Shootout at the Linux Corral: AudioLinux vs Euphony

[mourip]

4 hours ago, tapatrick said:

Thanks Bob. Yes that's what I have tried - Euphony with Stylus, but not getting any of the magic reported recently. I know there is more to it, with different hardware recommended etc. but thought I'd give it a try and mention this for anyone else wondering about using on their low powered NUC7s.

 

In many ways your system is a like mine. I have not tried Euphony yet due to lack of time.

 

It seems as if at a certain level of system refinement and investment one arrives at the flattening section of the curve. The recording quality starts to be the limiting factor. One now moves into the territory of personal preference rather than obvious improvement. Increasingly I find that system changes simply sound "different", not necessarily better or worse.

 

I have a Roon server/endpoint setup with AL/ramroot on the endpoint. In some ways this is better than my previous Dante/AOIP/Win2016 system ...but not in all ways. I often find AL to be a little dry or even bright. Perhaps this Fall when I get a bit more time I will try Euphony. I would really love to make a one-box solution work.

 

I look forward to hearing any detailed and blatantly subjective impressions of the SQ differences that others have found between AL and Euphony...

[tapatrick]

1 hour ago, bobfa said:

Make sure the the volume control setting in stylus is set to hardware.  

And if it does not sound like you want then we have another data point.  

I’ll check that and hopefully get time to set it up optimally tonight and post my thoughts. I’m ‘hoping’ I won’t be tempted down another path of spending/upgrading 😬

[tapatrick]

1 hour ago, mourip said:

 

In many ways your system is a like mine. I have not tried Euphony yet due to lack of time.

 

It seems as if at a certain level of system refinement and investment one arrives at the flattening section of the curve. The recording quality starts to be the limiting factor. One now moves into the territory of personal preference rather than obvious improvement. Increasingly I find that system changes simply sound "different", not necessarily better or worse.

 

I have a Roon server/endpoint setup with AL/ramroot on the endpoint. In some ways this is better than my previous Dante/AOIP/Win2016 system ...but not in all ways. I often find AL to be a little dry or even bright. Perhaps this Fall when I get a bit more time I will try Euphony. I would really love to make a one-box solution work.

 

I look forward to hearing any detailed and blatantly subjective impressions of the SQ differences that others have found between AL and Euphony...

I agree @mourip about the recording quality, at this point of the journey it’s a much bigger influence than anything else. The dryness and brightness is also an issue I find too but again only on some recordings. The detail and holographic acoustic spaces I hear on my AL/ramboot Roon server and endpoint still captivates me every day. 

[Dev]

2 hours ago, bobfa said:

Make sure the the volume control setting in stylus is set to hardware.  

And if it does not sound like you want then we have another data point.  

 

In my case the VC is set to "none". The h/w or s/w VC cuts the volume quiet dramatically (maybe more that half). If the DAC doesn't have any VC, I would assume that it should be set to none in Euphony.

[bobfa]

1 hour ago, Dev said:

 

In my case the VC is set to "none". The h/w or s/w VC cuts the volume quiet dramatically (maybe more that half). If the DAC doesn't have any VC, I would assume that it should be set to none in Euphony.

I went back and tested.  My headphone system has a physical volume so no effect on hardware or none.  I had that system set on hardware.  ON my Kii Threes I did have it set to none.  

 

Maybe your DAC takes commands over the USB?  

 

My bad I should have looked further.

[tapatrick]

3 hours ago, mourip said:

.... Increasingly I find that system changes simply sound "different", not necessarily better or worse.

 

....I look forward to hearing any detailed and blatantly subjective impressions of the SQ differences that others have found between AL and Euphony...

 

2 hours ago, tapatrick said:

I’ll check that and hopefully get time to set it up optimally tonight and post my thoughts....

I found time to set up my NUC7PJYH properly, running euphony/stylus with hardware volume setting (thanks Bob). So these are my first impressions. Everything else is the same except for removing the NUC AL/ramboot endpoint (isolated from network with Aqvox switch and USB out via iso regen and sonore ultra digital). Now I hear what all the excitement is about. The sound is fuller as if all the musicians are closer and the sound has a richer quality, less thin. To put this in perspective, this is a pleasant and noticeable difference but not huge by any means.

 

The real issue for me is that there is a slight harshness to the upper registers of voices which, unfortunately I cannot abide. My Omega super alnico's are beautiful at rendering voices, and I have worked hard to reduce any distractions as much a possible especially in sibilance. My first impressions of Euphony/Stylus, apart from the above fuller SQ,  is that this area of voice is not satisfying and I can't ignore it. I only stream from Tidal (I gave up on Qobuz due to too many glitches in playback) and don't have any hard drives for music so I definitely find with AL/Rambooting and removing the USB sticks this exact issue seems to be alleviated enough to satisfy my tastes. More listening is needed before any decisions can be made....

