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

[elan120]

16 minutes ago, seatrope said:

Question for those who have had their NUC modded by SOTM:

 

I have experienced some occasional (1-2 times a day) loud hissing noise mixed in with music using Roon with the modified NUC and external REF10 master clock recently. I never heard this before NUC was modified, not sure if it could be from some problem with the NUC modification.

 

If I pause the music and hit play the noise keeps going. If I go back to beginning of the track and play, the noise goes away.

 

Has anyone experienced anything similar? Obviously this could be related to any number of things included network issues, Roon glitches or DAC problems as well.

 

thanks!

I have not encounter this issue since I have the modified NUC back around mid-March, and using primary Roon+HQPlayer upsampling to DSD512.

[auricgoldfinger]

50 minutes ago, seatrope said:

Question for those who have had their NUC modded by SOTM:

 

I have experienced some occasional (1-2 times a day) loud hissing noise mixed in with music using Roon with the modified NUC and external REF10 master clock recently. I never heard this before NUC was modified, not sure if it could be from some problem with the NUC modification.

 

If I pause the music and hit play the noise keeps going. If I go back to beginning of the track and play, the noise goes away.

 

Has anyone experienced anything similar? Obviously this could be related to any number of things included network issues, Roon glitches or DAC problems as well.

 

thanks!

 

Does the problem occur if you take the REF10 out of the system?  I'm wondering if you have a cable problem or loose connection.

[seatrope]

Hey Brian,

 

yes, still occurs after Ref10 is removed. That eliminates the Ref10 and it’s cable as the cause. Good thought though. Might be network or DAC related. 

[auricgoldfinger]

1 minute ago, seatrope said:

Hey Brian,

 

yes, still occurs after Ref10 is removed. That eliminates the Ref10 and it’s cable as the cause. Good thought though. Might be network or DAC related. 

 

You probably should email May to get her thoughts.

[soares]

5 hours ago, seatrope said:

Question for those who have had their NUC modded by SOTM:

 

I have experienced some occasional (1-2 times a day) loud hissing noise mixed in with music using Roon with the modified NUC and external REF10 master clock recently. I never heard this before NUC was modified, not sure if it could be from some problem with the NUC modification.

 

If I pause the music and hit play the noise keeps going. If I go back to beginning of the track and play, the noise goes away.

 

Has anyone experienced anything similar? Obviously this could be related to any number of things included network issues, Roon glitches or DAC problems as well.

 

thanks!

If I may ask, are you using HQPlayer? And what DAC?

[seatrope]

3 hours ago, soares said:

If I may ask, are you using HQPlayer? And what DAC?

No,  this is pure Roonserver (AL) to Roonbridge (AL NUC). DAC is Lampizator Pacific.

[dctom]

Hi seatrope I have an unmodified Nuc i7 it occasionally starts to play  a file with a strange tinny ringing distortion

it happens Two or three times a listening session- one track finishes no problem next one has the distortion stopping and starting track clears distortion - thinking it might be the upsampling. sound quality otherwise is excellent

using jriver pcm upsampling playing from an itx i3 server bridged direct to the Nuc, still experimenting with configuration. Currently using Ubuntu on both machines.

how do you get on with the Pacific (seem to remember you had volume level issues with GG)

listened to one a couple of times

I use a lampi GG btw

[seeteeyou]

Holy Smoke, it's one hella setup and look at those DC cables

 

http://dxpwr.com/product-range

https://www.facebook.com/110747222358641/posts/1804350272998319

Quote

6 stage power filtering with dual stage LPS and 22x lt3045 power regulators.

[lmitche]

2 hours ago, seeteeyou said:

Holy Smoke, it's one hella setup and look at those DC cables

 

http://dxpwr.com/product-range

https://www.facebook.com/110747222358641/posts/1804350272998319

Wow, CTU is this your system?

[happydance]

I think trying out REW (room equalisation wizard) is a novel way to improve SQ, but can it be used with headless sonic transporter + Intel NUC7CJYH with Audiolinux?

https://www.roomeqwizard.com/

thanks!

[LTG2010]

49 minutes ago, happydance said:

I think trying out REW (room equalisation wizard) is a novel way to improve SQ, but can it be used with headless sonic transporter + Intel NUC7CJYH with Audiolinux? 

