One and a half Posted December 27, 2017 Share Posted December 27, 2017 14 minutes ago, zackthedog said: Jriver MC 23 64-bit runs just fine on Server 2016. Of course I haven't tried any of the tweakier players yet. I know that Audiophile Optimiser "broke" Resonant's Wasapi output ability on Windows 10. I'm just quoting Jriver advice, not they 'help' much anyway, seems enthusiasts on the Jriver forum answer with better replies than management. What I did try to install Winserver2016 on a 8Gb ram Sony Vaio 2008 vintage before the i5, i7 processors. It was far snappier than the supported Win 7. The install wasn't complete, since support for the models dried up Dec 01, 2017 with no drivers for the odd unknown devices. AS Profile Equipment List Say NO to MQA Link to comment
zackthedog Posted December 28, 2017 Share Posted December 28, 2017 35 minutes ago, One and a half said: I'm just quoting Jriver advice, not they 'help' much anyway, seems enthusiasts on the Jriver forum answer with better replies than management. What I did try to install Winserver2016 on a 8Gb ram Sony Vaio 2008 vintage before the i5, i7 processors. It was far snappier than the supported Win 7. The install wasn't complete, since support for the models dried up Dec 01, 2017 with no drivers for the odd unknown devices. Would Server 2012 work on your machine? Link to comment
One and a half Posted December 28, 2017 Share Posted December 28, 2017 3 hours ago, zackthedog said: Would Server 2012 work on your machine? I bought an el cheapo license for Win2016, as it turns out I need not have bothered. Tried a Lenovo m93p very small form factor PC and that worked OK as far as drivers went. The music performance went downhill compared with the HP-Z800, leaving the rest of the chain intact. Stage height was down a little, but the micro details voice and instruments was nowhere near as fine and resolving, that veil was back, well a blanket of fog really. The sharp focus of minimal instruments and vocals were hazy and indistinct. [Autumn in New York, Hilary Gardner] Hilary's voice has inflections and quite a lovely character full of detail, when the playback system works properly, that is! Could a linear power supply change things, nah, faggetaboutit, had enough of pi$$ing in the wind. Wasted half the day and yesterday on a lost cause, but at least learned something quite valuable. The smaller the computer, the less noise? Fallacy. A server OS? Dream on. Pull files from a NAS to make an improvement? Fallacy. What does work though is a Xeon platform, ECC RAM, consumer OS and files on large HDD PCIe fast pipe. AS Profile Equipment List Say NO to MQA Link to comment
sandyk Posted December 28, 2017 Share Posted December 28, 2017 1 hour ago, One and a half said: What does work though is a Xeon platform, ECC RAM, consumer OS and files on large HDD PCIe fast pipe. There was a report in Hi Fi Critic Vol.6 No. 2 that claimed the faster the better, including RAM too.. How a Digital Audio file sounds, or a Digital Video file looks, is governed to a large extent by the Power Supply area. All that Identical Checksums gives is the possibility of REGENERATING the file to close to that of the original file. PROFILE UPDATED 13-11-2020 Link to comment
zackthedog Posted December 28, 2017 Share Posted December 28, 2017 1 hour ago, One and a half said: I bought an el cheapo license for Win2016, as it turns out I need not have bothered. Tried a Lenovo m93p very small form factor PC and that worked OK as far as drivers went. The music performance went downhill compared with the HP-Z800, leaving the rest of the chain intact. Stage height was down a little, but the micro details voice and instruments was nowhere near as fine and resolving, that veil was back, well a blanket of fog really. The sharp focus of minimal instruments and vocals were hazy and indistinct. [Autumn in New York, Hilary Gardner] Hilary's voice has inflections and quite a lovely character full of detail, when the playback system works properly, that is! Could a linear power supply change things, nah, faggetaboutit, had enough of pi$$ing in the wind. Wasted half the day and yesterday on a lost cause, but at least learned something quite valuable. The smaller the computer, the less noise? Fallacy. A server OS? Dream on. Pull files from a NAS to make an improvement? Fallacy. What does work though is a Xeon platform, ECC RAM, consumer OS and files on large HDD PCIe fast pipe. Just because the computer is smaller does not mean it will be less noisy. I mean, stick with what works for you, by all means, but we use those things at my office. I wouldn't consider them optimal for audio, by any means. Link to comment
