BEGINNER QUESTION : Getting "BitPerfect" output in Linux ?

[PenguinMusic]

Strawberry on linux works great. Volumio on Pi. All I need.

Hi,
It probably works well, but I never understood how I can efficiently manage my audio library with it :-(
Regards.

 

[digititus]

Strawberry has good library management (same as Clementine). What is missing?

 

[monkeyboy]

You might consider mpd, you can configure it to bypass puleaudio and use alsa directly. I have a 10k song library and it seems to index it fine, plus you can use an tablet to control it remote from your computer

By the way, there was a mention of pulse down sampling...it can down sample or up sample depending upon how you configure it.

 

[PenguinMusic]

Strawberry has good library management (same as Clementine). What is missing?

Hi,

It has Library management ?
All I can see is that it can give you a list of your audio files.

It probably has a logic of it's own.
Some may adhere to it.
It seems I do not :-(

 

[PenguinMusic]

You might consider mpd, you can configure it to bypass puleaudio and use alsa directly. I have a 10k song library and it seems to index it fine, plus you can use an tablet to control it remote from your computer

By the way, there was a mention of pulse down sampling...it can down sample or up sample depending upon how you configure it.

Hi,

I have configured JACK. I think it does the same and bypasses PulseAudio to use ALSA directly.

I may try that with Cantata... I think it's a front end.

But for now, I'll leave the setting up and enjoy Music. After all,t his why I did it for. Not for the technical aspect sake's.
But to be able to listen to music the way I like it.

And the set-up I have seems to fit my needs.

Of course, being able to control the whole thing with a tablet would be a nice added feature

 

[Sal1950]

Hi,

It has Library management ?
All I can see is that it can give you a list of your audio files.

It probably has a logic of it's own.
Some may adhere to it.
It seems I do not :-(

I'm not quite sure what you mean by "library managment but in the screenshot you can see the droplist of the different ways to configure you library list. In "Advanced Grouping" you can configure the layout in ways the list didn't offer. Is this what your speaking of?

 

[PenguinMusic]

Hi,

Saw that...

And you can configure it somewhat.

I will try it out

Thanks a lot.

 

[shal]

Hi
I am Linux user since 1997
this day I use Ubuntu (good compromise with easy to use/working)
Pulseaudio is now mandatory for day to day usage (youtube etc....)
If I want to have a good control of the sound system , I use deadbeef player configured with alsa as "direct harwdare without any conversion"

Olivier

 

[Sal1950]

I may try that with Cantata... I think it's a front end.

For me Strawberry only has one real weakness, it currently doesn't handle DSD files
For my DSD library I use Cantata which has no issues with DSD but cannot easily be set-up for bit-perfect..
To be honest I don't hear any difference letting Pulse change it to 24/48 PCM
It is somewhat simplistic in its configuration abilities but for the library offers something similar to Strawberry.

^ I've never been able to get friendly with Deadbeef. I tried it recently as a DSD player but it screws everything up in multichannel playback with the channel layout all out of wack. Did some homework and it's a known issue to the dev's. Anyway it failed the test for my needs.

 

[PenguinMusic]

Hi
I am Linux user since 1997
this day I use Ubuntu (good compromise with easy to use/working)
Pulseaudio is now mandatory for day to day usage (youtube etc....)
If I want to have a good control of the sound system , I use deadbeef player configured with alsa as "direct harwdare without any conversion"

Olivier

Hi,

Tried deadbeef...
But for some unexplainable reason, it plays my files about twice or thrice as fast as they should...
Any idea about where to tweak this ?

 

[PenguinMusic]

For me Strawberry only has one real weakness, it currently doesn't handle DSD files
For my DSD library I use Cantata which has no issues with DSD but cannot easily be set-up for bit-perfect..
To be honest I don't hear any difference letting Pulse change it to 24/48 PCM
It is somewhat simplistic in its configuration abilities but for the library offers something similar to Strawberry.

