Loxjie D30 DAC MoOde configuration

Loxjie D30 DAC MoOde configuration - Printable Version

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Loxjie D30 DAC MoOde configuration - happymax - 05-25-2021

I use version 7.2.1 of MoOde with a Raspberry Pi 4 and Khadas Tone Board Dac.

I have read great reviews of the Loxjie D30 Dac (audio science review) and am thinking of buying it and replacing Khadas Tone Board Dac.

Is it possible to configure MoOde to use the Loxjie D30 Dac?

Could someone also recommend me a valid Usb A to Usb B cable to connect the Rasperry to the Loxjie D30?

Thank you very much for helping

RE: Loxjie D30 DAC MoOde configuration - Miss Sissy Princess - 05-25-2021

Any USB A to USB B cable that meets basic USB specs should work fine. All such cables "sound" the same:

https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/kimber-kable-do-high-end-usb-cables-make-a-difference.11272/

Regarding the Loxjie D30, are you drawn to that because you want some of the bells and whistles like Bluetooth or the headphone amp?

RE: Loxjie D30 DAC MoOde configuration - happymax - 05-26-2021

(05-25-2021, 11:37 PM)Miss Sissy Princess Wrote: Any USB A to USB B cable that meets basic USB specs should work fine. All such cables "sound" the same:

https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/kimber-kable-do-high-end-usb-cables-make-a-difference.11272/

Regarding the Loxjie D30, are you drawn to that because you want some of the bells and whistles like Bluetooth or the headphone amp?

Thank you for the cable info.

I will use the Loxjie D30 only as a DAC by connecting it with Rca cables to an integrated amplifier (as I am doing now with Khadas tone board) but I don't know how to configure it with MoOde.

RE: Loxjie D30 DAC MoOde configuration - jonners - 05-26-2021

I would think that the D30, being a USB DAC, would be configured in the same way as you set up your Khadas board.

RE: Loxjie D30 DAC MoOde configuration - happymax - 05-26-2021

(05-26-2021, 01:28 PM)jonners Wrote: I would think that the D30, being a USB DAC, would be configured in the same way as you set up your Khadas board.

I was referring to the MoOde configuration in the "configure, audio" menu where now in MPD setting I select "Khadas Tone Control" in the output device.

With the D30 I don't know how to set the configuration options in the audio menu.

RE: Loxjie D30 DAC MoOde configuration - Miss Sissy Princess - 05-26-2021

(05-26-2021, 07:26 AM)happymax Wrote:
(05-25-2021, 11:37 PM)Miss Sissy Princess Wrote: Any USB A to USB B cable that meets basic USB specs should work fine. All such cables "sound" the same:

https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/kimber-kable-do-high-end-usb-cables-make-a-difference.11272/

Regarding the Loxjie D30, are you drawn to that because you want some of the bells and whistles like Bluetooth or the headphone amp?

Thank you for the cable info.

I will use the Loxjie D30 only as a DAC by connecting it with Rca cables to an integrated amplifier (as I am doing now with Khadas tone board) but I don't know how to configure it with MoOde.

For a dedicated DAC in the same price range, I'd urge you to consider a Topping D10s or E30 DAC, but I really can't find significant fault with the DAC aspect of the Loxjie D30. Its headphone amp and bluetooth are rather low-rent when it comes to performance, though. I'm a 'separates' purist when it comes to audio and not a fan of paying for unused circuitry.

The only "trick" to configuring USB DACs is knowing that it's done through MPD Config after telling moOde that there is no I2S DAC via the Audio Config. See attached screenshots for how things look for my Emotiva Stealth DC-1 DAC (with apologies for the large image sizes -- a result of screen captures on Apple Retina displays).

Note: I realize that the Emotiva Stealth DC-1 DAC is nowhere near state of the art, but it has a pair of features that I "need" -- an RCA analog input and a rotary volume control. I feed the RCA input from a remote-control audio switch, the Emotiva Stealth SP-1, which also includes a decent phono preamp. That combo let me retire my Adcom GFP-565 preamp, eliminating a post-DAC source of noise and distortion.

