MeZoX
Member
- Joined
- Nov 7, 2021
- Messages
- 75
- Likes
- 33
which product does support DLBC ? I need that
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miniDSP Flex
- Thread starter Sharpi31
- Start date
Only a few AVR's from Arcam, Focal and Bryston so far I think.
Well, one can dream of a software update... Although that would probably mean paying for an additional license.
High-end AV processors, the Monoprice HTP-1 is one of them. There is a rumor that the high-end Onyko and Pionner AVRs (11.2 channel 4K/120Hz AVRs) that are yet to be released has DLBC too.
MeZoX
Member
- Joined
- Nov 7, 2021
- Messages
- 75
- Likes
- 33
AVR market is a bit of a mess in the moment with the hdmi 2.1 support and HDR & Dolby technologies not fully supported I think it needs sometime for specs to stabilize , add to that not all of them support BE output
that Monoprice looks great with balanced output specially that you need long cable runs in HT setup , it does lack hdmi 2.1 though
JRS
Major Contributor
One thing I want to avoid is computer thrashes--what would you recommend as a solid platform for dsp and streaming? I really don't have a problem using my laptop as a piece in the pathway, but would love a set and forget situation that could be tucked away and streaming control done via an I-pad or tablet. Needs to support triamped mains and a subwoofer for film (20-50H).
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I have never tried it but there is now an equivalent plugin on Volumio v3.
https://community.volumio.org/t/fusiondsp-for-volumio3-beta/50474
Might be worth giving it a go if you have a spare Raspberry Pi lying around.
I replaced two miniDSP based systems with RPi4s running Ubuntu Server 64 bit and CamillaDSP with USB multichannel DACs about six months ago. Ubuntu is very stable, absolutely no issues in that regard. Both in terms of using it daily without issue and going out of town for weeks and coming back and everything working perfectly. I tried Moode early on but it didn't seem very reliable and Ubuntu has a newer kernel which I needed for my MOTU Ultralite Mk5.
On my main system the RPi4 just does DSP, on my secondary system the RPi4 does DSP and acts as a streamer. For the streamer squeezelite and shairport-sync (airplay) cover all of my needs but I also tried out Roon bridge when I was trialing Roon. I have not personally found any reason to install an audio specific distro.
Michael
JRS
Major Contributor
It's been forever since I used Unix and never linux, how much linux is required to implement and troubleshoot? I would love to be free of Windows!
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It does not require much linux skill, just need to be able to use SSH to remotely log in to the RPi and follow instructions.
At this point if you use a known multichannel DAC (Focusrite 18i20 2nd gen, MOTU Ultralite Mk5, Okto dac8 pro, MOTU M4, DIYINHK ES9016/ES9038) on a RPi4 it is around 20 minutes of setup time. Once you have the basic configuration setup then it is also a lot easier to make DSP changes because you can use the CamillaDSP web interface.
There is definitely the potential for more tinkering / troubleshooting depending on what you want to do. For example if you use a different USB DAC it might have some quirks or if you need a different audio player or streaming service that might require some troubleshooting. I keep things simple in my setup and have my software players (squeezelite and shairport-sync) resample to a fixed rate so I can run CamillaDSP at one rate (like miniDSP does). You can certainly setup CamillaDSP so it loads new configurations based on sample rate changes but that requires more complication.
Things get more complicated when you start integrating IR receivers and displays for volume control / indication which is why the digital output Flex would be such a nice front end as it solves all those issues with no fuss and gives you great input functionality.
To give you a feel see below for the setup instructions I currently use as well as a very basic configuration for a MOTU Ultralite Mk5.
CamillaDSP Setup
Rich (BB code):
---
Bold values indicate items that require user modification. Italic text indicates items to be entered in to terminal while being logged in to raspberry pi via SSH.
1) Write Ubuntu Server 21.10 to SD card using Raspberry Pi Imager
https://ubuntu.com/tutorials/how-to-install-ubuntu-on-your-raspberry-pi#1-overview
2) Modify network-config on SD card with text editor to enable wifi by adding the following line:
wifis:
wlan0:
dhcp4: true
optional: true
access-points:
"network name":
password: "passwd"
Once this is done you can insert the SD card in the Pi and power it up. The following instructions assume you will be doing a headless setup via SSH.