One and a half Posted December 28, 2017 Share Posted December 28, 2017 21 minutes ago, zackthedog said: Just because the computer is smaller does not mean it will be less noisy. I mean, stick with what works for you, by all means, but we use those things at my office. I wouldn't consider them optimal for audio, by any means. All goes to show where the goal posts are, and they are a long way away... AS Profile Equipment List Say NO to MQA Link to comment
Summit Posted December 28, 2017 Share Posted December 28, 2017 3 hours ago, zackthedog said: Just because the computer is smaller does not mean it will be less noisy. I mean, stick with what works for you, by all means, but we use those things at my office. I wouldn't consider them optimal for audio, by any means. I agree, just because the computer is smaller does not mean it will be less noisy, many times it just mean it is made with more compromises. Components that are used in NUCs and laptops are often made of lower capability and quality, use more switching power internally to keep heat and power low, use more non discreet components, nasty M.2 SSDs, cheap cables and printed circuit boards. Link to comment
Popular Post PeterSt Posted December 28, 2017 Popular Post Share Posted December 28, 2017 On 25-12-2017 at 12:38 AM, sandyk said: Peter St. has also had a great deal to say about the SQ of different Windows Operating Systems. Yes, but where to begin ... OK, here perhaps : 14 hours ago, rando said: @PeterSt Would it be out of place to ask why you developed XXHighend around W10 instead of Server 2016 (or Server 2012)? XXHighEnd started out under XP. Of what I recall though, the very first official public version was under Vista and WASAPI (this was in 2007). Soon we had Windows 2008 Server which also was Vista. Later we had Windows 7 and 2008 R2 Server (which was W7). At this point I should tell you that any server version is essentially the same as its "client"/desktop counterpart. Server versions were and are equally supported. But mind the "supported", which means explicitly recognized - and optimized specifically. Next up was W8 and Server 2012. Regarding this Server version I must be more vague, as I was too long busy with optimizing for W8 itself, and when this finally was done (took me close to a year) there was W8.1. However, W8.1 sounded so poor right out of the box, that I skipped that all together. This is aso why I don't know - or heard much about W2012 R2. That too, is not supported (read : was not optimized) officially. And besides that, W10 was in sight. Server 2012 was just supported but at that time people were not interested in it, because W8 itself was too good (OK, after all the work I put into it). W10, a completely different beast, right out of the box showed much potential. Also it soon appeared that each new Build which came about, sounded totally different. And, because each day new builds emerged, I had to decide which one to support. This started with Build 10074 (this is still a most good example of how an OS can sound devastatingly different) which btw is still supported and also still runs, if you know how to (officially it is expired). The first official W10 for the public, Build 10240, was skipped because of poor sound in the base. A next more formal base point (build) was 10565. Although this was optimized by me, it never touched base really, as it was a more normalized version of 10074 only and let's say that it was not special enough. For 10565 the same counts as for 10074 : although expired it is still supported and still runs if you know how to. With W10 Build 10586 a new phenomenon was introduced : sub-build numbers. So from here on, any .0 version is the most native, in this case thus 10586.0. It does not contain bloat like driver special stuff and each time a new larger formal (ISO downloadable) version comes about, the .0 version must be caught and preserved. Of course the major problem is that your precious .0 version should not be updated (each day again) and a lot of work has gone into this, as officially updates can't be stopped. Anyway, 10586.0 was the first W10 version of which we all could say "ditch W8 NOW and keep 10074 if you like its character" (10074 is far from neutral). After 10586.0 only one "lean" OS was produced and this is 14393.0. But to be honest, those after that weren't tried because the perception of containing more bloatware only (but with a "game mode", theoretically good for sound, of which I saw no gamer being enthusiastic). Suddenly we have arrived at W2016 Server, because that is 14393.x. Small problem, where I normally got hold of the .0 versions and preserve them, for