HQPlayer's Network Audio Adapter

[Jabs1542]

since the manual says

• 
  
• ‘sMS-100’ is a network player which supports SqueezeLite, AirPlay, DLNA, MPD, and HQPlayer NAAfunction.
   
  I guess that life is easy indeed, provided you're happy to spend more on the NAA than for a TEAC UD 501 DAC...
   
  Could someone, please, describe the benefits of SMS 100 vs direct to DAC when HQP is on Yosemite ? (I run HQP on a lightly optimized Yosemite and I preferred it over trimmed Mavericks on SD card)
  

 

I have both, a CAPS v3 with a SOtM USB card and a SMS-100 as an NAA. From my experience - I'm not confident I could tell the two apart in a blind test, hell I'm not sure I can tell them apart when I switch them around myself. I think the key is the player computer, I suspect if you had a "barely getting there" computer that had some noise issues then the NAA route may be a cheaper option than replacing the computer. I would also suspect that this could be the case when you can't dedicate a computer to music and have to use it as the house hold jack-of-all-trades machine.

 

If you are happy with the configuration of your Yosemite and feel that it is running "clean" then you may not see any gain from the NAA approach. BTW - I thought I heard something when I first got the NAA, but after the newness wore off and some time went by I began to discover that direct out of the SOtM USB port was just as good. Then I sat down and did some serious listening and decided I can't confidently hear any difference. YMMV

[Le Concombre Masqué]

Thank you all and happy new year. I might just replace Mavericks by Yosemite on my SD card. Will share my findings

[Le Concombre Masqué]

actions Terminal.pdfI created a Yosemite SD card erasing my optimized Mavericks on it for anyway i found it to sound inferior to native Yosemite on ssd.

 

Is it worth it ?

 

Well, we are jan the 1st and i might be slow, happy new year btw…

 

in a nutshell : i had to have 2 similar Mac ready to save boot times and refine my findings..

 

real or not, i built consistent impressions : Y on ssd was snappier, Y on sd card and ssd dismounted brought more details, was softer, more 3D but less engaging… I can’t see the rational but adding 1dB to the SD card session brought back snap and kick while preserving 3D etc. Then I optimized the card « au feeling », thought it widened the soundstage while it should not cripple the os (see attached)

 

Am I happy to have spent a few hours of a slow anyway day ? yeah… but my system is very resolving and the whole thing has less effect than an incorrect AP

 

btw I found myself toggling a lot the AP switch on my pre since I turned to HQP and think that HQP when outing to DSD inverts polarity.

 

 

Not sure I’m ready to spend a lot on a NAA : HQP works very well already on native YOsemite directly connected to DAC and does not benefit tremendously of my relevant (minimizing the adverse effects of computing on sq), though not exactly the same as putting a NAA in the chain, effort

[victor]

You will have to go through an Ethernet switch and/or router. HQP desktop won't find the NAA on the network unless there is a DNServer running. (I asked Miska about this again in post #192 above; Hopefully he is planning to allow manual IP address entry--on player side--to tell it what address to look at for an NAA.)

 

Hi,

 

My experience while still evaluating HQPlayer using:

- Auraliti PC with Voyage MPD installed acting as NAA

- HP i7 laptop acting as HQP PC

 

Connecting directly the HQP PC to the NAA using an ethernet cable when using Windows 7 in the HQP not configuring anything special, just static IPs, HQP finds the NAA and everything works flawlessly.

 

Connecting directly the HQP PC to the NAA using an ethernet cable when using Ubuntu in the HQP, HQP cannot find the NAA but it does find it as you say when connecting to my home network linked to the router.

I even installed a DNS Server in the Ubuntu HQP PC and checked that it worked well and HQP still does not find the NAA when direct-connecting both PCs so DNS does not seem to be the problem.

 

Any other idea?

 

 

Cheers,

 

Victor.

[Superdad]

Any other idea?

 

Thanks for the report Victor. I guess Miska will need to reply.

 

Regards,

ALEX

[YashN]

Based on what Alex mentioned for DHCP, I checked running processes on my Mac: it seems the process which is responsible for DHCP was already running. Maybe I have a configuration issue that could be solved between Mac OS X -> Raspbian NAA but for now, it can't find the NAA.

