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Daphile, Digital Music Convenience for Audiophiles

graz_lag

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Just installed this Daphile HiFi music server & player, now playing thru my AudioEngine A5+ via my little Squeezebox Receiver ...
I recommend the 64-bit x86 with realtime kernel among the download options.

A quick comment : it is a very well engineered package, flexible, with a lot of features available ! Very happy so far ... :)

https://www.daphile.com

1543516409501.png
 

somebodyelse

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It does what it does very well. If you want to make a PC based music player and/or server quickly and easily it's well worth a try, particularly if you already know your way around Logitech Media Server. I tried it a while back on an ancient 32-bit laptop and installed direct to the usb stick. The fan only ran when ripping CDs.
 

Xulonn

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I just got Daphile up and running, and am happily listening to music stored on my Synology NAS as I write this entry.

I have an Intel NUC (5CPYH with 2.16GHz Celeron) that I bought a few years ago to use as an HTPC and to play with Linux Mint using my Samsung 40" 1080 LCD TV for video. However, Linux, even with the Windows-mimicking Mint front end, Linux didn't capture my long-term interest. So the NUC has been running Kodi (the LibreELEC stripped-down Linux version) for movies and music.

However, I don't like having my big TV on just to listen to music (via Kodi on the NUC, with S/PDIF optical out to an SMSL Sanskrit 6th DAC. Amp is a Topping PA3, and my small speakers are a pair of Paradigm Atom v6). So I starting looking at headless digital player solutions last summer, and liked what I read about Volumio, but could not get it to run on the NUC and output digital via USB or optical, so I set the idea aside.

Recently, I've been listening to internet radio via my NVIDIA Shield K1 tablet feeding its relatively low-fi analog output to the Topping amp. Even being tethered to a six foot stereo audio cable, I liked being able to use my tablet as a front end for music.

Last week I decided to revisit the headless digital concept again. In addition to apps for Windows, Mac, Linux and Android, there are a fair number of dedicated, Linux-based digital audio players and library managers ranging from the commercial Roon and JRiver to the freebies like Daphile and Volumio. I spent many hours searching and reading reviews, and decided to try Daphile, which is a bit primitive - but automatically recognized my NUC's digital out as an option. It's a strange business model - based on the old Logitech Squeezeserver technology, but it works. (I owned and enjoyed a Squeezebox Classic and later a Touch back in the day.)

The only problem I had was connecting to my Synology NAS via NFS. Just as USB is preferred by most vs S/PDIF, NSF seems to work better than SMB/Samba - and Daphile uses an ancient Windows version of SMB called CIFS.

Once I figured out the correct NFS settings for my Synology share, and then the Daphile storage path configuration settings, everything worked like a charm.

Two things to be aware of:

1. Once you enter an NFS path in the Daphile Settings/Storage configuration section, you apparently cannot change or edit it until you delete it and reboot. Then you can enter a new path. If you don't reboot Daphile, it will keep reverting to the first NFS path you entered.

2. The correct syntax for the network path is : NFS://192.168.1.123:/Volume1/SharedFolder/SharedSubfolder
(Where the IP address is a static address you assigned to your NAS, and the Volume or disk number and folder names precisely match your own system. For me, the use of a "://" plus a ":/" in a single pathname was confusing)

All in all, it was an interesting challenge for this 77 y/o slowing down and rusty on the tech side former Novell network administrator, but the results were worth the frustration. Right now, I am listening to a FLAC version of the 25th Anniversary CD of Paul Simon's Graceland - and now it sounds great. I can control the playback with either my tablet, which normally sits on the kitchen table - or my laptop in my office space. But Daphile doesn't include a volume control in the digital domain - Now to look for an amplifier with a remote volume control that works around corners. (Bluetooth? WiFi?)

And I will continue to run LibreELEC/Kodi on the NUC - booting from a USB stick...
 

Xulonn

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Additional Info...

Note 1: There are quite a few Linux-based digital player software offerings for Raspberry Pi and other similar micro-computers that don't have x86 versions for Intel of AMD processors. If I didn't already own the NUC, I would probably try a Raspberry Pi 3+ based unit.

Note 2: Daphile completed the indexing of my 30,000+ digital music files during my listening session last evening. I'm guessing that with its Logitech roots, the Linux OS fork and player app have a solid foundation and are robust. Not a single glitch so far. My music files range from 64bit MP3's (yuck!) to 24/96 FLAC (wow!) and they all play fine. However, many have missing or bad metadata, so I will probably use Music Brainz Picard to auto-correct and update meta-data with my dedicated audio editing workstation. (I assembled a Lenovo ThinkCentre Intel i7-based Windows 10 system to clean up and organize a horribly jumbled 400,000+ audio file library owned by a serious collector/archiver involved with a non-profit organization.)

