HQ Player

[luchoh]

Still unable to get any audio from iFi nano...

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]32760[/ATTACH]

 

I suspect you have a NAA device problem. What are you using? Did you build/configure it yourself?

 

Here's mine on Odroid C2:

 

[luchoh]

I'm not at home (with Roon) until Friday. But yes, perhaps someone could check how HQP/NAA respond to a long press on the Pause button in Roon.

 

This is correct, long press positions at the beginning of the track, i.e. stop. HQPlayer receives the stop command immediately.

[luchoh]

On 4/8/2017 at 11:53 AM, volpone said:

 

Simon,
Thank you very much for you detailed and useful explanations.

I will try with buffer time adjustments. Actually my HQP buffer time is set to "default" and i don't know what is the corresponding value. Not easy to manage because the "clicks" are very sporadic.
 

Regards 

I have a bit more information on this:

 

1. OS: Ubuntu Studio with Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E3-1246 v3 @ 3.50GHz

2. DAC: iDSD BL

3. Filters; 512x48 closed-form ASDM7 (auto rate family, cud offload, multi-core dsp)

4. NAA: Odroid C2 (ARMBIAN 5.25 stable Ubuntu 16.04.2 LTS 3.14.79-odroidc2)

5. Roon: 1.3 (build 216)

 

With the above settings, 3.16.0 doesn't have the vinyl noise while 3.16.1 always has the vinyl noise. I tried all possible buffer settings: from Default to 250.

With 3.16.1, the vinyl noise is present with 256x48 as well and there is no audible difference with the 512 rates, i.e. it is as bad and going down to 256 doesn't improve the situation.

Another interesting situation is that SoTM sMS-200 always has the pops, while the Odroid doesn't with 3.16.0. I upgraded sMS-200 to the new firmware that has NAA 3.5.0 without improvements.

The Odroid CPU stays about 18%. I can't say anything about sMS-200 because it is a closed system. 

 

I also noticed something interesting I suspect repeated with the last update of Roon build 216: a) I can't adjust the volume during play - the knob on HQPlayer is inactive; b) It doesn't matter where I position the volume knob before playing music - the loudness is the same.

 

Finally, on the HQ Player serve, none of the four(eight) cores goes above 40% with atop and my network is CAT6 and I tried both via a Gigabit switch or direct crossover to the NAAs - it makes no difference.

 

I hope this helps.

 

[luchoh]

6 hours ago, Miska said:

 

 

Since you have CUDA offload enabled, specs for your GPU are missing from the list. So instead of looking at just CPU loads you need to look at CPU + GPU load.

 

With very similar setup, Ubuntu Studio (on Xeon E5) and iDSD BL, I don't get any problems. The GeForce GTX 1060 load peaks at 25%. Buffer time set to 100 ms. Volume set to -3 dBFS. To isolate the problem, have you tried without Roon and NAA, just HQPlayer alone to the iDSD BL locally?

 

My GPU is the lowly 1050 Ti and I haven't checked the load on it.

 

Otherwise, I tried all buffer sizes and my Volume is normally -3, but I tried all the way down to -10.

 

I think you're absolutely correct - the only meaningful test left (besides getting a better GPU) is eliminating Roon, because as I said before, the Volume setting changes are not audible to me.

[luchoh]

20 hours ago, Outlaw said:

With release 3.18 can not get xtr filters to work without a popping sound after about 10 secs of playing.Never had issues with previous builds.Where Can I find the download for 3.17 so I can go back to that release ?

 

Did you try going to settings and unchecking Multicore DSP, playing some to see how it goes and then go back and set it again?

 

That did the trick for me. 

 

I suspect @Miska has a a little bug where he needs to re-initialize the setting... at least that's what it looks like to a black-box tester ;-)

[luchoh]

25 minutes ago, FooFighter said:

@Miska don't know if this is the right thread to ask, have you heard of, investigated yet the new Hifiman EF400 DAC/Amp?

R2R, told to be 24/768khz but MacOS is only displaying max sample rate of 192khz.

Nevertheless interesting for 500 bucks and sounds quite nice also with HQPlayer though I cannot get over 192khz with Ifi Zen Stream as NAA too, in Roon though I can upsample to 368khz using Ifi Zen Stream - at least Roon is saying that ;-)

@FooFighter, I have Hifiman EF400 and Zen Stream and can probably help here.

To start with, MacOS is correct - the EF400 DAC can only go to 192KHz. If you know a way to make it go higher, I'd be happy stand corrected.

Subjectively, the EF400 DAC itself isn't all that great, compared to Topping D90 (I find it resolving, but dull) and Mojo 2 (the best of the bunch, though doesn't have a dedicated line out). The pianos with EF400 in particular are quite irritating.

The EF400 HeadAmp is subjectively worse than Topping A90, which I also find dull, though the combination of EF400 DAC + A90 sounds livelier than EF400 on its own.

[luchoh]

21 hours ago, FooFighter said:

Why are you keeping EF400 personally if you don't find it that great?

Too much hassle to return it from where I currently reside :-) I'll probably give it away as a present to my nephew.