 

I probably will try again.

 

I even installed a DNS Server in the Ubuntu HQP PC and checked that it worked well and HQP still does not find the NAA when direct-connecting both PCs so DNS does not seem to be the problem.

 

Any other idea?

[johann]

Based on what Alex mentioned for DHCP, I checked running processes on my Mac: it seems the process which is responsible for DHCP was already running. Maybe I have a configuration issue that could be solved between Mac OS X -> Raspbian NAA but for now, it can't find the NAA.

 

I probably will try again.

 

So much for your own abilities. Why am I not surprised....

[johann]

Connecting directly the HQP PC to the NAA using an ethernet cable when using Ubuntu in the HQP, HQP cannot find the NAA but it does find it as you say when connecting to my home network linked to the router.

I even installed a DNS Server in the Ubuntu HQP PC and checked that it worked well and HQP still does not find the NAA when direct-connecting both PCs so DNS does not seem to be the problem.

 

Am I correct assuming, ping, ssh, etc works between the two nodes?

 

Which Ubuntu version?

[victor]

Am I correct assuming, ping, ssh, etc works between the two nodes?

 

Which Ubuntu version?

 

Yes, you are correct. Pinging and sshing the hostnames works well from both nodes.

 

I tried first with ubuntustudio-14.04.1 amd64 and now I am using ubuntu-14.04.1-desktop-amd64

[johann]

Yes, you are correct. Pinging and sshing the hostnames works well from both nodes.

 

I tried first with ubuntustudio-14.04.1 amd64 and now I am using ubuntu-14.04.1-desktop-amd64

 

I have a Mac Mini with Ubuntu 14.04.1 LTS (GNU/Linux 3.13.0-43-generic x86_64).

Should I test a similar setup as yours ?

 

Although it would not be with an Auraliti PC

[victor]

I have a Mac Mini with Ubuntu 14.04.1 LTS (GNU/Linux 3.13.0-43-generic x86_64).

Should I test a similar setup as yours ?

Although it would not be with an Auraliti PC

It would be a great idea if you have the time but I am not sure if the Ubuntu in Mac will behave differently.

I configured the DNS server in Ubuntu following this: https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-configure-bind-as-a-private-network-dns-server-on-ubuntu-14-04

Which kind of PC do you use for the NAA side?

Cheers,

Victor.

[johann]

It would be a great idea if you have the time but I am not sure if the Ubuntu in Mac will behave differently.

I configured the DNS server in Ubuntu following this: https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-configure-bind-as-a-private-network-dns-server-on-ubuntu-14-04

Which kind of PC do you use for the NAA side?

 

What HW with Ubuntu?

 

I'll setup DNS according to that link.

 

I was actually planning to use an SOtM sMS-100 as a first test. If you have any other suggestion, that might be possible too.

[victor]

What HW with Ubuntu?

 

I'll setup DNS according to that link.

 

I was actually planning to use an SOtM sMS-100 as a first test. If you have any other suggestion, that might be possible too.

 

With Ubuntu I am using an HP laptop (HP Envy 14 Beats Edition with an i7 and 8GB RAM: HP ENVY 14-1114ef Beats Edition Notebook PC Product Specifications | Soporte HP® )

 

I do not have any other suggestion for the NAA as I do not have much experience with HQP. Hopefully you will get the same results as me and we can continue from there.

 

Thanks!

[johann]

With Ubuntu I am using an HP laptop (HP Envy 14 Beats Edition with an i7 and 8GB RAM: HP ENVY 14-1114ef Beats Edition Notebook PC Product Specifications | Soporte HP® )

 

I do not have any other suggestion for the NAA as I do not have much experience with HQP. Hopefully you will get the same results as me and we can continue from there.

 

Thanks!

 

 

The Mac Mini is a normal Intel box so should be fine, I'll try with that and the SOtM to start with.

 

Cheers

[johann]

Just verified that it works in my home network.

[victor]

Good, let's see if it works when directly connecting both PCs

[johann]

Good, let's see if it works when directly connecting both PCs

 

I meant it worked with HQ Player on the Mac Mini with Ubuntu and the NAA in the sMS-100 on my fully functional home network with DNS, dhcp, etc.

 

Now I have tested with just the HQ Player and the NAA and no access to anything else.