the Server version I didn't, and I can't provide them either. But anyway, about this latest Server version, look here if you want : 2.08d on WS2016 first impressions. In this example we can NOT say that W2016 Server is the same as 14393.0 because that Server version is 14393.693 (you can't see that in those postings). Only for W2016 14393.0 it will be the same as the desktop version. The server versions thus are the same, BUT come with different feature sets. In the thread I linked to you can see that the Group Policy Service actually is in issue, because for this Server version it can not be shut off. Solution : let it be. And now it theoretically sounds worse than the normal 14393.0 version. Outside of this difference, nothing is differently optimized for the desktop version vs the server version. There's just nothing to be found which can bring a difference and this has been so for each Server version. And I don't know whether it is in that thread or another recent one, but the optimization goes quite a bit beyond Fidelizer and AO together (if we are allowed to count services and processes and threads and such, it is easy to see for that reason alone). If you only look at this and see how we deal with OSes : then you can imagine how this is only a start of writing I could do forever. But I will spare you that. Each of these OSes can be booted in 4 modes and each of them sound totally different. Thus for example, W10 10074 sounds wildly different from anything else but its 4 modes also sound different from each other. Lastly for this little write-up, this is about Operating Systems and how each must be treated differently ("optimized") to bring forward its best potentials for sound. The optimization is done by XXHighEnd, but apart from 5 or 6 or so optimization parameters with some logic (like leave on LAN or kill it al together), this is passive stuff. Crucial, but passive (determined at "Boot into Minimized OS"). Within that though, we have the active XXHighEnd parameters, assumed XXHighEnd is also used for playback. So they too work with the Operating System but within the pre-optimization as per boot session. I am using it myself now for more than 10 years and I (or others) still find new / better settings regularly. And supposed I get some 16xxx.x W10 version going next month, then the whole feast starts all over again. One more thing about the "server" versions : XXHighEnd again assumed to be the playback software, notice that one of the key points of all of the OSes is that they are optimized to "core" versions, or IOW, no Windows desktop (GUI) or anything present when audio playback is going on under control of XXHighEnd. Also no XXHighEnd GUI (core does not allow any GUI). This, while in full control of the sound engine (which virtually runs as a service). Therefore the real answer to Rando's question is : it shouldn't be needed to use a Server version because after optimization they end up the same as the optimized desktop versions (but for W2016 a bit worse). Regards, Peter ElviaCaprice, bibo01 and Cornan 1 2 Lush^3-e Lush^2 Blaxius^2.5 Ethernet^3 HDMI^2 XLR^2 XXHighEnd (developer) Phasure NOS1 24/768 Async USB DAC (manufacturer) Phasure Mach III Audio PC with Linear PSU (manufacturer) Orelino & Orelo MKII Speakers (designer/supplier) Link to comment
PeterSt Posted December 28, 2017 Share Posted December 28, 2017 The OSes from another perspective, subjectively (but judged by 100s of people the very same) and relative to each other (which we can only know in retrospect) and dealt with by XXHighEnd : XP - The beginning of Computer Audio. Mostly not bit perfect and therefore psychologically "wrong". Vista - Great improvement and WASAPI debunked ASIO. From here on all plays bit perfect, if only WASAPI Exclusive Mode is used. W7 RTM - All the timings changed and months of work were necessary to make it sound right. Somewhere here we stepped away from WASAPI and started to use Kernel Streaming exclusively. WASAPI is not lean as it sits on top of KS. W7 SP1 - Timings changed again and for the worse. SP1 never made it for good sound - everybody could roll back to RTM by trickery means. W8 - Phasing problems for everyone. Here the ultimate optimization was necessary, far beyond W7. Nice thing is that W8 allows for much of it (W7 relatively "nothing"). Took a small year to get it right. After that, W7 RTM appears to show strange raw bass sound. Rough. Bassy but rough. The main problem with W8 is that it tends to play the music by robots. Foottapping ratings remain under par. Still better than W7 RTM. W10, 10074 - Very special sound. Most palpable. But not neutral at all. And very odd : today with the Lush USB cable, there is plainly no mid present. None. So with that USB cable, 10074 is rendered useless. W10, 10586.0 - The first OS since possibly Vista which sounds normal again. Neutral. When you're used to this, you can't use W8 any more, because now that is definitely robots playing all over. W10, 14393.0 - The first W10 OS which makes things special again. More color in the highs than 10586.0. From here on W8 is without any color. 