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Developer’s self-interest scribbles

Extreme dual PC computer audio setup shootout between AudioLinux and Windows Server 2019

 in Article

I’ve been exchanging ideas about computer audio improvements with my pals for a long while and recent he started doing some very serious shootout between the best of Linux today “AudioLinux” and “Windows Server 2019” with software optimizations.

I’ve been checking out in forums recently and it seems there’s only good thing about one thing and the another but never see anyone posting about direct competition. So I asked him if I can share his test results in website and he said it’s OK.

 

The test was performed with AudioLinux with the double PC. Server with Xeon optimized with Roon Server and music on NAS and the renderer on Celeron with Roon Bridge, both started by pen drive and then put in ram without disks in headless extreme mode.

Good sound tonally correct, but lacking body and less broad and deep, thin sound and long tiring, compared to my current type configuration based on a single PC with Windows Server 2019 core with the new JPLAY 7 and Fidelizer 8.2, NAS with MinimServer commanded by mConnect.

Sound warmer round, analog with more body and that projects you more in the sound event, in short, the sound of Linux I do not like. Put Linux both in ram has not had positive effects the sound of Linux is always exile, lack of harmonics compared to Windows.

 

This is a serious shootout in extreme dual PC setup environment. AudioLinux is only $50 and should do pretty well for its price. I hope the future of Linux-based OS will be bright for those who don’t mind paying for products and services in near future. 🙂

32-bit VS 64-bit audio playback – Can you spot the difference?

 in Article

After JPLAY Femto released with 64-bit only, some Nimitra clients asked me about reinstalling 64-bit version of Nimitra since it was shipped with 32-bit before so I decided to make a clip for clients to compare and see if they can hear the difference.

These two tracks are recorded from the same physical hardware with dual boot to 32-bit and 64-bit OS version with Audacity software using WASAPI and Razor Siren X through JCAT USB Card Femto + NikolaS. I also use 64-bit application for audio playback in 64-bit OS too.

Correction: Roon Rock OS isn’t Windows emulator nor emulation from Windows environment

 in Article

Since I published my article yesterday about Roon Rock OS, I noticed my headline has misleading title as Mono is open source platform to emulate what .NET runtime does in other platforms like Linux/Mac. It’s not conveyed properly and some may understand Mono as .NET runtime emulator so I apologize for this mistake.

I also have my own misunderstanding about Roon development that it was based on Windows with expansion to support Mac/Linux through Mono. Last night Mr. Danny Dulai, one of Roon’s founders shared his insights to correct my misunderstandings.

He said Roon was firstly developed on Linux and MacOS using Mono so my assumption to say Roon is based on Windows is incorrect. So my opinion of Roon Rock OS as to emulate what Roon does in Windows is incorrect and I’d like to apologize again for stating as emulator. It was rude of me.

Mr. Danny Dulai is truly a gentleman developer. He came to provide facts to correct the mess I created in calm and composed manner which is really rare to find from software developers. I truly respect him for passion of his work and his attitude.

As I already stated in my previous article, I believe Mr. Danny Dulai and his team did what could possibly be best to share Roon experience in Linux. I however will stand on Windows side because .NET runtime still has better garbage collection and I believe that’ll affect audio performance.

Let’s exam Roon Rock OS – Windows emulator in Linux clothing

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Correction: Roon Rock OS isn’t Windows emulator nor emulation from Windows environment

 

Most people probably know me as a Windows guy but I actually took all possibilities to improve computer audio including Mac and Linux too. I wouldn’t be able to push 100% positive feedback on Fidelizer Purist ROM for Android ROM without intensive research on Linux OS.

Today I decided to explore what’s inside Roon ROCK and see if I can improve Roon Rock image with optimizations based on my research from Linux’s audiophile OS optimizations. We’ll start exploring with Linux Reader and you also need program to unpack tar.gz file too.

 

Roon Rock - 01

 

There’s Linux ROONRESET partition and FAT16 CUSTOM_ROON partition. Inside ROONRESET has bootfs.img.gz for ROON OS installation loader I guess. After extracting and opening bootfs inside, It was named ROONBOOT. In there, it looks like ROONRESET but this time we have roonos-1 folder which looks like this.

 

Roon Rock - 02

 

This seems to be RoonOS partition to be cloned to Intel NUC’s device. there’s rootfs.img so it should contain something worth examing for further improvements. Let’s open rootfs.img and see how it looks like. I’m sure it’d be great.

 

Roon Rock - 03

 

Unallocated? That’s weird. But there’s no error during mounting process. Maybe it’s unsupported partition? Wait. There’s another CUSTOM_ROON partition from Roon Rock image too. Maybe this is an empty partition waiting to be created from there?

 

Roon Rock - 04

 

And there’s roon.tar.bz2 file. There’s nothing inside identity folder. Let’s extract roon.tar.bz2 file and see what’s inside. RoonServer folder? Cool! Let’s jump into it and see how Roon OS works!

 

Roon Rock - 05

 

RoonMono? Mono? It’s not what I’m guessing right? This can’t be real, right? Just to be sure, let’s open Server folder and see how it looks like.

 

RoonRock - 06

 

It seems Roon Rock OS is a Linux with Mono runtime running RoonServer’s .NET code through Mono platform. MacOS version also use the same principles too and works pretty well with MacOS support through Mono.

That aside, I think it’s good idea to run Windows .NET runtime emulation software rather than making a Linux port that can be worse than main code they wrote in main code if not done right. Mono is quite powerful. Maybe not as good as .NET Runtime in Windows but getting better over time.

As for possiblity of Fidelizer optimizations on Roon Rock OS, maybe I can optimize kernel and ramdisk image with some tweaks I can apply, insert some optimizations in startup script to further improve Linux OS environment, adjust Mono configuration, etc.

But I think the best way to optimize is to moved from Windows emulation platform to native Windows platform. Running real Windows with Windows environment optimizations should be better than optimizing Linux environment to emulate what Windows does better.

Understanding how MQA re-constructing perfectly aligned waveform

 in Article

From my understanding based on technology MQA applies.

1. Hi-Res down-mixed to 24/44.1-48
2. With decoder flags for filter and DSP from AD to DA
3. Up-mixing to 88.2-96 through software layer or 176.4-192 with hardware layer too
4. Up-mixing will re-construct signal based on profile stored in AD and DA flags

The major advantage of MQA technology is you identify which AD used on recording and MQA DAC will construct 2-4X sample rate to match with DA part. It’s quite good technology to deliver more reliable analogue sound through streaming effortlessly.

There’s method to archive better sound with purist waveform but it will never be easier. MQA should work well for most non-purist audiophiles for time being since some purist audiophiles don’t want to get involved with DSP no matter what.