Sonicorbiter - The Operating System

[jma2]

18 hours ago, Matias said:

I am still on 2.7 and every now and then my DAC vanishes from DAC Diagnostics. Rebooting usually works. Then JRiver cannot send audio to the ultraRendu. This interface is quite unstable for me. I was hoping 2.8 fixed this, well... I am not so sure now. Let's see when my card arrives.

 

Dear Matias,

I recognize this behavior with 2.7 very well. I also struggled a long time with random unexplainable connection-loss with my DAC (Ayre QB9) and sometimes hickups during playback. I use Squeezelite client with LMS on my NAS and in the beginning I had also random connectivity problems where Squeezelite on my oR would not connect to my LMS server on the NAS. I ran for a while the LMS server on the oR, but connectivity issues with my DAC remained and I became very fluent with rebooting the oR.

 

Then I did something after which my 2.7 system became very stable (no more playback hickups, no more loss of DAC connectivity, no more need to reboot). What I did is in the Software management I removed all playback applications which I didn't use (e.g. Roon, Spotify, etc), I also removed the LMS server from the oR and only left the Squeezelite and MPD client (which I don't use, but know quite well from other playback systems and sort of trust). Since then not a single glitch. Maybe uninstalling all irrelevant/unused clients also works for you, I sincerely hope so.

[jma2]

On 2/18/2020 at 2:24 AM, vortecjr said:

Sonic Orbiter 2.8 has not been working well so I have asked Andrew to suspend sales and shipments of SonicOrbiter 2.8 until such time that we can correct this issue. The symptom for those of you with Sonic Orbiter 2.8 is that the unit shuts down during playback and the status LED turns off. This requires a power cycle to get it going again, but the unit will not boot until you remove power and wait a few minutes. Today we released an update to Sonic Orbiter 2.8 that should help improve the stability of the operating system.  

 

Please follow this update procedure to obtain the latest update. 

1. Stop all audio playback at the server/controller. 

2. Disconnect the USB device.

3. Wait a few minutes. 

4. Go to Apps / Software Manager and press Update.

5. Wait for the update to precede and ignore any errors.

6. Wait for the Back to Main Link at the bottom of the update.

7. Pull the power cable and wait a few second and reconnect the power cable.

 

Please contact both myself and Andrew about your purchase should you have any questions or comments at [email protected] and [email protected].

 

Expecting my 2.8 card in the "near future" (depending on postal services in these Corona times...)

 

So I suppose the upgrade from 2.7 to 2.8 in view of the above message should be:

 

-3)  2.7 -> System -> Power Down

-2) Disconnect Power Supply

-1) Swap 2.7 card for 2.8 card

0) Connect Power Supply and boot SO 2.8

-> Now follow steps 1-7 above?

 

(with respect to step 7. I assume when the "Back to Main Link" appears at the bottom of the update, the system is the same state as after System -> Power Down)

 

Could you confirm this or point to the correct sequence please? (A sticky at the start of the thread with the upgrade procedure would be nice, or did I miss it/something similar)

 

Thanks in advance and keep safe!

 

[jma2]

I'm using the oRendu (v2.8) with my QB-9 Twenty to stream native DSD via LMS without any issues Chris. I don't use Roon though and cannot try it out.

 

 

 

[Edit: I suppose you did the "software update" recently because I thought support for Ayre DACs was recently updated]

 

[jma2]

9 hours ago, vortecjr said:

Ayre has conformed that that have only "one" product (Ayre QB-9 Twenty) that supports raw or native DSD. We are updating our OS again to support the Ayre QB-9 Twenty. I'll keep you posted.

 

Thanks to Chris C and Ariel B for your support.  

I just tested it again with my Ayre QB-9 Twenty in combination with my oRendu (SonicOrbiter 2.8) using Squeezelite and LMS with DSD plugin. Playback of native DSD64 and DSD128 goes without any problem with correct display on the QB-9 (respectively 64 and 128).

Playback of DSD256 doesn't work in that setup for now (see below):

 

[jma2]

8 hours ago, vortecjr said:

It’s DSD via DoP for now and that means no DSD128. This will change when we update the Kernel and it will stream up to DSD128 native. 

 

Dear Jesus,

 

Based on your message above, I am confused:

 

I don't doubt your statement at all but I try to understand:

 

I downloaded some free DSD tracks from 2L (The Hoffmann ensemble track in DSD64, DSD128 and DSD256), all with extension .dsf.

 

I have them on my NAS which is running LMS with the DSD plugin. When I playback these three tracks using Squeezelite on my oRendu, I get to see the 64/128 display on my QB-9 Twenty for the first two tracks, the third one not working, whereby the QB-9 Twenty is indicating the right format.

 

I also have some DoP tracks (in flac) of the same music, which in line with what barrows indicated some time ago:

> DSD 64 via DoP requires the DAC to accept 176.4 PCM

> DSD 128 via DoP requires the DAC to accept 352.8 PCM

> DSD 256 via DoP requires the DAC to accept 705.6 PCM

cause my DAC to display 176 and 352 respectively (the last track also not working).

 

So I am confused. Where is the raw .dsf->DoP packaging occur? In the LMS or in the oRendu? And why do I see a different display indication on the QB-9? Is it because the oRendu recognizes the raw DSD64, signals it as such to the QB-9, DoPs the raw DSD and sends the DoP to the QB-9, which effectively receives the same data but is "tricked" a different signalling of the data format? Would that be a correct assumption?

