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HQPlayer's Network Audio Adapter


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My "wet dream" for HQPlayer is that the great processing and flexibility of the signal processing could be mated with

a nice database like Minimserver on a NAS.

 

hahaha! Mine to. Sad but true. :)

New simplified setup: STEREO- Primary listening Area: Cullen Circuits Mod ZP90> Benchmark DAC1>RotelRKB250 Power amp>KEF Q Series. Secondary listening areas: 1/ QNAP 119P II(running MinimServer)>UPnP>Linn Majik DSI>Linn Majik 140's. 2/ (Source awaiting)>Invicta DAC>RotelRKB2100 Power amp>Rega's. Tertiary multiroom areas: Same QNAP>SMB>Sonos>Various. MULTICHANNEL- MacMini>A+(Standalone mode)>Exasound e28 >5.1 analog out>Yamaha Avantage Receiver>Pre-outs>Linn Chakra power amps>Linn Katan front and sides. Linn Trikan Centre. Velodyne SPL1000 Ultra

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@ Miska

 

You can use minimserver with HQPlayer I bring this up just for a simple reason, the 'only thing that does not go' in the system 'library management with very primitive Minimserver and Lumin app on iPad becomes a spectacle.

 

 

Lumin is compatible with uPnP and has a great advantage for both the covers and metadata are in the ipad and then also browse the libraries of a few miles of bonds remains very fast.

 

Tonino

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@ Miska

 

You can use minimserver with HQPlayer?

Tonino

 

The answer is no.

 

HQPalyer is not DLNA/uPnP compatible.

New simplified setup: STEREO- Primary listening Area: Cullen Circuits Mod ZP90> Benchmark DAC1>RotelRKB250 Power amp>KEF Q Series. Secondary listening areas: 1/ QNAP 119P II(running MinimServer)>UPnP>Linn Majik DSI>Linn Majik 140's. 2/ (Source awaiting)>Invicta DAC>RotelRKB2100 Power amp>Rega's. Tertiary multiroom areas: Same QNAP>SMB>Sonos>Various. MULTICHANNEL- MacMini>A+(Standalone mode)>Exasound e28 >5.1 analog out>Yamaha Avantage Receiver>Pre-outs>Linn Chakra power amps>Linn Katan front and sides. Linn Trikan Centre. Velodyne SPL1000 Ultra

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  • 4 weeks later...

I want to try this. Before I pull the trigger on a Beagleboard Black, can someone confirm the following will work?

 

Macbook Air with HQPlayer Desktop for Mac --(WiFi)--> Switch --(Ethernet)--> Beagleboard Black --(USB)--> Schiit Bifrost (for now!)

 

I.e. the Macbook is on the wireless network, the Beagleboard is on the same network wired.

 

Thanks!

Merging NADAC / Theta Compli --> Spectral DMC-20 --> Spectral DMA-250 --> Avalon Ascendant (with tweeter upgrades)

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I just tested with otherwise similar setup, but I don't have a Bitfrost to try with. I have tested it with M2Tech hiFace, hiFace DAC and MuFi V-Link192. In case you use OS X 10.9, you may need to disable App Nap for HQPlayer. I've done most of my testing on 10.8 because I didn't update Mac Mini yet since there's no 10.9 driver support yet for any of the pro-audio interfaces I use for other purposes.

 

This is the method I've been recently using for installing Debian:

BeagleBoardDebian - eLinux.org

Signalyst - Developer of HQPlayer

Pulse & Fidelity - Software Defined Amplifiers

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I just tested with otherwise similar setup, but I don't have a Bitfrost to try with. I have tested it with M2Tech hiFace, hiFace DAC and MuFi V-Link192. In case you use OS X 10.9, you may need to disable App Nap for HQPlayer. I've done most of my testing on 10.8 because I didn't update Mac Mini yet since there's no 10.9 driver support yet for any of the pro-audio interfaces I use for other purposes.

 

This is the method I've been recently using for installing Debian:

BeagleBoardDebian - eLinux.org

 

Thanks Miska. Will give it a try.

Merging NADAC / Theta Compli --> Spectral DMC-20 --> Spectral DMA-250 --> Avalon Ascendant (with tweeter upgrades)

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Hi Miska,

 

Ordered my BBB, but will take a few weeks to arrive as the supplier I ordered from was out of stock. Gives me a bit more time to make sure I'm prepared for when it does arrive.

 

Earlier in the thread you mentioned "Ångström can be possibly used with the daemon binary I'm currently using. However I have a complete custom OS build for the NAA use.". Is that custom OS build something you share or for your personal use only and you recommend for us to install Debian Wheezy?

