Audiolinux Server configurations, Software, Hardware, and Listening Impressions

[rickca]

1 hour ago, lmitche said:

First off, my music is stored on a 3.5 inch hard disk enclosure containing a 4tb WD hard disk. I have powered it with a Sigma LPS and 3 amp MPaudio lt3045 dc to dc regulator set to 12volts.  Today I pulled the Sigma 11 and replaced it with one of the Hdplex LT3045 rails. So now with dual regulation a new level of SQ was achieved with yet another increase in dynamics and realism.

I'd like to understand this dual regulation.  You are using an adjustable HDPLEX LT3045 rail followed by the 12V MPAudio MS-HPULN, is that correct?  At what voltage do you have the HDPLEX rail set?  I'm not sure I get how this dual regulation works.

 

Good idea to use the other HDPLEX LT3045 rail for networking gear.  How were you powering your wireless extender before?

[rickca]

1 minute ago, lmitche said:

In this case the Hdplex has one, set at 15 volts, followed by the MPaudio set at 12 volts.

OK good that's what I expected.  So dropping it 3V between the HDPLEX and the HPULN doesn't generate too much heat?

[rickca]

1 hour ago, lmitche said:

Both sound great, but the 19 volt output was richer in a big way. An extended sound stage and image density was the result.

Very interesting.  I will have to compare the HDPLEX outputs myself.  I'm currently using the 19V for my router with very satisfying results.

[rickca]

1 hour ago, lmitche said:

I changed the NUC server power setting in the bios to low power just the I7 endpoint

Can you please clarify this statement?  Are you talking about the server or the endpoint?

[rickca]

1 hour ago, gsquared said:

So I inserted the USB stick, ran 'ramsave', then rebooted into BIOS, made the change, now when I restart, I get an error message "a bootable device has not been detected".

Why did you do a ramsave?  What changes had you made to AL?

[rickca]

I had a USB flash drive get corrupted, but at boot time it gave me a message to run fsck.  I didn't get the problem you're reporting with no bootable device detected.  I guess it depends what control structure got damaged.

 

I hope one of the Linux gurus can help you repair it.

[rickca]

Maybe fsck doesn't check the control structures that indicate it's a bootable device.  I'd ask Piero if there's a way to salvage it.

[rickca]

1 hour ago, austinpop said:

however, the 12V in the EPS connector and the 12V in the 24-pin connector share the same 12V rail. A bad thing? Who knows!

Most high quality ATX supplies today have a single high amperage +12V rail.  Older ATX supplies sometimes had multiple +12V rails, but then you had load balancing considerations.  The consensus is that a single robust +12V rail is preferable.  So it's common that the 8-pin EPS12V and the 24-pin share the same +12V rail.

 

It's not clear whether the better SQ Larry is reporting with his preferred configuration is due to using an independent 12V rail from the 200W LPS for the EPS12V or due to differences between the 12V supplied by the 200W LPS vs the 250W  DC-DC.

[rickca]

Good news for anyone with a 28W Bean Canyon NUC like NUC8i7BEH.  Akasa has announced a fanless case model called Turing.

https://www.anandtech.com/show/13943/akasa-turing-passively-cooled-chassis-for-intel-bean-canyon-nuc

 

I'd still be cautious until someone gives this a try.  The 28W NUCs have problems with thermal throttling in the original Intel NUC case.

[rickca]

This post may be of interest to those considering running AL on a powerful server with a traditional mini-ITX or ATX motherboard.

https://audiophilestyle.com/forums/topic/46748-new-hdplex-200w-lps/?do=findComment&comment=926539

Please keep any questions/discussion over on my thread so we can keep this thread focused on its original scope.  Larry has a great thread going here and I don't want to mess it up.

[rickca]

Future NUC9 series coming around YE 2019 (Ghost Canyon).  This looks really interesting.  This is an old article from December 2018 that I guess I overlooked at the time.  For those wondering about building a server with more power than NUC7i7DNBE ... 

 

Features:

45W CPU (8/16 cores or 6/12 or 4/8)

PCIe x16 slot

2 x Thunderbolt 3

2 x M.2 2242/80/110 for storage

 

The configuration seems excellent, but of course we have no idea whether it will sound good!  Take it with a grain of salt ... I don't see how Intel can put a PCIe x16 slot on a NUC form factor motherboard.  And at 45W the big issue will be finding a suitable fanless case.

