[Thraex]

  I'm not having good luck streaming 24/96 ALAC from a Seagate Satellite to my iPhone 4S using any of the following apps.
8player
VLC Player
 
The Seagate Media app works just fine but it's really a no-frills player.  The problem I'm having is with audio skipping/dropping out to the point where it is nearly impossible to stream an entire uninterrupted song.  And yes I have set the VLC Player for the highest buffering allowed.  I'm using the latest Seagate Satellite firmware.  Any suggestions or experiences are appreciated.
 
My favorite music player for the iPhone is the Onkyo HF Player with the HD in-app purchase.  It's too bad that it cannot access remote storage.

I don't know why you have problems with 8player, mine is working fine with ALAC 24/192 (some buffering and slower loading is natural) and DSD64 (in DoP ALAC).
Maybe check or change the music player settings inside 8player?
I have "Music Player" set to "Native Formats Player" and "Default iOS". This way mine is fine.
 
Which converter you use for ALAC? In my experience not any software is the same, I use dbpoweramp. Try to use it or another software to convert to ALAC and check again.

 

[raulromanjr]

8player is working now.  Thanks.  I only wish that 8player would tell you the bitrate of the input to the DAC.  As it stands with the e07K there is no way to ensure that I'm actually getting 24/96 out of it without any down conversion.  HF player does give you the bitrate to the DAC.  My other beef with 8player is that songs in an album are displayed in alphabetical order.  HF player displays them in track order.  Does anyone know of a remote source player that will let you pick which media app your music is played through (Open In...)

 

[dikkiedirk]

Regarding track order in 8player:
 
You can change sorting mode in the toolbar - there you can select "Track N" option.

You can open toolbar by pressing yellow arrow button in the left bottom corner of the screen.

There is no point if the player tells you what is being output. Better have a DAC which tells you what is being received.
 
Flacs on idevices are being downsampled in 8player. To avoid this convert them to ALAC or WAV.
 
I use Asset dlna upnp server to convert on the fly.

 

[Thraex]

I must add that some servers, like Seagate's GFS, doesn't allow to choose "Track N" order.
Here you'll get alphabetical order if you browse by Genere but if you browse by Artist or Album all is sorted by track N.
If like me you've already divided music into folders you can browser "Folders" and have again track N order.

 

[raulromanjr]

After much research I finally have my desired portable rig.  Thank you to all of you who contribute to Head-fi.org. Without the information I’ve gathered on this forum this would have been a much more grueling task.  
My goal was to have a portable rig that would allow me to enjoy my 80+ gigabyte music library made up of iTunes+ compressed music, 16bit ALAC CD rips and 24bit ALAC hdtracks downloads.
 
An additional goal was to allow me to continue to use iTunes for organizing my music library.
 
The final setup:
Hardware:
16GB iPhone 4S with IOS 7 running 8player music app.
FiiO E07K DAC/AMP fed via USB from the iPhone via Apple CCK
CableJive dockXtender (2ft premium model)
Seagate Goflex Satellite running the latest firmware
AIAIAI TMA-1 Studio headphones
Creative Aurvana In-Ear 3 earphones
Scosche goBATII 5000mAh battery
 
How it functions:
 
Seagate Satellite ---->iPhone 4S(8player) ---->CCK ----> FiiO E07K ---->TMA-1 or Aurvana IE3

Music stored on my MacBook Pro in iTunes is kept sync’ed up with the Seagate Satellite with the help of Seagate’s Media Sync App.  This OSX app automatically keeps the music library on the Satellite up to date and sync’ed up with my iTunes library.  Music transfers are done via USB 3 cable.
 
8player music app running on my iPhone 4S is used to do bit-perfect Wi-Fi streams of my music library stored on the Seagate Satellite.  This app gives great functionality similar to the iPhone’s built-in music player.
Music played through 8player is fed digitally from the iPhone’s 30pin connector to the FiiO E07K USB DAC/AMP.  
 
In-between the iPhone and the E07K is a CableJive 30pin dockXtender used to allow for better cable management to the bulky Apple Camera Connection Kit.  A 7in USB A to mini USB cable runs from the CCK to the E07K.  This otherwise unruly bundle of cable and adapters is kept fairly neat with some zip ties and a small felt pouch.
 
The Scosche battery is zip tied to the Seagate Satellite for convenience and is used to provide additional run-time to the Seagate Satellite, the iPhone and the E07K.
 