^ I've never been able to get friendly with Deadbeef. I tried it recently as a DSD player but it screws everything up in multichannel playback with the channel layout all out of wack. Did some homework and it's a known issue to the dev's. Anyway it failed the test for my needs.
View attachment 43828

Hi,

Once configured to my likings, strawberry is indeed quite nice.
It misses the "Mosaic" view I like in gmusicbrowser, but it is now usable for me.
I'll use it for some time...

 

[renaudrenaud]

Mmm... I use Logitech Media Player (LMS) and there is a library manager. The server indexes the files using the tags inside and store information in database. So you can search by artist, album, year, genre etc...

I use this system since 2008 and I want this kind of functionality. And for Volumio, when LMS indexes from scratch the files, it takes 30 minutes. On the same Single Board Computer, it must takes many days. I do not know exactly, because I never had the patience to wait. But for me, it is not working.

Also, LMS manages plenty of plugins, there is one for Radio Paradise... And for Qobuz, and some other streaming services. It works on Linux of course.

And I can select the music with my phone with a FREE app, or with... Ha ok

 

[LTig]

Hi,
As for myself, I must admit that I have been unable to hear a difference between a 24/96 file and the exact same one in 24/192.
Of course equipment could output both format in original form.
So either the rest of the system is unable to reproduce the subtle differernce... or my ears are good/trained enough :-(
So, 24/96 will do...

As I wrote I use the higher samplerates for measuring (DAC-DUT-ADC), not for listening. With my cloth ears I'm probably quite happy with 32kHz samplerate and 12 bits ...

 

[PenguinMusic]

As I wrote I use the higher samplerates for measuring (DAC-DUT-ADC), not for listening. With my cloth ears I'm probably quite happy with 32kHz samplerate and 12 bits ...

Hi,
Time ago I could tell the difference between 16/44 and 24/96. Blind tested. Got the correct format each time.
Today, I wouldn't be quite that sure about my ears :-( Old age (50 years old) ? Not trained enough ? Can't say, but result is the same :-(

 

[Sal1950]

Hi,

Tried deadbeef...
But for some unexplainable reason, it plays my files about twice or thrice as fast as they should...
Any idea about where to tweak this ?

I took a quick run thru the Preference switches and didn't see anything that might cause your issues. I'm sure the various deadbeef forums could offer informed help. Click the "Help" link at the top and a number of links to both forum and developer (github) are listed. Also look to the home forum of the Linux distro your running.

 

[Sal1950]

Hi,
Time ago I could tell the difference between 16/44 and 24/96. Blind tested. Got the correct format each time.
Today, I wouldn't be quite that sure about my ears :-( Old age (50 years old) ? Not trained enough ? Can't say, but result is the same :-(

Don't wish to trash your experience but many of the best ears in the business have done proper Double Blind Listing tests and have failed to reliably note the difference between Redbook 16/44.1 and anything higher. If you so easily heard the differences I would guess something was afoul in your A-B test. The most usual failure tends to be not have the levels matched closely enough.
That said, I'll always chose a high data rate file over a slower one when avalible. It just calms my inner audiophool demons.

 

[PenguinMusic]

Don't wish to trash your experience but many of the best ears in the business have done proper Double Blind Listing tests and have failed to reliably note the difference between Redbook 16/44.1 and anything higher. If you so easily heard the differences I would guess something was afoul in your A-B test. The most usual failure tends to be not have the levels matched closely enough.
That said, I'll always chose a high data rate file over a slower one when avalible. It just calms my inner audiophool demons.

Hi,

As far as I understand the "level match" thing that is that the volume of the playback can be different and thus alterate your perception of the played music.
I can of course understand the argument and that if you listen to the same track played pretty loud or played whisper quiet, you won't have the same perception about what you hear.
But the thing is, that even the ones telling that this is the way it should be done admit that such a level match is difficult, if not almost impossible, to achieve :-(
So how can it be done in these circumstances ?

So I do things "my way"... Borrow gear, install it in my set-up and listen to it. If I like it, I may consider a purchase. If I don't I just give it back.