 

https://wccftech.com/intel-ghost-canyon-frost-canyon-nucs-9th-gen-core-i9-8-cores/

 

 

[rickca]

7 hours ago, hifi25nl said:

Squeezelite with some output parameters

Can you please be specific about the appropriate output parameters for Squeezelite?  

[rickca]

3 hours ago, davide256 said:

Suggestions?

Did you install the wpa_supplicant package?

[rickca]

13 minutes ago, davide256 said:

That step is MIA from the AL site wifi setup instructions. Help appreciated on how to get and install

I see Piero has already answered you.  You may also find this post helpful

https://audiophilestyle.com/forums/topic/54933-audiolinux-and-nuc-troubleshooting-and-tuning/?do=findComment&comment=920874

 

[rickca]

3 minutes ago, mourip said:

I now have an email in to Piero.

Please let us know if you get this resolved.

[rickca]

20 minutes ago, mourip said:

I guess that all is well that ends well?

So does the command ramroot status indicate that you are in fact already running in ramroot?

[rickca]

2 minutes ago, Dev said:

ramroot disable

I think Piero said not to use ramroot disable (and use ramroot remove instead) because it can give unpredictable results. 

[rickca]

2 minutes ago, lpost said:

 

For me too, numa off has been the most significant improvement in AL for my system since it was released.

So interesting!  

[rickca]

15 minutes ago, davide256 said:

Which raises the question of whether the i8xxx series can work in low power mode with the LPS 1.2?

 

If you consider something like NUC8i7BEH, it is 28W with configurable TDP down of 20W with an i7-8559U.  That's still too much for an LPS-1.2.

[rickca]

6 minutes ago, hifi25nl said:

 New menu version 114. The crazy update never finish...

 

*** Version 114 update warning: Before rebooting, please go to Configuration Menu --> 20 SET boot to Extreme, Extreme2 or Standard and set your boot option, since this action will reconfigure some default settings. From now on if you select standard, extreme boot or isolated cores you must always boot with the option audiolinux (the other will not work correctly). The scripts will change the parameters of this boot option accordingly. I think this way is simple and more elegant.

 

Now the system is compatible with both kernels RT 5.x and RT-BFQ 4.19.x and can switch easily from one to the other

For kernel RT 5.x you should make a full system update before installing it

I'm confused.  I'm already set up to boot Extreme, I did it long ago.  Is this Configuration Menu 20 something new?  Sorry I haven't been keeping up.  I don't understand your comment that you must always boot with the option audiolinux.

 

What is the difference between kernels RT 5.x and RT-BFQ 4.29.x?  If you update the kernel using the menu, which one do you end up with?

[rickca]

26 minutes ago, hifi25nl said:

For the kernel now you have a choice, the kernel script is new

OK but you just said to only use audiolinux, not audiolinuxBFQ.  So why is there an option to install the AudioLinux RT BFQ kernel?  Clearly there's something here I don't understand.

[rickca]

8 hours ago, hifi25nl said:

When using the calculator you must be sure that Hyper-Threading is disabled.

What calculator are you guys talking about?

[rickca]

@hifi25nl I see that the Ryzen 9 (3950X 16 cores and 3900X 12 cores) are actually two chiplets, so the 3950X is 8+8 and the 3900X is 6+6.  Do these CPUs require NUMA support in AL?

[rickca]

30 minutes ago, lmitche said:

Running without a GPU increases SQ.

Didn't you have the processor graphics disabled in BIOS on the i7-6700K?

31 minutes ago, lmitche said:

With AL 5 the 4 port Startech Asmedia card has stopped working. Because of this, the motherboards native USB3.1 and NUC ports are being used instead.

What do you mean by NUC port?  Are you using the motherboard ethernet or built-in wifi?

[rickca]

23 hours ago, lmitche said:

SQ is at a new level, with more transparency and punch across the spectrum.

So the big question is why does the new system sound better?  8 cores vs 4 cores?  AMD vs Intel?  Motherboard differences?  Please let us know if you manage to determine the key contributing factors.