HQ Player

[Miska]

6 hours ago, Mahler and Bach on Computer said:

Thank you very much, Steven!  I got 

 

Current:  100baseXT.

 

what does this mean?  

 

That is 100 Mbps ethernet. Likely to cause some issues at higher sampling rates.

 

I think SOtM had some option to force link to 100 Mbps. Have you checked that you have not accidentally enabled it? Does your network infra support 1 Gbps ethernet?

 

[steven.y]

5 hours ago, Mahler and Bach on Computer said:

Thank you very much, Steven!  I got 

 

Current:  100baseXT.

 

what does this mean?  

Got only "Current: 100baseXT"(100baseTX)? Do you see additional information such as "<full-duplex flow-control>" and also "Active: "?  If you got those outputs (flow-control, Active:), it means that your mac is configured (and connected with) flow control enabled network (IEEE 802.3x standard).

If not, it seems like that your mac (Mac Mini M1 ?)'s device 'en0' is not active network interface.  In this case, first thing you should do is to identify the name of your active network device, such as en0, en1, ....  A command below will show all the network interfaces (and also other kind of devices).

% networksetup -listallhardwareports
Hardware Port: Ethernet
Device: en0
Ethernet Address: 18:81:0e:f0:62:ee

Hardware Port: Wi-Fi
Device: en1
Ethernet Address: a4:83:e7:dc:0e:1e

... (snip)...

Then, use that name to networksetup command.

 

[Miska]

For comparison I get the optimal results on my Mac Mini M1:

jussi@MacMini ~ % networksetup -getmedia en0
Current: autoselect
Active: 1000baseT <full-duplex flow-control energy-efficient-ethernet>

 

So also EEE is nicely active.

 

 

If you have problems, it is equally important to check the same thing at the NAA device side too.

 

[jhoenck]

Hi folks, I am all new to HQPlayer and I have dug through this and other threads but can't really find a clear answer to the dac bits setting. Lot's of different answers depeding on input source and dac chip etc. What I learned is that the dac bits setting is only a concern when using PCM like in my case. How do I figure out what the "ideal" setting is for my ESS ES9016K2M dac? Should I leave it on "default", set to the max it can receive via USB or to the ENOB? Pretty confused right now.

 

Cheers

[Ozan Bolat]

13 hours ago, Miska said:

 

Well, to be exact, I've got it working just fine. But you need to limit DAC Bits to 16 (not a problem at all with noise-shapers).

 

This assuming the USB firmware supports also 16-bit transport formats. But at least my Spring 3 does.

 

You've got your Spring 3 ?!

[The Computer Audiophile]

I have a strange issue this morning. I can play to the Terminator from HQP without any issues up through 20 bit / 1536 kHz or DSD256 x48. But, if I play anything that has a base rate of 44.1, I have dropouts and distortion. Even if I play 16/44.1 and tell HQP to send out 16/44.1 to the Terminator, I get the same static. If I resample the same album from 16/44.1 to 16/48, it all works great. 

 

Here are my settings. Anyone seen this or have any ideas what's up? I've rebooted the server, NAA endpoint, and DAC. It all worked great last night. 

 

[The Computer Audiophile]

Update. Tried a new DAC. Works perfect. Went back to Terminator and it now works perfect. 

[Account Closed]

36 minutes ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

Update. Tried a new DAC. Works perfect. Went back to Terminator and it now works perfect. 

Welcome to the Twilight Zone

[AudioDoctor]

16 hours ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

This one is a start - https://www.aquahifi.com/linq.html

 

If the next update of that thing will output native DSD at 512 I may pick one up.

[The Computer Audiophile]

8 minutes ago, AudioDoctor said:

 

If the next update of that thing will output native DSD at 512 I may pick one up.

Yeah, it has a very unique feature set. 

 

• HQPlayer Core + NAA (cascade-module). The breakthrough. LinQ knows no obsolescence. 
• Our focus was to create an Audio Engine for Roon with zero-setup. The ambitious vision to combine extreme Sound Quality with delight.
• The Core exploits the new i.MX8 micro (ARM 64bit), with its incredible performance, low‑latency, and revolutionary power efficiency. And a customized lightweight kernel (UNIX-based).
• Roon can be configured to implement of HQPlayer into a Zone. HQPlayer owns the final connection to the Audio Engine, and Roon is just passing along a stream of bits from media files / Streaming services as Qobuz and Tidal. This allows you to enjoy the benefits of HQPlayer SQ and the library management capabilities of Roon at the same time.
• The Core is zero-configuration (Plug and Play). The license key of HQPlayer Embedded is pre-installed in our labs and the LinQ is ready to use.
• The HQPlayer-based LinQ Core remains true to the philosophy of aqua brand, it is not aimed at digital signal processing.

