Submitted by ggking7 on Fri, 02/05/2010 - 11:39
If anyone is using mpd on Linux with a 24-bit USB DAC (such as the Wavelength Proton), mpd recently incorporated S24_3LE support into the latest version in git. This means mpd can send audio straight to the DAC instead of processing in alsa first. This means no 32-bit conversion in mpd before being converted to S24_3LE in alsa. mpd converts straight to S24_3LE and outputs to the DAC if you specify hw:0,0. I'm noticing a definite improvement on my Audioengine 2A's. Once this change makes it's way to an mpd release instead of only being in the git repository, I bet audiophile mpd users take immediate notice of the change.
king this is really cool. I might have to pick up Linux soon.
david is hear
http://www.tuniverse.tv
Linux has a Git Repository - I knew it would! ;)
Bob
CAPS(EssenceST)-->Tact 2.0s-->Audio Reseach 100.2-->Martin Logan Vista
.. and Linux Lovers everywhere, for the above frippery. I just couldn't resist it. :)
Bob
CAPS(EssenceST)-->Tact 2.0s-->Audio Reseach 100.2-->Martin Logan Vista
can you elaborate on what S24_3LE is? I can't find much info on it. What does the mpd config file look like using it?
Jesus R
www.sonore.us
ps that project we spoke about is up and running:)
Sonore Fanless Music Player W/Vortexbox Engine -> Playback Controlled from iTouch or Web GUI-> no Mouse, no Keyboard, no Monitor....no Problem -> Lynx L22 & Lynx AES16
Nice, If anybody using Fedora wants to test it out I have the latest GIT build of mpd in the VortexBox repo.
http://yum.vortexbox.org/releases/11/i386/RPMS/mpd-0.16-5.fc11.i586.rpm
agillis
Lead Developer VortexBox Project
http://vortexbox.org
S24_3LE is a 24-bit format also known as "packed 24-bit". All 24-bit USB DACs only support S24_3LE. Since mpd didn't support this format before, it converted everything to a 32-bit format and then ALSA was needed to convert that 32-bit format to S24_3LE for a 24-bit USB DAC. That's why I could never get mpd to send audio straight to the Wavelength Proton with hw:0,0. I had to use plughw:0,0 instead because that allowed ALSA to make the conversion. hw:0,0 sends the audio straight to the DAC without any conversion. No other mpd.conf configuration is necessary besides specifying hw:0,0.
Jesus, very glad to hear it worked out.
If anybody is using Gentoo there is an ebuild which pulls in the latest git, but it isn't in portage.
thanks for the initial update and additional info!
Now I understand what you were doing before with plughw:0,0....
Jesus R
www.sonore.us
Sonore Fanless Music Player W/Vortexbox Engine -> Playback Controlled from iTouch or Web GUI-> no Mouse, no Keyboard, no Monitor....no Problem -> Lynx L22 & Lynx AES16
Today I had the chance to test my Halide Bridge on a Linux Box, with Ubuntu and MPD.
Using the 0.15 version of MPD (with no support for S24_3LE) the sound was dull, flat, at least compared to my Windows 7 box with JRiver.
So I've compiled the new alpha version (0.16), and the change is not subtle.
I think I'll use this configuration for a few weeks, and then I'll come back to Windows to understand which one I prefer, but so far I'm very pleased.
Massimiliano