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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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Ok scan this a brilliant answer to my dilemma but I went to Tiny PXE server site and I can't figure out what to download and what to do. Is there any beginners notes or easy way to figure this out for a network newbie?

 

Tiny PXE Server can be downloaded from:

Tiny PXE Server - reboot.pro

 

You will get the latest 1.0.0.20 even though the page says 1.0.0.19.

 

Extract the downloaded pxesrv.zip into a folder and you will find the pxesrv.exe executable in there. No installation procedure is required. The config.ini file is used to configure Tiny PXE Server, so needs to be carefully updated.

 

To make Tiny PXE Server auto-launch for every Windows boot, drag a link of pxesrv.exe into the shell:startup dialog box.

 

There is much more functionality than DHCP server in Tiny PXE Server. I use it to support diskless PC booting (covered in a different thread). There are also plenty other free Windows-based DHCP server apps available. For basic DHCP server functionality, I believe any of these apps can work.

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I hear you. I have optical ethernet employed in my system with the receiving FMC powered by an LPS-1. I also employ a Paul Pang switch with TCXO clock powered by an LPS-1 within 1 meter of my music server to do just what you describe and yet none of this matters. Direct connection still sounds better. Way better

 

That's not what I mean --

First I guess your TXCO copper Ethernet switch doesn't work well.

Second, my whole house is fiber Ethernet and by direct connection I mean direct fiber connection from PC and NAS and NAA each to fiber switch.

Custom room treatments for headphone users.

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So I am a mess. Win10 did not want me to save two IP settings (direct and ethernet) with same gateway, and now where the f do I even have a chance to put the microRendu ip address in? All I get is my two NICs and a new ethernet 3, which I assume is the bridge? They simply ask for THEIR ip addresses.

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So I am a mess. Win10 did not want me to save two IP settings (direct and ethernet) with same gateway, and now where the f do I even have a chance to put the microRendu ip address in? All I get is my two NICs and a new ethernet 3, which I assume is the bridge? They simply ask for THEIR ip addresses.

 

Multihomed networking is difficult. Microsoft does not envision that you'd be doing this at home.

Custom room treatments for headphone users.

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So I am a mess. Win10 did not want me to save two IP settings (direct and ethernet) with same gateway, and now where the f do I even have a chance to put the microRendu ip address in? All I get is my two NICs and a new ethernet 3, which I assume is the bridge? They simply ask for THEIR ip addresses.

Per some prior discussion when you hook up the 2nd Ethernet link from pc to Rendu you need to have dhcp capability to establish the network and assign an ip address(which Macs have) but most windows 10 home versions do not . So since I need this too I am in mad search for an app to do this. Per scan above Tiny PXE Server software does this but my look see at the web site left me baffled and confused.

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Multihomed networking is difficult. Microsoft does not envision that you'd be doing this at home.

 

I'm wondering, with my Diablo fiber switch, whether this will even make a diff. Plus, when I move the NAA to my Windows pc (when doing multichannel with exaSound, which doesn't talk to the microRendu NAA) I assume I have other static IP issues? I think I will bail for now.

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I'm wondering, with my Diablo fiber switch, whether this will even make a diff. Plus, when I move the NAA to my Windows pc (when doing multichannel with exaSound, which doesn't talk to the microRendu NAA) I assume I have other static IP issues? I think I will bail for now.

I would be curious to hear if it does make a difference for you. Regarding your windows NAA, have you tried the PicoPSU 12V battery UPS or the OpenUPS2 (lithium)? No reason to think better than the LPS-1 just curious to know if worse...

Custom room treatments for headphone users.

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I would be curious to hear if it does make a difference for you. Regarding your windows NAA, have you tried the PicoPSU 12V battery UPS or the OpenUPS2 (lithium)? No reason to think better than the LPS-1 just curious to know if worse...

 

I bailed. The good news is I was able to reset everything easily, so am more open to try again when better educated. I will try it when I get back from travel (starting tmrw). The Windows NAA (WS21012R1) is powered by a Hynes SR7 (adjustable from 12-19V) and the SSD is powered by a SOtM batterypack. The JCAT USB card is powered by a RedWine modded LPS. I only own one LPS-1 and it's with the uRendu. Being that I don't run both NAAs simultaneously I guess I could swap it in somewhere, but not sure if for the SSD or JCAT card.

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That's not what I mean --

First I guess your TXCO copper Ethernet switch doesn't work well.

Second, my whole house is fiber Ethernet and by direct connection I mean direct fiber connection from PC and NAS and NAA each to fiber switch.

You have a great network setup but unfortunately, we are talking about apples and oranges. As this is about the microRendu and sMS-200, then copper has to be involved in some capacity. It's possible what you have sounds better than this direct connection but there's no way to know without actually listening and comparing. If you are claiming superiority based on theoretical grounds alone, then we get nowhere because there's no good explanation for why this direct connection should sound good at all.