[Balázs]

7 minutes ago, tapatrick said:

The real issue for me is that there is a slight harshness to the upper registers of voices which, unfortunately I cannot abide. My Omega super alnico's are beautiful at rendering voices, and I have worked hard to reduce any distractions as much a possible especially in sibilance. 

 

I agree on that and I also have the Omega Alnico drivers. Try to use Roon Server on Euphony to reduce the harshness but you would loose the benefits of Stylus. To get back to the fuller SQ while  keeping the harshness down I suggest the dual box Euphony/Roon server setup I described earlier.

 

One thing I'm going to try is to install Jplay femto (on Windows) on the Endpoint while keeping Euphony with Roon Server on the Core. Might be a "best of both worlds" situation.

[tapatrick]

10 minutes ago, Balázs said:

 

I agree on that and I also have the Omega Alnico drivers. Try to use Roon Server on Euphony to reduce the harshness but you would loose the benefits of Stylus. To get back to the fuller SQ while  keeping the harshness down I suggest the dual box Euphony/Roon server setup I described earlier.

 

One thing I'm going to try is to install Jplay femto (on Windows) on the Endpoint while keeping Euphony with Roon Server on the Core. Might be a "best of both worlds" situation.

Cool thanks @Balázs.  and round we go..

Interesting but not planning to spend more right now...

."6. Both(!) the Core and the Endpoint have to be Euphony Roon servers. Yes, even on a bridge the Roon server software sounds better. Therefore  two full Euphony licences are needed, unfortunately."

[Balázs]

2 minutes ago, tapatrick said:

Interesting but not planning to spend more right now...

Come on, that's the name of game 😉 

But I see your point and getting the Stylus SQ while keeping Roon is currently expensive. I hope that someone will figure out a more cost effective way. Roon is still a must have to manage music collections imho. 

 

[tapatrick]

54 minutes ago, Balázs said:

Come on, that's the name of game 😉 

.... The collaboration is what I like...

56 minutes ago, Balázs said:

But I see your point and getting the Stylus SQ while keeping Roon is currently expensive. I hope that someone will figure out a more cost effective way. Roon is still a must have to manage music collections imho. 

very interesting place we have come to...

5 hours ago, bobfa said:

And if it does not sound like you want then we have another data point.

 

[luisma]

Yeah it is hard to get away from the library management in roon, trying euphony stylus as roon endpoint then Audiolinux running networkaudiod then Miska latest NAA image, yes I'm using HQPE on all instances except with the euphony stylus, 

 

Don't pay too much attention to my reporting but miskas naa image sounds best to my ears 

 

I am streaming only not playing from hdd 

 

 

[austinpop]

18 hours ago, luisma said:

I can only hope Roon's developers will realize that maybe their sound rendering engine or processing engine could use an improvement.

 

Let's hope so. We need a way to get the message across. Not sure how.

[austinpop]

16 hours ago, lateboomer said:

Not sure I should post it here but I hope there is an enhancement at Euphony to be able to assign cache and the size to Optane or Ram for read in data either from USB or Ethernet.  Also likewise an output cache to USB output (not sure it is necessary to do so). This like what Austinpop has pointed out. Thank you Bobfa for looking into this for ours benefit. Then may be audiophile net card or USB card won't play big role in sound quality and we can just use Startech pcie cards with good PS. 

 

Let's be careful to distinguish Euphony (the OS) from Stylus (the music player).

 

Like @bobfa, I reliably find Euphony OS to sound better than AL on BOTH the server and endpoint, no matter which configuration I try on AL. I do love the ultimate flexibility that AL affords us power users. And I own both products, so I am cheering both to be successful.

 

Wrt UI - Euphony's UI is soooo simple and easy to use. I certainly love it, and I would expect non-OS gurus to love it even more.

 

Stylus has 2 buffering settings:

• "Buffer before play = 100%" (this is on the Settings > Music Service tab)
  • This reads the entire track into memory before playback
  • Note - this is only for local files, NOT streaming files, which are only partially buffered
• "Use Cache" (this is on the Settings > Library tab)
  • This transfers tracks that have been added to the queue to the "Euphony drive." The location is /data/music/E_CACHE
  • If your boot drive is an Optane SSD, then this causes the player to first move the files from the music storage location to the E-CACHE directory on the Optane SSD. On playback, it load the files from the Optane SSD
  • Again, this is only for local files, not streaming services

StylusEP does not have any buffer settings, but according to Željko, he is able to get "Buffer before play = 100%" behavior IF the music server is LMS. With Roon, the buffering for all files (local and Tidal/Qobuz) is the same partial buffering as Stylus does only for streaming services.