RE: Loxjie D30 DAC MoOde configuration - happymax - 05-26-2021

(05-26-2021, 02:26 PM)Miss Sissy Princess Wrote:
(05-26-2021, 07:26 AM)happymax Wrote:
(05-25-2021, 11:37 PM)Miss Sissy Princess Wrote: Any USB A to USB B cable that meets basic USB specs should work fine. All such cables "sound" the same:

https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/kimber-kable-do-high-end-usb-cables-make-a-difference.11272/

Regarding the Loxjie D30, are you drawn to that because you want some of the bells and whistles like Bluetooth or the headphone amp?

Thank you for the cable info.

I will use the Loxjie D30 only as a DAC by connecting it with Rca cables to an integrated amplifier (as I am doing now with Khadas tone board) but I don't know how to configure it with MoOde.

For a dedicated DAC in the same price range, I'd urge you to consider a Topping D10s or E30 DAC, but I really can't find significant fault with the DAC aspect of the Loxjie D30. Its headphone amp and bluetooth are rather low-rent when it comes to performance, though. I'm a 'separates' purist when it comes to audio and not a fan of paying for unused circuitry.

The only "trick" to configuring USB DACs is knowing that it's done through MPD Config after telling moOde that there is no I2S DAC via the Audio Config. See attached screenshots for how things look for my Emotiva Stealth DC-1 DAC (with apologies for the large image sizes -- a result of screen captures on Apple Retina displays).

Note: I realize that the Emotiva Stealth DC-1 DAC is nowhere near state of the art, but it has a pair of features that I "need" -- an RCA analog input and a rotary volume control. I feed the RCA input from a remote-control audio switch, the Emotiva Stealth SP-1, which also includes a decent phono preamp. That combo let me retire my Adcom GFP-565 preamp, eliminating a post-DAC source of noise and distortion.

Thank you very much for your detailed info.

I totally agree with you that it doesn't make sense to have circuits you don't use but D30 allows you to select the input and output source so I would set USB and Rca.

I am evaluating the purchase of the D30 because several people have had very positive experiences with this DAC connected to an amplifier and some even compare it to Topping D50. It also has the advantage of not requiring a low noise power supply as it has one in its case.

RE: Loxjie D30 DAC MoOde configuration - Miss Sissy Princess - 05-26-2021

(05-26-2021, 02:54 PM)happymax Wrote:
(05-26-2021, 02:26 PM)Miss Sissy Princess Wrote:
(05-26-2021, 07:26 AM)happymax Wrote:
(05-25-2021, 11:37 PM)Miss Sissy Princess Wrote: Any USB A to USB B cable that meets basic USB specs should work fine. All such cables "sound" the same:

https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/kimber-kable-do-high-end-usb-cables-make-a-difference.11272/

Regarding the Loxjie D30, are you drawn to that because you want some of the bells and whistles like Bluetooth or the headphone amp?

Thank you for the cable info.

I will use the Loxjie D30 only as a DAC by connecting it with Rca cables to an integrated amplifier (as I am doing now with Khadas tone board) but I don't know how to configure it with MoOde.

For a dedicated DAC in the same price range, I'd urge you to consider a Topping D10s or E30 DAC, but I really can't find significant fault with the DAC aspect of the Loxjie D30. Its headphone amp and bluetooth are rather low-rent when it comes to performance, though. I'm a 'separates' purist when it comes to audio and not a fan of paying for unused circuitry.

The only "trick" to configuring USB DACs is knowing that it's done through MPD Config after telling moOde that there is no I2S DAC via the Audio Config. See attached screenshots for how things look for my Emotiva Stealth DC-1 DAC (with apologies for the large image sizes -- a result of screen captures on Apple Retina displays).

Note: I realize that the Emotiva Stealth DC-1 DAC is nowhere near state of the art, but it has a pair of features that I "need" -- an RCA analog input and a rotary volume control. I feed the RCA input from a remote-control audio switch, the Emotiva Stealth SP-1, which also includes a decent phono preamp. That combo let me retire my Adcom GFP-565 preamp, eliminating a post-DAC source of noise and distortion.

