Why is volumio giving users a choice for the buffer size… Why not quietly lock it at 2mb - wouldn’t that work for everyone?
I guess what I’m asking is what is to be gained by changing the buffer size?
Does the sound signature change depending on how much is cached?
Thx
Perhaps useful for folks with unstable internet?
What is this, how could this be?
from here Volumio Streamer Configuration Tips | Page 5 | Super Best Audio Friends
Very strange indeed. Not sure what happened here, sounds like there may be issues in the processing chain (including that of the observer 
). IMO, the buffer just defines the data heap that is ready to enter the audio processing chain.
right, but would you say that it’s possible that files stored locally and played from local storage can produce better quality?
For me it seems theoretically unlikely, but never say never: if parameters in the processing chain are for some weird reason’s reason sensitive to the buffer size it could happen. The developers @volumio then would be aware of this, I suppose, and at least would provide a kind of warning with buffer size setting. Just like they do with the software/hardware volume setting (which also seems to have a subtle but sometimes audible effect on audio quality.
Volume and buffer size can’t be compared with each other.
Volume manipulation by software has impact the SN ratio, that will impact the sound. But building a buffer to deal with bad network performance that colors the sound… Seems like a hoax to me.
But then again people like to move in a flock. SO you can even convince a couple of them in a big group that yellow is actual green…
Agree, was more talking about real issues with audio quality on which there is a kind of consensus. It would be nice if these were documented somewhere on the community website to debunk audio myths that keep popping up from time to time. There is so much knowledge available here.
Who said anything about volume? Where did that part come from…
I would guess from this part?
Just an educated guess 
Oh i missed that. But it’s a completely different subject that is well understood and I believe volumio has an official stance on that (the software/hardware volume aspect).
BTW y’all seen CRAAP stuff? Undervolting pi produces lower noise and higher audio quality… Instructions are for ropee but same goes for volumio (just need to edit a different file)
Well,
Lowering the voltage will offcoarse reduce noise as the total amplitude is lower (so is the noise amplitude). But then again, it will introduce other/new errors as the rPi really dislike this. To compensate they also lower the frequency.
There are multiple ways to improve stuff, I would go for a decent power supply instead of tweaking all these kind of things. That might result in all kind of weird errors.
I had mine undervolted using that guide for 6 months without major issues… I did just get a nirvana SMPS, I wish I had a way to actually tell if there’s a difference in sound quality. My ears are garbage.
Depends on your setup, using a DAC HAT, the PSU will have impact, using a USB DAC, you can power the rPi with the default PSU, as long as you power the DAC with Nirvana.
My dac hat needs 24v so can’t power it with nirvana. But manufacturer claims the supplied power supply is good enough.
But you’re saying if I have a DAC hat it’s more important to supply clean power to it, than to the pi? I intuitively understand the reasoning there (because the signal is ultimately coming out of the hat) but I think the hat is doing a lot less processing than the pi (and therefore the pi board itself generates more noise).
In short:
Bits are Bits. Communication between rPi and DAC is digital. If the PSU should have a big impact on this level, your rPi would crash every second, or would never be able to read from the SD. As every signal read/written is wrong.
You DAC however, is responsible to convert this digital signal to analog. Here noise can become an issue. The DAC converts and doesn’t care about analog crap entering on this analog signal. It has no clue what the analog signal is. It does know what the digital signal is.
Do you have a USB DAC connected to the pi?
yep,
With Odroid N2+ and headphone I get a slight humm (ground loop), with an ultra low-noise psu this is gone.
You’re using the N2+ output jack, or in combi with a DAC?
As the ZEN doesn’t humm here. Using a PSU from the Netgear duo V2. For sure no high-end PSU.