 

Regarding fiber, all it is good for is blocking noise and I'm not convinced this is just about noise. As we know, fiber certainly isn't a panacea for all things that ail high-end audio, otherwise, we would all be using Toslink connections to our DACs and with my Chord DAVE, USB sounds better. Having recently compared an Apple branded Thunderbolt cable against a Synergistic Research Active SE copper Thunderbolt cable against a Corning optical Thunderbolt cable, I had assumed the Corning optical would sound best and it actually sounded the worst of the three.

 

As for my switch not working well, it's possible yours sounds better but as I stated, when I removed my switch from the chain, it actually sounded worse. It is definitely not causing harm as far as I can tell. You should also understand that my internet modem/router sits about 1 meter from my music server. Wifi is not turned on (Wifi duties are being handled by a separate Wifi router in my equipment closet 20 meters away). From internet modem/router to my music server, we are talking about a total of 2 meters of copper wiring total with a short run of optical cable in between to assure galvanic isolation. This is a very short and direct signal path and there is no benefit to me using optical elsewhere within my house since my music is streamed from a local drive. From the receiving FMC up until the music server, all power is provided by my LPS-1 and so nothing is connected to ground that could impact my network beyond the FMC. With respect to these 2 NAAs, I don't know how much better my network can be and yet this direct connection sounds better. Go figure.

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So I am a mess. Win10 did not want me to save two IP settings (direct and ethernet) with same gateway, and now where the f do I even have a chance to put the microRendu ip address in? All I get is my two NICs and a new ethernet 3, which I assume is the bridge? They simply ask for THEIR ip addresses.

Ted, the bridge will use the existing dhcp server in your router. Just make sure the bridged device is running before booting the microRendu. Once it boots, most of the time you can assign an tcpip address in the DHCP server via the microRendu Mac address.

Pareto Audio aka nuckleheadaudio

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Well, I tried this, and was able to get the commands to complete successfully, but after completion, my NAS is unreachable at the eth0 address (also the br0 address). Luckily a reboot fixed everything back to before.

 

I was hoping to just try this out, but given my experience, I may have to wait and see.

 

I agree, you should be skeptical by this phenomenon that I have no explanation for. I'm sure Sonore and SOtM are skeptical also but SOtM is interested enough that they are now doing their own internal testing. But what I am suggesting is easy enough and inexpensive enough for many to implement and so I am hoping people will try it and give feedback. I suspect a community effort can only lead to better things. As for me being the only one, actually Jelt2359 has independently tried it in his system (Windows PC > sMS-200) and is hearing the same thing I am hearing.

Do you have a link to Jelt2359 results?

 

Has anyone else validated romaz's specific results - i.e.

  • configure network bridging on music server with 2+ ethernet ports
  • remove endpoint (NAA/Roon endpoint/UPnP renderer) connection to router/switch
  • connect endpoint to second port on bridged music server
  • change NOTHING else

 

What SQ difference did you get?

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Well, I tried this, and was able to get the commands to complete successfully, but after completion, my NAS is unreachable at the eth0 address (also the br0 address). Luckily a reboot fixed everything back to before.

 

I was hoping to just try this out, but given my experience, I may have to wait and see.

 

 

Do you have a link to Jelt2359 results?

 

Has anyone else validated romaz's specific results - i.e.

  • configure network bridging on music server with 2+ ethernet ports
  • remove endpoint (NAA/Roon endpoint/UPnP renderer) connection to router/switch
  • connect endpoint to second port on bridged music server
  • change NOTHING else

 

What SQ difference did you get?

What address did you set the default gateway to? That could be your problem as the instructions are cryptic at best.

 

Removing your switch yields a significant SQ improvement and is very much worth pursuing.

Pareto Audio aka nuckleheadaudio

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What address did you set the default gateway to?

 

Removing your switch yields a significant SQ improvement as is very much worth pursuing.

 

OK, so my network's gateway address is 192.18.0.2. My NAS (unbridged) has a static IP of 192.168.0.240. I allocated another static address 192.168.0.241 for my 2nd port.

 

Here are the commands I tried - exactly like the link you posted, with edits for my situation:

 

Synology# insmod /lib/modules/stp.ko

Synology# insmod /lib/modules/bridge.ko

Synology# brctl addbr br0

Synology# brctl stp br0 off

Synology# ifconfig br0 192.168.0.240 netmask 255.255.255.0 up

Synology# brctl addif br0 eth0

Synology# brctl addif br0 eth1

Synology# ifconfig eth0 192.168.0.240 promisc up

Synology# ifconfig eth1 192.168.0.241 promisc up

Synology# route add default gw 192.168.0.2 dev br0

 

Looking at this, I do have some questions:

  • is the IP address of the bridge interface (br0) supposed to the be the same as the eth0?
  • What is the correct default gateway address?
  • I didn't try bouncing br0 after this sequence - maybe I should have

 

Thanks for any suggestions.

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Removing your switch yields a significant SQ improvement and is very much worth pursuing.