14393.0 has the palpability of 10074 (which also was special) but without a sense of not being neutral. 14393.0 is the least digital sounding OS so far and also is open the most to external parameter settings (like buffer sizes in playback software). Lush^3-e Lush^2 Blaxius^2.5 Ethernet^3 HDMI^2 XLR^2 XXHighEnd (developer) Phasure NOS1 24/768 Async USB DAC (manufacturer) Phasure Mach III Audio PC with Linear PSU (manufacturer) Orelino & Orelo MKII Speakers (designer/supplier) Link to comment
PeterSt Posted December 28, 2017 Share Posted December 28, 2017 From again another angle and only mentioning it because I saw it passing by as a subject : Yes, the more powerful the PC, the better the sound will be. This has always been the general consensus, and in 100% of cases where people thought they'd be good with their laptop or other "mini" system, they had to admit they were no good at all, after finally implementing the hefty desktop. General consensus too is the more processor cores the better, and what's fairly standard by now is 20 core hyperthreaded Xeons. But mind you, without anything further in that cabinet, and preferably fully powered by a linear power supply. So no fans, no disks, no SSD, no USB connected stuff and also no SD. Nothing. Only LAN and the music stored somewhere there. And regarding NAS ideas : Might that be beneficial in the first place, then try to envision it is not about any peripheral which doesn't spread noise to your precious Audio PC; it is about the Audio PC being able to run lean. Run evenly (no spiking). Lush^3-e Lush^2 Blaxius^2.5 Ethernet^3 HDMI^2 XLR^2 XXHighEnd (developer) Phasure NOS1 24/768 Async USB DAC (manufacturer) Phasure Mach III Audio PC with Linear PSU (manufacturer) Orelino & Orelo MKII Speakers (designer/supplier) Link to comment
One and a half Posted December 28, 2017 Share Posted December 28, 2017 1 hour ago, Summit said: I agree, just because the computer is smaller does not mean it will be less noisy, many times it just mean it is made with more compromises. Components that are used in NUCs and laptops are often made of lower capability and quality, use more switching power internally to keep heat and power low, use more non discreet components, nasty M.2 SSDs, cheap cables and printed circuit boards. With the CAPS devices, they are small....? but under their single 12V rails, they are still a regular type computer. There are too many generalities and vague descriptions of how and what to select, then tame a standard mobo. HDD's can be supplied with a linear supply, that's not a problem, but the myriad of other SMPS on motherboards is crazee. No wonder the likes of Aurender, Lumin, Linn use their own boards to reduce the noise emissions, fine. But. No regular player like Audirvana, Jriver, even Clementine and iTunes can run on the stripped down boards. That only leaves MPD software or others like it, and they just 'suck'. It takes a lot of effort to develop software, especially with a large database of differing requirements for user searches and wants like presentation of classical data compared with pop, the columns not right position, sheesh. So for now, my perspective small computers, like the m93p, NUC, Elite are verboten, done with them, desktop workstations, with plenty of air inside and another box like it to house a power supply next door. Perhaps one day a streamer will come along a be a good match for a quality DAC, it will be a while. AS Profile Equipment List Say NO to MQA Link to comment
PeterSt Posted December 28, 2017 Share Posted December 28, 2017 On 24-12-2017 at 11:04 PM, ALRAINBOW said: I have read so much on what sounds good and now after this conclusion I don't know how anyone can post win 10 is good . Hi Al, After better reading your original post, I only now see what it is all about. Should be your question above, right ? OK. I am not sure whether I answered the question indirectly with my previous posts, but the answer in direct fashion should be : because all is so stripped down that it comes down to a server version. And now both server and normal W10 should sound the same or very similar. However : Do not underestimate those .0 versions I mentioned. But maybe you did take that into account already ? Peter Lush^3-e Lush^2 Blaxius^2.5 Ethernet^3 HDMI^2 XLR^2 XXHighEnd (developer) Phasure NOS1 24/768 Async USB DAC (manufacturer) Phasure Mach III Audio PC with Linear PSU (manufacturer) Orelino & Orelo MKII Speakers (designer/supplier) Link to comment