Finally the headphone amp output on the E07 feeds either a TMA-1 Studio full-size set of cans or when a more discrete appearance is desired my Creative Aurvana In-Ear 3 IEM’s.
 
When a more compact rig is desired (for sporting activities for example) I leave the Seagate Satellite at home and instead put  about 8GB of music directly on my iPhone via Onkyo’s HF Player music player app.  This app feeds up to 96/24 ALAC files in a bit-perfect manner to the E07K.  It also can upsample lower resolution music to 96/24.  My Aurvana IE3’s are obviously used for this more compact setup.  
 
Here are some pictures of the setup.

 

 

 

 

[Madsumm]

I have tried a few stuff and here are some feedbacks on them.
My objective is simple (pun intended).
To decode DSD files and listen to them on the road. Even DXD if possible. The point is, if I can reach that resolution, that means I could play almost any thing.
 
Biggest problem is storage. A DXD file could be as large as 1GB per piece of music! Having portable large storage would be the only answer. Running around with multiple microSD cards is possible as well, but of diminishing returns. ~4 pieces of 64GB cards, I can get a 1TB wireless drive...
 
So the first try:
DLNA server -> iPhone 5s -> HUGO -> JH16pro
 
This setup I try 8Player and Hibiki (both are free version). I use a standard DLNA to test (rather than purchase the Seagate Wireless Plus).
 
8Player
- Plays nicely FLAC 24/192khz files from my DLNA server.
- Refuses to place DoP FLAC files. Not unexpected as I've read, only  DOP ALAC embedded file could be read. But it is not easy doing that, and doing from DoP FLAC -> ALAC is not right.. somehow..
 
So, 8Player plays well from DLNA system, but limited only to FLAC based files.
 
Hibiki
- Very similar to Onkyo player. 
- Plays DSF and DFF natively. Including WSD. No conversion needed.
- Plays to very high resolution, not only DSD128 but DXD and above as well.
- Does not play streams from DLNA, need to load file locally.
- Sounds really good actually.
 
Above are from iPhone 5s.
And I found a disadvantage from the above mentioned system. iPhone could not be charged in parallel while the music is played via CCK. So inevitably, we will run out of juice pretty soon on this. But this appears to be the only way to play native DSF and DFF files.
 
Than I tried iBasso DX90.
Of course, it uses microSD. I have 2-3 cards for my GoPro and it worked well. (DoP Flac)
So I tried external storage. How? Simple, because, iBasso does OTG. Get the right cables and you are up and running.
 
I have an external 2TB 3.5" drive for my desktop. I formatted it to ExFat and copied some DoP FLAC files onto it. It played perfectly!
Unfortunately, iBasso had similar issue to 8Player. It plays DSD via DoP FLAC. But at least its FLAC and it is decoded as DSD properly.
 
This would mean for DX90 to be used, the drive has to be formatted to ExFat. (Something Seagate Wireless is not supporting - only NTFS).
So comes Lacie Fuel. It is the only wireless external drive with external USB and ExFat format. Unfortunately I have not played with this yet. Will purchase this soon.
 
By chance, I decided to try the following. Connect DX90 directly to a 2.5" portable drive (only powered via USB). The drive powered up just fine! At this moment, I could not read the drive as its Filevault encrypted. I need to try it on another drive. It is in office and will update accordingly.
 
So at this moment, the likely way for both to work is (to be confirmed):
 
Lacie Fuel (1 or 2TB) Hacked -> iPhone/iPad -> CCK -> HUGO -> JH16pro
or
Lacie Fuel hacked -> USB -> iBasso DX90 -> HUGO -> JH16pro
 
or (if it works)
 
2.5" external HDD -> USB -> iBasso DX90 -> HUGO -> JH16pro (iBasso will need to power the HDD)
 
note : Why the hacked version of Lacie Fuel? Because the hacked version have MiniDLNA. And there is also an updated version of DLNA that could support streaming DSD..., need to try. The hacked version does full FTP and such, so it is more a small computer than the crippled original version.

 

[Thraex]

I'm really interested in your experiments, especially using iOS devices since this thread is dedicated to iPhone/iPad, even considering microSD cards is not a pratical solution with a big library like mine (nearly 2TB and growing...).
 
I have no problems to wi-fi stream DoP ALAC, I just need one more conversion from DoP FLAC (not a native iOS audio format) to make everything work smoothly, but if there's a solution for one less passage it's even better.
 