 

 

- HQPlayer Core + NAA (cascade-module) | No-Compromise Audio Engine for Roon
- HQPlayer NAA | Renderer

[AudioDoctor]

2 hours ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

Yeah, it has a very unique feature set. 

 

• HQPlayer Core + NAA (cascade-module). The breakthrough. LinQ knows no obsolescence. 
• Our focus was to create an Audio Engine for Roon with zero-setup. The ambitious vision to combine extreme Sound Quality with delight.
• The Core exploits the new i.MX8 micro (ARM 64bit), with its incredible performance, low‑latency, and revolutionary power efficiency. And a customized lightweight kernel (UNIX-based).
• Roon can be configured to implement of HQPlayer into a Zone. HQPlayer owns the final connection to the Audio Engine, and Roon is just passing along a stream of bits from media files / Streaming services as Qobuz and Tidal. This allows you to enjoy the benefits of HQPlayer SQ and the library management capabilities of Roon at the same time.
• The Core is zero-configuration (Plug and Play). The license key of HQPlayer Embedded is pre-installed in our labs and the LinQ is ready to use.
• The HQPlayer-based LinQ Core remains true to the philosophy of aqua brand, it is not aimed at digital signal processing.

 

 

- HQPlayer Core + NAA (cascade-module) | No-Compromise Audio Engine for Roon
- HQPlayer NAA | Renderer

 

That it does. I would be willing to bet it will give the Optical Rendu a serious run for its money. I'd have to send my DAC back to Lampizator for yet another modification...  ha.

[Miska]

9 hours ago, Ozan Bolat said:

You've got your Spring 3 ?!

 

Ahh, no I meant Spring 2....

 

[Mahler and Bach on Computer]

15 hours ago, steven.y said:

 

22 hours ago, Mahler and Bach on Computer said:

Thank you very much, Steven!  I got 

 

Current:  100baseXT.

 

what does this mean?  

Got only "Current: 100baseXT"(100baseTX)? Do you see additional information such as "<full-duplex flow-control>" and also "Active: "?  If you got those outputs (flow-control, Active:), it means that your mac is configured (and connected with) flow control enabled network (IEEE 802.3x standard).

If not, it seems like that your mac (Mac Mini M1 ?)'s device 'en0' is not active network interface.  In this case, first thing you should do is to identify the name of your active network device, such as en0, en1, ....  A command below will show all the network interfaces (and also other kind of devices).

% networksetup -listallhardwareports
Hardware Port: Ethernet
Device: en0
Ethernet Address: 18:81:0e:f0:62:ee

Hardware Port: Wi-Fi
Device: en1
Ethernet Address: a4:83:e7:dc:0e:1e

... (snip)...

Then, use that name to networksetup command

 

@Miska@steven.y

 

Current: autoselect 

Active: 100baseTX <full-duplex energy-efficient-Ethernet>
 

I double-checked the Sotm setting, and I have used 1000base instead of 100base.  Out of curiosity, I changed 

to 100base for Sotm and I got

Active: 1000baseT <full-duplex energy-efficient-Ethernet>.  Now I got stuttering at ASDM7EC with poly-sinc-Gaussian-long or Sinc-M, and DSD.  Under 100baseTX, these parameters work out fine.

The router is ASUS AE5400 wifi 6.

 

I will share some findings in a couple of days.  Still collecting my thoughts.  :)

 

[Mahler and Bach on Computer]

16 hours ago, Miska said:

 

For comparison I get the optimal results on my Mac Mini M1:

jussi@MacMini ~ % networksetup -getmedia en0
Current: autoselect
Active: 1000baseT <full-duplex flow-control energy-efficient-ethernet>

 

 

Quite interesting, I did not get flow-control inside <. >
Also 100baseTX from Mac Mini M1 with Sotm.

[steven.y]

4 hours ago, Mahler and Bach on Computer said:

Quite interesting, I did not get flow-control inside <. >
Also 100baseTX from Mac Mini M1 with Sotm.

How do your connect Mac mini with Sotm?

A flow control feature on/off is setting of network switch (hub).  My guess is that ASUS AX5400 (TUF-AX5400) router/switch does not have flow control feature.

By the way, just in case, check that your ethernet cable (UTP cable) is right one.  It should be category 5e, 6 or 6A.

