Audiolinux Server configurations, Software, Hardware, and Listening Impressions

[maya]

On 10/23/2019 at 2:49 AM, cat6man said:

time for a report after heading down this rabbit hole with you all.

 

old system/baseline:

hpqplayer embedded running on 5i6 NUC under ubuntu, wall wart switching power supply, shared PC/NUC with sageTV server, music on usb HDD, ethernet to netgear router, ethernet to sonore opticalModule (lps-1.2 powered), fiber to sonore opticalRendu (in NAA mode, SR4 powered), usb to totalDAC.

 

new system:

hqplayer embedded running in ramroot under audiolinux on new 7i7 NUC (4G Apacer ram, 8G m.2 optane) powered by HDPlex200 at 19v with external usb3.0 HDD powered by HDPlex200 at 9v, ethernet to netgear router (and all the rest similar)

 

i had a audio buddy over last week and we started by listening to some of my standard evaluation tracks with the old baseline system:

 

Bonnie Raitt-Angel from Montgomery

Weavers-Guantanamera

Paul Simon-Diamonds on the Soles of their shoes

Alison Krauss-Forget about It

Beach Boys-Caroline No

Rickie Lee Jones-Danny's All Star Joint

Joan Baez-It's All Over Now Baby Blue

Muddy Waters-My Home is in the Delta

Duke Ellington-Concerto for Cootie

John Renbourn-At the break of Day

 

Next, I switched over to the new (i.e. optimized over the past few weeks) system and the improvement was staggeringly large.

In my friend's words, the improvement was "revelatory." 

 

Now I had achieved this new optimized state with a lot of individual steps over a period of weeks, after picking the brains of this thread and a few others to identify the factors most likely to improve things here based on my assessment of consensus and applicability of various reports.

 

It is of course impossible to absolutely identify which factors were the most significant contributors since not all combinations could be tried in a sane amount of time or in all combinations, nor did I have the patience.  Here are my performance observations in the order in which they happened.

 

> (was better)

>> (was much better)

 

new 7i7 NUC w/8G RAM and usb3.0 external 8TB HDD, both powered by HDPLEX

AL set to extreme realtime mode, hyperthreading and turbo turned off

 

Jussi's hqplayerd image on usb stick > old baseline system

hqplayer embedded under AL on usb stick > Jussi's hqplayerd image on usb stick

hqplayer embedded under AL in ramroot >> hqplayer embedded under AL on usb stick

hqplayer embedded under AL in ramroot w/ Apacer 4G ram >> hqplayer embedded under AL in ramroot

 

the last 2 really boggle my engineer's brain, but there is no doubting what i hear and that is the bottom line.

i would LOVE to understand from a scientific point of view how/why ramroot and Apacer ram can make such a difference to the sound quality but you guys have nailed it and i'm down the rabbit hole with you.

 

Impact:  better imaging, huge decays into silence between notes, greater detail w/o harshness, more and clearer bass lines

 

i will just mention that a few years ago, i had achieved a really fine level of digital playback (magic even!) using hqplayer and an ultraRendu in NAA mode powered by a SoTM battery power supply............then i changed a few things, lost the magic, sold a few things, swapped out a few more, and never regained the magic.......until now.......is this really all about power?

maybe all the other remaining wallwart/switching power supplies need to go?

 

 

 

Glad to know you have enjoyed your new build of HQPe under AudioLinux Ramboot.

We had some discussions on ramboot before.

Your experience may have been proved again that Ram boot is much better than Normal boot .

I have been using Ram Boot with my Debian system for many years , even before the Archlinux having the ram boot package to install.

 

Ubutun seems being unable to do ram boot so I never use Ubuntu and just install Jussie"s HQPlayer onto my Debian ramboot system !

 

Now I  am running a Debian10 HQPe on the kernels compiled by myself and auditioned by my audiophile friends in the local .

My system has several kernels to choose, they having different demands for CPU resources and the one needs most has the best SQ.

All three kernels can run DSD256 7EC extt2 with i5 7600 ! And can do these with more powerful CPUs!

So No need for high horse power CPUs!

Compared with other Ramboot system my  audiophile friends like my Debian Ramboot HQPe more ! 

 

BTW We use HDPlex 400 or 200 and other LPS too 

 

Cheers