SGC - sonicTransporter Series and Signalyst HQPlayer 4 Embedded

[asdf1000]

7 hours ago, agillis said:

 

4.3.1 is released for the sonicTransporter. That is the latest version.

 

Hi Andrew

 

Is sonicOrbiter running the latest kernel? 

 

I’ve been having issues with the new iFi Pro iDSD DAC.

 

It seems to work with HQP Embedded. I noticed Jussi uses Altset = 3 for the new Pro iDSD with HQPe.

 

I get atatic with the Rendu and sonicTransporter on native DSD. I had no previous issues with micro iDSD and iDAC2 playing natice DSD.

 

It probably just needs the latest kernel update?.

 

See his comment here:

 

[vortecjr]

Not Andrew, but we are aware of Jussi changes to the Linux Kernel and they indeed very interesting. We are looking into it, but understand that this kind of update would affect every unit in the field so we have to proceed with caution. 

[asdf1000]

15 minutes ago, vortecjr said:

Not Andrew, but we are aware of Jussi changes to the Linux Kernel and they indeed very interesting. We are looking into it, but understand that this kind of update would affect every unit in the field so we have to proceed with caution. 

 

All goodl, no worries at all.

 

If you don’t want to implement his kernel changes, please consider using altset = 3 for iFi Pro iDSD DAC.

 

In addition to having a microRendu and ultraRendu, I have an Allo USBridge in another system and Allo Support were able to implement a patch manually for me a few days ago. They said the way they did it, it won’t affect other iFi DACs.

 

Just something for you and Andrew to consider, for current/future Pro iDSD users wanting to use native DSD.. 

 

Cheers

[Miska]

20 hours ago, Em2016 said:

If you don’t want to implement his kernel changes, please consider using altset = 3 for iFi Pro iDSD DAC.

 

In addition to having a microRendu and ultraRendu, I have an Allo USBridge in another system and Allo Support were able to implement a patch manually for me a few days ago. They said the way they did it, it won’t affect other iFi DACs.

 

Problem with the old approach are devices that share same VID:PID while having different altset for different devices/firmware versions. With my changes, this is not a problem and works because the correct altset is determined at runtime instead of relying on hardcoded one.

 

In the code there's nothing specific to iFi Pro iDSD, it just works automagically as it is supposed to.

 

I believe for example Oppo changed their USB firmware in recent firmware update and the altset number changed while retaining same old VID:PID, essentially breaking the old existing Linux support. Unfortunately I don't have Oppo BD player, so I cannot test. And that particular problem will go away in a different way because Oppo has stopped production of BD players and DACs.

 

[Miska]

20 hours ago, vortecjr said:

Not Andrew, but we are aware of Jussi changes to the Linux Kernel and they indeed very interesting. We are looking into it, but understand that this kind of update would affect every unit in the field so we have to proceed with caution. 

 

Note that the code is done in such way that the old hardcoded tables take precedence over the new code. I removed the hardcoded parts only for devices I could test and I know are compatible with this. iFi being among those. Since multiple iFi products share same USB VID:PID the new approach is more robust regarding possible firmware differences for altsettings.

 

So I took a cautious approach on the implementation. If someone wants to try, my latest bootable NAA and HQPE images have this stuff already.

 

[Miska]

On 8/30/2018 at 8:21 AM, R1200CL said:

 

Yes. And it’s hard to find ?

 

Actually the only way I know about is to install the windows version in order to get it. 

 

 

 

hqplayer-manual-3-20.pdf

 

Yeah, HQPlayer Desktop manual contains descriptions. Manual PDF is included in all three installation packages (Linux, Mac, Windows). For Mac users, the Mac version is easiest because it doesn't even require installing HQPlayer Desktop because the manual PDF sits side by side with the application in the DMG file, so it can be just copied out from there.

 

I'm working on adding same things to "online" help/manual that will be accessible from the web interface, from corresponding pages. I hope to get that included in near future.

 

[alcarp]

Ive just tried to install HQe on my ST. It says installation complete and it appears on my list of installed apps as version 4.3.1.

However, it does not appear on my apps page.

 

I went to the Settings>Hqe page and it takes me to a HQe Config page which takes me to a sign in screen: http://192.168.20.24:8088 which requires a user name and password.

 

I'm unsure on how to proceed.

[asdf1000]

16 minutes ago, alcarp said:

Ive just tried to install HQe on my ST. It says installation complete and it appears on my list of installed apps as version 4.3.1.

