We'd like some help with Octave

I’m pretty new to hifi, and I just purchased a Stellar Gain Cell Dac pre-amp and a Stellar S300 amp. I’m using my Kef LS50s for speakers. When I was researching a new system, I thought about the Kef LS50 wireless system. It was very compelling, but coming from an IT background, a system that depends on software like the Kef LS50 wireless system did, made me nervous. They say it works on an iPhone now, how do we know there will be iPhones in 10 years? It has to work on what will be around in 20 to 30 years. I love Roon, as well, that’s partly what got me into this whole thing with my raspberry Pi project, but it’s important for any system that relies on software, especially if it’s an expensive system, be adaptable for the future, and the more expensive they system, hopefully the longer further in the future it will be, and the greater value it brings to one’s life and family unit.

This could be a big win for those of us who listen to a lot of “brittle” recordings.

I’m currently using Roon but, in terms of sound, I prefer Amarra over all else. I think their “engine” is remarkable.

Are there any plans on having a fiber optic output?
And maybe update the Direcstream with fiber optic inputs?

Things are generally heading in that direction. Lumin are doing it. Ted Smith has talked about doing it.

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So, what - it would be a Dual Fiber deal? Is the 24/96 limit on one pipe, or is it the stuff it’s plugged into?

We are talking about SFP fiber, not the Toslink you are probably thinking of. There is no 24/96 limit.

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Cool! Thanks. Though I see one form of that uses dual fiber. I could ask a bunch of questions, but I assume they have been discussed here somewhere?

SFP is bi-directional, which is why it is used in networking applications. It supports 1Gbps, which far exceeds anything required for digital audio.

I use SFP fiber in my network at home. I don’t really notice any difference in performance between the SFP link or ethernet link.

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Will Octave allow for random play?

Yes, of course it will.

Paul, Hello. If you want to make the world’s best interface for Octave, you need to make it more flexible.

  1. Add the ability to view the library folders. For example, a couple of years ago I bought some tracks in Google Music and haven’t listened to these records since. Here I copy the folder “Google Play Music” from my flash drive to the Octave server and immediately in the “Folders” can see everything that I then bought a long time, but otherwise they just all scattered under “Albums” and so convenient will not be. Or I copied music from my friend Mark and also copied it to Octave, and it will be impossible to find all Mark’s albums quickly. Because they will be scattered in the “Albums” section, or maybe he will not have all the tags correctly and everything will be lost in the “Albums” or “Artists” section.

  2. In this “Folders” section, to be able to adjust the width and sorting by the desired column and font size, as done in the “Finder” in Mac OS, you can sort by date or alphabetically or even remove the column with the date to fit more text.

  3. In the sections “Albums” and “Artists” need to add the ability to filter the albums by date added (with a choice of first new or first old), I’m so used to listening to Tidal “Favorites” section is very convenient.

  4. It would also be nice to be able to adjust the number of covers on the screen and therefore their size would also change, the smaller the covers you put in the settings, the larger they will be displayed in the list. This also applies to the font with the name of the album, now only the first two words are placed in the artist’s or album’s knowledge, because the font is very large. We need to make it smaller and make it appear in two lines.

And I don’t want to see folders of any sort. Only album covers. Good luck building something that appeals to everybody.

I’m a designer and I took a stab at bringing the aesthetic direction forward a bit. Let me know if PS Audio wants any help with the UI.

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I guess to make this to appeal for everybody is as easy as to make a car or living room for everybody;-) I think we have to lower our expectations a bit…

IMO the most restrictive product so far that shouldn’t be so was the iPhone…but they did it good enough for many…so it seems possible.

An option to be able to view folders/directory structure would be nice.

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Nicer and thank you. We’re always open to suggestions and help.

Looks really nice! Just for „daily work“ with a large collection still too much space wasted for fonts and white space imo, could be more efficient :wink:

For me it would be very important to be able to vary the cover size display, views etc., as I fear many are happy just with nice design and don’t worry about klicking and searching a bit longer. Not so here :wink:

I’m an iPhone (not Android) user, but as a music library is a tool with more intensive personal use than the smartphone OS, I prefer every bit of flexibility here (more Andoid-like).

I prefer OldManHank’s design.

The current design has unneeded collapseable menus. One concise list down the side can be navigated more efficiently, IMO.

The ability to browse the actual file folder directly should absolutely be present and can be as simple as including a “Browse file folder” button. If users choose not to use it, that’s fine. But there are many people who use this method for whatever reason.

Also, the most easy to realize tweak would be a black mode. White looks nice but draws battery on iPads as hell during surfing within the library.

I think it’s most important that people influence and design the UI, who not only occasionally use small streaming libraries, but those who spend a lot of time „working“ with it in practice. Otherwise there’ll be months or years of optimizing quite basic needs.

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I also hope there will be a switch for ‘Dark Mode’ for the GUI.

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