Path to external microSDs for AK100 for playlists?

[craftyhack]

Hi all,
    Long time lurker(10+ years?), and gonna land in the poor house (with nice gear ) because of it. Anyway, I picked up the AK100 (and will be sending to Red Wine since I have both TripleFis and Shure 530's :/).   I loaded up the crappy iRiver software (compared to Media Monkey or even iTunes, it is not that easy to use and is limited in features to say the least ), and found out that it only supports making play lists from music on the internal memory, songs on the external SDs don't even have the option in the iRiver software right click menu.  So I tried using a different playlist maker (over 10,000 mp3s... and yes I know, but they are -alt-insane encoded and DO sound better in the AK, I need to rerip my CDs to ape or ogg... that will be a project, so *later* ).  Anyway, looking at the paths in the playlists iRiver creates, internal storage is pathed from "/nand3/", so I tried /nand0/, /nand1/, and /nand2/, no luck.
 
Does anyone know what the paths are to the two mSD cards for the AK to make playlists?

 

[craftyhack]

NM, I sorted it out, here it is for future generations:  "/mnt/SD0/" and "/mnt/SD1/", add a little PERL and NOTEPAD++ and you got yourself a playlist .

 

[faultyscrew]

Thanks for the info! 
 
Could you post some impressions of the AK100 with your 530s (I have 535s)? ...and maybe impressions once you get it back from RWA? I'm strongly considering the RWAK100 and haven't found much info about how they sound with some Shurephones. 

 

[craftyhack]

Shure! .  I am not sure when I am sending yet, waiting a tiny bit longer to see if iRiver steps up (will contact them myself now that I think about it), before shipping and blowing my warranty (I bought directly from iRiver).  I haven't tried them with my Shure's or Triple-Fis yet(just got it, still learning it and breaking it in), but it sounds great with my Ultrasone Pro 750s, Seinheiser HD598's, and especially my Sony BX1000s. The 1.2 firmware upgrade made a bit of difference in a good way with SQ as well, so if you haven't taken the upgrade, doooo it .  Once it is broken in, I will dig the IEMs out and listen too, I haven't yet because of what I have read here, although they are higher impedance than the TripleFi's, so the Shure's should sound good, except maybe for the lows, according to this impedance graph:  http://www.stereophile.com/content/shure-se530-ear-headphones-measurements
 
Also note that I am running it through a Fiio E09K desktop amp, and soon also though my E17 with the E09K once I receive the right 3.5mm->digital adapter I just ordered, so I will A/B SQ with it being a transport vs. an all in one DAP just to see how bad it is out of the box without the RWAK100 mod.  What a STUPID thing to do for the iRiver engineers, I LOVE this thing... small, 160GB capacity with 2x64GB chips, well made, 8740 DAC(which is worthless if I use it as a transport only ), you know all of it, it is the DAP I have been waiting for  FOREVER, and they screw-up on the output stage :/:/:/.

 

[faultyscrew]

Great, thanks! I think we're all hoping iRiver will step-up, but who knows... not sure how long I want to play the waiting game.
 
I don't plan on running it with an external amp, so your unamped impressions will be the most valuable for me (though I'm sure some others would benefit from A/Bing with your various setups). Anyway, I'm in no rush, so let it burn-in and get to it when you can. In the meantime, I'll be following CES coverage! 

 

[craftyhack]

ahhh, CES, utter madness!  I go for my company usually, but this year had leg surgery, can't walk = NO WAY CES, where I avg 10+ mi a day according to my pedometer (Fitbit Ultra, cool little thing).  I will miss not going... sort of .  Here are some vids I took from last year:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_unPzUzkxHE (there is a part 2 to finish "the show" where I was front row, yay!).
 
My personal Best of Show for 2012 was def the LG OLED 55" 3D TV, INCREDIBLE!!!
 
Anyway, the coolest part regarding my A/Bing is I will be doing so with just the E17 as well, no E09K.  The E17 ALSO has an 8740 Wolfsen DAC (with an amp, but I can equalize output) so I will be able to tell just how much that last output stage of the AK100 screws it up.

