settings with new Transport AES ian canada

[Tim Curtis]

Are you able to view/set the ESS chip options using moode Chip Options screen?

[Jinxy]

Are you able to view/set the ESS chip options using moode Chip Options screen?

Apologies for slow reply.

I'm able to view and change the chip options, though I don't think they do anything in my setup. At least I can't hear any difference, but then I worked with helicopters for 10 years, noisy fecking things

[Tim Curtis]

@Jinxy,

When you get a moment, for both your setups please post the output of the command below so I can see what chip options are actually listed. Thanks.

Code:

amixer -cN

Where N is the card number shown in the Output device field in Moode Audio Config

[Jinxy]

This what you want, Tim? I'm using the Is2 out through the HDMI Pro. I'm not using the AES board, though it is in the system, I was using it before I got the HDMI Pro and didn't want to junk it.

Code:

ant@Moode:~ $ amixer -c2
Simple mixer control 'I2S/SPDIF Select',0
  Capabilities: enum
  Items: 'I2S' 'SPDIF'
  Item0: 'I2S'
Simple mixer control 'Digital',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pvolume-joined pswitch pswitch-joined
  Playback channels: Mono
  Limits: Playback 0 - 100
  Mono: Playback 100 [100%] [0.00dB] [off]
Simple mixer control 'FIR Filter Type',0
  Capabilities: enum
  Items: 'brick wall' 'corrected minimum phase fast' 'minimum phase slow' 'minim                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             um phase fast' 'linear phase slow' 'linear phase fast' 'apodizing fast'
  Item0: 'apodizing fast'
ant@Moode:~ $

[Tim Curtis]

Yes, thanks.

In this setup there is no ESS DAC board but there is a MonitorPi controller. ALSA thinks there is an ESS DAC though based on the amixer output. It looks like i-sabre-q2m driver is talking to the MonitorPi controller.

Couple questions:
1. Can you control volume using the moode knob?
2. Do you get a "Hardware" choice in the "Volume type" dropdown in the Audio Config screen?
3. Does the setup work when you select "Generic-I2S (i2s-dac)" instead of the Audiophonics selection?

[Jinxy]

Monitor Pi just monitors and displays audio information, the Pro version is a controller.

1. Yes, software volume control works via Moode volume knob.
2. Yes, Hardware is listed in the dropdown.
3. Just tried the Generic I2s-dac, it does work, though there seems to be no chip options (edit is dulled) and amixer -c0 returns nothing.

Interesting, at least to me, Ian states in the documentation The Audiophonics Driver/overlay will do upsampling to 384, which gave me the impression the Generic choice would not. It does.

[Tim Curtis]

The challenge with Ian's product lineup is that it's meant to be more or less independent of Raspberry Pi or any particular player software. Based on my interpretation of his documentation there are three monitor/controller products:

ESS Controller
Control an ESS DAC chip, display audio signal status. The hifiberry-dacplus driver is specified to get volume control via the player application.

MonitorPi
Display audio signal and FifoPi status. The player application must specify the appropriate I2S driver for the audio device being used.

MonitorPi Pro
Control an ESS DAC chip, control other IanCanada boards, display audio signal and FifoPi status. The i-sabre-q2m driver is specified to get volume control via the player application.

Where it gets really confusing is when you use a MonitorPi Pro on a device stack that has no ESS DAC board and then configure the player to use the i-sabre-q2m driver (Audiophonics 9038 DAC) to get player volume control. The player (moOde) thinks it's talking to an ESS DAC chip but it's actually talking to the MonitorPi Pro board. There will be a Chip Options screen available even though these options don't apply because there is no ESS DAC in the stack.

I think having some IanCanada options in the I2S list can avoid a wrong config for example:

IanCanada (i-sabre-q2m with ESS DAC) - Chip options available
IanCanada (i-sabre-q2m w/o ESS DAC) - No chip options

The driver/codec associated with Generic-I2S (i2s-dac) is pcm1974a and we patch and build that driver to support up to 384K. In stock form it only supports up to 192K. This is thanks to @bitlab :-)

[Jinxy]

In a standard stack, for instance my Moode player, consists of Raspberry Pi 5, FifoPi Q7, HDMI Pro and AES Transport sat on the PurePi PSU. The MonitorPi is optional.

The MonitorPi Pro, if I add one gives a Mute output, via a 2 core cable to the PSU, which allows the batteries to recharge when music playing stops. I think the ESS options are only available, when a DAC is in the stack. I have one on order, so I can test that. It also gives you some settings for the Fifo - Delay, DoP-Passthrough, 16 or 32Bit and Continuous Clock-Enable-Disable.