My MoOde Sound Tweaks

[mactolinux]

Same here, by the way. From A and Mac to Moode.

To me they became comparable. Note: linear PSU for 3B+ was the main step to catch - or to come close to Mac quality. Tweaks did less.

[yaslam]

Hi Edward,

The sound quality of your Sound Tweaks is wonderful.
There is one question.
Is there any difference between your Sound Tweaks and the Sound Tweaks of following posted by mactolinux?
http://moodeaudio.org/forum/showthread.p...55#pid4355

Hi Yaslam

They are very similar in the ram settings and over/undervoltage. Both pay attention the FIFO and priority too. With mine I include some kernel level changes which seeks to make the Linux OS perform as a 'whole' with less latency...again this is from RedHat so if a company that size with over 10k employees did the research on this and published the results I tend to believe it. I've been using these and other settings for must be more than 10years +/- with pretty good results. Glad you too and others find some improvements.

Hi Edward,

Thank you for explaining about Sound Tweaks.
I was doing PC audio for a long time at Audirvana on Mac, but recently introduced Raspberry Pi.
Therefore, I'm unfamiliar with Linux OS. It was very helpful.

So coming from Audirvana how are you liking MoOde?

I'm sure you know this DIY world can be unpredictable at times.

I wanted to change the system to network audio, so I chose Raspberry Pi. It was very easy to complete the network audio system.
I tried moOde and Volumio, but the sound quality was not satisfying compared to Audirvana.
However, when I tried Sound Tweaks of this thread, the sound quality became equivalent to Audirvana. I am very satisfied with it.
Because moOde is flexible to our request and updates frequently, I like it very much. 


Raspberry Pi: Model 3B+
HAT: Allo DigiOne
PSU: iFi Audio iPower, Allo 5V Power Supply (Apple 18W USB-C Power Adapter <- I will try sometime soon)

[yaslam]

Same here, by the way. From A and Mac to Moode.

To me they became comparable. Note: linear PSU for 3B+ was the main step to catch - or to come close to Mac quality. Tweaks did less.

Hi mactolinux,

What is the linear PSU you are using?

[Edward]

Same here, by the way. From A and Mac to Moode.

To me they became comparable. Note: linear PSU for 3B+ was the main step to catch - or to come close to Mac quality. Tweaks did less.

Hi mactolinux,

What is the linear PSU you are using?

Just a note on the Linear PSU solution.

Using a Linear "Regulated" PSU via the standard miniUSB connection is not the end-all-be-all.  The regulated power still goes through the RPi internal switching regulator and fuse. You can bypass both of those if you power the RPi via the GPIO pins. 

There are lots of good and inexpensive LR-PSU's on ebay and expensive ones in the Audiophile arena. The one I recommend is a very good yet inexpensive PSU from Jameco. Lots of happy campers are now using this, https://www.jameco.com/webapp/wcs/stores...1953612_-1

I have the iFi power too, the Jameco is just as good or better than the iFi. After that I power all my Rpi via GPIO with a Jamaco or various other LR-PSU's that are up to snuff. On top of that I plug them into a Balanced AC line transformer, so not only do they get clean 'balanced' power, they also don't dirty up the house AC.

This pic is a old pic, I don't use the SPDIF hat anymore.

[yaslam]

@Edward

Hi,

It's very interesting. I will try power supply via GPIO
I will also try Jameco 's PSU.

By the way, Raspberry Pi in your photo has DC input, and the case seems to be designated for it.
Are these your own work?

[Edward]

@Edward

Hi,

It's very interesting. I will try power supply via GPIO
I will also try Jameco 's PSU.

By the way, Raspberry Pi in your photo has DC input, and the case seems to be designated for it.
Are these your own work?

Hi Yaslam

The RPi's in the photo are my own creation. It does require about $10 in parts from various places. I'll see if I can dig up where I got the parts and post it.

[mactolinux]

Not sure if GPIO and USB socket are different. Both require 5.2V maximum or so, give more – get a brick.

GPIO has better electrical contacts which is critically important for current peaks, that for sure.

[Edward]

Not sure if GPIO and USB socket are different. Both require 5.2V maximum or so, give more – get a brick.

GPIO has better electrical contacts which is critically important for current peaks, that for sure.

Info from Raspberry Pi

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The 5V GPIO pins on a Raspberry Pi are connected to the 5V rail. Typically they provide the remaining power from the Raspberry Pi (that isn’t being used to run the board itself). So you can hook up the GPIO 5V pins to a 5V  source and feed energy directly to the board.


Connect a 5V source to Pin #2 (5V).
Connect the ground of that source to Pin #6 (GND).
Please be aware that there is no regulation or fuse protection on the GPIO to protect from over-voltage or current spikes.

If an incorrect voltage is applied, or a current spike occurs on the line, you can permanently damage your Raspberry Pi.

https://www.raspberrypi.org/magpi/power-supply/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Of course, to do this you will need a very good "Regulated" power supply. But then that's the whole point, feed the RPi very good Linear Regulated power. I've used the Jameco and other regulated power supplies without a problem. Others have as well without problems but if your home environment is prone to spikes and surges its best to fix that problem first.

I just don't see the point of feeding good power to a switching regulator.

[mactolinux]

Sure, the same damage occur if you connect incorrect voltage to USB. Same lines... They do not warn in bold for USB power devices, as they are more or less standard.

Note: 3B+ has single chip which is extra-high frequency switching regulator for all voltages, and you can never avoid it. Even so, linear PSU helps.

[Masticore]

Hello fellow audiophiles,

first of all many thanks for all the information provided in this forum and for the wonderful moode-software provided by Tim! I am using moode for some years now and cannot think of any better budget-friendly, yet audiophile digital source!

Recently, I discovered and applied Edwards sound tweaks from github and as far as I can tell, can hear a difference for the better!

Regarding sound tweaks, I have 2 (noob?)questions, however:
1. Edward, do I have to apply your tweaks again after updating to a newer version of moode, e.g. from 5.0 to 5.1? Or will the tweaks remain intact druing updating?
2. I use a regulated linear power supply by Tomanek right now. However, it is plugged into the micro usb of the Pi. If I want to try out powering the Pi via GPIO – can I still use my HAT (it is the Audiophonics Digipi+/PiFi Digi+, a clone of the HifiBerry Digi+)?

Thank you very much in advance and best regards
Masticore