Snakeoil Forums

(24-Aug-2022, 06:47 PM)sanathan Wrote: [ -> ]Let me try with rasperberry os and post again

Cool thanks. Have other plans for the next few days so can only really sit down on Sunday to continue, please take and pictures (or screencaps) and I'll see what's happening.

I guess I'll add my 2 cents....it's been a while since I used the installer as I've just been updating firmware for a while now, but I do remember having issues with the installer script on various OS installs and i can say that ultimately I settled on Raspian on both Pi3 and Pi4 as it's pretty bullet proof and sounds pretty good as well.

One thing I can recommend is to hook the Pi up to a monitor of sorts and see if the install is hanging anywhere. For instance, I remember the script hanging while trying to install the samba package. In that case I had to reflash the OS and install samba first and then execute the script:
 

After that things went great.

(27-Aug-2022, 05:42 AM)mkysimes Wrote: [ -> ]I guess I'll add my 2 cents....it's been a while since I used the installer as I've just been updating firmware for a while now, but I do remember having issues with the installer script on various OS installs and i can say that ultimately I settled on Raspian on both Pi3 and Pi4 as it's pretty bullet proof and sounds pretty good as well.

One thing I can recommend is to hook the Pi up to a monitor of sorts and see if the install is hanging anywhere. For instance, I remember the script hanging while trying to install the samba package. In that case I had to reflash the OS and install samba first and then execute the script:
 

Code:

sudo apt-get install samba samba-common-bin

After that things went great.

Good tip. I do recall for some reason samba is taking a long time to install. But it all went through eventually.. I just leave the installer running and go about checking other things. Curious - how long did it take you to install samba manually first?

Would love to test this myself, but unfortunately it'll be a while before I can get to test this.

Only took a couple seconds from what I recall. The nice thing is you can see the progression so you know it's installing.

By the way, I've been using Roon mostly lately. Went back to MPD/upnp tonight for a listen and all I can say is WOW. Hairs on my neck standing as I type this!

(27-Aug-2022, 07:37 AM)mkysimes Wrote: [ -> ]Only took a couple seconds from what I recall. The nice thing is you can see the progression so you know it's installing.

By the way, I've been using Roon mostly lately. Went back to MPD/upnp tonight for a listen and all I can say is WOW. Hairs on my neck standing as I type this!

Yeah, same here.  That's why I keep using SO, & MPD even I on and off tried different playback OS/softwares.  BTW, without using upnp, MPD sings a little bit better.

(27-Aug-2022, 07:37 AM)mkysimes Wrote: [ -> ]By the way, I've been using Roon mostly lately. Went back to MPD/upnp tonight for a listen and all I can say is WOW. Hairs on my neck standing as I type this!

I tried Roon a while ago, but the SQ was not as good. I have listened to other Roon setups and again, Roon loses out to native apps, LMS, Mpd.  But Roon diehards got very upset when I posted this in another forum.

(27-Aug-2022, 09:52 AM)Snoopy8 Wrote: [ -> ]

(27-Aug-2022, 07:37 AM)mkysimes Wrote: [ -> ]By the way, I've been using Roon mostly lately. Went back to MPD/upnp tonight for a listen and all I can say is WOW. Hairs on my neck standing as I type this!

I tried Roon a while ago, but the SQ was not as good. I have listened to other Roon setups and again, Roon loses out to native apps, LMS, Mpd.  But Roon diehards got very upset when I posted this in another forum.

I'm happy that you're so cruel to them. 

To each his own I guess.. Like myself, I prefer Squeezelite over MPD.. MPD doesn't do well with low dynamic range songs (which is around 95% of the music I own).

A lot of the songs I have are highly compressed in the dynamic range. Still lossless, but not a lot of dynamic range. MPD really make some of my favourite songs pretty unpleasant to listen to.

So objectively while Squeezelite is worse, it's actually still my preference. In a sense Squeezelite is a general player, it is not the best, but I don't get frustrated listening to music.. With Squeezelite, I have a few hundred songs I can listen to, with MPD that number is very very low (I don't think I even have 20).

I guess Roon users are behaving the same way, it's a preference. While they may insist Roon is best, understand it's best in to their context. That's why the motto of Snakeoil OS is - designed by us (basically me), defined by you (you guys - the audiophiles).

BTW, for those new to Snakeoil - different versions of MPD may have different sonic signatures, similar to Linux kernels. Some versions are just better than others. That's kind of why I tend to include different versions of MPD. Well I try to as much as I can anyway, it's hard to include them all because the base OS keeps changing more frequently than I have time to adapt.

It's hard to quantify what that difference is, and it's not a huge difference. I would consider cgroup and RAM bigger differences (like jaw dropping, how is this even possible different). Having said that, knowing something is different versus knowing which is better, the latter is a lot harder.

That hair raising at the back of your neck experience. If you done this enough times you'll find that you get that effect less and less. The human body will build immunity against this, numbing any subsequent effects. To be honest I havn't been looking for new music since Covid, mainly because I havn't been travelling anywhere. If you guys have some good music, please share them and I hope to grab them too. Please share them here: https://www.snakeoil-os.net/forums/Forum-Music

Roon tends to sound a bit clinical on my system but sometimes I prefer that sound. On good recordings there are details for days. 

I used to switch between MPD and Roon frequently while trying different cables, Pi3 vs Pi4, etc. I just really enjoy the user experience with Roon. It really is second to none. That said MPD seems to sound more realistic with more depth and an eerily organic sound that just makes my jaw drop with the right recording. It really is something special.

The problem is, I pay for Roon and a Tidal subscription and with those two things Roon is an incredible experience. The ability to just get lost in the user interface and find gobs of new music based on just about any variable is truly worth the money. 

And then, when the mood strikes, I'll switch over to MPD again and get a whole different experience with new found music that Roon allowed me to find. I absolutely love it. Wish I had more time.....lol.

(27-Aug-2022, 07:54 PM)agent_kith Wrote: [ -> ]To each his own I guess.. Like myself, I prefer Squeezelite over MPD.. MPD doesn't do well with low dynamic range songs (which is around 95% of the music I own).

You have always preferred LMS/Squeezelite, but what about LMS/Upmpdcli?

For me, it has been Mpd for a long time, started with the SOtM SMS-200. It is now even more so since I added an Innuos Phoenix USB Reclocker (not cheap!). Mpd with USB can be very clinical and some people feel that USB has a digital edge compared with AES/EBU. All that went away and vocals, in particular, are gorgeous. I can no longer listen to my setup without the Phoenix. 

Maybe another way to describe the Phoenix is like having the warmth of LMS/Squeezelite and all the details of Mpd?

Suggest you get Qobuz. Sound quality is very good, better than Tidal, and likely to be better than your compressed music.
 

(28-Aug-2022, 07:48 AM)mkysimes Wrote: [ -> ]The problem is, I pay for Roon and a Tidal subscription and with those two things Roon is an incredible experience. The ability to just get lost in the user interface and find gobs of new music based on just about any variable is truly worth the money. 

And then, when the mood strikes, I'll switch over to MPD again and get a whole different experience with new found music that Roon allowed me to find. I absolutely love it. Wish I had more time.....lol.

Friends of mine say the same about Roon and Tidal.  Roon is well integrated with Tidal and makes it easy to use. And they love the exploration of music, finding new music, and continue to use Roon even though they know SQ is not as good.

However, I do not do much music exploration and thus Roon did not appeal to me. I do use Qobuz to listen to occasional new albums, but in the main, used Mpd to play my music on a NAS.