 

Well, what exactly does that mean?

 

Previous experience - I've gone from this:

NAS <-> Router <-> Switch <-> renderer

 

to

NAS <-> Router <-> renderer

 

and heard absolutely no SQ difference. Granted, I have no LPSes on my NAS and router.

 

Now in this case, I think the claim on this thread is that if I went to this:

Router <-> NAS with bridging (my music server) <-> renderer

 

I would hear a massive difference. Given my previous experience, you'll have to pardon my skepticism. Not saying I won't try it - if I can get bridging to work on my Synology - just saying I'm not convinced I'll hear a difference.

 

YMMV.

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Ted, the bridge will use the existing dhcp server in your router. Just make sure the bridged device is running before booting the microRendu. Once it boots, most of the time you can assign an tcpip address in the DHCP server via the microRendu Mac address.

 

Sorry Larry, this is greek to me. I currently have a Mellanox fiber card that goes to a fiber switch, and a fiber cable from swith to uRendu. My second ethernet is emtpty.

 

What I tried to do was first connect the second ethernet (via FMC) to the fiber switch and capture both ip addresses (and that way not lose my RDC to the HQPlayer machine). Then moved uRendu-destined-fiber from switch to Mellanox. Then went to each properties, IPV4, and set static addresses that they had when not static. Did not then know what to do with Ethernet 3 (a green wireless box icon) that was created when I gave the bridge command. I tried many things. Nothing worked.

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OK, so my network's gateway address is 192.18.0.2. My NAS (unbridged) has a static IP of 192.168.0.240. I allocated another static address 192.168.0.241 for my 2nd port.

 

Here are the commands I tried - exactly like the link you posted, with edits for my situation:

 

Synology# insmod /lib/modules/stp.ko

Synology# insmod /lib/modules/bridge.ko

Synology# brctl addbr br0

Synology# brctl stp br0 off

Synology# ifconfig br0 192.168.0.240 netmask 255.255.255.0 up

Synology# brctl addif br0 eth0

Synology# brctl addif br0 eth1

Synology# ifconfig eth0 192.168.0.240 promisc up

Synology# ifconfig eth1 192.168.0.241 promisc up

Synology# route add default gw 192.168.0.2 dev br0

 

Looking at this, I do have some questions:

  • is the IP address of the bridge interface (br0) supposed to the be the same as the eth0?
  • What is the correct default gateway address?
  • I didn't try bouncing br0 after this sequence - maybe I should have

 

Thanks for any suggestions.

 

There is only one IP address on a bridge. The two devices don't have addresses any more. The gateway should be the address of your router.

 

Try getting rid of the two lines with the string " promisc up". I don't use them here and don't think you need them. I would also set STP on.

Pareto Audio aka nuckleheadaudio

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Also "brctl show" should enumerate the bridge config when you are done with the config.

 

Here is what I run:

 

ifconfig eth0 0.0.0.0

ifconfig eth1 0.0.0.0

brctl addbr br0

brctl addif br0 eth0 eth1

ifconfig br0 xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx netmask 255.255.255.0

route add default gw yyy.yyy.yyy.yyy br0

 

#where xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx is the static IP for the bridged machine and yyy.yyy.yyy.yyy is the address of the gateway (router)

Pareto Audio aka nuckleheadaudio

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Sorry Larry, this is greek to me. I currently have a Mellanox fiber card that goes to a fiber switch, and a fiber cable from swith to uRendu. My second ethernet is emtpty.

 

What I tried to do was first connect the second ethernet (via FMC) to the fiber switch and capture both ip addresses (and that way not lose my RDC to the HQPlayer machine). Then moved uRendu-destined-fiber from switch to Mellanox. Then went to each properties, IPV4, and set static addresses that they had when not static. Did not then know what to do with Ethernet 3 (a green wireless box icon) that was created when I gave the bridge command. I tried many things. Nothing worked.

Ted, net net, you probably don't need to worry about dhcp at all.

 

When you create a bridge, addresses are not needed at the individual device level. You need to configure the network address of the new bridge device, not the individual physical ports. On Windows you assign addresses the normal way by right clicking on new device and using the properties choice to the config panel.

 

It is going to be next to impossible to do this without a local keyboard and monitor.

 

Also, just a suggestion, dump rdp and use tightvnc server instead.

Pareto Audio aka nuckleheadaudio

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Here is what I run:

 

ifconfig eth0 0.0.0.0

ifconfig eth1 0.0.0.0

brctl addbr br0

brctl addif br0 eth0 eth1

ifconfig br0 xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx netmask 255.255.255.0

route add default gw yyy.yyy.yyy.yyy br0

 

#where xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx is the static IP for the bridged machine and yyy.yyy.yyy.yyy is the address of the gateway (router)

 

Makes sense. But I may have an issue testing this interactively if I'm ssh'ed in remotely, which is necessary on the NAS.

 

Won't I lose connectivity when I run this?

ifconfig eth0 0.0.0.0

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