'Analog Dinosaur' succumbs to the joys of FBA : enter Raspberry Pi 2/IQ-Audio DAC+!!

[WAD62]

I'm using piCorePlayer, and as it runs from RAM alone the speed, size, and fragmentation of the micro SD card is of limited concern

One can remove the card whilst it's up and running...apparently, although I've not bothered proving this myself

[The Barbarian]

Thanks Andre but I think you've misread it, easy to do....

The memory of a card is divided into minimum memory units. The device writes data onto memory units where no data is already stored. As available memory becomes divided into smaller units through normal use, this leads to an increase in non-linear, or fragmented storage. The amount of fragmentation can reduce write speeds, so faster SD memory card speed standards help compensate for fragmentation.

What they are saying is that during normal file system usage as file are deleted and others written fragmentation occurs which can affect the write performance (by adding write latency) of the flash memory. The higher classes of card offset this increased write latency by being faster in the first place so the effect is less noticeable.

On another note these classifications of speed class are for sequential continuous writes. When an SD card is used in a computer environment, like on our RPi's the card is subjected to a small block random read and write pattern, not sequential write (well only at the time of creating the image) so the most important parameter for the card and it's not often if at all published is the 4K block random read/write performance.

There is a thread over on the RPi forum where this is explained and a whole bunch of performance results posted on numerous different SD cards. It may surprise you that some of the fastest performing cards in this 4K random test are Class4 cards and not Class10...

I did not get the information from that Page, i found that to show you.I always assumed this was so & still do.I will always buy a class 10 over a four.

However i don't have time for computer based music player the reason i dropped the idea before it got off the floor. The laptop with my HRT will do beacuse at the end of the day i listern to files only when im on the computer browsing, it is in no way a source for me just back ground music..

[Krisbee]

Re: Picking a sdcard for your RPi.

If you want to get technical about this, how about :

http://mirror.linux.org.au/pub/linux...d_Systems.webm

It includes this:



Note the standard for class 10 sdcard speed is for an unfragmented card.

Personally, I wouldn't get too hung up about it. Buy a good brand from a known source, and back it up. Avoid cheap sdcards, unless in a genuine sale, there are many fakes around. A decent Class 6 is good enough.

[NRG]

+1 Here's the RPi thread for those with insomnia: https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/v...hp?f=63&t=4076

[Krisbee]

+1 Here's the RPi thread for those with insomnia: https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/v...hp?f=63&t=4076

And for the Linux obsessive, an example explanation of how to align the partitions on a RPi SDcard for optimal performance:

https://thelastmaimou.wordpress.com/...-raspberry-pi/

I promise, no more geek stuff.

[lovejoy]

A very interesting thread!
My question is... if I already have a Logitech Touch will I notice any benefit in going over to a Raspberry Pi system?
Thanks,
Richard.

The Touch is a great piece of kit. I ran one for a couple of years, firstly on its own, then later as a transport into my Naim DAC. I applied all of the tweaks, the Soundcheck TT mods, better power supply, turned off the screen etc. etc. Even with all of that, in terms of sound quality, a Pi 2 and an IQAudio DAC leaves a Touch eating dirt. If you can live without the display from the Touch (which is easy to get used to when you use either a smart phone, tablet or computer to control music playback from the Pi), there is no reason not to make the switch. The fundamental difference is that as good as the SBT is, you're still very much aware you're listening to digital audio. The Pi just sounds like music, and it's very easy to lose MANY hours getting completely drawn in by it.

[Marco]

The fundamental difference is that as good as the SBT is, you're still very much aware you're listening to digital audio. The Pi just sounds like music, and it's very easy to lose MANY hours getting completely drawn in by it.

An excellent précis, Rich, of 'what's what'

Marco.

[Bonky]

An excellent précis, Rich, of 'what's what'

Marco.

Thanks Marco and Lovejoy.

...looks like another visit to Maplins!

I hope I don't need to wade through all 74 pages here to find out what to buy and how to get it all set up.

Can I just use a USB HD as my music source and just plug it in?
Edit: I see from the OP that you can. Great.

BW

Richard.

[lovejoy]

You can indeed. The only thing you need to watch there is that by default, the Pi does not allow the full current output to the USB ports in order to power a USB hard drive sufficiently. There is a bit of code that needs to be added to support this, although I believe that the latest builds of Volumio etc. do already have this included - You'll know whether it does or not as you'll hear your hard drive spinning up and down continually if there's not enough power there.

A list of what you need in total:
1 x Raspberry Pi B+ or Pi 2 (The Pi 2 is the one to have, don't buy the older models as the header pins are different and they won't fit the DAC)
1 x IQAudio DAC+ board
1 x 5V power supply, make sure it delivers at least 1.5A - The DAC board takes its supply from the Pi and a 1A supply isn't quite enough so you might find that if you buy a Pi bundle with keyboard, SD card etc. that the power supply won't be beefy enough.
1 x micro SD card of 4GB or more - I've tried a few different types of card and I honestly think that due to the amount of small files written to the card, the speed/class of the card makes no odds
Depending on how you'll be networking, either a wireless USB dongle or Ethernet cable to your router

Then all you need is either a computer with a USB card reader or a micro SD card USB adapter. Staples sell 16GB micro SD cards for £5 that come with the micro SD card adapters.

Now download your chosen image - Volumio seems to be the most popular. I'm currently using moode audio which I like a lot but they're all based on the same player so there's not a lot in it. Then you just need to write the image to your micro SD card. If you have Windows, a copy of Win32DiskImager will do you nicely. If you're using a Mac or Linux then you need to open a terminal and use the dd command to write the image to the SD card (Let me know if you need instructions).

With the image written, insert into your Pi and switch on. With it being headless and if your router is dishing out IP addresses via DHCP then you might not know where to find it initially, but Volumio takes care of this as you just open a browser on your PC and go to http://volumio.local which will open the web browser - The first thing I always do from here is to set a static IP address, so that if you're going to be serving music from a NAS, you can get this permanently set up - sounds as if that's not important to you though.

Next you just need to set the output correctly, so from the Settings menu you need to tell it that you have the IQAudio Dac+ connected, give it a reboot, and you should be ready to play music.

Sounds easy doesn't it ;-).

[Bonky]

Thanks for that Lovejoy; much appreciated!

I have an iMac on which all my ripped music is stored. Most of it is in iTunes but there's a significant lot in my 'high def' file ...24 bit... For streaming to the Touch.
I also have a MacBook Pro so can access all the iTunes music on the iMac via the Cloud.

Both Macs run Windows7 as well, if needed.

I have a couple of spare powered USB hard drives I could press into service.

I hear that the optional DAC of choice won't be available again until the end of April. Shame...I've got the bug...

Thanks again,

Richard


Both Macs can run Windows 7 as well, either from Parallels or Bootcamp.