You can use filters generated from REW eg. convolution in either Roon or HQplayer both work with sonic transporter and audiolinux.

[soares]

Confirmed. I use filters for HQP and Roon, both usb in with uRendu and OPPO.

[happydance]

5 hours ago, LTG2010 said:

You can use filters generated from REW eg. convolution in either Roon or HQplayer both work with sonic transporter and audiolinux.

really nice, now I just need the HW!

[happydance]

2 hours ago, soares said:

Confirmed. I use filters for HQP and Roon, both usb in with uRendu and OPPO.

WOW-ZA! 😍

[happydance]

Hardware for REW?

what hardware is required for laptop running windows 10/64?

REW website is a little confusing!

Do I just need a Mic. or other stuff as well?

Thanks!

[R1200CL]

2 hours ago, happydance said:

Do I just need a Mic

 

Yes. (And the PC of cause)

 

Most people do prefer a tripod as well, since a handheld mic most likely will destroy the measurements. 

 

https://www.minidsp.com/products/acoustic-measurement/umik-1

 

You may find this interesting:

https://community.roonlabs.com/t/a-guide-how-to-do-room-correction-and-use-it-in-roon/23800

[flkin]

Hi guys, I’ve had a chance to install the new extreme USB clock board in my Pink Faun 2.16x streamer replacing the older one. The new clock improves the phase noise by -22dbC/Hz.

 

My impressions of the new sound is here :

 

 Have a read if you’re interested. Thanks.

[bit01]

On 12/24/2018 at 1:01 AM, Chopin75 said:

Has anyone tried running J River Media with Audiolinux ? I am trying to use J river for M-ch playback on Linux. It does not sound good on MAC. 

 

A bit late here- but yes I have tried the setup below,  though I do not have a Mac and only run stereo. The NUCs are 'bridged'. I have LXQt loaded in RAM and boot mode is 'EXTREME'. NUC 2 'streams' and has the LIBRARY of NUC1 loaded. It looks a bit odd but the sound/musicality is very good.

 

 

 

 

[happydance]

11 hours ago, R1200CL said:

 

Yes. (And the PC of cause)

 

Most people do prefer a tripod as well, since a handheld mic most likely will destroy the measurements. 

 

https://www.minidsp.com/products/acoustic-measurement/umik-1

 

You may find this interesting:

https://community.roonlabs.com/t/a-guide-how-to-do-room-correction-and-use-it-in-roon/23800

OK -thanks!

[rettib2001]

Hi

 

I'm currently running AL headless in a server (nuc7i7bnh) + endpoint (fanless nuc7pjyh powered by SR4) configuration, upsampling Tidal to dsd512 via roon.

 

The server is connected to an Orbi rbk50 router via wifi at one end and the endpoint is linked to the accompanying Orbi satellite via ethernet (set to 100mbps) at the other. Both Orbi units are powered by their own Lpsu. 

 

I recently started using hqplayerd with Roon and unfortunately for my wallet I prefer what I'm hearing.

 

With my 2 core i7 nuc I can get upto dsd256 using the - 2 filters, I'm surprised it can do that. It sounds more involving and organic (subjectivity alert) than Roon at dsd512.

 

I'd now like to build a more powerful server with a view to using hqplayer at dsd512, in an ideal world without resorting to the - 2s filters. 

My dilemma is that if I aim for a powerful server I'll be straying away from the realm of fanless cases and clean power in favour of brute computational force. 

 

What are peoples thoughts on either:

 

a) Waiting for the next powerful multicore i7 nuc, probable the comet lake gen, sticking that in a fanless case and powering it by my Paul Hynes Sr4 and hoping I can get far enough up the hqplayer filter hierarchy. 

 

b) Building a powerful server using a cpu that has a proven track record of being able to upsample to dsd512 and hoping that the additional noise or general electrical fallout generated by the more 'untamed' computing environment doesn't do too much damage to general audio quality. 

 

I'm torn. 

[lmitche]

9 hours ago, rettib2001 said:

Hi

 

I'm currently running AL headless in a server (nuc7i7bnh) + endpoint (fanless nuc7pjyh powered by SR4) configuration, upsampling Tidal to dsd512 via roon.

