The Delfina Plus and Lite Setup Guide

matt3k

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This is a little setup guide I put together while trying to get my Delfina Plus working perfectly. Hours of time and frustration to come up with the perfect, at least for me, setup.

The Lite and Plus are very similar so this guide should work with the Lite just fine.

I'm very happy with the Delfina in terms of performance and quality. The sound is very beautiful and my 3000 multitasks like a champ. I don't feel any speed hit when playing music.

I'm running the Plus at the factory set 73MHz, Lite user will want to clock up to 66MHz or so for good results (I used to have a lite 15 years ago and that is what I ran it at (Wish I would have wrote down my settings back then!!!)).

This setup does fix issues with screen savers, many Delfina users have to disable their screen saver for perfect playback. I'm happy to say with my setup, the screen saver and heavy load usage of the 3000 work perfectly. I have ran a mixture of mp2's and mp3's for days and it has been 100% reliable.

Please do not deviate from the setup items below, using other libs, programs, and song players will eventually lead to lockups.

I hope that this saves others time and that they can enjoy their Delfina right away!

One last note that really impressed me is that the total CPU usage for playing even the highest quality audio files is ONLY 2%. This card is really surprising me. I could imagine it in a stock machine with a great experience.

Now on to the settings:
AmigaAmp (Amplifier tends to crash over time). File load buffer, play buffer 1sec - http://www.amigaamp.de/Binaries/AmigaAMP.lha
MHI - http://aminet.net/mus/play/mhimdev.lha
DelfinaMpeg Version: 1.6 http://aminet.net/package/mus/play/dmdev
Delfina.library Version 4.16 B3 Patch #2. delflib416b43.lha https://www.amibay.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=130077&d=1514823760
Delfinit NOPATCH Quiet - to init the card in user-startup. http://aminet.net/util/misc/DelfInit.lha
Delfina Tweak - for Delfina Lites ONLY, Delfina Plus does not need overclocking. http://aminet.net/driver/audio/DelfTweak.lha


UPDATES:

5-14-2021a Driver update? - I haven't used a Delfina for 10 years! But recently had mine repaired (Thanks Tristan!)and wanted to know if the drivers were ever updated or if the flipper drivers were ever ported over?

5-14-2021 Socket issues:
If your Delfina stops working when you go to init the card, check that your memory sockets are connecting to the memory itself.

5-14-2021 Cleaned up and updated links and errors.

02-26-2014 Audio cables seem to play an important role in playback quality with this card. Recommend that thicker/higher quality audio cables be used. I can attest that for high load on the bus, that this is the only audio card I have tested that will not hick up during multitasking and all forms of IO.

12-3-2013 Fixed all issues:
*** Fixed with changing buffer to File****I did find one issue with playing Insane (The highest quality with Lame) MP3's (With an average file size of about 10 megs) and copying large files with the ariandne across my network will cause occasional hickup's in playback. I'm hoping the new z3 100 card will fix this last little annoyance.

12-07-2013 Note on Delfina.library versions - The ONLY version that will run perfectly is 6.14 B3 Patch #2, earlier versions are buggy and the 6.17 libs ONLY run in the flipper and lock up zorro based delfinas.

6-28-2013 Performance Notes:
I am very impressed, I can run the phonepak (with incoming calls and full vm playback), the Delfina, surfing the web, and/or the screensaver at the same time without any interruption. I have never have seen this happen and I was very surprised that the Zorro Bus could handle it.
 
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Added more info

Added more info

Added more info I thought others would want to know...
 
Fixed last remuaining issue

Fixed last remuaining issue

Thanks to Olsen for the suggestion to increase buffers from 256 to FILE. Fixed stuttering playback. Plays perfect in all situations now.

Made other small changes to the guide.

Anyone know the latest delfina libs that are in the wild?
 
Tweaked some more and left more info. Think it is about complete now, have tested about every combination in a variety of ways.
 
Nice ! Question for ya .. if you had a Sunrize AD516 and a Delfina Flipper .. which one would you pick? Or do they both have their own specialties? I admit I haven't really researched the matter so if you don't feel like answering because of my laziness that's totally understood :D
 
No Worries, I wrote the book on lazy:).

I haven't owned either card you asked about. I have tested (Delfina Plus, Delfina Lite, Melody Z2, and a Prelude w/mpegit.)

That said, I would say if you want to listen to MP3's, go with the Delfina. If you want to make music, either card would be decent...

