Allo USBridge Signature

[weaver]

So I did a clean install of 6.3 and now 24/96 works fine on USB!

Question though: In the Audio Information I get:
Encoded at 24bit 96kHz 2.634 mbps
Decoded at 24bit 96kHz
Destination Local
Output rate 32bit 96kHz 6.144 mbps
DSP resampling is off, why is output rate 32 bit here? On a 16bit track it stays at 16 bit.

[Tim Curtis]

Probably cos the DAC's USB receiver only accepts 16-bit or 32-bit word length. Linux/ALSA will zero-pad 24-bit frames to 32-bit in this case.

Audio info should list the Formats that the DAC reports that it accepts. This is also listed in the Moode log.

[suzywong]

@allo.com

Hi, I’m currently running a Digione Signature on an RPi3B+ (Wired Ethernet) and the BNC output into my Naim DAC, and very fine it is! So I have a few questions about the Digione USBridge.

Would there really be much SQ benefit to using the USBridge Signature instead of the 3B+ to provide the motherboard for the Digione Signature? In this configuration, the D1S could continue to be the interface to the NDAC, so the Clean USB output would be somewhat redundant (albeit a “nice to have” for any future reconfiguration of the hifi system).

I see that there is a special case for the USBridgeSig+DigioneSig. Does it come with the internal power cable for the clean side of the Digione?

Which version of Moode would be shipped? The current 6.3? And can I assume that the special driver (mentioned in the documentation) would be already installed? [edit: answered by Tim below]

And lastly, could you get it to me in the UK before we are overtaken by the madness which is Brexit?  

[Tim Curtis]

Current moOde 6.3.0 release has full support for the SIG including the enhanced driver :-)

-Tim

[blueninjasix]

Hi Tim
I'm a complete newbie with streaming having previously used a Fanless pc (with Fidelizer pro) connected directly to my dac.
I've acquired the USBridge Signature Player and ordered it with Volumio! Realising the error of my ways I downloaded moOde 6.3 and used it when my unit arrived.
I have struggled with the setups and find that the published guides all seem to be a little out of date - maybe because I am at the bleeding edge with 6.3?
Never-the-less, after much trial and error I managed to get firstly the radio stations to play and then secondly to get the SSD drive in my fanless pc mounted within the moOde player.
The key to this success seemed to be in (1) Making the drive "shared" in Windows and (2) Entering my Windows logon name and password into moOde.
Along the way, I also had to use the USB (UAC2) fix and also change Vers from 1.0 to 2.0 but I can't remember which particular field that was in!

I'm generally loving the sound over ethernet cable to my Chord Qutest. It's well focussed with tight bass, lots of shimmer and detail and no harshness. However I am getting some very annoying clicks coming through. Over on Audiophile Style, Allo.com posted this:
"There seems to be a problem with Chord Mojo and Hugo with USBridge Sig (and RPI3) due to the latest kernel move (4.19)

   We are investigating and hopefully we can have a solution rather fast
 In any case the 4.19 kernel seems to be rather unstable on USB audio . We will post news asap" Could this be the cause of my clicks?

I can't get on with the way moOde arranges my music by artist and albums - it doesn't suit the largest part of my rips which is mainly classical music. I have worked around this by setting up moOde and Foobar2000 with UPnP so I can retain my familiar interface yet still stream.

The problem I cannot solve is WiFi. I bought the Comfast CF-912AC adapter as shown in your earlier post but even though I have followed the instructions in the guide carefully, when I remove the ethernet cable, I cannot reach the moode/local page in my browser. I am very confused by the WiFi setup screen and the Access Point boxes. When I enter the password for my router and the moodeaudio password lower down they seem to get replaced by long strings of ************.
Also when I remove the dongle whilst music is playing I get a slight lowering of volume and a reduction of a hissing noise that I don't notice until it is gone!

Please comment and advise. All help gratefully accepted. Tony

[TheOldPresbyope]

@blueninjasix

The key to this success seemed to be in (1) Making the drive "shared" in Windows and (2) Entering my Windows logon name and password into moOde.

Along the way, I also had to use the USB (UAC2) fix and also change Vers from 1.0 to 2.0 but I can't remember which particular field that was in!

Connecting to SMB/Samba servers seem to be the principal bugaboo for new users. Items (1) and (2) are basic for any server. The server has to know the directories to share and the credentials of users to allow to access them. Glad you got it sorted.

Also, changing the minimum SMB/Samba Version to 2.0 is a requirement Microsoft introduced a while ago when they decided to tighten up the file sharing security. Unfortunately, lots of folks use SMB/Samba servers which expect Ver 1.0, hence the moOde default and the presence of the informational line at the bottom of the Music Source screen.