 

[lee730]

Quote:

NM, I sorted it out, here it is for future generations:  "/mnt/SD0/" and "/mnt/SD1/", add a little PERL and NOTEPAD++ and you got yourself a playlist .

Can you explain how to do this in more detail? Go into idiot-proof type detail with me. I need specifics on exactly how to do this. All the steps from 1,2,3 lol. Also would it be possible to do this without having to use iRivers program? It's rather crappy and installs bloatware on the machine...
 
I found out how to create playlists via the Pls format using mp3tag. I think I just need to figure out how to set the paths as you have.
 
http://forums.mp3tag.de/index.php?showtopic=11439
 
Thanks.

 

[craftyhack]

It depends, as I found while I was playing with different tagging programs they create .pls files with different formats.  Can you post an example from yours so I can tell ya how to AK100ize it?

 

[craftyhack]

P.S. I may just write a program that will create playlists for the AK100 from scratch, not that hard I don't think.

 

[lee730]

Quote:

P.S. I may just write a program that will create playlists for the AK100 from scratch, not that hard I don't think.

That would be sweet! .

 

[lee730]

Quote:

It depends, as I found while I was playing with different tagging programs they create .pls files with different formats.  Can you post an example from yours so I can tell ya how to AK100ize it?

Good deal. This is the same playlist. The first is in m3u format. I've never had any issues using these on my iphone4, DX100 and Sansa Fuze. Only the iRiver acts dumb lol.
 
First is in m3u opened via notepad:
 
..\4GB Studio Internal (Updated for ibasso)\311\01 Down.flac
..\4GB Studio Internal (Updated for ibasso)\311\02 Flowing.flac
..\4GB Studio Internal (Updated for ibasso)\311\03 All Mixed Up.flac
..\4GB Studio Internal (Updated for ibasso)\311\04 Amber.flac
..\4GB Studio Internal (Updated for ibasso)\311\05 Come Original.flac
..\4GB Studio Internal (Updated for ibasso)\311\06 Beautiful Disaster.flac
..\4GB Studio Internal (Updated for ibasso)\311\07 Creatures (For A While).flac
..\4GB Studio Internal (Updated for ibasso)\311\08 Do You Right.flac
..\4GB Studio Internal (Updated for ibasso)\311\09 I'll Be Here Awhile.flac
..\4GB Studio Internal (Updated for ibasso)\311\10 You Wouldn't Believe.flac
..\4GB Studio Internal (Updated for ibasso)\311\11 Transistor.flac
..\4GB Studio Internal (Updated for ibasso)\311\12 Don't Stay Home.flac
..\4GB Studio Internal (Updated for ibasso)\311\14 Beyond The Gray Sky.flac
..\4GB Studio Internal (Updated for ibasso)\311\15 Love Song.flac
..\4GB Studio Internal (Updated for ibasso)\311\17 First Straw (Previously Unreleased).flac
 
 
 
Ok now this is the same playlist but formated in the crap PLS format via mp3tag using that coding I linked you to earlie from mmp3tag forum.
 
#EXTM3U
#EXTINF:173,311 - Down
..\4GB Studio Internal (Updated for ibasso)\311\01 Down.flac
#EXTINF:193,311 - Flowing
..\4GB Studio Internal (Updated for ibasso)\311\02 Flowing.flac
#EXTINF:182,311 - All Mixed Up
..\4GB Studio Internal (Updated for ibasso)\311\03 All Mixed Up.flac
#EXTINF:210,311 - Amber
..\4GB Studio Internal (Updated for ibasso)\311\04 Amber.flac
#EXTINF:223,311 - Come Original
..\4GB Studio Internal (Updated for ibasso)\311\05 Come Original.flac
#EXTINF:241,311 - Beautiful Disaster
..\4GB Studio Internal (Updated for ibasso)\311\06 Beautiful Disaster.flac
#EXTINF:266,311 - Creatures (For A While)
..\4GB Studio Internal (Updated for ibasso)\311\07 Creatures (For A While).flac
#EXTINF:260,311 - Do You Right
..\4GB Studio Internal (Updated for ibasso)\311\08 Do You Right.flac
#EXTINF:209,311 - I'll Be Here Awhile
..\4GB Studio Internal (Updated for ibasso)\311\09 I'll Be Here Awhile.flac
#EXTINF:222,311 - You Wouldn't Believe
..\4GB Studio Internal (Updated for ibasso)\311\10 You Wouldn't Believe.flac
#EXTINF:184,311 - Transistor
..\4GB Studio Internal (Updated for ibasso)\311\11 Transistor.flac
#EXTINF:165,311 - Don't Stay Home
..\4GB Studio Internal (Updated for ibasso)\311\12 Don't Stay Home.flac
#EXTINF:258,311 - Beyond The Gray Sky
..\4GB Studio Internal (Updated for ibasso)\311\14 Beyond The Gray Sky.flac
#EXTINF:209,311 - Love Song
..\4GB Studio Internal (Updated for ibasso)\311\15 Love Song.flac
#EXTINF:178,311 - First Straw
..\4GB Studio Internal (Updated for ibasso)\311\17 First Straw (Previously Unreleased).flac

