Saturday 25 March 2017

HOWTO: Building and Installing the Raspberry Pi 3 "Touch" Audio Streamer.

Raspberry Pi 3 + 7" Touchscreen (left) and Squeezebox Touch (right): for the Pi device, I still had the plastic screen protector on in the picture, hence the bottom left tab...
I showed you guys this picture last time of the Raspberry Pi 3-based Streamer device with official 7" touchscreen and HiFiBerry DAC+ Pro. As you can see from the image, it's very much capable of being a "clone" of the Squeezebox Touch. Furthermore, it's highly affordable with even more hi-res audio potential such as the capability to stream bitrates beyond 96kHz (remember, the stock Touch goes up to 96kHz, enhanced to 192kHz with Triode's EDO plugin).

In this post, let's have a closer look at the device and some instructions / suggestions to build one.

Tuesday 14 March 2017

MUSINGS: Computer Audio Part II: The Basics & Suggestions



For many readers, I'm sure what I'm about to write here is relatively "old hat" by now... However, in the spirit of "Computer Audio Demystified" last week, let's talk about this powerful way of storing, categorizing, and playing our music by exploring some aspects of the foundation of computer audio in a way I hope newcomers will find reasonably accessible. I do make some assumptions in the writing that the reader has some basic knowledge of computer usage and networking. Let's consider the "architecture" of what someone might want to build, and a few reasonable options if we were to start from scratch with full disclosure of the price to build such systems.

I can imagine that some folks might need to overcome their phobia around computers. If you're motivated, just put in some time, a little patience and don't be afraid to "play" with it. More likely than not, once one has tasted the convenience and have found one's "groove", going back to only spinning physical media will likely feel archaic after a short while :-).

First, permit me to remind everyone about the two most important determinants of sound quality in a high fidelity audio system:
1. Put thought and money into good speakers, good pre-amp/amp(s), good DAC and a good sounding room.
2. Make sure the system is acoustically quiet; ideally silent.
Point 1 is obvious. The primary factors in sound quality (ie. "fidelity" achievable) are the room, speakers, and amps in that order - these are the prime candidates for sound distortion, not your computer or DAC (and certainly not stuff like cables). And Point 2 is an obvious corollary for any equipment we put in the room since we don't want the system itself to act detrimentally - this includes noisy computers, buzzy amp transformers, ground loops through the pre-amp, etc. Remember that the purpose of computer audio is simply about storing the audio library data reliably, making available a conveniently handy user interface, and the bits are being delivered in an accurate fashion to the DAC; whether internal to the computer audio device or say an external USB DAC. There is no mystery in how to come up with a solution to achieve these goals.

Saturday 4 March 2017

MUSINGS: Computer Audio Part I: Demystifying "Computer Audio Demystified"


It's nice to see that some of the seminars at the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest (RMAF) 2016 have been posted on YouTube. It gives all of us who may have wanted to visit a chance to review the "latest and greatest" tips and updates...

Although the RMAF is hosted by the Colorado Audio Society, remember that much of the material comes from Industry; with of course the potential for vested interests influencing the content. I think many visitors to this blog would be interested in computer audio, so let's spend some time looking at the information disseminated... For your consideration, let us explore the one presented by Steve Silberman of AudioQuest - "Computer Audio Demystified" (RMAF 2016):



Feel free to watch the full 1.5 hours. For today's segment, we'll look at a bit of reality testing vs. myth vs. mysticism. You'll notice that the comments section for this video on YouTube has been turned off. Interesting. How else to discuss the contents then than in a blog post like this, right? :-)