That being said, I have the exact same album (Beethoven 5th and 7th) on Label Deutsche Grammophon and conducted by Carlos Kleiber with the Wiener Philarmoniker. One of my favourites... Played from the same device (Oppo BDP105 as disk player or streamer => Linn AV5125 amplifiers fitted with active cards => Linn Keltik in active quad-amplification loudspeakers).
I have the CD, the SACD and the Blu-Ray audio. I also bought it and could download it in mp3, in 16/44 and 24/96.
Played blindly, I could tell apart the .mp3, the 16.44 (flac), the CD, the 16.44 (wav) the 24.96... But could hear no difference between 24/96 and higher resed Blu-Ray audio...
Today, I can even not tell the differnece between the Sennhaiser HD700 and the AudioQuest NightHawk :-( I'm probably too old for this now :-(

 

[Phorize]

Hi,

As far as I understand the "level match" thing that is that the volume of the playback can be different and thus alterate your perception of the played music.
I can of course understand the argument and that if you listen to the same track played pretty loud or played whisper quiet, you won't have the same perception about what you hear.
But the thing is, that even the ones telling that this is the way it should be done admit that such a level match is difficult, if not almost impossible, to achieve :-(
So how can it be done in these circumstances ?

So I do things "my way"... Borrow gear, install it in my set-up and listen to it. If I like it, I may consider a purchase. If I don't I just give it back.

That being said, I have the exact same album (Beethoven 5th and 7th) on Label Deutsche Grammophon and conducted by Carlos Kleiber with the Wiener Philarmoniker. One of my favourites... Played from the same device (Oppo BDP105 as disk player or streamer => Linn AV5125 amplifiers fitted with active cards => Linn Keltik in active quad-amplification loudspeakers).
I have the CD, the SACD and the Blu-Ray audio. I also bought it and could download it in mp3, in 16/44 and 24/96.
Played blindly, I could tell apart the .mp3, the 16.44 (flac), the CD, the 16.44 (wav) the 24.96... But could hear no difference between 24/96 and higher resed Blu-Ray audio...
Today, I can even not tell the differnece between the Sennhaiser HD700 and the AudioQuest NightHawk :-( I'm probably too old for this now :-(

Can you describe your blind a b method?

 

[PenguinMusic]

Can describe your blind a b method?

Hi,

The test I am describing was made years (maybe near to a decade) ago.
I just can remember that we did not touched anything except the file the player/streamer was fed with.
Friend switched from one file to another without me knowing what was played.
I got 100% answers right... except for the 24/192.

I will not go further into this for 3 reasons :
- this is the eternal debate between science and perception... the threads in this site (and in MANY MANY MANY other sites/forums) are already full of this debate and I do not want to start another one with the same arguments being given over and over from both sides ;
- I used to buy stuff after I was able to borrow it and listen to it in my environment with my other components and whatever the specs or measures are ;
- today, I cannot even tell if I am listening to Philips X2 HR, Oppo PM-3, Sennheiser HD700 or Audioquest Nighthawk... let alone telling the differnece between .mp3 and 24/96.

And I am happy with that...

You can read all about my thoughts here : https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...as-a-sound-signature.9245/page-27#post-291870 in post 530 in case you're interested.

 

[Phorize]

Hi,

The test I am describing was made years (maybe near to a decade) ago.
I just can remember that we did not touched anything except the file the player/streamer was fed with.
Friend switched from one file to another without me knowing what was played.
I got 100% answers right... except for the 24/192.

I will not go further into this for 3 reasons :
- this is the eternal debate between science and perception... the threads in this site (and in MANY MANY MANY other sites/forums) are already full of this debate and I do not want to start another one with the same arguments being given over and over from both sides ;
- I used to buy stuff after I was able to borrow it and listen to it in my environment with my other components and whatever the specs or measures are ;
- today, I cannot even tell if I am listening to Philips X2 HR, Oppo PM-3, Sennheiser HD700 or Audioquest Nighthawk... let alone telling the differnece between .mp3 and 24/96.

And I am happy with that...

You can read all about my thoughts here : https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...as-a-sound-signature.9245/page-27#post-291870 in post 530 in case you're interested.

Thanks, I was just interested, which some may find unsurprising given the purpose of the forum