 

[TheGrumpyOldMan]

I usually don't double-post but since the one below may have gotten lost in the main thread and is more relevant to this one:
 
- though the extension is .pls, they are NOT actual standard-compliant PLS files, as a matter when I dropped in a standard one generated by Clementine and hand-edited to use the AK100's correct paths, it showed all the meta-info in the file as garbage and the actual items didn't work either. Before anyone thinks Clementine didn't generate a correct file, I looked up the syntax and checked it when hand-editing the file.
 
- so what are they? Basically a text file containing a list of file locations (that you can rename to something more descriptive than Playlist1 etc.), and NOTHING else. Example:
 

 [b]/mnt/SD0/[/b]Pop/Laura Marling - I Speak Because I Can - 2010/03 - Rambling Man.flac [b]/mnt/SD0/[/b]Pop/Shea Seger - Shea Seger - 2010/07 - Used To.mp3 [b]/nand3/Music/[/b]Pop/Melody Gardot - The Absence - 2012/08 - Goodbye.flac [b]/mnt/SD1/[/b]Classical/Michael Stern and Kansas City Symphony - Britten's Orchestra - 2009/01 - The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra.flac [b]/mnt/SD1/[/b]Jazz/Bill Evans Trio - Waltz For Debby - 1961/01 - My Foolish Heart.flac

 
The part in bold points to the respective storage area (SD0 = SD1 in the UI = bottom slot; SD1 = SD2 in the UI = top slot; nand3/Music/ = default internal path) Everything else depends ON YOU, so no tagging software or script is going to know automatically which one of the three to pick. And exported .m3u lists actually include the path to your computer's folder/file hierarchy. Again, it's very difficult for a software to know where the cutoff point for path replacement is depending on how deep the folders are nested... And on top of that, at least in my case, sometimes my song/album names do not always correspond to the actual filenames due to naming conventions and filesystem compliance (special characters etc.)
 
Also, one file I generated on the Mac with the correct text didn't work anyway. I assume it's the text encoding, I ended up copy-pasta-ing it into an existing AK100 file and then it was OK.
 
So the takeaway is:
- You might as well type, copy & paste your playlist into an empty .pls file using any text editor (you can open m3u files as well, even if not by the default file association).
- Or just recreate them on the AK100 itself, and rename & re-arrange them in the text-editor as needed.
 
This sucks of course for large playlists, but really that's what databases are for, to remove dependencies on file location esp. using absolute paths... Otherwise you would need to use a music management software that knows 1) where the files are on your computer 2) which of the 3 locations on the AK100 you dragged them to, then generate a matching playlist. Maybe the iRiver 4 software does that, but other generic ones will have trouble since they usually expect only 1 DAP storage location at best. I have a new appreciation for iTunes (at least on the Mac), warts and all...

 

[lee730]

Quote:

I usually don't double-post but since the one below may have gotten lost in the main thread and is more relevant to this one:
 
- though the extension is .pls, they are NOT actual standard-compliant PLS files, as a matter when I dropped in a standard one generated by Clementine and hand-edited to use the AK100's correct paths, it showed all the meta-info in the file as garbage and the actual items didn't work either. Before anyone thinks Clementine didn't generate a correct file, I looked up the syntax and checked it when hand-editing the file.
 
