[draiiinage]

Thanks, guys. That was very helpful. I went the sox route, because I can't get DeaDBeef to install - tried both using the repository (Ubuntu raring) and compiling it but no matter what, when I enter deadbeef on the command line it says "Starting DeaDBeef 0.5.6" and then it quits immediately. Anyone have this issue? Also, I'm converting 88k to 96k. When I do this with sox I get "sox WARN dither: no `shibata' filter is available for rate 96000; using sloped TPDF". I'm guessing this is ok - I have all the original files, of course, in case I need to do something else. The songs sound great now so I guess it worked either way. Thanks again!

 

[julian67]

I think "shibata" is the default noise shaping filter and that if it doesn't work at the sample rate requested then sox will choose another. I am not 100% sure which but if you make a spectrogram of your converted file you will see it that dither has been applied.

 

[wolfson]

While new to this forum, I have been a LONG time avscience member/poster, and am active in the Linux HTPC area there.
 
I have been building media/HTPC/music PC's since the 90's.
 
A thread search shows no one has mentioned foobnix
http://www.foobnix.com/welcome?lang=en
 
Anyone try this for bit perfect Linux music playback?
 
Other features/music mgmt issues?
 
It was created as a FOSS/linux functional/look-alike alternative to Foobar2K from Windows.
 
Just wondering if there's room for another "audiophile approved" Linux music player app besides the "big four"  
 
DeaDBeef            http://deadbeef.sourceforge.net/
Gmusicbrowser  https://launchpad.net/~shimmerproject/+archive/ppa
Guayadeque        http://sourceforge.net/projects/guayadeque/
Quod Libet          https://code.google.com/p/quodlibet/
   

 

[julian67]

It was created as a FOSS/linux functional/look-alike alternative to Foobar2K from Windows.

Just wondering if there's room for another "audiophile approved" Linux music player app besides the "big four"

I don't think it's much like foobar2000 at all and doesn't even begin to approach its capabilities. I also don't think it has much to offer compared to other playback apps which don't attempt to mimic something else. Foobnix is no more than a completely unremarkable python+gstreamer playback UI. It doesn't even allow the user to specify which audio output to use. It seems that a huge number of people who learn python or perl or whatever like to test their skills on yet another media player, so there are an awful lot of naive or abandoned projects of this kind.

Of the GUI music apps you mention I think DeadBeef is the best thought out as it does do all the basics properly: it allows the user to specify audio output, to customise the way metadata is displayed, it plays gapless gaplessly and so on.

I would not consider the four applications you mention to constitute a "big four". If you don't include mpd then you missed out what is probably the most widely used and long established quality music player in the UNIX-like world. These days you can also include mplayer2 because it now has a -gapless-audio option which works with flac.

 

[wolfson]

Thanks for the input- I hadn't done a deep dive on foobnix re: functionality like gapless playback (important to me) or what backend it used.  Not being able to direct sound playback to specific hardware devices like the ALSA methods in this thread is a dealbreaker.
 
Nice to see how trivial it is to achieve bit perfect playback on Linux with common FOSS apps described here.  I was chasing bit-perfect SPDIF output with  fellow HTPC'rs since the later 90's- now get off my lawn!

 

[KimLaroux]

Heck even Amarok has gapless bit-perfect playback now. And I bet VLC could do it too. The list is endless. It all comes down to your preferences. Personally I use Amarok as a library organizer and Deadbeef as a stand-alone ligthweight player. I seem to be using both just as much.

 

[wolfson]

Don't know how good you guys got it now- the state of bit-perfect output with common sound cards and stock drivers/media players back on Windows 9x/XP in the late 90's/early 2000's was abysmal- undefeatable hardware 48khz resampling on SoundBlaster Live's, anyone?

 

[wolfson]

Does this forum support sticky threads?
 
This thread looks like a good candidate.  Perhaps a thread that keeps current with the top recommended audiophile grade music players on Linux would be a good reference for noobs.

 

[julian67]

Heck even Amarok has gapless bit-perfect playback now. And I bet VLC could do it too...

VLC can't do gapless, neither playing back files nor playing gapless physical CDs.

You can see this recently confirmed by a VLC developer: http://forum.videolan.org/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=92466&p=370404&hilit=gapless#wrap

VLC never played gapless in its 14 years existence. Ever.

 

[wolfson]

Apparently, "bit perfect" output from a Mac to a USB DAC "sounds better" than bit perfect output of the same file/data from Windows or a Linux PC to the same DAC-
 
http://www.head-fi.org/t/553416/bitperfect-was-audirvana-alternatives/690
 
http://bitperfectsound.blogspot.com/p/what-is-bitperfect.html
 

 
No, I don't believe this, just another example of green-penmanship
 
This is the kind of thing that gives the audiophile hobby a bad name

 

[julian67]

There is no mention at all of Linux in the linked pages so it's not clear how those pages relate to this thread which is Linux specific.

Are you confusing a product called BitPerfect with the descriptive term "bit perfect"? The authors of the app certainly are.

Anyway it's a subject for a different thread.

 

[wolfson]

I was just trying (unsuccessfully) to be facetious
 
Besides "linux", this thread's subject is "Bit perfect" output.
 
My understanding is that "bit perfect" audio output means that there ought to be no difference in the data/bits being presented to a DAC, regardless of OS/app (other than jitter magnitude).  It appeared that the maker of the "Bit Perfect" Mac app was trying to claim otherwise.  I may have been mistaken.

 

[HPiper]

Thanks a ton for this very informative thread. I installed Gmusicbrowser and now FINALLY have bit-perfect playback of my music. Only problem I have is I can't get sound from my speakers, but it works with my dac and headphones. I'll play with it a bit more later, but thanks again.

 

[fihidelity]

Quote:

Apparently, "bit perfect" output from a Mac to a USB DAC "sounds better" than bit perfect output of the same file/data from Windows or a Linux PC to the same DAC-
 
http://www.head-fi.org/t/553416/bitperfect-was-audirvana-alternatives/690
 
http://bitperfectsound.blogspot.com/p/what-is-bitperfect.html
 

 
No, I don't believe this, just another example of green-penmanship
 
This is the kind of thing that gives the audiophile hobby a bad name

If the digital signal could be compared to the source at the DAC end wouldn't it be identical regardless of OS so longs as the settings were identical?

 

[wolfson]

Quote:

If the digital signal could be compared to the source at the DAC end wouldn't it be identical regardless of OS so longs as the settings were identical?

 
I was just trying (unsuccessfully) to be facetious
 
My understanding is that "bit perfect" audio output means that there ought to be no difference in the data/bits being presented to a DAC, regardless of OS/app (other than jitter magnitude). Once the claim is made that "bit perfect" is achieved at the output of a device (CD player, computer, etc), the output should be identical between the devices.
 
It appeared that the maker of the "Bit Perfect" Mac app was trying to claim otherwise.  I may have been mistaken.
 
I was mocking what I believed to be an example of audiophile-market-snake-oilsmanship