How good is the kodi music player audio quality?
It is same, better or worse than distributions like volumio, rune audio, etc?
To be honest, it all depends on your output device. Outputting via the HDMI is so-so, output via the Pi's 3.5" jack plug is pretty poor if you ask me. I personally use a PHAT DAC running into a Denon amplifier which sounds superb.
(2017-01-13, 15:43)jbromley Wrote: [ -> ]To be honest, it all depends on your output device. Outputting via the HDMI is so-so
This doesn't really make sense. HDMI is a digital interface and what the Pi outputs will sounds exactly the same as any other device and should be perfect.
Obviously it depends on what you connect your HDMI cable to, but there is no limit on quality from the Pi end.
I mean Kodi software, compared with another music player software, like volumio or rune... I use a JustBoon pHAT too. Thanks for the answers
I use Kodi on just a RPi-2 all the time to play mp3s but also High Resolution audio either via HDMI or HighBerry DAC over coax.
For the user GUI side I would use either the web front end or the "remote" for a iPHONE or Andriod which works very well for me (note my music is all reasonably well tagged) note you have a choice of two remotes on the mobile apps side both are good but different so try them both :-), the RPi-3 gives you a little faster interface, but really just enable the caching on the APP (on your phone/tablet) and it then Zooms along.
I use this all the time now. Note the New version of Kodi 17.x is meant to have had a lot of audio stuff improved.
The developer of rune audio made some kernel patches/configuration for realtime ability. As I know he patch also the MPD for high quality audio playback. What you can try to do is install MPD addon in LE and replace the binary with the one from rune audio.
My FLAC rips from CD (using EAC and Accurip checks), stored on a NAS drive over LAN to Kodi on RPi3 (LE7.95.008) fed into an Arcam DAC via USB, sound better than playing the actual CD on a Meridian CD transport into the same DAC (via quality digital interconnect).
It is totally rediculous that free software and a cheap RPi should sound so good, but it does
Providing you have audiophile components downstream that is, DAC, amp and speakers are what you are listening to.
There is room for improvement in the UI and music library functionality (how you browse and select your music to play), but for the actual audio I don't see how anything is going to provide the digital bits to your DAC in any way that improves the sound.
(2017-01-13, 17:03)popcornmix Wrote: [ -> ]HDMI is a digital interface and what the Pi outputs will sounds exactly the same as any other device and should be perfect.
Obviously it depends on what you connect your HDMI cable to, but there is no limit on quality from the Pi end.
Yeap.
(2017-01-14, 12:28)herrmeier01 Wrote: [ -> ]The developer of rune audio made some kernel patches/configuration for realtime ability. As I know he patch also the MPD for high quality audio playback. What you can try to do is install MPD addon in LE and replace the binary with the one from rune audio.
This could be the answer... the question is.. how where are the binaries and how to replace?
I made a quick test and simply copy the binary from rune to LE.
It's not running in LE because of library decencies...
error while loading shared libraries: libupnp.so.6: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
Anyway I think it's not easy to port all the audio related tweaks from Rune Audio to LibreELEC.
As I said before the kernel is also tweaked for RT.
Rune Audio (Arch Linux)
===============
MPD binary
/usr/bin/mpd
MPD startscript
/usr/lib/systemd/system/mpd.service
MPD configuration
/etc/mpd.conf
LibreELEC
======
MPD binary
/storage/.kodi/addons/service.multimedia.mpd/bin/mpd
MPD startscript
/storage/.kodi/addons/service.multimedia.mpd/bin/mpd/mpd.start
MPD configuration:
/storage/.kodi/userdata/addon_data/service.multimedia.mpd/config/mpd.conf
Take a look at the LE build script for mpd and see if you think you can tweak it. Or consider docker.
I have several side by side Pi's with Hifiberry dac or digi into either a fancier dac or the rest of the system, in a few rooms. I've tried all the audio distros with kernel tweaks. I'm always try to tweak my audio systems and their software. I still use Kodi a lot of the time when listening to music out of convenience. It's already on, so it just gets used more often than not. I don't hear THAT dramatic a difference between Kodi 17 and them.
You will notice a much bigger difference by getting either a digital out or dac as people mentioned above. You'll notice the second biggest improvement by upgrading the power supply for the pi. Either DIY or $$$$ for a linear power supply. They can really sound awesome when set up right.
If you guys do have some luck with integrating in the kernel tweeks, that would be very interesting.
Audiophile opinions always break some phisic's law... ;-)
hahah jesus the crap people believe.
It does give audiophiles with a brain such a bad name