Thank you for your donation!


Cloudsmith graciously provides open-source package management and distribution for our project.


First impressions
#1
Hey all,
So I recently got myself into the RPI/DAC audio world. Got myself a RPI4/AlloBoss1.2 and it's feeding to an Allo Boss Volt+ D Amp which is feeding a pair of B&W 686 or B&W 705s. 

I was very interested to see how this semi-diy setup compared to my old setup of MacPro to Arcam Alpha 9 to speakers setup.

My main hi-res source of music is Tidal but also have Spotify and Apple Music... always prefer Tidal to date anyway. I figured that I needed to use something to send the Allo Boss DAC a decent file so I use Audirvana on my Mac to stream to RPI via UPnP. Seems to be doing its job OK and the sound on the system overall has been great. 

However.... I did find the sound lacking in some way, maybe a bit flat. I put it down to no tone controls on the Amp... even with the Arcam I would have added a little bass...

The RPI shipped with Volumio so I did attempt to enable the EQ plugin with no success. I went off down various rabbit holes trying to see what I could do to add some warmth to the overall sound - being mindful I didn't want to run audio through yet more processes either.... anyway.... this lead me to try Moode. 

I had known about it as an option but today I thought I'd give it a shot. So off I went a got another MicroSD card and installed it. I went through the setup and now have it working over Wifi and am playing tidal tracks to it from Audirvana via UPnp.

The sound is SUPERB!!! It's like a different system! 

No idea why this is as it's the same hardware but it sounds WAY better than Volumio to my ears anyway. SO good that I have no desire to add any tone or eq to it at all. Some day someone might explain why this is but I'm a happy camper for now.

I do have a question relating to Tidal. I was able to play Audirvana (Tidal)->Moode via UPnp fine. I clicked on the UPnP config and saw there's an input for my Tidal account details. Any idea what this actually does? I input my details but can't see any difference in options.

Tidal on iOS can only playback via Airplay (not ideal really) but it's all good.

Anyway... back to my point. Moode sounds awesome!

Big Grin Big Grin Big Grin


Grif
Reply
#2
(06-27-2020, 05:52 PM)Griff Wrote: I do have a question relating to Tidal. I was able to play Audirvana (Tidal)->Moode via UPnp fine. I clicked on the UPnP config and saw there's an input for my Tidal account details. Any idea what this actually does? I input my details but can't see any difference in options.

Tidal on iOS can only playback via Airplay (not ideal really) but it's all good.

You may be able to stream Tidal from iOS over UPnP with either the mConnect or Linn Kazoo apps. (The latter has been problematic though - there's a thread on here about it.)
Entering your Tidal credentials into Moode should enable you to handle a Tidal playlist in Moode with the phone turned off.
I do agree that Moode is a great player!
Reply
#3
Moode is the best. Best sound and very stable. So satisfied I donated. I have a Boss. Try SoX resample in MPD with 32/384 very high quality mutithread. This turns off internal chip resampling. Tell us what you think.
Reply
#4
(06-27-2020, 06:30 PM)hifinet Wrote: Moode is the best. Best sound and very stable. So satisfied I donated. I have a Boss. Try SoX resample in MPD with 32/384 very high quality mutithread. This turns off internal chip resampling. Tell us what you think.

To my ears that makes a difference for the better.  The soundstage seems better defined this way.  Reminds me of the old Moode 3.8.4 with RT kernel :-)

And give Edward's audio tweaks a try too.

I've modified the installer to make it a bit more logical (no fetching of Sound.sh during install) and to make manual removal easier:

https://github.com/philrandal/Linux-Audio-Adjustments

Phil

Reply
#5
(06-27-2020, 06:30 PM)hifinet Wrote: Moode is the best. Best sound and very stable. So satisfied I donated. I have a Boss. Try SoX resample in MPD with 32/384 very high quality mutithread. This turns off internal chip resampling. Tell us what you think.

Hmmmm...So I tried this.... not sure it's any better..... or much different? Listened to a few tracks with it on/off and found myself wanting it off..... I guess I'd have to be convinced whether it's better to have the Allo Boss DAC handle things or SoX....

I'll try it again today with a few tracks that I know to have a wide dynamic range.

Thanks for all the responses :-)
Reply
#6
Another question. Does the volume control on/off have any affect on the sound quality? Is there a 'preferred' setting?

