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The Dynaco Tube Audio Forum

Dedicated to the restoration and preservation of all original Dynaco tube audio equipment - Customer support for Tubes4hifi VTA tube amp and preamp kits and all Dynakitparts.com products


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    wtfplay for serious listening

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    buchela


    Posts : 79
    Join date : 2011-03-09

    wtfplay for serious listening Empty wtfplay for serious listening

    Post by buchela Mon Mar 25, 2019 4:56 am

    About two years ago, I came across this music files player : wtfplay.
    This is not a me too kind of player, its sound quality as it is today, is STUNNING. It has a lot of inconveniences, but what you can get out of it in terms of quality is impressive. I'm only talking CD quality resolution here.I have not tried HiRes files feature.
    This brief rundown, will shed some light on this crazy named software.
    It is a Linux based software, it only plays : FLAC, WAV and DSD files (I tried only the first two).
    A memory based player, it does not install on your hard drive, it only plays music files and nothing else. It has a very basic interface for convenience, and the command line ( the real deal ). If you want remote capabilities, video, and other amenities, STOP, this is not for you. Do not settle with the basic interface, that allows you to enter your files in a window, like all other players, and play them from there, When used like that, it is only as good as others, so, don't even bother. The real deal is the command line. No, you don't have spend the next ten years trying to master the command line in Linux. How long does it takes you to memorize ten characters ?. that long. You don't have to learn anything about Linux, if so you wish. Everything is already configured, all you have to do, is enter the characters you memorized, followed by the name of you files one by one, that's it. The beauty of it, is you install the entire operating system on a USB drive, and that's it. It will load/install ( eight seconds )automatically every time you boot or reboot your computer, your computer must be able to boot from a USB drive, but it does not need to have a hard drive for the player to work.
    I tried many types of motherboards and memory : standard ITX, micro ITX, mini ITX, mini STX. and memory DDR3, and DDR4.
    Why I decided to try this player ?  I don't know, It gave me a lot of trouble to get it going from the get go, as a consequence, I decided to try the easy way, text mode user interface named (wtfcui), but that didn't steered up my juices. What I heard coming out of it, was very nice , but that's all. The shocker came when I left the laziness aside, tried the command line, and got it going. Voila !!!!!! there it was, very clean, no digital edginess, very detailed, with a touch of vinyl warmth. Yeah !!! that good.
    So, decided to find out, the best set up for this little monster. The result was. mother board mini ITX, or, mini STX, with memory DDR4. There is no change in sound quality between these two mobos form factor, the change in sound quality is related to memory. With memory DDR4 the sound quality is STUNNING. I only tried up to DDR4 -2133 ghz. I settle for the CPU dual core 4.2 ghz, just because I wanted to eliminate CPU speed from the variables to watch. The dedicated computer that I have for this purpose, does not have a hard drive, that is how I know the OS installs directly onto memory. My dac is a heavily modified Chinese one, if you have a high quality DAC you are in for a surprise.
    The website is excellent, everything is explained in detail. Communication with the developer is a little complicated, He will answer your messages in about three days, at he earliest, but he does answer you.
    The problems I had, were related not to my zero knowledge of Linux, but to something the developer didn't explain ( and still doesn't, on the website) regarding how you music files have to be entered with the command line. For example, Frank Zappa, must be entered,  'Frank Zappa', single names like Santana is fine as it is. I had an attack of diarrhea when I had everything ready to play, and the stupid thing, would not play at all, and no messages indicating anything, well, it was the problem I just described. So don't panic.
    Linux guys may be laughing at the problems I had with this Linux thing, but hey!!!   c'est la vie.  
    Cheers


    Last edited by buchela on Mon Mar 25, 2019 3:01 pm; edited 1 time in total (Reason for editing : clarified sentence regarding computer booting)
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    MadMaxDynaco


    Posts : 1
    Join date : 2018-10-22

    wtfplay for serious listening Empty How about...?

    Post by MadMaxDynaco Sun Apr 14, 2019 10:31 am

    Hi buchela,
    I read your post. Sounds interesting. But, have you tried Volumio? Runs headless (no monitor or keyboard), is accessed from another computer or tablet with a very informative GRAPHICAL user interface. Loads off a USB stick or can be installed to a hard drive (kinda tricky to do that but there are instructions online). I run it on a Raspberry Pi but there is a version for 64bit PC. I've got like 15k music files in FLAC and browsing that let alone typing a command to play a song is a little hard. I don't even remember the names of the Albums let alone the songs. I really need a point and click interface with search and queues and such. Just my experience. Oh, sounds good too!
    Thanks for the heads up on wtfplay. Will give it a try! Cool
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    buchela


