Design a PC/Server for ROON and HQ Player

[sdolezalek]

I apologize if this is slightly off-topic, but do any of you have opinions on whether the new i7/NVIDIA/16GB/512SSD version of the Microsoft Surface Book could function as a good platform for the Roon/HQPlayer combination? I know it won't be as good as a purpose built CAPS server, but it should be better than the 2010 Mac Airbook I'm currently using.

[sdolezalek]

All the 900-series should be fine at varying amounts of processing power.

 

Soon nVidia should be launching a new 1000-series based on their Pascal architecture that should give a huge performance boost for HQPlayer (64-bit double precision floating point). There's some more info here.

 

If the focus is on audio processing, is there any reason not to go in the direction of one of these: NVIDIA Tesla K40C 12GB Computational Accelerator (NVIDIA Tesla K40C 12GB Computational Accelerator(753960-B21)| Hewlett Packard Enterprise® ) rather than a new graphics card?

[sdolezalek]

I guess you'll really like me some more for this correction again

 

Bear with me for a while though:

 

Jussi indeed is also focusing on noise reduction with the NAA configuration: The NAA allows you a couple of extra gains over the pure Main Computer -> USB -> DAC configuration, let's see why:

 

In the Main Computer direct to DAC USB connection, the various noise pollution aspects have a direct component (on top of others like air-borne and Power supply-related ones) within the USB connection, subject to all the noise the Main Computer circuit itself generates.

 

In the NAA configuration, that junction between the USB DAC and the NAA device can still done with USB, but the NAA is a much, much simpler device electrically (say a BeagleBone Black) than the main Computer, and therefore it's noise profile for the direct connection is less.

 

Now, what good would this be, if in the end, you're just connecting the Main Computer to the NAA device through USB and suffer the same direct pollution?

 

That wouldn't be much good at all. Which is why we aren't doing that: we are using Ethernet to connect the NAA device to the Main Computer. Thus, you don't get the noise profile of USB. Note that Ethernet itself isn't completely noise-free for our purposes. However, within each Ethernet connector lies a tiny transformer which provides a measure of isolation.

 

Hence, the big, direct noise profile of the Main Computer is segregated from the NAA device and the DAC.

 

Now, with Ethernet, you get the additional, very commendable benefit of being able to fruitfully use a longer run as well without any issue (not so with USB and the usual analogue cables), so that you can also decide to set up your main computer away from the listening room, in a cabinet or what not.

 

Hope that helps.

 

Yash: I've tried to take that one step further by putting fiber optic between the PC and the NAA (and I believe can hear a real difference in micro-detail over straight Ethernet). The tradeoff I was asking Ted about in part relates to wanting to do surround upsampling as well as stereo upsampling in HQPlayer. That implies maxing out the CPU, GPU and memory to enable DSD512 across multiple channels, but, in turn means a bigger PSU and more cooling and thus more noise in that PC.

 

Ultimately, this begs the question of where exactly the noise is getting into the data stream in the first place.

[sdolezalek]

Thank you Miska. That is very impressive, such low usage for 6 channels 16/48 PCM upsampled to quad DSD. Goes to show how powerful the current gen i7 is.

 

Yes, but what is with the very high levels of Internet usage? I have noticed this as well when using the Roon/HQPlayer combination. Is that just the system confusing the bitrate toward the NAA as "internet traffic" or is one of HQP/Roon actually making meaningful contact with the cloud?

[sdolezalek]

Just as update, I moved the 6950X machine discussed earlier and in my blog here, to a different case, now it's Fractal Design Define R5:

Fractal Design

And I also replaced CPU cooler with Noctua NH-D15:

NH-D15

 

And now when the BIOS fan settings are set to "Silent" profile, the machine is really quiet. No audible fan noise at the listening position.

 

Interesting. I'm using exactly the same case, fan setup but with a 6700 and have been very happy with it.