I think only the Delfina has AHI support, so if you want to play games the Delfina is the best choice...

I have also heard that there are issues with some Delfina Flippers, so be sure to research the card...

If you have a Zorro based amiga, I would recommend going with a zorro based solution... The 2 best Audio cards I have found is the Delfina Plus and the Prelude w/Mpegit, and probably the Lite...

Nice ! Question for ya .. if you had a Sunrize AD516 and a Delfina Flipper .. which one would you pick? Or do they both have their own specialties? I admit I haven't really researched the matter so if you don't feel like answering because of my laziness that's totally understood :D
 
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I used to own the AD516, it has AHI drivers also, I think they are on aminet. AD516 is good for audio production, because it has a dsp dedicated to multitrack audio recording without stressing too much the cpu. IMO, Delfina cards, are hard to set up. I tested toccatta and owned a prelude with mpegit and a delfina lite OC . I still prefer the Prelude. It's a more audiophile card.
 
Hi Marmes,

Thanks for the Prelude, she sounds really sweet on my HiFi system! Enjoying the sound, with a truly great card.

I haven't testing the Prelude against the Plus yet, but I bet the sound quality is better on the Prelude, they both use the same sound chip, but the delfina lib may hold back the quality. I think the plus will win with multitasking, it's bus transfer is more capable.

This is purely theoretical, until I get roundtuit for testing them...

Agreed, the delfina (without the setup guide) is a MAJOR project and hard to setup. With the setup guide to help a new user, it is easier to setup a Delfina than a Prelude IMHO. Since you have to find all the the proper drivers to make a Prelude work...

To me the Prelude w/mpegit and the Plus are both great cards and I wouldn't want to pick a winner:).

To me it's Ferrari or Lamborghini, both fine products...

I used to own the AD516, it has AHI drivers also, I think they are on aminet. AD516 is good for audio production, because it has a dsp dedicated to multitrack audio recording without stressing too much the cpu. IMO, Delfina cards, are hard to set up. I tested toccatta and owned a prelude with mpegit and a delfina lite OC . I still prefer the Prelude. It's a more audiophile card.
 
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Delfina would be a great card with better Lib and if it included the preamp they advise on datasheet. Crystal/Cirrus have such wonderful codecs. Delfina technically is the best sound card. But the lack of support killed it :(
 
Great post matt3k !! Got my Delfina Plus up and running, but unable to locate these drivers: Delfina.library Version 6.14 B3 Patch #2 .. ANyone got and can upload ? Thx :)
 
Great post matt3k !! Got my Delfina Plus up and running, but unable to locate these drivers: Delfina.library Version 6.14 B3 Patch #2 .. ANyone got and can upload ? Thx :)

Hi,
A little old this GREAT post (Very good work matt3K THX!) , but same here. :(
I can not find 6.14 B3 Patch # 2.
I would be very grateful if you could send it to me.
Greetings and Happy year.
QuarXky
 
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Hi Marmes,
Great!
Thanks for the file and more, even for the explanation of the error with the version number.
I think it's the one I use now but I'll check it out.
Best Regards
QuarXky
 
Belated thanks to Marmes for the driver link and version clarification. I updated the guide.
 
It's so a great piece of hardware, so bad that AmigaOS 4.1 doesn't support this superb sound card.
It looks like lack of documentation killed it.
 
It's so a great piece of hardware, so bad that AmigaOS 4.1 doesn't support this superb sound card.
It looks like lack of documentation killed it.

Too bad it doesn't have 4.1 support. The curse of the Amigas really.

Variety is nice (68k AOS 3.2, PPC MOS 3.15, PPC AOS 4.1, AROS (and variants), WinUAE, Vamp, Rasp, and certainly others I'm forgetting), but in the case of Amiga I think it got carried away lol. Don't get me wrong I love that 3.2 just came out and that Wayfayer and Iris are really good browsers and email clients but I can only imagine what we would have for drivers and applications if we only had say 2 platforms to develop for.

That said I still enjoy the 68k and PPC stuff for the Amiga, just can't do everything I want to with them.
 
Sadly I cannot get my Delfina Lite stable for mp3 playback with this configuration….it will sometimes play for
minutes, sometimes hours but inevitably locks the system ( A4000T.)

I seem to recall the Plus being better back in the day but hard to come by now.
 
Try different versions of AmigaAmp. Think the 2
25 may be the most stable, if using that try the latest 3 version.

I would also place the mp3s locally on the drive for testing.

Good Luck,

Matt
 
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