    Posts : 79
    Join date : 2011-03-09

    wtfplay for serious listening Empty Re: wtfplay for serious listening

    Post by buchela Mon Apr 15, 2019 2:49 am

    MadMax: Try it, it is not that complicated,  I also was very skeptical and hesitant to try it, because  I have tried quite a few of those file players in the past, and some of them sound very good, but what I was looking for, was something that would eliminate the CD player from the audio reproduction chain. Something simple, and devoid of unnecessary complications, and that was at least of equal or better quality than CD. I did not mind complications if that translated into sound quality.
    So, ( I kid you not ) I was thinking, why not making an Operating System dedicated only for music reproduction and avoid all the tweaking, remote computers, boutique connectivity, etc., after all the CD player only plays CDs, the turn table only plays vinyl.
    The answer came at an open air concert at which I was bitching about mosquitoes, and poor speaker placement, that made made feel I was listening MP3 quality event. To make the story short, a guy also disappointed suggested it would be more rewarding to go home and listen to music through wtfplay. This gentleman has a dedicated motherboard for this purpose, completely cannibalized, all pins on and ports on mobo not used were cut off with pliers, he says those are antennas not needed.The mobo at that time was GB with DDR3 memory.
    The sound was a shocking experience for me. I could not believe  how a simple system could sound that expensive. It reminded me of what I heard a few years back with the Mark Levinson monoblocks dealing with juice from a turntable.
    Everything was there left to right, very detailed, excellent vocals, very 'treblesome', at one point I replayed a track, 'cause for a moment I thought I was drunk ( California wines can really test your taste buds' for tolerance to punishment, taking your ear drums for a ride too.), at the end of the replayed track, i noticed something spectacular : the drummer ended the track striking the Bar Chime from left to right while grabbing the cymbal with his hand. I could pinpoint on the air were was each chime from beginning to end. and also when his hand released the cymbal. Really impressive.
    No long ago a member of this list posted a nice setup with Volumio, the reason I did not try it, is because I don't see memory DDR4 included there, The constant on sound quality with memory based players is memory, the latest and greatest is the best, and right now that is DDR4. I spent almost a year trying DDR2, DDR3, DDR4., on different mobos, and always the sound improvement was noticeable with the next generation of memory, but when I tried DDR4 on any mobo that supports it, the sound was always great, spectacular, no exceptions.
    Notice, I only tried intel mobos,Gigabit, Asus, Mci., Memory : Mushkin, Kingston, Skill. Only one set of Corsair DDR3 (borrowed) paired with Sabertooth mobo. I compared with kingston memory, no difference in sound quality at all, so for the sake of simplicity and budget, I excluded Corsair brand (expensive). ALL mobos passively cooled NO FANS, , this was accomplished with Scythe ninja 3100, this monster can safely cool down passively a 95 watts CPU, I tried an i7  6700K  4.0 ghz quad core sixth gen without a problem, This cooler is just great for this purpose.
    I have to confess that I like that Volumio thing, and as soon as I an done with eliminating the triode switch from my M125 monos and move them to a bigger chassis. I will give it a try.
    You can not hate more than I do, the command line on any O.S. specially in Linux. I have no time for that, lately, most of the time I am on the road, and when I get home the last thing I want to do is prick around with the command line to hear music. however it looks more complicated than it really is. just take a look at this :
    1._Format your USB drive with fat16, install OS per instruction on web site.  After you plug the USB drive with wtfplay in it,  got to computer bios to set up boot priorities and make that USB drive choice #1 and your hard drive with windows OS, choice #2,  save and reboot. You computer must be capable of booting from  USB drive.
    2._Once wtfplay is loaded on your comp.memory, you will type   snd_scan  hit enter, this will give you   hw:0  or  hw:1. notice this first value, then you will type   display_mnt   hit enter, you will get    /media/sda1/    but it could be   media/sdb2/ or any other, this is the second value you will need.
    3._Once you have these two values  you are ready for action. Type the following to play your music files:    
    wtfplay -d hw:1   ( wtfplay-d followed by the first value) followed by the second value and then the music folder or file,    /media/sda1/'dire straits'/* which together will look like this:  wtfplay -d hw:1 /media/sda1/'dire straits'/* .....hit enter  and voila !!!!!.
    If you have a Raspberry Pi as the computer handling you audio files, the developer recommends trying diferent ISO images to find one that sounds good, since the images he has compiled  have not been opimized for Raspberry PI.
    If you can't get it going, send me a private message with your address and your specific processor, and I will send you a USB drive already loaded with wtfplay, and ready to plug and play, you still would have to enter the two vales I mentioned above. ( provided your computer is not a Raspberry Pi ) Cheers

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