Thank you very much for your detailed info.

I totally agree with you that it doesn't make sense to have circuits you don't use but D30 allows you to select the input and output source so I would set USB and Rca.

I am evaluating the purchase of the D30 because several people have had very positive experiences with this DAC connected to an amplifier and some even compare it to Topping D50. It also has the advantage of not requiring a low noise power supply as it has one in its case.

Part of my concern about "extra" circuitry that is not in use is that said circuitry is still a potential failure point -- one that can sometimes render a whole device non-functional or degrade performance in the event of a localized failure.

Good luck with the Loxjie D30 or whatever DAC you decide on!

RE: Loxjie D30 DAC MoOde configuration - TheOldPresbyope - 05-26-2021

@happymax

I tend to agree with @Miss Sissy Princess about the Loxjie especially since you intend to use it strictly as a USB DAC.

Once any USB DAC with a properly implemented hardware interface is plugged into the moOde player it will appear in the MPD Config "Output device" drop-down menu identified by whatever character string the DAC provided to Raspberry Pi OS during USB enumeration.

We don't know what identifier the Loxjie engineers chose. There's no standard for this. For example, you have a Khadas Tone Board with early firmware so it identified itself as "Khadas Tone Control" (for some or all versions 1.xx of the firmware there was a trailing ASCII space in this string which caused a problem until we caught up with it). If you upgrade to the latest (v2) firmware as I did recently you'll see the string has been changed to "Tone1".

If you are really curious, you can trace the identifier at the ALSA level

e.g., for my moOde player on an RPi4B with the Khadas Tone Board attached

Code:
pi@moodelr:~ $ aplay -l

**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****

card 0: b1 [bcm2835 HDMI 1], device 0: bcm2835 HDMI 1 [bcm2835 HDMI 1]

  Subdevices: 4/4

  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

  Subdevice #1: subdevice #1

  Subdevice #2: subdevice #2

  Subdevice #3: subdevice #3

card 1: Headphones [bcm2835 Headphones], device 0: bcm2835 Headphones [bcm2835 Headphones]

  Subdevices: 4/4

  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

  Subdevice #1: subdevice #1

  Subdevice #2: subdevice #2

  Subdevice #3: subdevice #3

card 2: Tone1 [Tone1], device 0: USB Audio [USB Audio] <==========

  Subdevices: 1/1

  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

If you get r*e*a*l*l*y curious you can trace the identifier at the O/S level

e.g., for the same player, RPi, and Khadas Tone Board

Code:
pi@moodelr:~ $ sudo lsusb -v | grep iProduct

  iProduct                2 JMicron

can't get debug descriptor: Resource temporarily unavailable

can't get debug descriptor: Resource temporarily unavailable

  iProduct                2 xHCI Host Controller

  iProduct                3 Tone1                        <==========

can't get debug descriptor: Resource temporarily unavailable

  iProduct                1 USB2.0 Hub

can't get debug descriptor: Resource temporarily unavailable

can't get device qualifier: Resource temporarily unavailable

can't get debug descriptor: Resource temporarily unavailable

  iProduct                2 xHCI Host Controller

Note that I could have honed my lsusb query to just the Khadas board by using its vendor:product device code but then I'd have to explain how you determine this. I'll leave it as an exervise for the interested student.

Regards,
Kent

RE: Loxjie D30 DAC MoOde configuration - happymax - 05-27-2021

@TheOldPresbyope

Thanks for all the informations and technical details.

I am very happy with the sound quality of my system with MoOde Heart

which is fantastic - I could not wish for better because each new version gives me new details, depth, emotions ...

Unfortunately, I came across a review of the Loxjie and am thinking about changing my Khadas tone board to further improve the sound quality at a relative investment.

I believe I'll give to the Loxjie D30 a try and I'll post my impressions as soon as possible.

Could you suggest me a pure dac that could improve sound quality as a replacement for the Khadas Tone board?