Snakeoil Forums

I felt I had lost some of the great SQ I was getting with MPDv20 alone. Thought to uninstall upmpdcli and noticed in the snakeoil tab that both MPDv20 and upmpdcli were greyed out, suggesting upmpdcli was running even though the player tab showed only MPDv20 selected.

In the player tab, I unselected "enable server", which revealed the Music Clients menu and there was upmpdcli selected as a client. Presumably, I had selected it days ago during a previous test and when I switched to MPDv20 as server (which makes the client menu disappear), I assumed this would disable any clients but that might not be the case.

So I unchecked both enable server and enable client...save, then enabled only MPDv20 and went back to the snakeoil menu. Sure enough upmpdcli was no longer greyed out.

I didn't bother uninstalling it. To my ears, the previously great SQ of MPD alone was already restored. 

I wonder if this is an example of what @hkphantomgtr said "Added upmdcli, even I don't use it, it already deteriorates the sound."
...or AK might tell me upmpdcli was never actually running, in which case I may have imagined it. 

(24-Nov-2020, 02:59 PM)JD1 Wrote: [ -> ]I felt I had lost some of the great SQ I was getting with MPDv20 alone. Thought to uninstall upmpdcli and noticed in the snakeoil tab that both MPDv20 and upmpdcli were greyed out, suggesting upmpdcli was running even though the player tab showed only MPDv20 selected.

In the player tab, I unselected "enable server", which revealed the Music Clients menu and there was upmpdcli selected as a client. Presumably, I had selected it days ago during a previous test and when I switched to MPDv20 as server (which makes the client menu disappear), I assumed this would disable any clients but that might not be the case.

So I unchecked both enable server and enable client...save, then enabled only MPDv20 and went back to the snakeoil menu. Sure enough upmpdcli was no longer greyed out.

I didn't bother uninstalling it. To my ears, the previously great SQ of MPD alone was already restored. 

I wonder if this is an example of what @hkphantomgtr said "Added upmdcli, even I don't use it, it already deteriorates the sound."
...or AK might tell me upmpdcli was never actually running, in which case I may have imagined it. 

BTW, JD, did u try CPUSet and Priority setting in the SnakeOil tab?
And how is the result of the cyclictest?

(24-Nov-2020, 03:15 PM)hkphantomgtr Wrote: [ -> ]

(24-Nov-2020, 02:59 PM)JD1 Wrote: [ -> ] 

BTW, JD, did u try CPUSet and Priority setting in the SnakeOil tab?
And how is the result of the cyclictest?

I have CPU3 set to user and I set the single process of "mpd" to 99 (rt).  However, the latter seems to frequently revert so I need to keep checking TOP and when mpd shows at 20 instead of rt, I go back to Snakeoil tab, delete the mpd-99 setting, save and then re-enter it.

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Oh and cyclictest results look terrible. Is this normal for a Pi4?

(24-Nov-2020, 06:15 PM)JD1 Wrote: [ -> ]

(24-Nov-2020, 03:15 PM)hkphantomgtr Wrote: [ -> ]

(24-Nov-2020, 02:59 PM)JD1 Wrote: [ -> ] 

BTW, JD, did u try CPUSet and Priority setting in the SnakeOil tab?
And how is the result of the cyclictest?

I have CPU3 set to user and I set the single process of "mpd" to 99 (rt).  However, the latter seems to frequently revert so I need to keep checking TOP and when mpd shows at 20 instead of rt, I go back to Snakeoil tab, delete the mpd-99 setting, save and then re-enter it.

---

Oh and cyclictest results look terrible. Is this normal for a Pi4?

I didn't use Pi after my Pi 2+ given to my friend.   So I can't compare your latency value.  Yet I just would like to share that, setting the irq for usb, irq for network and few more processes always appear at the top of "TOP", that would reduce latency and give you better sound.  

BTW, what's the options in the "clocksource" of SnakeOil tab?  hpet, TSC?

I'm new to Pi. No options for clock. With "normal" mobo/CPU hpet, tsc and another (I think) were available. TSC sounded best in all such previous systems I owned. I would always see the USB irq popping up in the top of TOP and would set it to rt but with this Pi4 and MPD I can't identify any IRQs coming up in TOP.

(24-Nov-2020, 09:20 PM)JD1 Wrote: [ -> ]I'm new to Pi. No options for clock. With "normal" mobo/CPU hpet, tsc and another (I think) were available. TSC sounded best in all such previous systems I owned. I would always see the USB irq popping up in the top of TOP and would set it to rt but with this Pi4 and MPD I can't identify any IRQs coming up in TOP.

ic.  For the clocksource, in my previous fanless PC, TSC produces more sensational sound for some soft and small scale music, such as a vocal with a piano, or a single instrumental solo.   But the beat "seems quite drifting", esp. when listen to some larger scale music, e.g. orchestral, band sound.   Hpet is reverse.   In terms of latency value, TSC gives very low latency value, it's almost half of hpet in my previous and current fanless pc.  

For the IRQ, may I suggest than you stream and play a DXD file, and watch the "TOP" during playing?  I hope that'll be helpful.