Even one less physical connection between devices it's very important to avoid a mess of cables and connectors, if you're on the go a wi-fi streaming storage devices it's always simpler: you can put it a few meters away in a car or in the beach bag or in another pocked while jogging.
 
To power a USB device without loosing the USB out via CCK/LtUSBCA you can try the Unitek USB cable HUB in the middle, before my actual setup I've used it to power USB DACs via portable USB chargers with CCK>iPad/iPhone.

 

[dikkiedirk]

To power a USB device without loosing the USB out via CCK/LtUSBCA you can try the Unitek USB cable HUB in the middle, before my actual setup I've used it to power USB DACs via portable USB chargers with CCK>iPad/iPhone.

Could you tell which type or model Unitek HUB and which USB charger worked for you? I use a newer version Ipad Mini with Retina display and Lightning CCK.

 

[Thraex]

Check post #1, #79, #80 and #88 in this thread for the Unitek USB cable Hub and choose the one with the right connector for your equipment, any USB charger will work if not broken, as I already wrote I've used Tekkeon brand.

 

[seeteeyou]

.

 

[Thraex]

Someone posted step-by-step instructions to tweak Twonky for streaming DSD off Seagate Wireless Plus, maybe that could also work for Buffalo Ministation Air but no sure yet

http://ameblo.jp/fis-dur/entry-11896434104.html

 

Very interesting, but I can't translate from japan very well.... so it's difficult to understand exactly the needed passages.
Could someone help to post english step-by-step instructions to tweak Twonky for streaming DSD off Seagate Wireless Plus?
 
Thanks

 

[dikkiedirk]

  Very interesting, but I can't translate from japan very well.... so it's difficult to understand exactly the needed passages.
Could someone help to post english step-by-step instructions to tweak Twonky for streaming DSD off Seagate Wireless Plus?
 
Thanks

+1.
 
My Japanese is lousy. Read non-existent.

 

[Thraex]

Someone posted step-by-step instructions to tweak Twonky for streaming DSD off Seagate Wireless Plus, maybe that could also work for Buffalo Ministation Air but no sure yet

http://ameblo.jp/fis-dur/entry-11896434104.html
 

---

Hi, could you translate it in english for all of us?
Please...Thanks

 

[Madsumm]

I've tried the Twonky as well as the hack method. Here are some opinions and a little of How-to:
 
Both hack miniDLNA and Twonky works.. only for DoP using ALAC of WAV. DoP in FLAC will transcode it back to 16bit 48khz by 8Player.
Again, problem is on the iOS applications which does not understand DSF/DFF file streaming.
 
Another interesting finding. Both MiniDLNA and Twonky streams DXD files perfectly onto my 8Player and Hugo. Stunning!
 
There are a few differentiator between MiniDLNA and Twonky, so you need to decide:
- You need to pay for Twonky. It is not free. Think it is USD$19.
- miniDLNA from HackSeagateSatellite is already built in and paid for for the hack. Not only you get additional functions, but the miniDLNA as well.
- Twonky should work on both standard firmware and hacked firmware (i tried on hacked firmware, since it is embedded linux, the instructions given is pretty straight forward, but i did some changes as this is test only. Do not wish to change OS too much.)
- I particularly do not like the scanning of media. I Twonky will restart scan (even though it is faster), from every restart. This is pain. I belief there is a way to stop this. Have not tried it yet.
- Twonky is not very stable yet. Frequently, the scanning stops due to 2 reasons. It says the database is full (??) and sometimes it hang for no apparently reason and the twonkyserver crashed.
- DB full?? Yeah, realised everything is within the small little hidden system partition. 10k songs (easily for 1TB) can break the size barrier in no time. I think this can be easily resolved, for testing purpose, I just use a small collection of DSD/DFF and DXD files. (including DoPE ALAC/WAV/FLAC for testing)
 
I will put in more info (in English) later for Twonky if you are interested.
As I did the Twonky from HackSeagateSatellite, it is a bit different. But concept should be the same.
 
Lastly, I have decided to remain in HackSeagateSatellite as I do not see an advantage at this moment paying for Twonky. Until iOS has an app that plays streamed DSF/DFF files, than we can test again. Currently, this is the best solution for super high res playback.
I suggest to try the DXD files via 8Player (if you have a USB DXD DAC). It is native and it sounds super heavenly.
 
Rgds

 

[HemiSam]

I understood maybe half of that but interesting.  Thanks for posting.
 
HS