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Moode 4.2. thoughts and feelings
#11
Hi moOde fans,
 :@
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#12
I had to install volumio recently because I was experimenting with a python script for controlling an oled display (pydpiper). After using volumio for several hours, my conclusion was that I will stick with moode audio because I find it better in every aspect. It is a matter of personnal choice. And it is a good thing that there are several players, so that every one can make his choice
Remy
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#13
I have have both Volumio and MoOde. Only reason is I have not been able to get Spotify to work on MoOde. Soon as I crack that nut most likely will use MoOde exclusively. To each his own!
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#14
(07-17-2018, 04:58 PM)Tim Curtis Wrote: Since you have Built moOde why don't you volunteer to host, distribute and support the images? If you choose to do this you just need to be aware that you become legally liable for the entire Linux distribution and are responsible for any associated ISP costs for a potentially large number of 1GB+ downloads.

-Tim

I think Tim is trying to explain the rationale for the build recipe requirements. Seems to me it came after 3.8.4 to cover his exposure to liability and distribution infrastructure requirements. Whatever Tim has to do to keep the software moving forward is fine with me. 

Hope we can all ignore trolls and help Tim focus on improvements; which has consistently happened with subsequent versions. Thanks Tim.
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#15
Last night I posted my use case for using both Volumio and MoOde. Well after stumbling over the very well written instructions generously contributed by Rafa the Spotify feed to MoOde works great.  I then went and formatted the SD card containing Volumio. Problem solved.
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#16
(07-16-2018, 10:58 PM)TheOldPresbyope Wrote:
(07-16-2018, 10:31 PM)gothard Wrote: Sooooo I finally got around to setting up Moode 4.2. I haven't used Moode since images stopped being offered.

The Good: 

-The "building" process was really simple with a few caveats that I will get into later.

-The GUI seems to give the end user more control over every little detail of how the system works and offers explanations of what the different options do for things that are not super obvious. 

-Boot time is good

-The system seems very stable at least for the short time this I used it.

-This is by far the most stable Bluetooth I have ever seen on the Pi.


The Bad:

-The Bluetooth sound quality is abysmal. I wasn't expecting miracles because its Bluetooth which is more designed for convenience than getting the best possible sound quality, but the Bluetooth output from Moode sounded significantly worse than the audio output from my phone on Tracks Air headphones. Maybe the built it Bluetooth on the Pi is just junk or maybe the feature is not fully optimized. 

-While the instructions for the building process are good, they fail to mention that SSH has to be enabled in Stretch before you can SSH into the PI.

-The whole building process seems pointless. There is no reason that the contents of the SD card could not be read back into an image file and uploaded like in the past. There is nothing system specific about the image and waiting an hour to install Moode into Stretch feels like a huge waste of time. I'm not even sure what the end game could possibly be by doing it this way.

-The Moode interface, while very clean and minimalistic, feels awkward and needlessly complex. The default view for selecting music does not offer folder view. There is thankfully a folder view option, but no way to make this the default view. 

-The NAS setup process is super counter intuitive. I never did actually get it working. Just kept getting errors that the share that I was pointing it directly to was down. The same share that works flawlessly in Volumio. The testing I did do was with files that were copied to the SD card. 

-Sound quality. I could live with all of these pitfalls and more if the sound quality was superior to other MPDs. Using an Allo Digione Moode sounded very stiff and artificial with a coloration that I can only describe as "metallic". Switching back to Volumio returned that warm, lush, and natural sound that I'm used to hearing. I would put the issue down to Stretch, maybe even entertain the idea that maybe this why the Volumio team has not made made the jump to Stretch, but then I remember back to the way Moode used to sound and realize that Moode has always sounded this way. For me it really drew a red circle around just how far Volumio has come in the past couple of years.

Seems to me this screed were better suited for the Volumio forum than here.

It's pointless for me to address your feelings. There is one point which is worth mentioning. Your impression of Bluetooth performance is the fault of neither the RPi nor moOde. 

Your Tracks Air headphones and your iPhone undoubtedly are using the AptX codec rather than the default codec. As was so elegantly stated in the Kodi forum several years ago, "Apt-X is a proprietary codec, protected by various patents, and it requires licensed libraries and a specific BT stack in order to work." 