Note 3: I want to use "pure" USB data from Daphile to my DAC, and this info [LINK] from the "Audio Dandy" website in the Netherlands tells how to easily do it with Daphile. The basic process is simply disabling the internal audio device in the NUC via a bios configuration change.
"Daphile" has native support (without third-party drivers) for USB Audio Class 2.0 - UAC2 so the kernel can communicate directly with your UAC2 compatible DAC

This was a big part of my motivation to go with Daphile on my NUC, and I will play with it this evening.

Edit: Fixed Link
 
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somebodyelse

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But Daphile doesn't include a volume control in the digital domain
Daphile does have digital volume control (scaling the data before sending it to the DAC) or it can use the DAC's volume control if it presents it in the standard way via USB. There's also a setting to disable volume control for 'bit perfect' playback. I don't have it installed anywhere now or I'd check where these settings live. It's also got BruteFIR for doing room correction or tone control.

On the Kodi front you should be able to use a remote app like Kore or its web interface to control it with the TV off.
 

Xulonn

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You are right about the volume control, of course. I had disabled it for "bitperfect" playback. For casual listening, from the Daphile local webpage running in a Firefox window on my laptop, I can toggle the volume control on from the "Audio Devices" tab in the settings tab. When I click save and restart, the music stops, the Daphile main window goes black and displays the message "restarting - please wait for a while." In about a minute the player interface returns and the song that was playing continues from where it stopped.

The more I use and learn about Daphile, the more I like it. Changing and saving a setting, the rebooting - and having the playback pick up where it left off is a sign of good software design.

Regarding Kore, it is too basic and primitive a headless control to be truly useful - I tried it last year and was not impressed. I don't watch TV, so booting Kodi from a USB stick and controlling it with a wireless keyboard to watch movies or other video a few time a week is not a problem for me.
 

Xulonn

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Fixed link...
 

Xulonn

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Irritating Daphile problem...

I have Daphile working on an Intel NUC HTPC, and have been happy with it, although it re-indexes all of my 33K+ digiital music files every-time I reboot the NUC. Fortunately, the indexer is efficient and does this within a few minutes even though the music is on a HDD in a NAS.

I use Daphile as my background radio much of the time (I am retired and home most days) as well as for dedicated listening sessions. Being able to instantly access Daphile via a browser link on my PC, tablet or Android phone to change source, radio station, and adjust volume is an incredible convenience.

But I've run into one irritating problem which I have not been able to solve - some Tunein stations such as "Otto's Baroque" will show up as a 1.FM station via a Daphile search but won't play. If I copy the URL from the Daphile Tunein display and paste it into the Daphile "Tune In URL" option, it plays, but I see no way to save it as a favorite.

Apparently other people have had a similar problem with Roon and radio stations - they won't play in the app via normal use, but play fine in other players on the same device. Any ideas?

(I fondly remember the "old days" when if you could reach a station with your tuner of radio, it would always play...) :rolleyes:

Edit:
Duh! Adding favorites when you have a working URL you can copy to the clipboard is simple. Simply go to the "Audio Player" tab, hover your cursor over "Favorites" and click on the edit button that pops up to the right. Click on "New Favorite, enter a name, paste in the copied URL and save...
 
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captain paranoia

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2. The correct syntax for the network path is : NFS://192.168.1.123:/Volume1/SharedFolder/SharedSubfolder

It would be unusual for a POSIX URL to require the colon after the IP address:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Path_(computing)#POSIX_pathname_definition

It looks like it's a mangling of Microsoft's UNC format, which uses a colon to separate the IP address from a particular port at the IP address. Since you haven't specified a particular port, the colon looks to be nugatory:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Path_(computing)#Uniform_Naming_Convention

I don't run Daphile, so I'm just commenting on what is the normal structure of a POSIX-based (e.g. Linux) URL. Certainly, when I specify the location of my music on my NAS in Volumio (also Linux-based), I don't need to insert a colon after the IP address.
 

labdoc

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I agree about Daphile being a very nice setup. I have used it for 3 years or so. I have 3 NUC equivalents (Bedroom, Office, Music Room). One is setup as the server and a controller-player. The other 2 are controllers-players. FLAC files live on my ReadyNAS.

Like Xulonn, the networking took a bit of learning to get working. I agree with the description for NFS. Look out if you start one of the controller-players when the server is offline. You will lose the network storage settings in the players and need to re-enter them.

Output from the NUCs is USB. As noted, volume can be controlled either from the player interface or, if set to bitperfect in Daphile, by the DAC. My music room setup is: ReadyNAS FLAC library > Daphile Bitperfect on NUC > USB > AES converter (Bryston) > AES > RME UFX > Win PC running Acourate Convolver > RME UFX > Analog balanced out to amplifiers (Stereo + Stereo Subs).