Regards,
Kent

[Tim Curtis]

Hi Tony,

Classical collections are not well supported in moOde because there is no standard way to organize them. Some users like their collection organized by Composer while others want their collections organized by Artist or Composition, and there is no standard tag for Composition. You will probably need to continue using FB or some other Desktop player that offers better support for Classical collections. You could also try moOde Folder View and the Advanced Search feature.

There is a bug in moOde 6.3.0 WiFi password parsing that causes failure if the password contains $, !, ` (back quote). If you have any of these characters in your password you will have to wait for the fix which is included in upcoming 6.4.0 update. Btw, the URL for moOde is http://moode or http://moode.local or http://IP_ADDRESS_OF PI

The Audio glitches that occur with Chord and certain other DACs are apparently due to changes (improvements) in how USB audio is handled in the Linux 4.19.y kernels. moOde 6 Series is based on these kernels and will continue with them going forward. I don't know with certainty that the Linux kernel developers will be able address the glitch issues with these DAC's in the 4.19.y branch. The earlier moOde 5 series was based on the Linux 4.14.y kernels which apparently don't exhibit the audio glitches.

-Tim

[blueninjasix]

Hi Tony,

Classical collections are not well supported in moOde because there is no standard way to organize them. Some users like their collection organized by Composer while others want their collections organized by Artist or Composition, and there is no standard tag for Composition. You will probably need to continue using FB or some other Desktop player that offers better support for Classical collections. You could also try moOde Folder View and the Advanced Search feature.

There is a bug in moOde 6.3.0 WiFi password parsing that causes failure if the password contains $, !, ` (back quote). If you have any of these characters in your password you will have to wait for the fix which is included in upcoming 6.4.0 update. Btw, the URL for moOde is http://moode or http://mode.local or http://IP_ADDRESS_OF PI

The Audio glitches that occur with Chord and certain other DACs are apparently due to changes (improvements) in how USB audio is handled in the Linux 4.19.y kernels. moOde 6 Series is based on these kernels and will continue with them going forward. I don't know with certainty that the Linux kernel developers will be able address the glitch issues with these DAC's in the 4.19.y branch. The earlier moOde 5 series was based on the Linux 4.14.y kernels which apparently don't exhibit the audio glitches.

-Tim

Thanks for replying so quickly.
I did suspect that it was because of the nature of my music that I would not be able to fully appreciate the moOde interface. Over the years that I have used Foobar, I have developed a peculiar system of arranging folders by composer that seems to work for me so I'll probably stick with it.

My WiFi password doesn't contain any characters that aren't regular numbers or letters. I can always access the moOde player using its IP address when the ethernet cable is plugged in so I don't think I'm doing anything wrong there - it just won't connect when I unplug the cable from the router and try to use just the Comfast dongle.
With regard to the glitches then, the solution would appear to involve trying an earlier version of moOde as it doesn't look like the kernel is going to get fixed anytime soon? Or I could get the digione board and use BNC connection instead?

[Tim Curtis]

I'm sure your wifi issue can be resolved since same hardware (SIG + CF-912AC) is being used by myself and others and no issues.

The audio glitches and these particular DAC's may not be a kernel issue per se but rather due to bugs in the USB chipsets and firmware used in these DAC's and various work arounds implemented over time in the 4.14.y kernel USB driver.

[TheOldPresbyope]

@blueninjasix

And then you wrote 

Over the years that I have used Foobar, I have developed a peculiar system of arranging folders by composer that seems to work for me so I'll probably stick with it.

At the heart of moOde, like many other players, is the amazing MPD---music player daemon. It's a hugely functional server-side product with tons of plugins and libraries to deal with all manner of music files. It's been in existence for more than 15 years. Trying to replicate it would take thousands of hours of programming, testing, and maintenance.

At its heart, in turn, MPD deals with tracks. It searches the source tree(s) for individual leaves, e.g., tracks, and adds them to its "database" along with their absolute file-system path and a homogenized version of their metadata "tags". It has no notion of a folder (I call 'em directories, but no matter) as an organizational element. Any notion of a relationship between/among tracks has to be recreated by an MPD client from the stored "tags".

As Tim says, the lack of standardization hampers the development of a classical music UI based on MPD. I've made my peace with moOde. I like it a lot, I'm too old to start writing a musicologist's frontend, and I'm too stubborn to switch to an alternative scheme based on <insert your favorite here>. 

Regards,
Kent

PS - I'm a incurable pedant so I put database and tag in quotes.

Even the MPD documentation says "database" at one point because it's a blob accessible only via MPD routines and their approach to search. (Over time, though, the developers seem to be trying to recreate SQL.) 

Originally, the metadata container added to a encoded music file was called the tag (like the manufacturer's tag on my shirt). In the container are fields and values which go by various names in different approaches such as ID3v2, FLAC/Vorbis, iTunes, etc., but which have come to be called "tags" too. Oh, well.