Author Topic: The Pains of Computer Audio  (Read 13499 times)

Offline shadowlight

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Re: The Pains of Computer Audio
« Reply #15 on: September 16, 2018, 07:00:25 PM »
Jim, as Rich mentioned one of the better application out there is foobar, so you can try that on your existing laptop.  I still believe you should be able to leverage your Lumin streamer to play your local files.  Can you access you music on the WD NAS drive from the Lumin streamer?  If yes, copy a file that is on your local USB drive over to the NAS drive and see if you are able to play the song.  If yes, just copy everything over from the USB drive to you WD NAS and use Lumin to play it.

According to the Lumin Quickstart Guide you should be able to do that.  The only sticking point would be if your WD NAS has UPnP server.  If you are coming over my place on Oct. 27th with Tom, bring your NAS, laptop, USB drive and Lumin over to my place and I will try to get it configured for you.

Offline richidoo

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Re: The Pains of Computer Audio
« Reply #16 on: September 16, 2018, 09:18:00 PM »
I do I use Tidal on my Lumin, good but not as good sonically as hi res local file

Agreed, it's mostly 44.1 and  hi res sounds better if it's real. Tidal does have a lot of genuine high resolution albums as Master series, but not always what you want to hear.

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JRiver wont read all my files. depends on sampling rates, bit length etc.

You answered your own question: Dump JRiver.

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I want to buy a dedicated computer and just play from my NAS or HDD.

I just read a little about your Lumin D1. Seems like that should do what you want. Is it not cuttin the mustard?

Offline jimbones

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Re: The Pains of Computer Audio
« Reply #17 on: September 17, 2018, 05:12:05 AM »
Shadow,

That opens up yet ANOTHER can of worms. I can and do access my NAS files from the Lumin. However the other day I was using the app on my iPAD and noticed all the cover art and metadata scrambled. (wrong art with wrong album, wrong artist etc) :shock: This is the first time this has happened. Have no clue why. I check my NAS it was fine but somehow when it shows up in the Lumin library its scrambled. (It is UPnP) I contacted Lumin they told me to install MiniminServer. Just to find out WD does not support 3rd party apps on its NAS lol. :roll: You cant make this stuff up. So now Lumin says I have to install MiniminServer on a computer that is on my network. Ok I can do that but can you see how many issues there are. I must have identified a dozen already lol! I just want a simple good sounding solution.  :duh

Jim, as Rich mentioned one of the better application out there is foobar, so you can try that on your existing laptop.  I still believe you should be able to leverage your Lumin streamer to play your local files.  Can you access you music on the WD NAS drive from the Lumin streamer?  If yes, copy a file that is on your local USB drive over to the NAS drive and see if you are able to play the song.  If yes, just copy everything over from the USB drive to you WD NAS and use Lumin to play it.

According to the Lumin Quickstart Guide you should be able to do that.  The only sticking point would be if your WD NAS has UPnP server.  If you are coming over my place on Oct. 27th with Tom, bring your NAS, laptop, USB drive and Lumin over to my place and I will try to get it configured for you.
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Offline tmazz

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Re: The Pains of Computer Audio
« Reply #18 on: September 17, 2018, 07:22:35 AM »
Jim, since you're using PC connected directly to DAC, why not just play directly from the streamer apps like Tidal or whatever you use? I like Tidal app better than Roon anyway. I think that's what Tmazz does? Then use foobar or JRiver for playing local files.

Rich I play Tidal a variety of ways depending on where I am using it. If I am working at my desk and just wand to stream music through the attached PC speakers I do use the Tidal PC app. If I am listing in the garage or the yard using by portable Bluetooth speaker I stream over my phone via the Tidal Andriod Up. However integration of streaming music into my main system is done with a Bluesound Node and in that case I use the Bluesound software which takes care of all of my online streaming needs plus can access files from my computer.It is somewhat clunky and probably not the best way to handle the computer based files, but I only have a handful of them so at this time it is not worth the time and effort it would take to research and install a better solution.However if in the future I will probably have to go down that road if I start getting heavier into file based music. But seeing as how quickly things change in the software world I don't think the issue is worth addressing until I need to and then look into what are the best options at that time.
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Offline jimbones

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Re: The Pains of Computer Audio
« Reply #19 on: September 18, 2018, 05:28:20 AM »
Good newws and bad news. I found out that I can connect my HDD directly to my Lumin. The downside is that I wont enjoy all the features and it will be slower according to Lumin. grrr lol
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Offline shadowlight

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Re: The Pains of Computer Audio
« Reply #20 on: September 18, 2018, 06:06:05 AM »
Until you make a decision on which direction you want to go.  Install Mininserver on your laptop and have it scan the USB drive and the cloud storage.  Use Lumin to stream all your music.

Offline jimbones

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Re: The Pains of Computer Audio
« Reply #21 on: September 18, 2018, 11:31:51 AM »
Ok making progress. MinimServer is installed and now I have to make sure it can see the NAS. I have a feeling that once this is setup it should be better. Also I will look for a player like Foobar to go on my laptop
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Offline Bob in St. Louis

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Re: The Pains of Computer Audio
« Reply #22 on: September 18, 2018, 07:39:31 PM »
....and all this time I thought computers were supposed to make things like this easier.  :duh
I mean.... it's just a bunch of files that need accessed and executed, right?

The Squeezebox killed it for me. It's what caused me to dump my MASSIVE library and start streaming.
Yea, I've still got the HDD, but honestly, I've been beaten down. I now get that "needle in the arm" for my music from Pandora, Spotify, Youtube, and a few other smaller streaming sites. When the audiophile bug bites me, I'll fire up the HDD and use MediaMonkey to play the FLAC.

