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A novel way to massively improve the SQ of computer audio streaming


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Most important: please realize this thread is about bleeding edge experimentation and discovery. No one has The Answer™. If you are not into tweaking, just know that you can have a musically satisfying system without doing any of the nutty things we do here.

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13 hours ago, Confused said:

An excellent summary, and far more detail than I was expecting, so thanks for that!

 

I have a couple of questions.  You mention that the ultraRendu is a touch brighter than the sMS-200ulra, plus less bass.  How would you say the Network Bridge compares in this regard, that is in terms of tonal balance?

 

Also, is the sMS-200 the Neo version, or the original?

Hi Confused,

 

I would say that the SOtM dig deeper into the bass, but the uR is a bit more explicit in its presentation of the bass lines - which I really enjoy.

 

My feeling was that the DCS NB combined the strengths of both the SOtM and the uR, which is really amazing when it is simply plugged into my house power, although at a price.

 

Please remember that I am not using a Paul Hynes PSU, for instance, and that may make the difference. I will add a post laying out what I have done in setting up my system.

 

All this said, I am really looking forward to listening to the NUC, it may blow them all away!

 

M

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9 hours ago, dtossan said:

Great experience summary.

Where do you get your R-Cores?

Den

In my case via ebay, following a bit of research.

 

I have favourably compared the ones I have bought to:

Uptone LPS-1;

SBooster; and

iFI SMPS.

 

I have NOT compared them to JS-2; HD-Plex; Paul Hynes or Sean Jacobs. The last two of which I suspect I will explore once I have a setup I feel I will settle in for a few years .....unless it is the DCS NB, in which case I can avoid all this jiggery pokery!

 

Anyway:

 

NUC - arrived;

AudioLinux - bought & downloaded;

Memory - arrived;

USB - arrived.

 

.....and 19v R-Core LPSU bought. I may well have to adjust this down to 18V, to accommodate 15V LT3045s in due course; unless I can find some 19V 1A LT3045s, don't seem to exist.

 

M

 

 

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9 hours ago, Johnseye said:

Audiolinux NUC Update

 

It was a minor improvement.  I wasn't blown away, but it was better and absolutely worth the $30.

 

I first set things up where I went from the NUC to the tX-USBultra to the DAC.

 

 

Hi John,

 

Interesting report. I echo your findings. I think replacing Vortexbox OS on my Audiostore Prestige 2 led to a nice uptick in performance. The NUC is better than both the SOtM ultra and ultraRendu, and I suspect the DCS NB - although I would like to have the latter box for a decent length of time.

 

WRT to the txUSB, I felt it had a nice effect on tone and detail in combination with the SOtM ultra and ultraRendu. The tone i could replicate with PoE, but not the detail. Well, the AL NUC delivers that in bucket loads. So I am not surprised by your observations.

 

M

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Moving my audio files from my Synology NAS onto StarTech hosted USB sticks into a LPSU powered Rpi 3 made a nice difference, further accentuated by the Audiosence Prestige 2, and further improved by replacing Vortexbox with AudioLinux.

 

I am running two boxes with Headless AudioLinux Extreme, one with LMS and one with Squeezelite. Both are running in memory, and that makes a lot of difference.

 

Two days ago a replacement R-Core 19V 5A PSU arrived and had the expected effect of removing a very small level of high frequency tizzzz that I was getting with the SMPS. I am currently just running it in before reporting back.

 

I have a level of complexity with my system as my Audio Note DAC uses valves, so I have to turn it off between sessions. This can cause the chain to glitch. Sometimes this can be in the software, sometimes in the firmware in the USB chain. This has caused me to do a level of digging to isolate where and what the recovery procedure should be. This was easier with the SOtM & Sonore boxes and there a few applets you could simply restart.

 

In terms of quality I would rate AL > SOtM & Sonore. WRT DCS NB, not sure - I suspect it is better, but I would like to listen for a longer period to the DCS. Either way there is a slight bar with Headless AL in that you have to be comfortable with the Command Line.

 

Next steps: Consider a new case to get rid the fan (a la Tapatrick), although the NUC box isn't any more than slightly warm; play with PoE - although I am enjoying what I am hearing now; and, consider using some paralleled LT3045 between the LPSU and NUC.

 

M

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16 hours ago, austinpop said:

Science Experiment: Audiolinux Extreme on Zenith SE

 

...And so it goes...

 

Hi Rajiv,

 

Thanks for the hard work. I fully understand if you don't want to do this, but, having used LMS and Squeezelite on the base OS is there any chance you could try them on AudioLinux and let us know what you think?

 

When Roon comes online with Qobuz I may be tempted to try. If you think that it is simply better than this will be a big incentive to give it a go.

 

M

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My thanks to Roy, Larry and Rajiv in particular.

 

i think that language can be a barrier to communication at times. I think the NUC + AM is a superb solution, but certainly not plug and play.

 

In the world of operating systems a good analogy I once read compared Microsoft to Mercedes and Linux to a well loved MG; the second was a lot more fun but took a fair amount of maintenance. Not quite on the button but with an element of truth.

 

i am loving what this has done for my system, and being bootable from usb means it is simple to back out from.

 

M

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3 hours ago, austinpop said:

I should be getting my loaner NUC from Roy in a week or so. Meanwhile I continue to enjoy and play music on my Zenith SE running RoonServer on AL Extreme headless with ramroot. The one thing missing in this configuration is Qobuz. For that, I just have to shutdown and restart with InnuOS, then use the native player.

 

Last night, to decompress from a Diwali party - I'm not a party guy! - I made a renewed effort to get LMS and Squeezelite running under AL. The motivation was to get Qobuz on AL, but it would allow me to compare Roon player with squeezelite.

 

 It didn't look that hard. And it wasn't. Everything looks good, both LMS (logitechmediaserver-git.service) and squeezelite@audiolinux services are active. The squeezelite player shows up as an endpoint on LMS (Squeezelite-R2) but when I try to play a track, nothing happens.

 

I might get offline with some of you who've got this combo to work for troubleshooting tips.

Rajiv,

 

Did you load C-3PO?

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My Settings:

 

Go into Settings > Advanced > C-3PO and deselect all the file options you DON'T use, for me this left flac and wav.

 

Go to Settings > Player > C-3PO

In my case I use an Audionote DAC, so 96k max.

FLAC = Enable stdin / Convert

WAV  = Enable Seek / Convert

 

Output Sample Rates selected = 44.1, 88.2, 48 & 96.

 

WRT C-3PO:

On AudioLinux Site includes -

Compatible audio applications: HQPlayer and HQPlayer embedded (with CUDA acceleration, if you install nvidia closed source drivers), HQPlayer Network Audio Daemon, MPD (with optional upmpdcli UPnP media renderer), Logitech Media Server + Squeezelite-R2 with C-3PO plugin, Kodi (XBMC), Jriver Media Center, Roon.
Audiolinux can be configured as headless server (also with HQPlayer embedded)

 

M

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9 hours ago, greenleo said:

Thank you Underhill.

 

I'm not a DIY guy and never good at soldering.  I used to buy DC cables from Ghent and now find that there are many options like star quad, upocc, ..., 

 

Please advise me which cable should I use or your experience.

 

Suggestions of other DC cable makers are welcome.  You may pm me because this post may be off topic.

 

Many thanks.

You can buy adapters to use with any current (sic) cables you have:

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B004HTFCYY/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

and

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00NLDLDIQ/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

I will PM you.

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