 

Thanks in advance for your response.

 

[jma2]

1 hour ago, vortecjr said:

Are you streaming from LMS as the source, using a Rendu with the Squeezelite output protocol, and connected to your DAC via USB on the Rendu?

 

Indeed, setup is: LMS (on NAS) as a source (containing all the music files), client is oRendu with Squeezelite (on SonicOrebiter 2.8) and connected via USB to Ayre QB-9 Twenty.

 

Jan

 

[jma2]

1 hour ago, vortecjr said:

Stream DSD64 either way you want and then look in Apps / DAC Diagnostics. If the Momentary frequency is 176.4 it's DoP and if it's 88.2 it's native DSD. FYI you need to refresh the page to get the most current data. 

 

Thanks Jesus! That corresponds indeed with the image I included in post 1073 of this thread.

As an additional feedback I can tell you that in my particular setup SO 2.8 is way more stable than SO 2.7. I hope it stays like that.

 

[jma2]

I also just performed the latest update.

 

Initial update cycle gave lots of errors.

 

After reboot, the second update appeared to go smooth. And after another reboot (to maks sure) I performed another update/reboot cycle.

 

After that I expected Native DSD support of the Ayre QB-9 Twenty, but when I played back the 2L DSD128 track, 2L-45_stereo_01_DSF_5644k_1b.dsf (supposedly DSD128) I didn't get any playback. The DAC diagnostics tells me:

"no setup"

The same is with the corresponding DSD64 dsf file.

I haven't received any Ayre message that a firmware update was necessary, so it seems at least on my system the native DSD to my QB9-Twenty is not working (yet).

My setup is: LMS running on my QNAP, connected to

orendu with Squeezelite client configured to support native DSD connected via USB to Ayre QB-9 Twenty.

 

I will revert back to configuring Squeezelite with DSD over DoP, because now it seems I need to reboot the orendu after it fails playback of any native DSD files (playback of PCM only works again after reboot of the orendu).

[jma2]

20 hours ago, vortecjr said:

It’s entirely possible that the update doesn’t work. However, LMS support of native DSD is available on specific versions only and may require a plug-in and configuration. The combinations are bit confusing. On Sonic Transporter SGC has this sorted out for you. 

 

For trouble shooting play DSD64 and post the complete output of DAC Diagnostics. Make sure to refresh the page to get the latest information.

 OK Jesus, here the complete output of DAC diagnostics, when playing back a DSD64 file (2L-45_stereo_01_DSF_2822k_1b.dsf):

 

DAC description: Ayre QB-9 Twenty      21b4:0230

Diagnostic information for this DAC

Ayre Acoustics, Inc. Ayre QB-9 Twenty at usb-ci_hdrc.1-1.1, high speed : USB Audio

Playback:
  Status: Stop
  Interface 1
    Altset 1
    Format: S32_LE
    Channels: 2
    Endpoint: 1 OUT (ASYNC)
    Rates: 44100, 48000, 88200, 96000, 176400, 192000, 352800, 384000
    Data packet interval: 125 us
    Bits: 32
  Interface 1
    Altset 2
    Format: SPECIAL
    Channels: 2
    Endpoint: 1 OUT (ASYNC)
    Rates: 44100, 48000, 88200, 96000, 176400, 192000, 352800, 384000
    Data packet interval: 125 us
    Bits: 32

no setup

Simple mixer control 'Ayre QB-9 Twenty ',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pswitch
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 127
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 127 [100%] [0.00dB] [on]
  Front Right: Playback 127 [100%] [0.00dB] [on]
Simple mixer control 'Ayre QB-9 Twenty ',1
  Capabilities: pvolume pvolume-joined pswitch pswitch-joined
  Playback channels: Mono
  Limits: Playback 0 - 127
  Mono: Playback 127 [100%] [0.00dB] [on]

 

I understand that the combination of versions of LMS/Squeezelite/plugin may be tricky. For completeness I include it here:

On the NAS (QNAP) I have my music files stored and LMS server running:

 

Logitech Media Server Version: 8.0.0 - 1592463207 @ Thu Jun 18 09:24:33 CEST 2020

Hostname: NAS563QNAP

Server IP Address: aa.bb.cc.dd

Server HTTP Port Number: 9001

Operating system: QLMS 2.X (QNAP TurboStation) Chrooted Debian 9 stretch! - EN - utf8

Platform Architecture: x86_64-linux

Perl Version: 5.24.4 - x86_64-linux-thread-multi

Audio::Scan: 0.95

IO::Socket::SSL: 2.060

Database Version: DBD::SQLite 1.58 (sqlite 3.22.0)

Total Players Recognized: 1

 

On the server I have the DSDPlayer plugin v1.0.1 (as far as I can see nothing to configure in there, no settings)

 

On my OpticalRendu I run Squeezelite v1.9.6.1196 with the setting "DSD Support" set to Native DSD.

 

Before I start digging for other versions of LMS for my NAS I would like to hear if the following approach would work:

 

In order to avoid mismatches with the LMS versions, I could install on the oRendu the Drive Mounter and the LMS server (looks like version 7.9) from the "available software" and see if that works. So everything would run fro the oRendu and that should mix and match properly and hence I could expect Native DSD to work. Would that be correct thinking from my side?

 

If that works I could try to get hold of the same 7.9 version of LMS for the QNAP and see if that works.

 

Kind regards,

Jan