 

Thanks,

Nes

Merging NADAC / Theta Compli --> Spectral DMC-20 --> Spectral DMA-250 --> Avalon Ascendant (with tweeter upgrades)

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Is that custom OS build something you share or for your personal use only and you recommend for us to install Debian Wheezy?

 

Custom build was mostly for the older white version of BeagleBone. With the newer black version I am using Debian Wheezy and recommending it also for others. Installation is quite straightforward. I have somewhat customized kernel build, mostly to add hiFace driver...

 

However, most recent ready made kernel packages available here, contain hiFace drivers:

Index of /deb/wheezy-armhf

 

Since the method used in my previous link require existing Linux PC or similar, there is a way for Windows/Mac users here:

BeagleBone Black

Signalyst - Developer of HQPlayer

Pulse & Fidelity - Software Defined Amplifiers

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Thanks again. Parts arriving slowly :) I received the case and the (temporary) 5V power supply today and also bought a 8GB micro SD card. Just waiting for the board...

Merging NADAC / Theta Compli --> Spectral DMC-20 --> Spectral DMA-250 --> Avalon Ascendant (with tweeter upgrades)

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Thanks for the links. I downloaded the image from the second link for now (i.e. without the hiFace drivers as I'm not sure I need them?).

 

The installation instructions on that page are Linux based I think though. Here are OS X instructions (taken from here with a few small adaptions) for the benefit of others:

 

Using your web browser download the image from the page linked above to your Downloads folder.

 

Open a terminal window.

Become root:

$ sudo su

Password:

# diskutil list

/dev/disk0

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *251.0 GB disk0

1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk0s1

2: Apple_HFS Macintosh HD 250.1 GB disk0s2

3: Apple_Boot Recovery HD 650.0 MB disk0s3

/dev/disk1

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: FDisk_partition_scheme *7.9 GB disk1

1: DOS_FAT_32 NO NAME 7.9 GB disk1s1

In my case the SD card was on /dev/disk1 as you can see from the output above.

# diskutil unmountDisk /dev/disk1

Unmount of all volumes on disk1 was successful

# dd if=/Users/<your Mac username>/Downloads/debian-wheezy-7.2-armhf-3.8.13-bone30.img.xz of=/dev/disk1

188576+1 records in

188576+1 records out

96551112 bytes transferred in 55.973415 secs (1724946 bytes/sec)

# exit

Close the terminal window.

 

Disclaimer: I still need to test the image on the BBB, when I reinserted the SD card back into the Mac it was not able to read it.

Merging NADAC / Theta Compli --> Spectral DMC-20 --> Spectral DMA-250 --> Avalon Ascendant (with tweeter upgrades)

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# dd if=/Users/<your Mac username>/Downloads/debian-wheezy-7.2-armhf-3.8.13-bone30.img.xz of=/dev/disk1

 

You'll need to decompress the "xz" compression first (it becomes .img). IIRC, the image contains two partitions, a small FAT partition that contains bootloader and kernel and then bigger one for rest of the OS. The FAT one is visible on OS X too, but the actual OS filesystem is not.

Signalyst - Developer of HQPlayer

Pulse & Fidelity - Software Defined Amplifiers

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You'll need to decompress the "xz" compression first (it becomes .img). IIRC, the image contains two partitions, a small FAT partition that contains bootloader and kernel and then bigger one for rest of the OS. The FAT one is visible on OS X too, but the actual OS filesystem is not.

 

 

Doh, of course. I can't edit post #110 above anymore so I'll create a new post with the corrected OS X instructions.

Merging NADAC / Theta Compli --> Spectral DMC-20 --> Spectral DMA-250 --> Avalon Ascendant (with tweeter upgrades)

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So here are the corrected instructions to get the Wheezy image onto an SD card on OS X:

 

Using your web browser download the image to your Downloads folder.

 

Decompress the xz archive. I used an OS X program called The Unarchiver available for free on the App Store.

 

Open a terminal window.

 

Become root:

$ sudo su

Password:

 

Identify the SD card:

# diskutil list

/dev/disk0

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *251.0 GB disk0

1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk0s1

2: Apple_HFS Macintosh HD 250.1 GB disk0s2

3: Apple_Boot Recovery HD 650.0 MB disk0s3

/dev/disk1

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: FDisk_partition_scheme *7.9 GB disk1

1: DOS_FAT_32 NO NAME 7.9 GB disk1s1

 

In my case the SD card was on /dev/disk1 as you can see from the output above.