However, it does not appear on my apps page.

 

I went to the Settings>Hqe page and it takes me to a HQe Config page which takes me to a sign in screen: http://192.168.20.24:8088 which requires a user name and password.

 

I'm unsure on how to proceed.

 

That's all good. use admin and admin to go to the next step (HQPe config).

 

[alcarp]

Thank you. That got me to the config page and I set things to what Jesus posted in option 1 on the first page of this thread.

 

What do I do next?

[asdf1000]

Hi @Miska, I updated to version 4.3.1 but now can't change from startup volume to fixed volume, even with ticking the new little 'enabled' box.

 

Hi @agillis, v4.0.6 is still showing in available apps (even though its 4.3.1 that downloads anyway).

 

[alcarp]

1 hour ago, alcarp said:

Thank you. That got me to the config page and I set things to what Jesus posted in option 1 on the first page of this thread.

 

What do I do next?

When I try to play through the uRendu which has been set to NAA I get the message:

"Transport:Couldn't connect to HQPlayer"

[alcarp]

1 hour ago, alcarp said:

When I try to play through the uRendu which has been set to NAA I get the message:

"Transport:Couldn't connect to HQPlayer"

I solved this. I had to choose the Network Audio Backend Device to the particular device that was connected to the USB port of the uRendu in HQPlayer Settings.

[alcarp]

HQPlayer stopped playing after 30 mins of the Trial version, I think. How do I restart? Do I have to reboot the ST or the uRendu?

[asdf1000]

4 minutes ago, alcarp said:

HQPlayer stopped playing after 30 mins of the Trial version, I think. How do I restart? Do I have to reboot the ST or the uRendu?

 

If you hit the play button again, what happens?

 

[Miska]

9 hours ago, Em2016 said:

Hi @Miska, I updated to version 4.3.1 but now can't change from startup volume to fixed volume, even with ticking the new little 'enabled' box.

 

Uhh oh, I thought I had it thoroughly tested, I'll check it once again...

 

8 hours ago, alcarp said:

HQPlayer stopped playing after 30 mins of the Trial version, I think. How do I restart? Do I have to reboot the ST or the uRendu?

 

If the web management interface of ST doesn't have option to stop/start HQPlayer, you can just reboot ST. No need to touch microRendu.

[asdf1000]

1 hour ago, Miska said:

Uhh oh, I thought I had it thoroughly tested, I'll check it once again...

 

No worries at all Jussi.

 

@vortecjr can I make a friendly request for UPnP renederer mode to be supported.

 

The price HQP Embedded is supposed to include UPnP renderer mode.

 

Without it, it’s not really the full version of HQPe..

 

Unless it’s coming in an update?

 

 

[Mikem1]

On 8/30/2018 at 6:06 PM, Em2016 said:

 

... 

I’ve been having issues with the new iFi Pro iDSD DAC.

...

 

I get atatic with the Rendu and sonicTransporter on native DSD. I had no previous issues with micro iDSD and iDAC2 playing natice DSD.

 

 

I can confirm I get the exact same behavior when I try any native DSD through UltraRendu to Pro iDSD. Dop256 works fine.

[alcarp]

13 hours ago, Miska said:

 

Uhh oh, I thought I had it thoroughly tested, I'll check it once again...

 

 

If the web management interface of ST doesn't have option to stop/start HQPlayer, you can just reboot ST. No need to touch microRendu.

Thanks @Miska. I have found that going to the config page of HQe on the ST and pressing Apply again also gives me another 30 minutes.

 

I have tried HQe on both my main system (UltraRendu > PS Audio Directstream DAC) and my secondary system (MicroRendu > NAD M51 DAC) both with the default settings in HQe. 

 

The improvement is very noticeable in my secondary system with new life breathed into the vocals and improvements in SQ right across the frequency range.

 

The improvement is subtle on my main system. The PS Audio DSD upsamples everything to DSD. Perhaps I need different settings in HQe but I don't have the knowledge to determine what settings I need to change. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

[soares]

Where to start? I am so tired... For the last perhaps 2 months I've been using my STi5 + uR feeding my Qutest with HQPe. As some of you might have read in these thread or others I used to have a white noise coming randomly from just one channel when upsampling to DSD 256 and PCM768. Recently I discovered how to get rid of it just by checking the auto rate family box. And as it was suggest by me and others it was not related to the FMCs I use