But honestly, we're a dying breed and there doesn't seem to be a reliable piece of hard/software to play music. Seems like such a simple task, ya know?
It's just playing music after all, but it seem technology hasn't caught up to such advanced computational complexities as playing music.
Over the years, I've lowered my standards in order to achieve what I need without hassle. The solution shouldn't require anything that requires a four figure solution. That's completely unacceptable. I mean... We're just decoding "ones and zeros" through a machine that's designed to decode ones and zeros. Right?
Why do we have to spend a bunch of money to decode that?

Online HAL

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Re: The Pains of Computer Audio
« Reply #23 on: September 18, 2018, 07:56:47 PM »
I have been using Foobar2000 on a low power fanless PC for years and have excellent digital playback from an USB external SSD.

You can stream from PC's as well. 

It does not have to be that hard.

Offline Nick B

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Re: The Pains of Computer Audio
« Reply #24 on: September 18, 2018, 07:59:37 PM »
....and all this time I thought computers were supposed to make things like this easier.  :duh
I mean.... it's just a bunch of files that need accessed and executed, right?

The Squeezebox killed it for me. It's what caused me to dump my MASSIVE library and start streaming.
Yea, I've still got the HDD, but honestly, I've been beaten down. I now get that "needle in the arm" for my music from Pandora, Spotify, Youtube, and a few other smaller streaming sites. When the audiophile bug bites me, I'll fire up the HDD and use MediaMonkey to play the FLAC.

But honestly, we're a dying breed and there doesn't seem to be a reliable piece of hard/software to play music. Seems like such a simple task, ya know?
It's just playing music after all, but it seem technology hasn't caught up to such advanced computational complexities as playing music.
Over the years, I've lowered my standards in order to achieve what I need without hassle. The solution shouldn't require anything that requires a four figure solution. That's completely unacceptable. I mean... We're just decoding "ones and zeros" through a machine that's designed to decode ones and zeros. Right?
Why do we have to spend a bunch of money to decode that?

Bob,
I hated the Squeezebox and all it’s quirks and lack of stability. My Auralic is quirky too, but I only use Roon nowadays, so all is good. But Roon is only as good as my internet speed, which sometimes amazingly gets down to 1 or 2 mb. Maybe when Jim’s issue is positively resolved, you can post about yours. I can’t recall if you’ve posted on your situation before.
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Offline jimbones

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Re: The Pains of Computer Audio
« Reply #25 on: September 19, 2018, 04:58:07 AM »
Each day I make a little bit of progress. MinimServer is up and "running" except I can't seem to find how to load my music files into it. I'll have to spend some time tonite looking at the settimg. But the good thing is i see MinimServer from my iPAD in Lumin so I am very close....
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Offline shadowlight

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Re: The Pains of Computer Audio
« Reply #26 on: September 19, 2018, 07:53:15 AM »
I guess I have been lucky with my setup but I also use a dedicated music only system and that might be the reason for the stability that I have gotten.  I have Logitech, MinimServer and JRiver running on the same system, which streams music to HQPlayer via either BubbleUPnP, mConnect or eos JRiver remote.

Offline jimbones

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Re: The Pains of Computer Audio
« Reply #27 on: September 19, 2018, 08:41:12 AM »
Deepak, I believe a lot of my problems arise in my attempts to "optimize" a Windows based computer. For example trying to use Fidelizer or JPlay with JRiver. I find JRiver very buggy on its own. Then trow in JPLay. When JPlay is working it improves the sound immensely.  However the 2 do not play nice in the sand box. I have some ideas of maybe getting a Linux box and I wount have to use any optimizers.
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Offline shadowlight

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Re: The Pains of Computer Audio
« Reply #28 on: September 19, 2018, 09:23:21 AM »
Yeah, JRiver is a royal pain to integrate with anything else.  Personally, I think you just need to potentially do a fresh install of windows on the laptop that you have, install Minimserver so it can act as UPnP Server and let Lumin be your player.  Doing that you clean up any lingering issues on the system and you do not have to purchase anything else and you are back enjoying the music.

If you want to optimize Windows the best place to start is server os or enterprise edition.  Both of them has a lot of crap either not installed or disabled out of the box and only requires minor tweaking.  If you want to go down the server route, you can get evaluation version of the software to see if it works for you.  If you have kids in college or high school have them check with the on campus computing department to see if you can purchase the licenses at steep discounted price.

The other option if you do not want to deal with maintaing/tweaking Windows and want to stay with Windows environment, reach out to Rich (HAL) for his MS-3 or better system and if you want to go down the Linux route I can help you with that.  Just let me know what your goals are with the Linux system and if you plan to run it headless (no monitor attached).
« Last Edit: September 19, 2018, 09:26:13 AM by shadowlight »

Offline tmazz

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Re: The Pains of Computer Audio
« Reply #29 on: September 19, 2018, 10:33:31 AM »
And all these years everybody has been breaking my chops about the rituals related to cleaning records being to inconvenient and time consuming????????   :roll:

Remember, it's all about the music........

• Nola Boxers
• Sunfire True SW Super Jr (2)
• McIntosh MC 275
• ARC SP-9
• VPI HW-19 Mk IV/SDS/SME IV/Soundsmith Carmen Mk II ES
• Pro-Ject Pre Box S2 DAC/Rasp Pi Roon Endpoint
• DigiBuss/TWL PC&USB/MIT Cables