Lebouwsky Posted December 28, 2017 Share Posted December 28, 2017 1 hour ago, PeterSt said: Hi Al, After better reading your original post, I only now see what it is all about. Should be your question above, right ? OK. I am not sure whether I answered the question indirectly with my previous posts, but the answer in direct fashion should be : because all is so stripped down that it comes down to a server version. And now both server and normal W10 should sound the same or very similar. However : Do not underestimate those .0 versions I mentioned. But maybe you did take that into account already ? Peter How is the OS stripped down, is it something you provide as a service? Link to comment
ALRAINBOW Posted December 28, 2017 Author Share Posted December 28, 2017 I river 20.132 is the last j river that works with AO period. J river newer ones work fine on won server 2016. Hq player works fine as well also works on any windows and AO combo. For me win 10 is the least sounding good of the Windows but I get why most love it as it’s gui is most normal. But win 2016 is very much like win 10. Or win 8. But allows for AO to do more including tidal. If I were to advise someone on server for music it would be software wise as follows win SER 2016 AO 2.20 beta 5 roon hq player fid pro as an add on a 200 watt hd plex LPS hd plex 400 dc to atx internal psu board no Audio card use 3.0 usb on back one ssd for os two 1 TB ssd for music I7 6600K cpu fan or fanless but if fan and this is fine use a cheap 12 was wort for the fans both cpu and case and don’t use fans with led lights. Main board any really I like MSI and Asus or gig byte 4 gig of ram. You don’t want more as this makes things worse read AO Manuel well ask questions about bios settings this really matters. Turn off all cache and page files for All drives. Enjoy the great digital Link to comment
PeterSt Posted December 28, 2017 Share Posted December 28, 2017 1 hour ago, Lebouwsky said: How is the OS stripped down, is it something you provide as a service? This is part of XXHighEnd (not the Demo version). It is downloadable software. It lets you boot into the stripped down OS. Or if you refer to those pre-installed OSes (I showed the boot menu of them) - this is available on HDD/SSD. Btw, maybe I should be sorry for posting in this thread. By now I don't understand the questions alrainbow purportedly has/had. Good that I actually responded to SandyK and Rando so it doesn't feel too much as a waste of time. Lebouwsky 1 Lush^3-e Lush^2 Blaxius^2.5 Ethernet^3 HDMI^2 XLR^2 XXHighEnd (developer) Phasure NOS1 24/768 Async USB DAC (manufacturer) Phasure Mach III Audio PC with Linear PSU (manufacturer) Orelino & Orelo MKII Speakers (designer/supplier) Link to comment
ALRAINBOW Posted December 28, 2017 Author Share Posted December 28, 2017 12 minutes ago, PeterSt said: This is part of XXHighEnd (not the Demo version). It is downloadable software. It lets you boot into the stripped down OS. Or if you refer to those pre-installed OSes (I showed the boot menu of them) - this is available on HDD/SSD. Btw, maybe I should be sorry for posting in this thread. By now I don't understand the questions alrainbow purportedly has/had. Good that I actually responded to SandyK and Rando so it doesn't feel too much as a waste of time. Sorry if I confused your thoughts not my intention. But the stuff that gets posted that is contridicting is. I make no claim as a high tech person but do know good sound Link to comment
ElviaCaprice Posted December 28, 2017 Share Posted December 28, 2017 Thanks, PeterSt, for your breakdown on the Windows OS's, very informative. I was going to mess with Server 16, just for fun, but after your post and my own optimization of Windows 10 Pro, I am going to bag the idea. Don't see the point, like you say, once you have reached a non GUI mode with either of these OS's, basically you have similar results. Also, my own experience with the modified mobo using the sCLK-EX have changed the game and any further attempts at change or optimization of OS seem to be for naught. As far as choice of mobo, I also think the sCLK-EX is a game changer and choice is not nearly as important, thus smaller with clean power, less foot print is more desirable in my system synergy. Would be interesting to hear from someone using a more powerful ATX mobo and sCLK-EX. I think the results would be the same. If your system synergy requires upsampling with HQP, then the sCLK-EX mod would also benefit you greatly, maybe more so. But not necessarily better than a low power system. (JRiver) Jetway barebones NUC (mod 3 sCLK-EX, Cybershaft OP 14) (PH SR7) => mini pcie adapter to PCIe 1X => tXUSBexp PCIe card (mod sCLK-EX) (PH SR7) => (USPCB) Chord DAVE => Omega Super 8XRS/REL t5i (All powered thru Topaz Isolation Transformer) Link to comment
