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Did you ever realize that you can easily discern sound quality differences on most of these numerous audiophile a/b device comparisons over @

introducing sKit 1.5

Hi there.

I uploaded a new version (1.5.) of sKit.

Full Digital Amp News

In 2012 I wrote an article about Full Digital Amps. I just updated it a little.  That's one part of the news.

During those days I was trying and tweaking several of these FDAs. I really liked the technology and the idea behind it. And they sounded extremely clean and dynamic already back then. IMO cleaner and more dynamic then most DAC-amp combos I had listened to. In the article I describe what I didn't like and why I left that idea alone. Just to mention it: It was mainly due to the mediocre digital pre-stages of these amps. These amps also need top notch USB receivers, filters, clocks, DSP/SRC, power supplies, regulation, layouts, isolation etc. During those days that's IMO been a major weak spot. 

I still kept watching for developments. Not much was happening over the years.

Everything that matters...

 "Not everything that matters gets measured and not everything that gets measured matters"

 

Nope. It wasn't him expressing it.  Consider us kindred spirits. ;) Alberts original version reads

"Not everything that can be counted counts and not everything 
that counts can be counted"   

introducing sKit 1.4 (beta)

Hi folks.

I worked a little on sKit to make it more convenient and stable.

* most of the tweaks get automatically installed now
   no real need to dig into the Audio Streaming series anymore. 

* sKit-manager remove function - removes everything from now on
   there shouldn't be any sKit trace left anymore once that is done.

What's basically left for to you do is

1. you install a fresh pCP image,
2. increase it to at least 200MB, 
3. configure your audio interface via WEB-UI and
4. install sKit

 At that point you should have a well tuned system up'n running.

On 1.4 I added some changes to the affinity tweak. I now assign squeezelite to
CPU 1 and 2 without isolating these CPUs anymore.

The documentation also got updated. And of course this or that error got corrected.

sKit 1.4 needs a fresh pCP install as base. Using sKit-manager update won't work. Sorry for that.

sKit 1.4 is still beta. I'll wait for 2 weeks for feedback before officially releasing sKit 1.4. I count on your feedback.

Enjoy.

introducing sKit 1.1

 I've added some interesting new features to sKit (1.1).

introducing soundcheck's tuning kit - pCP (sKit) 1.0

 I'd like to introduce the first release of soundcheck's tuning kit - pCP (sKit) .

sKit provides a small and potentially growing number of little tools that'll help to setup piCorePlayer 7.0+ and Rpi4  and 3 in line with the advanced tuning recommendations outlined in my Audio Streaming Series.

The underlying idea is to take quite a basic operating system like piCorePlayer and tune it that way that it'll provide you with the best possible performance -- challenging most other (audiophile) OSes and streaming solutions out there.

This is not just another of these meanwhile numerous "audiophile" operating system out there though. In principle these do nothing else then applying this or that tweak you'll also find on this blog for years. The idea is to provide you with a tuning kit instead. You take it and apply it to that standard operating system installation yourself. And sKit supports you on that. 

You'll put yourself in the driver seat. And you control the pace.

sKit already goes slightly beyond the earlier outlined Audio Streaming Series scope. You should still go through the Audio Streaming Series step-by-step though. sKit doesn't cover all settings yet. At the relevant spots inside the Audio Streaming Series I refer to sKit.

sKit 1.0

I hope you'll enjoy the results.

SC

The Audio Streaming Series - Update 2021

 Hi folks.

A hopefully better 2021 to all of you.

volume control - linear - pro-audio style

Ever thought about volume controls (VC)? 

...how they work? 

...digital volume controls in particular?

or... 

...do you simply slide your VCs up'n down enjoying the sound level getting up'n down !?!? 

Audio meets IoT (DIY)

I am running RPis and (HAT) DACs for years by now. One thing's been bothering me all the time. 

The powering scheme. The handling of it to be exact. I've still been pulling plugs all the time for that very purpose. Pulling plugs in a lab is one thing, doing that in a living room is simply not acceptable on the long run. How do you tell your wife or kids how to turn on that DIY monster-stereo !?!? Push that plug, next this one and finally that one. Simply not possible.

I finally thought to get some Wifi controlled mains plugs in place. Neither Dect, infrared nor bluetooth controlled devices made it on my wishlist.

Let see what IoT (Internet of Things) projects are offering...