Pink Faun 2.16

[lpost]

@flkin

 

I've spent a bit of time reading about Euphony Stylus.  I'm curious how you're running it, native or with Roon as front-end and/or Stylus EP or HQPe as player?

 

As the trial only installs to USB, I don't think Roon would work (to trial) in combination.  I'll give it try this weekend.

[flkin]

You’ll need to burn the download to a usb dongle. I use a free download Etcher for this. The usb has a setting to move the OS into RAM and usb removed. Try this. 
 

I’m going to return to the last update of the Pink Faun Audiolinux to see how that sounds in comparison. Jord suggests it’s quite an improvement. 

[lpost]

I've done that and booted without issue.  I've done the same with AL 3.1 and it works fine, too early to say regarding SQ.  Not much has really changed (that I can tell) but the kernel and the menus have been updated some.  There could be a bunch of changes under the 'hood'...

 

Piero told me about a problem he found in the local disk mount script that will be fixed shortly.  

 

If you want to fix it now you can change manually the line in /opt/scripts/local_mount.sh (as root) from
UUID="$(lsblk -f | grep "$drive" | awk '{ print $4 }')"
to
UUID="$(lsblk -f | grep "$drive" | awk '{ print $5 }')"

 

[lpost]

AL 3.1 sounds pretty darn good.  Here's what I'm running, will switch to ramroot after a couple more days of finalizing tweaks.  I2S and Eth are priority IRQ, and RAATServer only priority app.

 

[lpost]

@flkin

 

I spent some time with Euphony and it's various modes.  Roon straight and Roon+Squeezlie both from StylusEP and Squeezlite.  I was't able to get any output from StylusEP setup in Roon as HQPlayer.  Music would play but no sound would output.

 

Anyway, I must say I don't hear any significant different between either mode in Euphony vs. AL 3.1.  I need to experiment with Squeezelite in AL/Roon.

 

All 3 sound really fantastic.  I've yet to enable the trial with Euphony but it played for at least 10 mins without issue and allowed me to configure Roon and flip between zones (mostly) without issue.  ALSA didn't always give up control but that's not Euphony fault.

 

What are the limitations of Euphony before licensing?  Does the music stop after 30 mins or longer?

[flkin]

I believe the limitation of the demo Euphony is a 30 day trial and that it can’t be installed into a drive. 
 

Its intriguing that you find Euphony the same as the latest version of Audio Linux. At the time that I switched to Euphony half a year ago I found it quite a step up from AL, especially using the Stylus player. But I really miss the Roon interface. 

 

I’ve just install the version 3.1 Pink Faun, and I will have a chance to try it out this weekend. If it plays as good as stylus in my system, I’ll switch back in a heartbeat to use the Roon interface. 

[lpost]

Be sure to try both the standard RT kernel and BFQ.  Only the BFQ has additional NUMA disabled.  Both sound are very good, far better than 4.19 BFQ, in my system.  

 

I'm undecided between the two 5.x kernels but BFQ is getting more play time the last couple of days...one is more precise and the other more 'musical'.

 

I've found that using cpupower still doesn't work well for setting the CPU speed to a fixed value.  BIOS works fine though.  Best to disable cpupower by issuing, either sudo or as root, systemctl disable cpupower and systemctl stop cpupower and no longer use the CPU frequency menu otherwise it will cause cpupower to be reloaded.  Piero as usual has been most helpful.  Our AMD proc are still not all that well supported by the Linux kernel or don't accommodate the differences from Intel well.

 

Know there is a bug with Roon and the 5.x kernel.  Roon may continue to 'find' new tracks at each scan.  It's a known issue and I've done my best to get the to pay it more attention as all distros will be on 5.x sooner rather than later.  

 

Let me know your thoughts re: SQ

 

Oh and Spotify works pretty well too, requires Premium but it's nice to be able to use through 2.16.

[flkin]

Has anyone been about to get squeezelite in AL3.1 to work? Doesn’t seem to in my PF. 

[lpost]

I have but only with default memory values which to me don't sound any different than Roon alone.  Increasing buffers sounds a bit better but SL becomes unstable within a few tracks and frankly isn't worth messing with.  

 

Try these values if you want to hear what is possible (but not practical)

 

-b 2097152:2097152 -a 52428800:4::

[lpost]

I should have said, only the defaults buffer values in SL were stable.

[flkin]

In the menu there is:

9. Squeezelite select DAC

10. Squeezelite start and enable 

After install the squeezelite, 

Selected 9 and it asks for a DAC configuration. Selected it. 
Selected 10 and nothing much happens. Roon cannot find my DAC under squeeze box. 

 

Is there an obvious step I’ve missed?

[Pink Faun]

On 2/12/2020 at 6:32 AM, flkin said:

Has anyone been about to get squeezelite in AL3.1 to work? Doesn’t seem to in my PF. 