Daphile does a great job with my well-tagged FLAC library. Searches are lightning fast. I especially like the Random Album, New Music and Year features. I only occasionally use radio, but that seems to work fine.

Since Daphile is a LMS clone, Roon should work. I have not tried it.

Before Daphile, I used LMS running on the ReadyNAS. Updates were a PITA. Daphile is great by comparison. Updates are very stable even on the development channel.

What feature would I like to have? Access to PDF booklets in the same directory on the NAS as the Album.
 

labdoc

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PS I use my android phone and tablets as controllers using Squeeze Ctrl from AngryGoatapps.com - works well.
 

somebodyelse

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My music room setup is: ReadyNAS FLAC library > Daphile Bitperfect on NUC > USB > AES converter (Bryston) > AES > RME UFX > Win PC running Acourate Convolver > RME UFX > Analog balanced out to amplifiers (Stereo + Stereo Subs).
What's the reason for using Acourate Convolver on another PC instead of the BruteFIR convolver that's included in Daphile?
 

labdoc

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[Edited] I use Acourate for Digital Room Correction (DRC) in the music room only. In the bedroom and office, DSpeaker Antimodes provide DAC and DRC. It is not practical for me to create filters for each room as I would need to do if I used Brutefir running in each Daphile player. To be fair, I have not tried the Daphile Brutefir capability, so I have nothing to say against it. Other 'soft' reasons for not using the Brutefir capability of Daphile include Precedence (Acourate was running first), inertia (no wish to learn another convolver setup) and feature set (Acourate Convolver offers features and integration with Acourate not in other convolution software).
 
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somebodyelse

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Thanks. I've only dabbled with convolvers so it's nice to know the reasoning behind differing arrangements.
 

zalive

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Daphile caused clicks and pops in my system when I used Schiit Eitr as USB input side. I thought it was because either of Eitr, or because of laptop issues, or because of interoperability of those two hardwares. However clicks/pops completely vanished after I installed Volumio on same laptop.
 

somebodyelse

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On the interoperability side both rely on standard linux audio drivers, but there may be differences if they're not using the same kernel version. I've not tried contacting the developer of Daphile but they may be interested in fixing it. The development process isn't open like Volumio's. What sort of files were you playing, and how were you accessing them?
 

zalive

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Majority of clicking happened with the internet radio mp3, but it happened on a lower scale with 16/44.1 format or any other format. I accessed them through wireless, ethernet cable (internet radio) and through external USB drive (laptop).

There was something else related to Daphile and interoperability. I also used occasionally Starting Point Systems DAC3 (TDA1543 based NiMH powered DAC bought through the ebay), and if it played in approximately more than two hours in continuity, it suddenly went to complete distortion of sound which would became unlistenable...and the only thing you could do to stop it was to restart Daphile. Turning on and off DAC wouldn't help. This experience was prior Eitr, and I actually thought it was DAC's fault. But discovery related to Eitr experience made me open my eyes. Daphile as a whole is obviously not completely debugged and it will exhibit issues with certain gear.

Perhaps I will contact Daphile developer, though personally it's no longer that important to me as Volumio is more than adequate replacement.
 

Xulonn

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How to extract a radio stream URL from Tunein.com and open it in Daphile (Using Firefox browser).

I wanted to play “The Jazz Groove” internet radio stream and add it to my favorites, but Daphile’s internal Tunein search could not find the station, even though the Tunein.com website search engine could find and play it! So I had to figure out how to find the stream URL and manually add it to Daphile. Tunein and other internet radio aggregators do not make it easy to find stream URLs these days, but it can be done.

I searched and found a 2017 internet post on how to do it for another audio player, figured how to make it work for me, and modified the instructions to work for Daphile.

In honor of Amir and his menagerie of pink panthers, I use this gif to celebrate...

Pink Panther Popup.gif

  • Go to Tunein.com and start playing a station.

  • Right-click anywhere on the background of the page, and select Inspect Element - or use either of the keyboard shortcuts CTRL+SHIFT+I or F12.

  • Go to the search box at the top of the left column, type "jp_audio" and press enter.

  • Look for src=”http://XXXXXX where the X's are the actual URL. In my example for “The Jazz Groove” stream, the link was http://mp3-128.streamthejazzgroove.com/

  • Copy the link, go to Daphile, navigate to Audio/Player/Radio/Tune In URL, paste in the URL and click play.

  • Don’t forget to manually add the station name and URL to Daphile Favorites if it is a "keeper" for you.
 

rchrdm

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I just started using Daphile and am trying to get help to create a user manual. Would anyone on this string like to contribute?

Richard
 
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