PeterSt Posted December 28, 2017 Share Posted December 28, 2017 Just now, ALRAINBOW said: But the stuff that gets posted that is contridicting is. OK Al, thank you. But what is contradicting then ? The only contradictions I see is in your lists(S) of your own observations. At first it looked like questions to me (or asking for a second opinion). But it merely looks like you know all better than any of us. Btw, you don't need to be a high tech person as ears could be enough (no disagreement there). Hey, I count 21 topics in your last list. Of those, there are 13 that I category disagree with. That is quite a lot. So there's some contradiction indeed. Anyway, I thought to contribute a little. Now it looks like my opinion against yours or something. That wasn't my intention. OK. All cleared up now. Everybody can have his opinion. Let's continue ... Summit 1 Lush^3-e Lush^2 Blaxius^2.5 Ethernet^3 HDMI^2 XLR^2 XXHighEnd (developer) Phasure NOS1 24/768 Async USB DAC (manufacturer) Phasure Mach III Audio PC with Linear PSU (manufacturer) Orelino & Orelo MKII Speakers (designer/supplier) Link to comment
rando Posted December 28, 2017 Share Posted December 28, 2017 Appreciate you taking the time to type that PeterSt. You are better positioned to comment on server implementation than most. As noted, a constant state of flux has been more than enough to keep you busy. Always interesting to see the sights along your path. PeterSt 1 Link to comment
ALRAINBOW Posted December 28, 2017 Author Share Posted December 28, 2017 Not going to byte on your reply so picking on my grammar while it seems grade school is not going to stop me how about you post a question or one of my confusing thoughts and let’s reply to it meaning ful just one thought at a time. Maybe we both can learn from the esxpereince what I have posted is done by me in trials not read from others. I really do mean no harm or foul play please let’s do this. Thanks in advance Link to comment
PeterSt Posted December 28, 2017 Share Posted December 28, 2017 10 minutes ago, ALRAINBOW said: Not going to byte on your reply Al, was that addressed to me ? 11 minutes ago, ALRAINBOW said: so picking on my grammar I sure did not do that anywhere. 11 minutes ago, ALRAINBOW said: how about you post a question or one of my confusing thoughts and let’s reply to it meaning ful just one thought at a time. That must be addressed to me. But I really don't know what you want now. I don't have a question and don't question anything either ! I only disagree with many things of your list. I myself don't care about it. We all have different opinions and experiences, right ? But if you like, one example which should be easy to discern (and one of the 13 I disagree with) : Quote one ssd for os a. SSDs are worse than spinning disks for SQ (my subjective opinion); b. As I implied, I use nothing in the PC. No, I said that explicitly but maybe it was not clear. I hope we can agree over "nothing is better". And I use nothing (all Operating Systems run purely from RAM). The thing for you to consider is to what degree this small change alone would do to the audibility of the OS itself. An other thing to consider would be : the more sources of "noise" you eliminate, the more others become profound and the harder it gets to *not* make it worse. Here is one which should be explicitly NOT clear : 1 hour ago, ALRAINBOW said: But allows for AO to do more including tidal. So you stream from Tidal; Did it ever slip your mind that if you from one side do all your stinking best to eliminate OS processes but from the other side bring in a multifold of misery by means of streaming, that you put the horse behind the wagon ? So you see, this is an example of you yourself being contradictionary to yourself. I now realize this was 2 steps in one post, so I will stop for now. No picking on grammar anywhere. You nay not notice readily, but my own English is worse. So I wouldn't dare to ever blame someone else for his/her language. Never. OK, Belgians. Haha. ElviaCaprice 1 Lush^3-e Lush^2 Blaxius^2.5 Ethernet^3 HDMI^2 XLR^2 XXHighEnd (developer) Phasure NOS1 24/768 Async USB DAC (manufacturer) Phasure Mach III Audio PC with Linear PSU (manufacturer) Orelino & Orelo MKII Speakers (designer/supplier) Link to comment