3) Change host name
ssh ubuntu@ubuntu
Default password is ubuntu. On your first log in you will be required to change the password. Change the password and log back in via ssh with your new password.
ssh ubuntu@ubuntu
Change hostname from ubuntu to desired hostname
sudo nano /etc/hostname -> change ubuntu to new hostname, in this case I am using raspberrypi3 as my hostname
sudo reboot
4) Change user name
ssh ubuntu@raspberrypi3
Create temp user so that you can log in as temp and change user name
sudo -s
useradd -G sudo temp
passwd temp
reboot
ssh temp@raspberrypi3
Change user name from ubuntu to new username, in this case I am using michael3 as my username
sudo -s
usermod -l michael3 ubuntu
Change home directory and group name to match your new user name (michael3)
usermod -d /home/michael3 -m michael3
groupmod --new-name michael3 ubuntu
reboot
ssh michael3@raspberrypi3
Delete temp user
sudo deluser temp
5) Update / upgrade apt
sudo apt update
sudo apt full-upgrade
sudo reboot
5) Install CamillaDSP
ssh michael3@raspberrypi3
wget https://github.com/HEnquist/camilladsp/releases/download/v1.0.0-alpha4/camilladsp-linux-aarch64.tar.gz
tar -xvf camilladsp-linux-aarch64.tar.gz
6) Create CamillaDSP yml configuration file
Prefer to put this in /home/michael3/camilladsp.yml so camilladsp can be removed and updated without impacting configuration file.
7) Create CamillaDSP service
You will need to change "ExecStart" line to reflect your yml configuration name / location
sudo nano /lib/systemd/system/camilladsp.service
[Unit]
After=syslog.target
StartLimitIntervalSec=10
StartLimitBurst=10
[Service]
Type=simple
ExecStart=/home/michael3/camilladsp -g-40 -p 1234 /home/michael3/camilladsp.yml
Restart=always
RestartSec=1
StandardOutput=syslog
StandardError=syslog
SyslogIdentifier=camilladsp
User=root
Group=root
CPUSchedulingPolicy=fifo
CPUSchedulingPriority=10
[Install]
WantedBy=graphical.target
8) Enable service
sudo systemctl enable camilladsp
9) Install python and dependencies
sudo apt install python3 python3-pip python3-websocket python3-aiohttp python3-jsonschema python3-numpy python3-matplotlib
10) Install pycamilladsp
sudo git clone https://github.com/HEnquist/pycamilladsp
cd ~/pycamilladsp
pip3 install .
cd ..
11) Install pycamilladsp-plot
sudo git clone https://github.com/HEnquist/pycamilladsp-plot
cd ~/pycamilladsp-plot
pip3 install .
cd ..
12) Install gui server
mkdir ~/configs
mkdir ~/coeffs
sudo apt install unzip
wget https://github.com/HEnquist/camillagui-backend/releases/download/v0.8.0/camillagui.zip
unzip ~/camillagui.zip -d ~/camillagui
nano ~/camillagui/config/camillagui.yml -> update path to configuration files and configs / coeffs
GUI is accessed via http://raspberrypi3:5000
14) Create service to start GUI
sudo nano /lib/systemd/system/camillagui.service
[Unit]
Description=CamillaDSP Backend and GUI
After=multi-user.target
[Service]
User=michael3
Type=idle
ExecStart=python3 /home/michael3/camillagui/main.py
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
sudo systemctl enable camillagui
15) Set up loopback
sudo nano /etc/modules-load.d/snd-aloop.conf -> snd-aloop
snd-aloop.ko is not installed by default on Ubuntu 21.10, run command below to install it.
sudo apt install linux-modules-extra-$(uname -r)
16) Create udev rule to start service when DAC is connected
udevadm monitor --subsystem-match=usb --property --udev
Plug in DAC (if it is currently plugged in, unplug it and re-plug it in)
Record the vendor ID. Use ctrl + c to exit.
sudo nano /etc/udev/rules.d/90-camilladsp.rules
ACTION=="add", SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTRS{idVendor}=="20b1", RUN+="/bin/systemctl --no-block start camilladsp" -> change 20b1 to the vendor ID for your DAC
20) Install squeezelite
This will install squeezelite and resample all files to 44.1 kHz using sox (unless file is natively 44.1 kHz). In addition squeezelite will stop after 5 seconds of inactivity to allow for shairport-sync to be used in addition to squeezelite.
sudo apt install squeezelite
sudo nano /etc/default/squeezelite
SL_SOUNDCARD="hw:0,1"
SB_EXTRA_ARGS="-W -C 5 -r 44100-44100 -R hLE:::28"
21) Install shairport-sync
sudo apt install shairport-sync libsoxr-dev
sudo nano /etc/shairport-sync.conf
Uncomment the following lines (delete // from start of line) and make changes shown below.