... Today and because I have decided to send my OPPO 205 to Korea for an hardware upgrade I did the USB Dac upgrade to the last version (0118) in order to benefit from the full decoding and rendering MQA. How I was happy. After listening for the first time to some very good MQA files, I decided to revert to Roon upsampling DSD. White noise from the 2 channels. What??? Yes it was true. After a couple of experiences I discovered that only DSD DoP was now accepted. Before, DSD native was running ok even if it was not feasable at 512 with my ST5. I tried 64, 128 and 256. No luck, white noise always without checking DoP. I turned to HQPe. Imediately the white noise started. So I checked the DoP. And I tried a couple of more tracks. Some were working others not. It turned out that every MQA track when upsampling to DSD was not working at all. No sound at all. What was really strange is that I could see that in Roon was showing  DSD output but in my TV was just showing LPCM 768. Every non-MQA track was working fine if DoP was checked. Turning again to Roon DSP and upsampling. When playing MQA tracks with DSD256 enabled and DoP I just had the normal MQA rendering and decoding without any upsampling to DSD... On the contrary, the non-MQA files were upsampled to DSD256. I am posting here because over the last 2 months there was also a couple of upgrades not just the one from HQPe from last week but also some related to the OS from STi5 and uR if I am not mistaken. So because I just switch on today my Oppo 205 for the USB Dac firmware upgrade I can't know for sure if it is related to this upgrade or the STi5 or uR upgrades. Any help would be much appreciated. I am going to post my comments on other related fora. Thank you.

[alcarp]

I'm having a really frustrating experience evaluating HQe with the trial version stopping after 30 minutes and then not being able to play again no matter what I do - Roon comes up with the dreaded message: Transport: Couldn't connect to HqPlayer.

 

I've tried rebooting the ST as suggested by @Miska, rebooting the Rendu but nothing seems to work. Sometimes, pressing the play button in Roon plays for a few more minutes - then the cursor in the progress bar at the bottom of the screen goes crazy and the music stops. I'm stuck and can't proceed any further.

 

 

[Miska]

1 hour ago, alcarp said:

I've tried rebooting the ST as suggested by @Miska, rebooting the Rendu but nothing seems to work. Sometimes, pressing the play button in Roon plays for a few more minutes - then the cursor in the progress bar at the bottom of the screen goes crazy and the music stops. I'm stuck and can't proceed any further.

 

Any errors in the log? Please remember that Rendu needs to be up before ST is booted up. Otherwise ST will fail to connect to the Rendu and go to unconfigured state refusing any controls from Roon until some functioning audio device has been configured again.

 

Generally you can keep Rendu up and running at all times, no need to shut it down ever.

[Miska]

4 hours ago, soares said:

I am posting here because over the last 2 months there was also a couple of upgrades not just the one from HQPe from last week but also some related to the OS from STi5 and uR if I am not mistaken. So because I just switch on today my Oppo 205 for the USB Dac firmware upgrade I can't know for sure if it is related to this upgrade or the STi5 or uR upgrades. Any help would be much appreciated. I am going to post my comments on other related fora. Thank you.

 

As I wrote on the SGC ST thread, I believe Oppo changed the native DSD support stuff on their firmware update to BD players (205, etc) and that caused the driver to break. I believe I know how to fix it, but I don't have a suitable Oppo device to test it.

 

If it is possible to get a test update for your µR, I can tell @agillis what to change in the driver. @vortecjr

[Miska]

On 9/1/2018 at 2:14 PM, Miska said:

On 9/1/2018 at 4:16 AM, Em2016 said:

Hi @Miska, I updated to version 4.3.1 but now can't change from startup volume to fixed volume, even with ticking the new little 'enabled' box.

 

Uhh oh, I thought I had it thoroughly tested, I'll check it once again...

 

I tested the fixed volume enable/disable and for me, it works with all the browsers I tried. So I'm not sure what is going wrong for you. Which browser are you using?

 

[asdf1000]

9 minutes ago, Miska said:

 

I tested the fixed volume enable/disable and for me, it works with all the browsers I tried. So I'm not sure what is going wrong for you. Which browser are you using?

 

 

Google Chrome (latest version). I'll try again in Firefox.

 

[asdf1000]

23 minutes ago, Miska said:

 

I tested the fixed volume enable/disable and for me, it works with all the browsers I tried. So I'm not sure what is going wrong for you. Which browser are you using?

 

 

Tried with Firefox and have the same problem - when I enter the fixed value, I can't select the NAA. On a startup value allows me to select a network backend device.

 

Can anyone else here reproduce this on the sonicTransporter?