If your device was associated with a previous Roon Core (this can be the cse after updating ROON or the kernel) you may need to go to My Music -> Switch Library on the Squeezebox device itself to associate it with a new Core.

[lpost]

4 hours ago, flkin said:

In the menu there is:

9. Squeezelite select DAC

10. Squeezelite start and enable 

After install the squeezelite, 

Selected 9 and it asks for a DAC configuration. Selected it. 
Selected 10 and nothing much happens. Roon cannot find my DAC under squeeze box. 

 

Is there an obvious step I’ve missed?

I edited /etc/squeezelite.conf directly.  Using the menu will overwrite this file wiping out any buffer settings.  Frankly, it's not really worth messing with as it's unstable.  Tracks will skip, not play, etc.

 

I don't have a Squeezebox and have no experience with them.  I've only used SL in conjunction with Roon.  Did you enable SL in Roon?  I believe it's on the Setup tab, just a toggle.

[ASRMichael]

Hi

 Has anyone here upgraded their MB clocks with Pink Faun OXCO? Really interested in the difference between before & after the upgrade?
 

 

[flkin]

Yes I have, sometime back.
 

 

Have a look at my notes on that. 

[ASRMichael]

8 hours ago, flkin said:

Yes I have, sometime back.
 

 

Have a look at my notes on that. 

Thanks, I’ve had a look, it seems you are upgrading from standard OXCO clocks. I’m interested in anyone who has upgraded from standard mobo clocks to Pink Faun Ultra clock. Thanks anyway. 

[flkin]

The pictures you show above are not the ultra PF clocks but the standard OCXO clocks PF also uses made by Connor Winfield. FYI

[ASRMichael]

There just example pictures PF sent me to show it the mods would be done. 

[auricgoldfinger]

DELETED

[Pink Faun]

Here're a couple of good pictures of a motherboard clock modification. The motherboard is a Gigabyte Aorus Master with an Intel i7. As you can see two clocks are replaced (Chipset and BCK). On this board we have to use a 24MHz clock and a 25MHz clock. This is different to most AMD based motherboards (AMD is commonly 25MHz and 25MHz).

Both clocks are mounted on a board with linear regulation and HF pi-filtering. Both clockboards are mounted again on a PCIe dummy card. The PCIe card is used to place the clocks close to the motherboard. The PCIe has no other function. As you can see the PCIe card has a 2.5mm barrel (center positive) to power the clocks, also here is added extra HF pi-filtering. The required voltage is 5v max 2A. 

 

The OCXO clocks used in the pictures are Connor Winfield OCXO, the same modification can also be done with our own Pink Faun ULTRA OCXO clocks.

 

These pictures give an idea of how we can modify motherboards used for DIY. Not every motherboard has the same clock(s) or has the clocks at the same position. For more details or options of your own motherboard please contact me directly. 

 

[nbpf]

Is there a chance Pink Faun will come out with a modular board like for example the Allo USBridge Signature but with  OCXO clocks? It would be nice to have a high-quality, low-power board which can be extended with state-of-the-art SPDIF and USB outputs according to needs. The 2.16 is great but it is far too big and too heavy for running very thin applications like mpd, upmpdcli or a Roon endpoint.  

[flkin]

A lot of the space inside the 2.16 is used for the many isolated power supply systems which is still necessary even for thin applications. 

[nbpf]

1 hour ago, flkin said:

A lot of the space inside the 2.16 is used for the many isolated power supply systems which is still necessary even for thin applications. 

Exactly! A small, low-power box could rely on an external PSU and still use very high quality regulators and clocks internally. My RPi 3B+ running MPD and upmpdcli under GenToo Player requires max. 0.25A under load. All unused components are switched off: the USB bus (and thus also the Ethernet interface), the HDMI output, the internal sound card, bluetooth, etc. The DigiOne Signature attached to the RPi 3B+ requires additionally 0.1A. The whole system draws about 0.35A from the two 5V power supplies. One doesn't need much more for an endpoint, it would be nice to have such a system with very low noise PF clocks and components!   

[ASRMichael]

6 hours ago, nbpf said:

Is there a chance Pink Faun will come out with a modular board like for example the Allo USBridge Signature but with  OCXO clocks? It would be nice to have a high-quality, low-power board which can be extended with state-of-the-art SPDIF and USB outputs according to needs. The 2.16 is great but it is far too big and too heavy for running very thin applications like mpd, upmpdcli or a Roon endpoint.  

Choice s board and ask Pink faun to install the clocks for you?

[wittao]

What is the difference between this solution?

 

https://www.coreaudio.eu/en1/products/coreaudio-products/daido-music-server/daido-reference/

 

(in Warsaw 2019 debuted the new Core Audio masterclock with 24 and 25 MHz biclock solution too)