2s mapping ok

Now, how to update that MPD thang ?
(sry guys, i'm not into that programming thing, but really 'd like to do that testing with SOXR)

kind Regards,
Phil.

[janui]

Hi PhilHill,
Congrats with upgrading the kernel. Just to check, the following command should not install anything, if it requests to install some packages let it do that:

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pacman -Sy --force raspberrypi-firmware raspberrypi-bootloader linux-raspberrypi linux-firmware cifs-utils

Then to upgrade MPD, I suggest that you install the AddOns menu which rern has made. The MPD upgrade is one of the menu items, this has SoXr built in. See here for the addons install instructions: post22621.html?hilit=addons%20menu#p22376
You can optionally remove rerns AddOns menu after installing MPD.
janui

[PhilHill]

Hi Janui,

Plugins and MPD update went flawless, (yip yip hoorai!) thanks for your Advice.
Edited different mpd.conf's and small script for fast switching between configs & reloading deamon.

1st Impression from upsampling 16/44 to 24/96 is a bit more Bass, Voices less transparent.
If Source is 24/96 or better, leave it untouched.
Will do more listening later, with a Pair of fresh Ears

kind Regards,
Phil.

p.s. do i have to concern about this?

[ 6.122996] snd-allo-boss-dac soc:sound: ASoC: CPU DAI (null) not registered - will retry
[ 6.123006] snd-allo-boss-dac soc:sound: snd_soc_register_card() failed: -517
[ 6.124761] snd-allo-boss-dac soc:sound: ASoC: CODEC DAI pcm512x-hifi not registered - will retry
[ 6.124771] snd-allo-boss-dac soc:sound: snd_soc_register_card() failed: -517

edit:
PCM5122 Parameters not accessible through port :8080 since updates

[janui]

Hi PhilHill,

p.s. do i have to concern about this?
[ 6.122996] snd-allo-boss-dac soc:sound: ASoC: CPU DAI (null) not registered - will retry
[ 6.123006] snd-allo-boss-dac soc:sound: snd_soc_register_card() failed: -517
[ 6.124761] snd-allo-boss-dac soc:sound: ASoC: CODEC DAI pcm512x-hifi not registered - will retry
[ 6.124771] snd-allo-boss-dac soc:sound: snd_soc_register_card() failed: -517
edit:
PCM5122 Parameters not accessible through port :8080 since updates

Yes, I think this is a problem. But there have been no recent problems posted on the net, so It is therefore probably just a question of upgrading some packages or resetting the installation. The difficult thing is deciding which packages to upgrade. First a couple of quick tests:

1. What is the response from the command:

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aplay -l

You should see the Allo Boss as an entry. If it is listed, it is working (at least with default settings).
2. Can you enable the hardware volume control (in the MPD menu) and check that it works? If it does work there is some I2S communications between the PI and the DAC.

Can you tell me how you know that ‘PCM5122 Parameters not accessible through port :8080 since update’?
janui

[PhilHill]

Hi PhilHill,

p.s. do i have to concern about this?
[ 6.122996] snd-allo-boss-dac soc:sound: ASoC: CPU DAI (null) not registered - will retry
[ 6.123006] snd-allo-boss-dac soc:sound: snd_soc_register_card() failed: -517
[ 6.124761] snd-allo-boss-dac soc:sound: ASoC: CODEC DAI pcm512x-hifi not registered - will retry
[ 6.124771] snd-allo-boss-dac soc:sound: snd_soc_register_card() failed: -517
edit:
PCM5122 Parameters not accessible through port :8080 since updates

Yes, I think this is a problem. But there have been no recent problems posted on the net, so It is therefore probably just a question of upgrading some packages or resetting the installation. The difficult thing is deciding which packages to upgrade. First a couple of quick tests:

1. What is the response from the command:

Code: Select all

aplay -l

You should see the Allo Boss as an entry. If it is listed, it is working (at least with default settings).

**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: BossDAC [BossDAC], device 0: Boss DAC HiFi [Master] pcm512x-hifi-0 []
Subdevices: 0/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

Looks okay to me

2. Can you enable the hardware volume control (in the MPD menu) and check that it works? If it does work there is some I2S communications between the PI and the DAC.

Hardware Volume okay.

Can you tell me how you know that ‘PCM5122 Parameters not accessible through port :8080 since update’?
janui

no response from runeaudio.local:8080
netstat -anv shows that Pi is not listening to Port 8080
but i can read/change DSP Programs with
> amixer sget 'DSP Program'

mpd.conf reverts to defaults every Reboot.

kind Regards,
Phil.