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

[rickca]

1 hour ago, lmitche said:

I bought a very nice celeron j4005 minipc in a fanless case that was not a NUC. Booted it as streamer from a usb stick. The SQ was awful, so I returned it.

OK so it isn't just AudioLinux but something about the NUC.  I guess we shouldn't be surprised.  Nuno said that Innuos tried a lot of different motherboards before selecting the Supermicro X10SBA  and some of them didn't sound very good.

[rickca]

8 minutes ago, austinpop said:

we seem to have caused a worldwide shortage of NUCs

The only NUC that's out of stock is NUC7CJYH.  I think it's just because it's the cheapest NUC, not because CA users have caused a run on it.  One site I checked had 450 of the quad core Pentium NUC7.  No need to panic.

 

B&H claims they have more NUC7CJYH on the way in 2-4 weeks.  

[rickca]

8 minutes ago, Johnseye said:

I use the gen 7, i7 version.

Do you have NUC7i7DNHE or NUC7i7BNH?

[rickca]

4 hours ago, austinpop said:

we seem to have caused a worldwide shortage of NUCs

That's because we're winning.

 

We're gonna win so much you may even get tired of winning and you'll say please, please, it's too much winning!  We can't take it anymore!

[rickca]

7 minutes ago, afrancois said:

As I said it changes at every boot.

How do you know the fingerprint is changing?  Does it display the fingerprint, or is HQPe just complaining that you don't have a license?

[rickca]

@afrancois

I assume you followed these instructions?

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000005532/mini-pcs.html

 

Exactly what BIOS settings did you change?  I'm sure everyone wants to avoid the same situation.  Thanks!

 

Also, please read this

https://nucblog.net/2018/04/first-major-bios-update-for-nuc7cjyh-gemini-lake-nuc/

 

Note the comment

Everything apparently works fine except the boot HDMI handshake between this NUC and my LG television. After boot, need to either turn off/on the television or unplug/replug the HDMI cable to get the display signal.

 

One user reported he got around the problem by using an HDMI to DVI cable and the DVI input of a monitor.

So maybe your NUC is OK!!

 

 

[rickca]

4 minutes ago, afrancois said:

Same with NTFS. USB thumb drive flashes briefly and keyboard lights up (has backlighting) and then the keyboard is no longer receives power.

I honestly don't know what to do next. I fear it's really a brick.

OK see my updated post above.  Looks like it's just an HDMI problem causing a blank display.

 

After boot, try to unplug and replug in the HDMI cable or use an HDMI to DVI cable with a DVI input monitor.

 

It looks like a fix has been developed for this issue, but I'm not clear about how to apply it.  For this, we need Piero.

https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=105887

[rickca]

1 hour ago, look&listen said:

Maybe this mini-PC close enough for NAA use case?  NUC7CJYSAL

 

If want barebones kit some say Pentium OK  NUC7PJYH

 

Yes NUC7CJYSAL is just a NUC7CJYS kit with 4GB memory, 32GB of eMMC and Windows 10 Home 64-bit.

I think @lmitche has already tried NUC7PJYH and said he liked it just a bit better than NUC7CJYH.  

[rickca]

3 minutes ago, afrancois said:

The monitor worked before and I already use an HDMI to DVI adapter.

The NUC is surely not OK, if so I could ping it after lxqt boot.

Even before that my keyboard should get some power.

OK sorry I was hoping I had discovered something you hadn't tried.    

[rickca]

6 minutes ago, afrancois said:

Changes I've made to the BIOS

1° disabled audio

2° disabled bluetooth

3° disabled WLAN

4° 128M video RAM instead of 256M

5° for the other I really should have the exact same screens before me

Thanks for documenting this.  I understand the rationale for steps 1-3.  Why did you do step 4?  And I'm not sure I understand what you mean by #5.

[rickca]

21 minutes ago, rickca said:

I think @lmitche has already tried NUC7PJYH and said he liked it just a bit better than NUC7CJYH.

Here is the relevant post

https://www.computeraudiophile.com/forums/topic/30376-a-novel-way-to-massively-improve-the-sq-of-computer-audio-streaming/?do=findComment&comment=897874

 

[rickca]

8 minutes ago, afrancois said:

Also liked the NUC7PJYH  until it decided to brick itself.

Well I just ordered the same model yesterday, so I am laser focused on your experience.

[rickca]

5 minutes ago, austinpop said:

Why am I not surprised?

Looks like any processing (I/O, network activity, background processes) not directly related to playing music is detrimental to sound quality.

[rickca]

Just now, austinpop said:

What is CL16

CAS latency of memory.  That G.SKILL stuff I told you about is CAS 16.

[rickca]

Deleted

[rickca]

10 minutes ago, austinpop said:

@rickca - check out http://marcoc1712.it/?p=458 for a good explanation of the ALSA (-a) parameters.

Wow, that looks like a huge cache of information.  Is there a TOC or index so I can see what topics are covered by these hundreds of pages of documentation?

[rickca]

36 minutes ago, afrancois said:

Just sent my defective NUC back to sender.

Talked to a guy on the phone about the problem and he says that changing BIOS settings is not covered by warranty. Can you believe this? Anyhow, they will have a look at the unit, but I don't have much confidence.

I guess you are too honest.  I'd contact Intel customer support rather than the place where you bought the NUC.

[rickca]

14 minutes ago, austinpop said:

Would someone create one, please?

Done.

https://www.computeraudiophile.com/forums/topic/54933-audiolinux-tuning/?tab=comments#comment-900774

 

[rickca]

41 minutes ago, Bricki said:

I should add that the sonicTransporter i5 has been a very reliable and trouble free device over the last few years. Running sonicorbitor and roon server, I found that it sounded better than roon server on a Windows desktop pc. Now with audiolinux in ramroot it sounds better again by a noticeable margin. 

So this is a challenge for Sonicorbiter, InnuOS and all the Linux-based servers and endpoints ... to match the sound quality of AL/RAM.  For the time being, it's a tradeoff between ease of use and sound quality.

 

Pretty good for a fairy tale thread, eh?

[rickca]

Just now, mourip said:

I just tried to reply and was blocked by something called "Cloudflare".

Are you using cloudflare DNS (1.1.1.1)?

[rickca]

Here is Putin congratulating MBS on getting his AL/NUC working

https://twitter.com/ianbremmer/status/1068530591237357569

 

[rickca]

14 minutes ago, BigAlMc said:

Disable UEFI Boot and enable Legacy Boot.

Where did you see this?  I thought AudioLinux was UEFI only.

[rickca]

4 minutes ago, BigAlMc said:

I keep getting zero sign of there being a bootable device attached

How exactly did you prepare your flash drive?  Will it boot on any other computer you have?

 

On a Windows 10 system, I downloaded the .gz file, extracted the .img file using 7-zip, then used etcher (which is dead simple) to put the .img file on the flash drive.  I don't have a NUC yet, so I booted it on my Macbook Pro to make sure I had a bootable image.

[rickca]

4 hours ago, rettib2001 said:

the cpu temps are a little worrying

If your CPU goes into thermal throttling you are getting unwanted voltage adjustments which are the enemy of sound quality.

[rickca]

10 hours ago, greenleo said:

For end point when using HQP, I will buy the headless (lxqt will be included) as an end point NAA in the audio PC.  The HQP in the control PC then runs in lxqt.

When you buy the headless/LXQt version for $49 can we run it on multiple computers with just a single license?  I've seen someone ask this before, but I don't recall seeing an answer from Piero.