semente Posted December 28, 2017 Share Posted December 28, 2017 6 hours ago, PeterSt said: From again another angle and only mentioning it because I saw it passing by as a subject : Yes, the more powerful the PC, the better the sound will be. This has always been the general consensus, and in 100% of cases where people thought they'd be good with their laptop or other "mini" system, they had to admit they were no good at all, after finally implementing the hefty desktop. General consensus too is the more processor cores the better, and what's fairly standard by now is 20 core hyperthreaded Xeons. But mind you, without anything further in that cabinet, and preferably fully powered by a linear power supply. So no fans, no disks, no SSD, no USB connected stuff and also no SD. Nothing. Only LAN and the music stored somewhere there. And regarding NAS ideas : Might that be beneficial in the first place, then try to envision it is not about any peripheral which doesn't spread noise to your precious Audio PC; it is about the Audio PC being able to run lean. Run evenly (no spiking). Have you ever tried your software with a low-power renderer/buffer akin to HQPlayer's NAA? "Science draws the wave, poetry fills it with water" Teixeira de Pascoaes HQPlayer Desktop / Mac mini → Intona 7054 → RME ADI-2 DAC FS (DSD256) Link to comment
PeterSt Posted December 28, 2017 Share Posted December 28, 2017 1 minute ago, semente said: Have you ever tried your software with a low-power renderer/buffer akin to HQPlayer's NAA? This question is quite similar to the question whether the Phasure DAC can be provided with I2S input to improve on the USB interface. Low-power is unrelated, unless low-power can be seen as bad in itself (and I am of that stance). Try to catch the CPU cycles XXHighEnd uses while playing 32/768. You won't. Not even with the processor running at 500MHz (like I use it myself). The "Audio PC" as Phasure proposes it these days (since 4 years or so) is running nothing but a "sample renderer", all the other work (think FLAC decoding, MQA decoding, uhm ... streaming ) already done ahead of it. Of course you can think that pumping those samples over Ethernet is better for sound than "pumping nothing", but then maybe it is time to reconsider. It is a bit old-ish by now, but XXHighEnd ever back started out as a (first) memory player. It still is that for a full 100%. The fun (for me) with it, is that as a user you don't even notice anything of this. And may it help (to set your mind), Audirvana+ is nothing like this. It looks to be like this, but it is not at all (it is always preparing tracks during playback - in XXHighEnd this is all done ahead of playback (like 2-4 seconds for a complete album)). Btw, others for sure tried it. Lush^3-e Lush^2 Blaxius^2.5 Ethernet^3 HDMI^2 XLR^2 XXHighEnd (developer) Phasure NOS1 24/768 Async USB DAC (manufacturer) Phasure Mach III Audio PC with Linear PSU (manufacturer) Orelino & Orelo MKII Speakers (designer/supplier) Link to comment
zackthedog Posted December 28, 2017 Share Posted December 28, 2017 1 hour ago, PeterSt said: This is part of XXHighEnd (not the Demo version). It is downloadable software. It lets you boot into the stripped down OS. Or if you refer to those pre-installed OSes (I showed the boot menu of them) - this is available on HDD/SSD. Btw, maybe I should be sorry for posting in this thread. By now I don't understand the questions alrainbow purportedly has/had. Good that I actually responded to SandyK and Rando so it doesn't feel too much as a waste of time. Your post was very interesting, thank you. Link to comment
Miska Posted December 28, 2017 Share Posted December 28, 2017 My take is that Linux is the best operating system for audio playback. Not because of sonic signature, but because I have complete freedom to modify it in any ways I see fit. For example compressed size of my latest NAA image for x64 (PC/Mac) hardware is 86 megabytes, with the OS and everything, even bunch of rarely needed extra utilities. With some extra squeezing effort, it could be made much smaller. BeagleBone Black image is 67 megabytes and RaspberryPi3 image is 77 megabytes, smaller because ARM code is smaller and there are less drivers needed because the full hardware configuration is known upfront. Equivalent image of HQPlayer Embedded is 157 megabytes, also with the OS and everything else needed. No graphical environments or similar included at all, since those are not needed. Just plain text console. Signalyst - Developer of HQPlayer Pulse & Fidelity - Software Defined Amplifiers Link to comment
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