Cheers :-)
Reply
#7
(06-28-2020, 01:51 PM)Griff Wrote: Another question. Does the volume control on/off have any affect on the sound quality? Is there a 'preferred' setting?

Cheers :-)

If you want Moode to adjust volume, then Volume Control Hardware (uses the volume control in the TI PCM5122). If you want to use a volume control downstream of the Boss, then disabled or none for volume control. The Boss output will be full output and the Moode volume control with show 0 dB.

Unfortunate that SoX 32/384 doesn't improve the sound for you. I agree with philrandall. The difference isn't small, it's very significant, and I've been a SoX evangelist since I discovering it. Should help any board with a PCM5122. For me it makes 16/44.1 sound close to DSD (.dsf files ripped from my SACDs). I no longer have an interest in obtaining more SACDs. File sizes are much bigger, and the sound is not that much better.
Reply
#8
(06-27-2020, 08:42 PM)philrandal Wrote: And give Edward's audio tweaks a try too.
I've modified the installer to make it a bit more logical (no fetching of Sound.sh during install) and to make manual removal easier:

https://github.com/philrandal/Linux-Audio-Adjustments

Phil

Will do. Thank you for posting this info.

Forgot to mention that I'm not only a SoX evangelist, I'm a Moode Audio evangelist as well.
Reply
#9
(06-28-2020, 07:32 PM)hifinet Wrote:
(06-28-2020, 01:51 PM)Griff Wrote: Another question. Does the volume control on/off have any affect on the sound quality? Is there a 'preferred' setting?

Cheers :-)

If you want Moode to adjust volume, then Volume Control Hardware (uses the volume control in the TI PCM5122). If you want to use a volume control downstream of the Boss, then disabled or none for volume control. The Boss output will be full output and the Moode volume control with show 0 dB.

Unfortunate that SoX 32/384 doesn't improve the sound for you. I agree with philrandall. The difference isn't small, it's very significant, and I've been a SoX evangelist since I discovering it. Should help any board with a PCM5122. For me it makes 16/44.1 sound close to DSD (.dsf files ripped from my SACDs). I no longer have an interest in obtaining more SACDs. File sizes are much bigger, and the sound is not that much better.

It's interesting.... so today I listened to a few albums, Daft Punk, Radiohead.... LCD Soundsystem, Zeppelin, Goldffrapp, Beatles.... eyes closed... listening intently and ... for me... I found that with Sox turned on there was a lack of low end compared with off. I also found better stereo separation with it off..... Sox on seemed to deaden the sound a bit for me. Without was that bit livelier.... 

I assume I don't have to restart the RPi? As when I save the setting on/off it restarts the service and I hit play again.... checked the Audio Info box and it's telling me Sox was sending 32/348. 

I'll try again with some more complex audio when I get some time.
Reply
#10
(06-28-2020, 07:52 PM)Griff Wrote:
(06-28-2020, 07:32 PM)hifinet Wrote:
(06-28-2020, 01:51 PM)Griff Wrote: Another question. Does the volume control on/off have any affect on the sound quality? Is there a 'preferred' setting?

Cheers :-)

If you want Moode to adjust volume, then Volume Control Hardware (uses the volume control in the TI PCM5122). If you want to use a volume control downstream of the Boss, then disabled or none for volume control. The Boss output will be full output and the Moode volume control with show 0 dB.

Unfortunate that SoX 32/384 doesn't improve the sound for you. I agree with philrandall. The difference isn't small, it's very significant, and I've been a SoX evangelist since I discovering it. Should help any board with a PCM5122. For me it makes 16/44.1 sound close to DSD (.dsf files ripped from my SACDs). I no longer have an interest in obtaining more SACDs. File sizes are much bigger, and the sound is not that much better.

It's interesting.... so today I listened to a few albums, Daft Punk, Radiohead.... LCD Soundsystem, Zeppelin, Goldffrapp, Beatles.... eyes closed... listening intently and ... for me... I found that with Sox turned on there was a lack of low end compared with off. I also found better stereo separation with it off..... Sox on seemed to deaden the sound a bit for me. Without was that bit livelier.... 

I assume I don't have to restart the RPi? As when I save the setting on/off it restarts the service and I hit play again.... checked the Audio Info box and it's telling me Sox was sending 32/348. 

I'll try again with some more complex audio when I get some time.

I suggest you thry 'medium quality' with SoX upsampling versus 'High' or 'Highest'. You will likely hear differences.
Reply


Forum Jump: