PicorePlayer vs moOde sound quality, any difference ?

[OlivierS]

Hello,

Has anyone found a difference in listening sound between picoreplayer and moode (with the same hardware of course)? I would like to know your opinions...

[MisterKevster]

Yes....for me (having tried PCP, Moode and Volumio to date) I prefer the sounds of both Moode and Volumio.
Surprised there haven't been any comments on this!
What's your opinion??

[OlivierS]

Yes....for me (having tried PCP, Moode and Volumio to date) I prefer the sounds of both Moode and Volumio.
Surprised there haven't been any comments on this!
What's your opinion??

I'm glad to finally get an opinion, especially since it's the same as mine
I'm also surprised that I haven't had any fiery comments before.
I'll tell soon my little story about my current installation

Regards

[slartibartfast]

I'm glad to finally get an opinion, especially since it's the same as mine
I'm also surprised that I haven't had any fiery comments before.
I'll tell soon my little story about my current installation

Regards

How are you playing to Moode and Volumio? Squeezelite or mod?

[MisterKevster]

How are you playing to Moode and Volumio? Squeezelite or mod?

....if you meant mpd....then yes, that's what I'm using

[slartibartfast]

....if you meant mpd....then yes, that's what I'm using

I had a feeling auto correct had intervened. I couldn't get Moode to play nicely with LMS and the upnp bridge.so finally installed mpd and upmpdcli. I wanted to believe mpd sounded different to Squeezelite but after comparing my DAC output when fed by both players using Deltawave software the difference waveform was over 100dB below the original waveform. I got similar results when comparing two captures of the same player.

[MisterKevster]

I had a feeling auto correct had intervened. I couldn't get Moode to play nicely with LMS and the upnp bridge.so finally installed mpd and upmpdcli. I wanted to believe mpd sounded different to Squeezelite but after comparing my DAC output when fed by both players using Deltawave software the difference waveform was over 100dB below the original waveform. I got similar results when comparing two captures of the same player.

Must admit...I'm a novice here....but I'm not with you!!
Which worked better for you??

[slartibartfast]

Must admit...I'm a novice here....but I'm not with you!!
Which worked better for you??

I couldn't really tell the difference and neither could the software I used to compare them. What kind of difference do you think there is? Are you using Moode via the upnp/DLNA bridge? It wouldn't play gapless for me.

[MisterKevster]

I couldn't really tell the difference and neither could the software I used to compare them. What kind of difference do you think there is? Are you using Moode via the upnp/DLNA bridge? It wouldn't play gapless for me.

Aaaagghhh...so Deltawave software can measure performance....?

UPnP and DLNA are both OFF for me....system plays locally stored files to a Topping E30 dac via USB. (hope I've described that correctly!)
Sounds great to my ears.
Found the PCP quite harsh sounding (certainly with Clasical music)....Moode/Volumio both smoother in the delivery, and preferable to me.

Live albums play without inserted silence .....so I assume I have gapless playback.

[slartibartfast]

Aaaagghhh...so Deltawave software can measure performance....?

UPnP and DLNA are both OFF for me....system plays locally stored files to a Topping E30 dac via USB. (hope I've described that correctly!)
Sounds great to my ears.
Found the PCP quite harsh sounding (certainly with Clasical music)....Moode/Volumio both smoother in the delivery, and preferable to me.

Live albums play without inserted silence .....so I assume I have gapless playback.

If UPnP and DNLA are off does that mean you aren't using LMS ? There is no other way for LMS to play to an mpd player.

[MisterKevster]

If UPnP and DNLA are off does that mean you aren't using LMS ? There is no other way for LMS to play to an mpd player.

Are we at cross purposes here?....I'm describing my settings in Moode.
All renderers are OFF....and not seeing any reference to LMS in the settings....so not using LMS.

[slartibartfast]

Are we at cross purposes here?....I'm describing my settings in Moode.
All renderers are OFF....and not seeing any reference to LMS in the settings....so not using LMS.

Yes I was controlling Squeezelite and Moode from LMS. I have no idea if that would alter the sound. I would love to see an explanation for any of these differences between players but there doesn't appear to be one.

[OlivierS]

The reasons why I came to LMS + moOde, maybe a bit long and not in perfect english language:

0 - We are in 2021

1 - When I realized that main parts of my hifi equipment (quad44 + Cabasse Eider 3VT) were 40 years old, I began to realize also that my digital part was only a Teac CD player and I felt I should do something

2 - A friend of mine lended to me a rasp + hifiberry with a software I don't remember and I began to work on the subject. I finally kept moOde on this machine to go further, buy some HiRes to Qobuz, doing multiple comparisons

3 - Convinced I could significantly improve my listening comfort, without being prisoner of proprietary software proposed by many manufacturers, I chose to buy a Allo Usbridge Signature, connected to a Moon 230had DAC, then a Moon 330 amplifier and a pair of Elac FS408

4 - During 2022 year I tried all softwares I could find, and I stayed on Volumio and Moode, mainly because of their simple installation process. Unless some unreliable advices on the net, they both are sounding fine (without any difference for me, I'll understand why later), but I have a little preference for Moode interface.

5 - I chose to subscribe to Qobuz, because of their HiRes offer (we could discuss the real gain of Hires in another thread if everything has not been yet said ) Unfortunately Qobuz is available for Volumio, but it's not free and Moode, that I prefer, has no more compatibility, so the one thing to do to listen to Qobuz streaming was to use Mconnect on my iphone, connected via upnp to Moode; that solution works fine but is not too satisfying, mainly because we have to install a control application (Mconnect) from a third party on each equipment we want to use

6 - When I found a good tutorial to install piCorePlayer, I gave it a try, and Wow ! After a bit of effort, I had (nearly) what I was needing for: a freeware compatible with qobuz, with an amazing web ui, no need for any other soft on clients, really flexible with many customizations, in short I fell in love

7 - BUT I felt something weird when I was listening to some tracks I was used to listen with moOde, like Paco de Lucia and his acoustic guitar...

8 - After many tries with LMS output to moOde squeezelite vs moOde upnp/mpd renderer, I concluded there was a difference, not a huge difference of course, but a difference and that difference was due to the renderer. Before this experience I thought the renderer was transparent when all equalizer, resampling and other options were disabled, but obviously I was missing something (maybe software volume control...)

9 - Why I prefer moOde upnp renderer: under some circumtances more detailed, more brilliant, better dynamic, on very old recordings like Glenn Gould Bach well tempered clavier or more recent remastered Friday night in San Francisco by McLaughlin, Di Meola and Paco

10 - I think there are probably some minimal differences and these minimal differences may be in resonance with the hardware following the DAC, like amplifier, loudspeakers, and most important, the room where you are listening

11 - So, finally I installed the moOde distro on my usbridge, then LMS in the same environment

• moOde upnp renderer is set on
• on LMS I use the plugin upnpBridge

And now I'm quite satisfied (nothing is perfect..)
Hope some readers wil find some interesting elements in that modest story