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In the Forum: Didital Things
In the Thread: High Quality Music Server / CD player
Post Subject: The digital audio future...Posted by nycparamedic on: 12/9/2008
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 Romy the Cat wrote:

Even though I do understand that advantages to run dedicated operation system but it do not automatically implies that the result will be better.


No, not automatically. But I believe using a minimalist open source operating system is a great start into the future that is server based music playing. The platform is open for experimentation to anybody, unlike closed software under Microsoft or Apple.

 Romy the Cat wrote:
There are many reasons why if you wish we can go into it. Still, no one say that what you proposed might be no worth to investigate.


That's exactly why I posted, to share some interesting information. And hopefully this will convince some (Linux friendly) folks to experiment and share their results.

 Romy the Cat wrote:
Therefore here is my question: how a person, who has a very limited knowledge of what you are talking about and has absolutely not point of reference regarding the “Quality” of sound you refer to, can familiar itself with the playback you describe?  Is it possible to trial buy this Linux playback and to then return it if it is not contestable with what people currently use?


At this point, no. This is purely a do-it-yourself endeavor. There is more work & brains involved putting this together, but it keeps the price *very* low. And the platform is very open to experimentation, i.e., using low latency or even real-time kernels, etc.

 
 Romy the Cat wrote:
Also, how comfortable it is in use? If it has no video interface, no graphic interface… I mean it possible with this Linux playback to know how large the file, where you are reader is currently is, how much left and to advanced the reading cursor to a specific point of the file?


Maybe I wasn't clear enough in my original post. The Alix computer runs headless, i.e., it's a server with no monitor. It runs the MPD server daemon which is responsible only for serving the music to the audio device, e.g., the USB DAC. The MPD *client* is the graphics programs responsible for displaying play lists, current songs, shuffling, album artwork, etc. It can run on any machine on the network (or even from across the internet) that the MPD server is on. Of course, if you want to have both MPD server and client running on the same machine you can do that as well. I use GMPC on the bedroom computer. Here are some screenshots. I also runn mmpc
on my Nokia N800 tablet; using this to control playback from the sweet spot. We use the MPC client on a seperate machine so that we can have a small and silent machine dedicated to doing only one thing: playing the music. This obviates the need for having PC's or laptops in the listening room.

 Romy the Cat wrote:
The second part is slightly misleading. Even the Linux playback might be very good but I feel that is still does not address the debate of good CD Transport (that reads in real time) vs. disks played from music server.

But there are only so many errors a spinning transport can handle --since it's reading the disc in real time-- before it just passes those errors of to the DAC. And CD's only get scratched more and more as you play them. And transport designer have to throw a tonne (read money) at transport mechanisms to reduce vibrations, etc.

 Romy the Cat wrote:
You are taking about the properly implemented music server and even if we presume that Linux playback is the one that “properly implemented” then what read the CD in your Linux playback? Would it it be the very same CDROM as anywhere else?

But the the CDROM does not have to read the disc in real time. It can do multiple passes, at a leisurely rate, and get the data it needs.

 Romy the Cat wrote:
I have no down that contemporary music servers, would it be PC, MAC or Linux of whatever might play files with very high quality but the weakest link in the chain the stupid piece of hardware on which music is delivers – the CD disk.

I agree. Which is why I am excited about the future of music servers. Trent Reznor, lead singer and sole member of Nine Inch Nails released a free album as a digital download not too long ago. A month later he released it in CD format. The digital release is available in MP3, 16 bit WAV, 16bit FLAC, and 24bit 96khz WAV and FLAC. Link. The CD, in this case, is eliminated in the chain of playback. I hope that this is the future of audiophile music.Maybe we could also have double release of albums, i.e., one with compression for the iPod and boom box crowd, and one without compression for the audiophile community. Tom petter *did* just that recently with his latest album. The vinyl release comes with a CD version of the album that has no compression.

An interesting experiment would be to see of the CD sounds any different from the digital files on the same music server.

 Romy the Cat wrote:
I do feel that some of “audiophile” dedicated CD transport/players read CD much better then computers CDROMs I know your arguments. You would say that in most of the “audiophile dedicated CD transport/players” used the same $20-worth CDROM as used in most of the computers. I would not argue but I would just report that in my experience the dedicated “audio” CD transport deliver better sound (for whatever reason). I would love to get rid of my CD transport and run my CD from my DAW but never was able to come even close to the sound I would like to have when I read the CD from the DAW’s CDROM or when I ripped the CD with EAC.

But you also might have overlooked some variables that frustrate many audiophile attempting this approach. Was Kmixer in Windows changing the sampling rate of your music? If you installed ASIO or that other plugin, was it working properly? If you were using OS X, was this the audio subsystem configured properly as well? Did you have the correct offsets set for your CD-ROM drive under EAC?

These are just some the issues that need to be streamlined to make things a little easier for the common audiophile. As for me, I will continue experimenting with Linux, but more importantly I will continue thoroughly enjoy music with this setup.

I'm currently waiting to get my Brick USB DAC from Wavelength audio after going back for the USB asynchronous mode upgrade. Let see if there's any real *noticeable* difference...

Cheers.

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