I'll bet Volumio doesn't include it either.

Regards,
Kent

The above reply seems a bit aggressive.

For the record, iPhone doesn't use AptX, it uses AAC.

The replies should be based on facts.
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#17
(07-16-2018, 10:31 PM)gothard Wrote: Sooooo I finally got around to setting up Moode 4.2. I haven't used Moode since images stopped being offered.

The Good: 

-The "building" process was really simple with a few caveats that I will get into later.

-The GUI seems to give the end user more control over every little detail of how the system works and offers explanations of what the different options do for things that are not super obvious. 

-Boot time is good

-The system seems very stable at least for the short time this I used it.

-This is by far the most stable Bluetooth I have ever seen on the Pi.


The Bad:

-The Bluetooth sound quality is abysmal. I wasn't expecting miracles because its Bluetooth which is more designed for convenience than getting the best possible sound quality, but the Bluetooth output from Moode sounded significantly worse than the audio output from my phone on Tracks Air headphones. Maybe the built it Bluetooth on the Pi is just junk or maybe the feature is not fully optimized. 

-While the instructions for the building process are good, they fail to mention that SSH has to be enabled in Stretch before you can SSH into the PI.

-The whole building process seems pointless. There is no reason that the contents of the SD card could not be read back into an image file and uploaded like in the past. There is nothing system specific about the image and waiting an hour to install Moode into Stretch feels like a huge waste of time. I'm not even sure what the end game could possibly be by doing it this way.

-The Moode interface, while very clean and minimalistic, feels awkward and needlessly complex. The default view for selecting music does not offer folder view. There is thankfully a folder view option, but no way to make this the default view. 

-The NAS setup process is super counter intuitive. I never did actually get it working. Just kept getting errors that the share that I was pointing it directly to was down. The same share that works flawlessly in Volumio. The testing I did do was with files that were copied to the SD card. 

-Sound quality. I could live with all of these pitfalls and more if the sound quality was superior to other MPDs. Using an Allo Digione Moode sounded very stiff and artificial with a coloration that I can only describe as "metallic". Switching back to Volumio returned that warm, lush, and natural sound that I'm used to hearing. I would put the issue down to Stretch, maybe even entertain the idea that maybe this why the Volumio team has not made made the jump to Stretch, but then I remember back to the way Moode used to sound and realize that Moode has always sounded this way. For me it really drew a red circle around just how far Volumio has come in the past couple of years.

Thanks, this a very good review.

Having Moode Audio on my Pi3 for a day, I had very similar experience.

I upgrade Volumio to a beta version, it broke the DoP function. I thought it's a good time to try other options.

The installation took quite a while due to the compilation, it was no big deal as I was out doing something else.

What I like is that the UI is very responsive, the system response to the UI very quickly, much better than Volumio.

I can't tell a difference the sound quality wise.

On the down side, the UI is less refined than Volumio. The layout and details can be improved. The settings look complicated but if you take some time you can get use to it. AirPlay doesn't work.

In all, I think Moode is very customisable and open, but the initial setup is too much.
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#18
(08-28-2018, 09:23 AM)madwyn Wrote: For the record, iPhone doesn't use AptX, it uses AAC.

The replies should be based on facts.


When I'm wrong, I'm wrong.
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#19
I do not understand, why him had to write such a long negative review, if the user originally chose Volumio for himself.
I'll insert my 5 cents: for me a comparison of Volumio and Moode, it's like FruityLoops and Cubase. The first bribes with its simplicity, but figuring out all the chips of the second, you understand its power. Only with Moode I was able to realize my project, for which many thanks to Tim.
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#20
Compliments and criticism are welcome but IMO these types of threads don't usually accomplish much in terms making improvements to moOde code since they don't mention specific bugs or other issues.

The moOde team can't investigate things based on statements like "The layout and details can be improved. The settings look complicated but if you take some time you can get use to it. AirPlay doesn't work."

If you want changes or troubleshooting in moOde then we need more than that.

-Tim
Enjoy the Music!
moodeaudio.org | Mastodon Feed | GitHub
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