- so what are they? Basically a text file containing a list of file locations (that you can rename to something more descriptive than Playlist1 etc.), and NOTHING else. Example:
 

 [b]/mnt/SD0/[/b]Pop/Laura Marling - I Speak Because I Can - 2010/03 - Rambling Man.flac [b]/mnt/SD0/[/b]Pop/Shea Seger - Shea Seger - 2010/07 - Used To.mp3 [b]/nand3/Music/[/b]Pop/Melody Gardot - The Absence - 2012/08 - Goodbye.flac [b]/mnt/SD1/[/b]Classical/Michael Stern and Kansas City Symphony - Britten's Orchestra - 2009/01 - The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra.flac [b]/mnt/SD1/[/b]Jazz/Bill Evans Trio - Waltz For Debby - 1961/01 - My Foolish Heart.flac

 
The part in bold points to the respective storage area (SD0 = SD1 in the UI = bottom slot; SD1 = SD2 in the UI = top slot; nand3/Music/ = default internal path) Everything else depends ON YOU, so no tagging software or script is going to know automatically which one of the three to pick. And exported .m3u lists actually include the path to your computer's folder/file hierarchy. Again, it's very difficult for a software to know where the cutoff point for path replacement is depending on how deep the folders are nested... And on top of that, at least in my case, sometimes my song/album names do not always correspond to the actual filenames due to naming conventions and filesystem compliance (special characters etc.)
 
Also, one file I generated on the Mac with the correct text didn't work anyway. I assume it's the text encoding, I ended up copy-pasta-ing it into an existing AK100 file and then it was OK.
 
So the takeaway is:
- You might as well type, copy & paste your playlist into an empty .pls file using any text editor (you can open m3u files as well, even if not by the default file association).
- Or just recreate them on the AK100 itself, and rename & re-arrange them in the text-editor as needed.
 
This sucks of course for large playlists, but really that's what databases are for, to remove dependencies on file location esp. using absolute paths... Otherwise you would need to use a music management software that knows 1) where the files are on your computer 2) which of the 3 locations on the AK100 you dragged them to, then generate a matching playlist. Maybe the iRiver 4 software does that, but other generic ones will have trouble since they usually expect only 1 DAP storage location at best. I have a new appreciation for iTunes (at least on the Mac), warts and all...

 
So in my case this would be a real PITA to get sorted out as some of my playlists (lots of them actually lol) have around 50 songs each.....

 

[craftyhack]

Quote:

 
So in my case this would be a real PITA to get sorted out as some of my playlists (lots of them actually lol) have around 50 songs each.....

Ugg, yep.  What I was going to write was going to do directory listings of the 3 drives on the AK, and then print them ALL into an "ALL" playlist.  I could write something that takes arguments like regular expressions to do sub playlists, or comma separated list of items to match, but that would only come from file names, not from the ID3 tags.  Going further than this would be a LOT of work I *think* .

 

[Jpfe8851]

Just thought I'd resurrect this thread with an update.

Using Grumpy's tips from above, I've created my playlists for the AK100 in Media Monkey, exporting them as Playlist.m3u. Then loaded the files into Windoze Notepad. Using the find/replace tool, I've swapped the paths from the Windows paths to the correct paths on the AK as per above.

EG.
..\AK100\Music\Folder\Filename.mp3 => /nand3/music/Folder/ etc. AND,
..\SD Card\etc... => /mnt/SD1/etc.

You can use Replace to change all the remaining backslashes to forward slashes too. Takes just minutes to swap.

IMPORTANT! You must save the renamed file with a .pls extension and change the format from UTF8 to ANSI in the drop box of the save as dialog box.
And, I think some non-standard foreign characters like umlauts and acutes in folders or filenames aren't recognised by the playlist code even though they play in the AK100 from the library and folder sources. I've simply changed these paths where they are imported greyed out in the playlist.

Took a little experimenting to get this right but seems simple enough.