 

Unmount the SD card:

# diskutil unmountDisk /dev/disk1

Unmount of all volumes on disk1 was successful

 

Copy the image onto the SD card:

# dd if=/Users/<your Mac username>/Downloads/debian-wheezy-7.2-armhf-3.8.13-bone30.img of=/dev/disk1

3751936+0 records in

3751936+0 records out

1920991232 bytes transferred in 1098.061130 secs (1749439 bytes/sec)

 

Exit from root:

# exit

 

Close the terminal window.

Merging NADAC / Theta Compli --> Spectral DMC-20 --> Spectral DMA-250 --> Avalon Ascendant (with tweeter upgrades)

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As a matter of interest / maybe making things easier; can you change your line

# dd if=/Users/<your Mac username>/Downloads/debian-wheezy-7.2-armhf-3.8.13-bone30.img of=/dev/disk1

to simply

# dd if=~/Downloads/debian-wheezy-7.2-armhf-3.8.13-bone30.img of=/dev/disk1

 

The ~ character is usually used for the home directory of the currently logged in user.

 

Eloise

Eloise

---

...in my opinion / experience...

While I agree "Everything may matter" working out what actually affects the sound is a trickier thing.

And I agree "Trust your ears" but equally don't allow them to fool you - trust them with a bit of skepticism.

keep your mind open... But mind your brain doesn't fall out.

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As a matter of interest / maybe making things easier; can you change your line

 

to simply

# dd if=~/Downloads/debian-wheezy-7.2-armhf-3.8.13-bone30.img of=/dev/disk1

 

The ~ character is usually used for the home directory of the currently logged in user.

 

Eloise

 

Normally, yes, but as I switched to the root (super) user with "sudo su" the home directory is /var/root. That is why you need to type the complete path.

 

HTH

Merging NADAC / Theta Compli --> Spectral DMC-20 --> Spectral DMA-250 --> Avalon Ascendant (with tweeter upgrades)

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Normally, yes, but as I switched to the root (super) user with "sudo su" the home directory is /var/root. That is why you need to type the complete path.

 

HTH

Sorry I missed the sudo su command.

Eloise

---

...in my opinion / experience...

While I agree "Everything may matter" working out what actually affects the sound is a trickier thing.

And I agree "Trust your ears" but equally don't allow them to fool you - trust them with a bit of skepticism.

keep your mind open... But mind your brain doesn't fall out.

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  • 3 months later...

I finally received my BBB as it was back ordered.

Trying to boot with the mSD card inserted (the mSD has the Wheezy image as per above).

It does not seem to do anything (at least it is not enabling the network interface as it doesn't get an IP address assigned by my DHCP server). So cannot SSH into it.

Anyone else had this?

 

Edit: Scratch that, it just took a whole while to get up (+30 minutes or so). In now.

Merging NADAC / Theta Compli --> Spectral DMC-20 --> Spectral DMA-250 --> Avalon Ascendant (with tweeter upgrades)

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So to continue the installation instructions, now that we have the image written to the microSD card we can boot the Beaglebone Black from it.

 

Make sure the board is powered down and then place the microSD card into the microSD slot.

 

Hold down the USER/BOOT button (the button located nearest to the microSD card slot) and connect the power. You should see two of the blue lights come on. At this point you can let go of the USER/BOOT button.

 

Find the Beaglebone on your network - my board is connected to my network router, so I can find the IP address via the DHCP client list. The hostname will be ubuntu-armhf.

 

Login (using SSH, on OS X this can be done through the Terminal app) to the device - the username and password for the image above is debian/debian.

 

$ ssh -l debian <IP address of the board>

 

The first time you login you will get a message about an RSA fingerprint. Type yes and continue.

 

Now we have booted from the external microSD card and are logged in, we can update the internal eMMC memory with a copy of this image.

 

Switch to the root user:

 

# sudo su

 

Download the image again to the board:

 

# wget http://s3.armhf.com/debian/wheezy/bone/debian-wheezy-7.2-armhf-3.8.13-bone30.img.xz

 

Write the image to the internal eMMC memory.

 

# xz -cd debian-wheezy-7.2-armhf-3.8.13-bone30.img.xz > /dev/mmcblk1

 

Shutdown the board.

 

# shutdown -hP now

 

Remove the microSD card and reinsert the power. This should boot the board from its internal memory to the new image.

Merging NADAC / Theta Compli --> Spectral DMC-20 --> Spectral DMA-250 --> Avalon Ascendant (with tweeter upgrades)

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In my test environments, HQPlayer + NAA works in even cases where UPnP doesn't work.