 

The server is connected to an Orbi rbk50 router via wifi at one end and the endpoint is linked to the accompanying Orbi satellite via ethernet (set to 100mbps) at the other. Both Orbi units are powered by their own Lpsu. 

 

I recently started using hqplayerd with Roon and unfortunately for my wallet I prefer what I'm hearing.

 

With my 2 core i7 nuc I can get upto dsd256 using the - 2 filters, I'm surprised it can do that. It sounds more involving and organic (subjectivity alert) than Roon at dsd512.

 

I'd now like to build a more powerful server with a view to using hqplayer at dsd512, in an ideal world without resorting to the - 2s filters. 

My dilemma is that if I aim for a powerful server I'll be straying away from the realm of fanless cases and clean power in favour of brute computational force. 

 

What are peoples thoughts on either:

 

a) Waiting for the next powerful multicore i7 nuc, probable the comet lake gen, sticking that in a fanless case and powering it by my Paul Hynes Sr4 and hoping I can get far enough up the hqplayer filter hierarchy. 

 

b) Building a powerful server using a cpu that has a proven track record of being able to upsample to dsd512 and hoping that the additional noise or general electrical fallout generated by the more 'untamed' computing environment doesn't do too much damage to general audio quality. 

 

I'm torn. 

Do you have a preamp or do you use Roon or hqplayer volume control?

[StreamFidelity]

9 hours ago, rettib2001 said:

With my 2 core i7 nuc I can get upto dsd256 using the - 2 filters, I'm surprised it can do that. It sounds more involving and organic (subjectivity alert) than Roon at dsd512.

 

a) Waiting for the next powerful multicore i7 nuc, probable the comet lake gen, sticking that in a fanless case and powering it by my Paul Hynes Sr4 and hoping I can get far enough up the hqplayer filter hierarchy. 

I can confirm the much better DSD playback of HQPlayer. For DSD 512 also an i5 is enough. 😉

[rettib2001]

1 hour ago, lmitche said:

Do you have a preamp or do you use Roon or hqplayer volume control?

 

I understand why you would ask that question. 

 

Funnily enough volume control is something I've spent quite a bit of time 'fiddling' around with lately

 

The dac I use is an LKS 004 which allows for on-board volume control, I initially compared that functionality to my fairly decent passive preamp which has a stepped attenuator. At lower volumes the passive had the edge but as I crept closer to 0db (usually upto about - 20db) I felt the Dac's volume control had the edge. Roon volume control was set to fixed and Hqplayer was set to - 3.

 

My current setup however is: Roon fixed volume, Hqplayer - 3db  and Dac at fixed/0db. The dac goes into a tube buffer with volume control the latter is powered by a Paul Hynes Sr4. It sounds so much more alive than anthing I've used in the past. 

 

Satisfied with this setup, I've put aside any tweaking with volume control and I've turned my attention to gaining access to hqplayer's more demanding parameters hence the question about server options. 

 

 

[rettib2001]

46 minutes ago, StreamFidelity said:

I can confirm the much better DSD playback of HQPlayer. For DSD 512 also an i5 is enough. 😉

My obvious question is now... How are you doing that?! There's no way my i7 nuc or even my i7 macbook pro can play dsd512 with hyplayer. What filters can you run at that level? 

 

If I can can to xtr-mp-2s at dsd512 in a fanless case with the potential of using a linear power supply I'd be happy. 

[elan120]

10 hours ago, rettib2001 said:

a) Waiting for the next powerful multicore i7 nuc, probable the comet lake gen, sticking that in a fanless case and powering it by my Paul Hynes Sr4 and hoping I can get far enough up the hqplayer filter hierarchy. 

 

b) Building a powerful server using a cpu that has a proven track record of being able to upsample to dsd512 and hoping that the additional noise or general electrical fallout generated by the more 'untamed' computing environment doesn't do too much damage to general audio quality. 

My preference with HQPlayer is upsample to DSD512 with non-2s filters, and a key upcoming component that will sway the decision one way or the other would be EtherRegen.  If it can achieve the original design goal of isolating noises from the server side, then going with a powerful PC will be a choice...at least this is what I am hoping it can do as this is what I am running at the moment.