Tír Na HiFi

jrling wrote:

LowOrbit wrote:Hi Gordon

Since you brought it up - I have been using Daphile now for a few weeks. I no longer use Windows or MQN or JPLAY or JRMC.

Now, I am not claiming that there is any superiority in the audio performance of Daphile. TBH, as far as I have bothered testing it sounds identical to any of the above listed Windows players. I was surprised to see you characterise it as "strident" - certainly not the case here on my linear/pico powered i5 fanless pc running into WaveIO/Buffalo set up. It sounds very good, is all I will say.

My experience with Windows flatlined with the introduction of W8.1. After "upgrading" to that I found no discernible difference between audio playback softwares.

So I have, for a variety of reasons, stepped back from the debate on playback quality and settled on Daphile as it is a closed package, denies me the "opportunity" to fiddle and tweak, provides music bits to my dac and I can choose which ones from an android phone, sat in my fave chair. No computer screen, no keyboard, no hassle.

It seems pretty stable, the "developer" seems up for supporting it and it is based on proven code (bit of linux, bit of Squeezeserver, nothing radical). Job done.

Interestingly, I tried it when it first came out, against JPLAY and MQN and dismissed Daphile at that time as a bit "baggy" sounding. OK but nothing special. The MQN phase of activity for me drove me to make improvements to PC, dac and powersupplies for various elements in the chain. When I returned to Daphile a few weeks ago it sounded on par, so I am sticking with it (at least whilst other things keep me busy).

Regards

Mark

Hi LowOrbit
I am 'the MQn Tester'! I second everything you say. The convenience of control from my Android tablet and the fact that it just works (booting at present off a USB stick) won me over.

I only tried it out when Gordon told me how good his NAD M50 streamer (based on Linux) was: having run Squeezelite on a Windows 7 laptop and having been very impressed, better than MQn dare I say, decided I should give it a run on Linux, which does have a better chance of not being interfered with by the OS.

Have to say that having been on board with MQn pretty much from the start, I was sceptical that Daphile would better it, but IMHO it does. No sign of stridency, in fact the opposite being mellow and smooth but still very detailed and clean. I am running it all on the PC (local storage) so no network streaming to get in the way, but I am sure that it will work well streaming too. I prefer Squeezelite as the player and you can use that with Daphile.

Kpeta the Finnish developer provides an excellent service, almost on a par with SBGK (!) and is certainly working hard to move it on. See here http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/pc-based ... er-os.html for some more detail.

sbgk wrote:so 2 waveio users like daphile, maybe that's the common factor. Shall try setting up squeezelite on windows over the weekend to see if there is a difference between linux and windows, oh and shall be having another go at 24 bit.

Ken Moreland wrote:Tony, download REW from http://www.hometheatershack.com/roomeq/ , into your laptop, hook it up to your system , plug the microphone into your laptop also and place it at head height(seated). You'll see the irregular waveform you are getting back for your smooth sweep. You may be able to improve the results with treatments and then see what the Acourate can do. The mike is only cheap sh1t from Maplins.
KM

sbgk wrote:so 2 waveio users like daphile, maybe that's the common factor. Shall try setting up squeezelite on windows over the weekend to see if there is a difference between linux and windows, oh and shall be having another go at 24 bit.

sbgk wrote:so 2 waveio users like daphile, maybe that's the common factor. Shall try setting up squeezelite on windows over the weekend to see if there is a difference between linux and windows, oh and shall be having another go at 24 bit.

LowOrbit wrote:Jonathan - glad you found similar results to me.

Aleg - sorry you didn't. Not a hint of "digitalness" in my set up and bass is as good as it gets (within the confines of my room).

I have it running on SSD with a pair of USB connected spinners for the library (probably not ideal but they are self powered and will do until I source a new 2tb internal SATA drive and a psu for that).

The only issue I have had is more a problem with the realtek wifi dongle I bought. I ended up using an old wireless router to create a repeater from my main wifi box which is on the other side of the house.

Mark