 

Best,

Steven

 

[Miska]

22 hours ago, jhoenck said:

How do I figure out what the "ideal" setting is for my ESS ES9016K2M dac? Should I leave it on "default", set to the max it can receive via USB or to the ENOB? Pretty confused right now.

 

Just leave it at "Default".

[Miska]

7 hours ago, Mahler and Bach on Computer said:

Quite interesting, I did not get flow-control inside <. >
Also 100baseTX from Mac Mini M1 with Sotm.

 

You need 1000baseTX and flow-control. Small devices cannot process packets at 1000baseTX speeds without flow-control, it will cause packet loss and subsequent re-sends which is bad and makes situation worse since it increases amount of traffic for no good reason.

 

[jhoenck]

15 minutes ago, Miska said:

 

Just leave it at "Default".

 

Perfect, thanks a lot Miska.

[Mahler and Bach on Computer]

10 hours ago, steven.y said:

15 hours ago, Mahler and Bach on Computer said:

 

How do your connect Mac mini with Sotm?

A flow control feature on/off is setting of network switch (hub).  My guess is that ASUS AX5400 (TUF-AX5400) router/switch does not have flow control feature.

By the way, just in case, check that your ethernet cable (UTP cable) is right one.  It should be category 5e, 6 or 6A.

 

8 hours ago, Miska said:

 

You need 1000baseTX and flow-control. Small devices cannot process packets at 1000baseTX speeds without flow-control, it will cause packet loss and subsequent re-sends which is bad and makes situation worse since it increases amount of traffic for no good reason.

The Sotm is connected with Mac Mini using bridge mode.  I have an explanation for the 100Mb/sec now - I have added a DX Plus RF filter between the Mac mini and SotM.  This filters appear to limit the transfer speed below 100Mbs.  I will take it out to see the readings.  With the traffic monitoring from ASUS, the speed between the two is 24Mb/sec at DSD 256 with other HQP setting mentioned yesterday.  All the cables are blue-Jean Cat 6.  The screen shot of traffic flow for HQP playback is shown in attached screen shot, which shows 3MBs speed.  It is certainly not a straight line.  The range covered in the chart is about 10 min.
 

May I use QoS in ASUS to control the speed between Mac and Sotm?  If so how tight I need to go for the upper and lower range of the transfer rate? The Switch I am using is Netgear Nonmanged GS305.

[Miska]

2 minutes ago, Mahler and Bach on Computer said:

All the cables are blue-Jean Cat 6.

 

Please check that these are not shielded! Metal connector body would indicate a shielded cable which would spoil ground isolation that ethernet would usually provide.

 

2 minutes ago, Mahler and Bach on Computer said:

The screen shot of traffic flow for HQP playback is shown in attached screen shot, which shows 3MBs speed.  It is certainly not a straight line.

 

None of the traffic is constant, but instead it is short bursts of traffic. It is all packet based.

 

2 minutes ago, Mahler and Bach on Computer said:

May I use QoS in ASUS to control the speed between Mac and Sotm?  If so how tight I need to go for the upper and lower range of the transfer rate? The Switch I am using is Netgear Nonmanged GS305.

 

HQPlayer handles it's QoS control. If the networking equipment supports it, it is all handled automatically. You shouldn't expose any external controls to it.

 

 

[lucretius]

On 7/28/2021 at 10:10 AM, The Computer Audiophile said:

Here are my settings. Anyone seen this or have any ideas what's up? I've rebooted the server, NAA endpoint, and DAC. It all worked great last night. 

 

 

What's up with the DAC bits = 20?

[ted_b]

7 minutes ago, lucretius said:

 

What's up with the DAC bits = 20?

Have you not been paying attention lately? 😀

 

Seriously, R2R dacs like Denafrips and Holo are quite linear to about 20 bits

[AudioDoctor]

Reading this site makes me think that some of you go out of your way to find ways to make this all much more difficult than it needs to be.

[Miska]

6 hours ago, lucretius said:

What's up with the DAC bits = 20?

 

That, combined with noise shaper reduces low level distortion by 20+ dB and thus significantly improves low level linearity without affecting dynamic range.

 

[GMG]

23 minutes ago, Miska said:

 

That, combined with noise shaper reduces low level distortion by 20+ dB and thus significantly improves low level linearity without affecting dynamic range.

 

Is this true in general for most DACs?

I have a Chord Qutest which is specked at 32bits. I have it set to 24bits as I have it connected with an Audio-wise SRC-DX, but would you recommended setting it to 20bits?