 

Maybe Logitech Media Server is an idea, very user friendly and doesn't require upnp, has not issues with subfolders, doesn't need a touchscreen.

 

I'm sure Triode from Squeezelite would be happy to help. Squeezelite is only 130KB and available on linux 386, Intel, ARM, OSX and very stable

 

https://code.google.com/p/squeezelite/

 

my 2 cents

join the resistance

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  • 1 month later...

Where are we now with all this>?

 

There have been some clear developments in recent months..

 

Fact one. I find one can experiment with HQ Player NAA simply by purchasing the Mini Server from SOTM (see recent CA review)

Fact two. Miska has an "embedded" HQPlayer that will play files from an UPnP server like MinimServer..

Fact tree. You can get this embedded HQplayer running on something like a Cubox-i? Or a Raspberry pi?? Correct.>?.this bit I'm a bit unsure off...

 

Does this mean there is now an easy way of streaming *all* files (outputted as DSD) from HQplayer to the Simple little SOTM Mini Server and then into DSD DAC's like my E28 and Res. Invicta as pure DSD the whole way?..

 

That would be pretty cool actually :)

New simplified setup: STEREO- Primary listening Area: Cullen Circuits Mod ZP90> Benchmark DAC1>RotelRKB250 Power amp>KEF Q Series. Secondary listening areas: 1/ QNAP 119P II(running MinimServer)>UPnP>Linn Majik DSI>Linn Majik 140's. 2/ (Source awaiting)>Invicta DAC>RotelRKB2100 Power amp>Rega's. Tertiary multiroom areas: Same QNAP>SMB>Sonos>Various. MULTICHANNEL- MacMini>A+(Standalone mode)>Exasound e28 >5.1 analog out>Yamaha Avantage Receiver>Pre-outs>Linn Chakra power amps>Linn Katan front and sides. Linn Trikan Centre. Velodyne SPL1000 Ultra

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Does this mean there is now an easy way of streaming *all* files (outputted as DSD) from HQplayer to the Simple little SOTM Mini Server and then into DSD DAC's like my E28 and Res. Invicta as pure DSD the whole way?..

 

To Invicta it should work fine, but not to exaSound due to lack of Linux drivers. Multichannel works too, given that the DAC supports it.

 

Both Desktop and Embedded versions can output to a NAA equally, because the actual player is the same.

Signalyst - Developer of HQPlayer

Pulse & Fidelity - Software Defined Amplifiers

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To Invicta it should work fine, but not to exaSound due to lack of Linux drivers. Multichannel works too, given that the DAC supports it.

 

Both Desktop and Embedded versions can output to a NAA equally, because the actual player is the same.

 

Hi Miska,

 

Do you happen to know if the Antelope Zodiac DACs have the necessary support?

 

thanks,

 

geoff

Owner of: Sound Galleries, High-End Audio Dealer, Monaco

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… and one other question; the Linux drivers are needed if HQPlayer is running under a Linux OS, right? Either embedded or desktop?

 

It's my understanding that when using an NAA, HQPlayer sees the DAC that's connected to the NAA, just as it would if the DAC were connected to the machine running HQPlayer directly.

 

…so if HQPlayer is running on Mac or Windows, the drivers needed for the DAC are the appropriate Mac or Windows drivers; or have I mis-understood?

 

Thanks again, in advance,

 

geoff

Owner of: Sound Galleries, High-End Audio Dealer, Monaco

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To Invicta it should work fine, but not to exaSound due to lack of Linux drivers. Multichannel works too, given that the DAC supports it.

 

Both Desktop and Embedded versions can output to a NAA equally, because the actual player is the same.

 

Ok Understood. (I think)

 

How do you control the library and playback? Sorry. But I wish you would just borrow an SOTM Mini Server, set it all up and demo for all us audiofools on Youtube how it works.. :) Cheers

New simplified setup: STEREO- Primary listening Area: Cullen Circuits Mod ZP90> Benchmark DAC1>RotelRKB250 Power amp>KEF Q Series. Secondary listening areas: 1/ QNAP 119P II(running MinimServer)>UPnP>Linn Majik DSI>Linn Majik 140's. 2/ (Source awaiting)>Invicta DAC>RotelRKB2100 Power amp>Rega's. Tertiary multiroom areas: Same QNAP>SMB>Sonos>Various. MULTICHANNEL- MacMini>A+(Standalone mode)>Exasound e28 >5.1 analog out>Yamaha Avantage Receiver>Pre-outs>Linn Chakra power amps>Linn Katan front and sides. Linn Trikan Centre. Velodyne SPL1000 Ultra

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