It works and I have not even added the DNS services not have I hardcoded any IP addresses in /etc/hosts.

 

Cheers

Johan

[victor]

I meant it worked with HQ Player on the Mac Mini with Ubuntu and the NAA in the sMS-100 on my fully functional home network with DNS, dhcp, etc.

 

Now I have tested with just the HQ Player and the NAA and no access to anything else.

It works and I have not even added the DNS services not have I hardcoded any IP addresses in /etc/hosts.

 

Cheers

Johan

 

Thanks for the tests Johan.

 

Can you confirm that the mac mini and the sms100 are directly connected one to the other using an ethernet cable?

 

Please post your /etc/network/interfaces or any other details of your network configuration that I can try to replicate.

[johann]

Thanks for the tests Johan.

 

Can you confirm that the mac mini and the sms100 are directly connected one to the other using an ethernet cable?

 

Please post your /etc/network/interfaces or any other details of your network configuration that I can try to replicate.

 

My pleasure.

 

Yes, with a crossover cable. Thought it would work with a straight cable nowadays but it didn't.

 

Not sure we can conclude anything more than Ubuntu works without DNS or any other resolver with the sMS-100 as NAA.

 

 

I'll send you the file once I have that back in it's ordinary place with networking up.

[victor]

My pleasure.

 

Yes, with a crossover cable. Thought it would work with a straight cable nowadays but it didn't.

 

Not sure we can conclude anything more than Ubuntu works without DNS or any other resolver with the sMS-100 as NAA.

 

 

I'll send you the file once I have that back in it's ordinary place with networking up.

 

What you say about the crossover cable is very interesting as I thought that it should not make a difference neither. I will try that in a couple of days if I can get ahold of one.

 

Cheers!

[johann]

What you say about the crossover cable is very interesting as I thought that it should not make a difference neither. I will try that in a couple of days if I can get ahold of one.

 

Cheers!

 

If you have IP working with normal cable, you don't need a crossover cable. I suspect the NIC in the sMS-100 is a bit older and that required a crossover cable.

 

In any case, you don't need DNS with the config I tested.

 

EDIT: Straight cable works with MBP connected to Mac Mini. So I was right above

[victor]

If you have IP working with normal cable, you don't need a crossover cable. I suspect the NIC in the sMS-100 is a bit older and that required a crossover cable.

 

In any case, you don't need DNS with the config I tested.

 

EDIT: Straight cable works with MBP connected to Mac Mini. So I was right above

 

Thanks, even if my problem seems to be in the HQP PC side, I will try to install Ubuntu in the Auraliti and see if it makes a difference.

[johann]

Maybe you should install and use tcpdump too see what happens on the network?

[jabbr]

I have both, a CAPS v3 with a SOtM USB card and a SMS-100 as an NAA.

I just ordered the parts for the CAPS v3 Lagoon -- talk about low power! -- planning to power it with a Salas shunt regulator/Reflektor-D. A pair of Reflektor-D's would also make a nice supply for the Jussi DAC -- if that ever gets built.

[victor]

Maybe you should install and use tcpdump too see what happens on the network?

 

Thanks for the suggestion but I would not know how to use it properly or how to interpret the output.

Finally I had some time and I tried new things:

- Install Ubuntu in another laptop that I had (netbook with atom processor), install the networkaudiod package, check that HQP worked in NAA mode when both laptops are in my home network (router, etc.) and then see that it did not work when both laptops were isolated directly connected one to each other, same result as when using my Auraliti PC with Voyage MPD

- I also installed and configured a DHCP service in the HQP PC to see if it would make the HQP auto-discovery work with no success.

Johan, can you please explain what did you mean exactly in your previous sentence? :

Now I have tested with just the HQ Player and the NAA and no access to anything else.

It works and I have not even added the DNS services not have I hardcoded any IP addresses in /etc/hosts.

I ask because I tried with both laptops (HQP and NAA, both Ubuntu) configured to use DHCP and connected to my home network (router, etc.) and HQP worked well in NAA mode. Then I just connected both laptops directly and tried again and it did not work. It seems obvious as "networkaudiod" does not start if the network is not OK in the NAA PC and this is the case as the NAA PC does not have IP address, etc., asigned.

What did you do exactly?

Cheers