name = "%h";
interpolation = "soxr";
port = 6000;
drift_tolerance_in_seconds = 0.010;
output_device = "hw:0,1";
sudo rebootcamilladsp.yml
Rich (BB code):
---
devices:
samplerate: 96000
chunksize: 4096
enable_rate_adjust: true
enable_resampling: true
resampler_type: BalancedAsync
silence_threshold: -100
silence_timeout: 5.0
capture_samplerate: 44100
capture:
type: Alsa
channels: 2
device: "hw:Loopback,0"
format: S32LE
playback:
type: Alsa
channels: 18
device: "hw:UltraLitemk5"
format: S24LE3
mixers:
2to10chan:
channels:
in: 2
out: 18
mapping:
- dest: 0
sources:
- channel: 0
gain: 0
inverted: false
- dest: 1
sources:
- channel: 1
gain: 0
inverted: false
- dest: 2
sources:
- channel: 0
gain: 0
inverted: false
- dest: 3
sources:
- channel: 1
gain: 0
inverted: false
- dest: 4
sources:
- channel: 0
gain: 0
inverted: false
- dest: 5
sources:
- channel: 1
gain: 0
inverted: false
- dest: 6
sources:
- channel: 0
gain: 0
inverted: false
- dest: 7
sources:
- channel: 1
gain: 0
inverted: false
- dest: 8
sources:
- channel: 0
gain: 0
inverted: false
- dest: 9
sources:
- channel: 1
gain: 0
inverted: false
- dest: 14
sources:
- channel: 0
gain: 0
inverted: false
- dest: 15
sources:
- channel: 1
gain: 0
inverted: false
filters:
volume:
type: Volume
parameters:
ramp_time: 200
pipeline:
- type: Mixer
name: 2to10chan
- type: Filter
channel: 0
names:
- volume
- type: Filter
channel: 1
names:
- volume
- type: Filter
channel: 2
names:
- volume
- type: Filter
channel: 3
names:
- volume
- type: Filter
channel: 4
names:
- volume
- type: Filter
channel: 5
names:
- volume
- type: Filter
channel: 6
names:
- volume
- type: Filter
channel: 7
names:
- volume
- type: Filter
channel: 8
names:
- volume
- type: Filter
channel: 9
names:
- volume
- type: Filter
channel: 14
names:
- volume
- type: Filter
channel: 15
names:
- volumeMichael
1) higher sampling rate will not make any improvement to the sound
2) your idea of using a pair of DACs driven by the flex digital won’t be convenient for headphones as none of the low bass will be going to this DAC and you will have to set a different configuration in the MiniDSP and keep track of it (no crossover , Dirac off)
If I were you I would just get the analog out flex and set up a separate system for headphones .
1) I beg to differ, higher sampling gives more headroom w.r.t usable dynamic range especially when attenuating volume in a file library or doing EQ in general. Much better explained there: http://archimago.blogspot.com/2019/02/musings-why-bother-with-24-bit-dacs.html?m=1
2) Yes I know but I am hoping there is a way to quickly switch between presets on the flex? I think I have read somewhere that the SHD has such a feature.
I have recently upgraded to an amp with balanced inputs whereas my sub has single ended so Id rather use the 2 DACs I already have (one balanced out and one unbalanced out) to match everything nicely. If there is no quick preset switch on the flex I might have to rethink this though.
This is nonsense, higher sampling rate has nothing to do with dynamic range or headroom. You are confusing sampling rate and bit depth.
True, I confused them.
Point still stands for bit depth though.
I am surprised by the level of aggressivity. I am not very knowledgeable when it gets technical, which I am sure you will rush to point out, but I am trying to learn.
I thought this forum was about sharing knowledge and when a newbie like me dares to post something (instead of lurking around as I used to do for so long) and makes a mistake someone would jump in nicely to help and correct. I am probably being a bit naive.
Other newbies may be happy to learn stuff while reading the link I shared above, which I think is very informative. Discussing the content rather than accusing me of saying nonsense, although factually true, I reckon is more helpful for everyone. Again, I am probably being a naive.
JRS
Major Contributor
Maybe I am confused, but sampling rate isn't the cause of the difference, bit depth is. So for example, 44/24 should have all the benefits claimed in the link whether 96/24, 192/24 etc.
Edit: thanks for the link. It was informative, but not entirely convinced that with thoughtful gain matching, it has much of an impact on home audio.
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JRS
Major Contributor
Not a day goes by where I haven't learned something here, the level of expertise is at times astonishing. So stick around.
Calling a false statement nonsense is not personal, so please don't take it personally. It appears in this post and some previous posts that you are trying to solve a problem that doesn't exist and in doing so creating other problems for yourself or increasing system complexity. I was trying to help. As to bit depth , there is no advantage to using a separate DAC with the Flex digital vs the Flex analog.
You have a few options:
1) you could use the miniDSP Flex balanced without any other DAC with conversion cables for your sub (this is what I plan to do for my desktop system. You would use a different device for headphones
2) you could use an SHD studio with two DACS, it has a headphone out
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