 

This could potentially explain why some of us Roon users find Roon+StylusEP to not quite achieve the same level of SQ as Stylus.

 

[HeeBroG]

9 hours ago, austinpop said:

 

 

Stylus has 2 buffering settings:

• "Buffer before play = 100%" (this is on the Settings > Music Service tab)
  • This reads the entire track into memory before playback
  • Note - this is only for local files, NOT streaming files, which are only partially buffered
• "Use Cache" (this is on the Settings > Library tab)
  • This transfers tracks that have been added to the queue to the "Euphony drive." The location is /data/music/E_CACHE
  • If your boot drive is an Optane SSD, then this causes the player to first move the files from the music storage location to the E-CACHE directory on the Optane SSD. On playback, it load the files from the Optane SSD
  • Again, this is only for local files, not streaming services

 

 Thanks Rajiv.

 

Is the "Buffer before play" equal to "Use Cache" if one doesn't have an Optane SSD boot drive?

[romaz]

On 5/26/2019 at 3:26 PM, Balázs said:

I get equally good SQ in my dual box configuration with Roon.

 

It sounds like you have tuned your setup perfectly to your liking and so that's what's important.  As for my post, it had nothing to do with a single-box configuration being better than a dual-box configuration, it had to do with my preference for Stylus over Roon and it just so happens that Stylus only works in a single-box configuration.

 

On 5/26/2019 at 3:26 PM, Balázs said:

On the other hand to achieve the better-than-single-box-Stylus with Roon is a rather expensive way to go and might be interesting only for those who would like to keep their Roon environment.

 

I completely agree with this statement.  I now belong in the camp that believes that the best dual-box configuration is 2 identical boxes meaning that the server and endpoint use the same powerful hardware and both boxes are equivalently powered to a very high standard.  Unfortunately, this means 2X the cost.  At Munich, Pink Faun was demonstrating a dual 2.16X setup at a cost of $32k and this setup was not doing any upsampling at all (Jord prefers no upsampling with his DAC).  There is definitely an elegance and economy with a single box setup that I am very pleased with.

 

On 5/26/2019 at 3:26 PM, Balázs said:

1. Forget about the standard NUC as an Endpoint. Although it provides very good dynamics and soundstage, it 's not able to control the bass neither to give the same level of detail like a PC with dedicated interfaces.

 

I agree with you as I have moved on from a NUC as an endpoint for the reasons I already stated.  Also, it appears you are hearing the strengths and weaknesses of a NUC exactly the opposite from how I am hearing them.  My i7 NUC had 4 clocks replaced and was being powered very well by a 19V rail from my SR7 and so this NUC presented much better detail than a powerful PC with dedicated interfaces unless that PC was also being powered by an SR7.  Also, this NUC exerted excellent control of not just the bass but also the midrange and treble manifesting as tremendous agility and again, this has everything to do with a low impedance power supply.  Where the NUC lacked was in dynamics and soundstage and this is what a powerful CPU that is independently powered gives you.  If you cannot properly power a big PC, I cannot guarantee that it will sound better than a NUC.

 

On 5/26/2019 at 3:26 PM, Balázs said:

2. The Roon Core must have an audio grade network card (mine has a JCAT Femto NET)
3. The Roon Endpoint must have both an audio grade network and an USB card (mine has JCAT Femto NET & USB)

 

Once again, I agree.  I think both server and endpoint in a dual-box setup should be identical.  Even identical CPUs.  When I was running a dual box setup, my server was using a JCAT Femto NET card and this JCAT card was being powered by an SR7 rail.  My endpoint had all 4 clocks (including the LAN and system clocks) replaced by a REF10 and was connected to my DAC with a tX-USBultra which was also connected to the REF10.  Both the endpoint and tX-USBultra were being powered by SR7 rails.  In between the server and endpoint were 2 SOtM sNH-10G switches in a serial configuration and I can confirm that the 2nd switch had almost the same impact as the 1st switch.  Furthermore, both switches were being powered by SR7 rails and both switches were connected to the REF10.  And so my preference for a single-box Stylus setup over a dual-box Roon setup had nothing to do with inadequate hardware.

 

On 5/26/2019 at 3:26 PM, Balázs said:

4. The more power phases the motherboards has the better the SQ might get. I utilize the Asrock Z390 Extreme4 which provides 12 power phases.

 

I am inclined to agree with you and the key word is "might."  I compared 2 Asrock boards side by side and the board with the better VRM sounded better to me.  Whether this is specifically because of the VRM or some other variable is not entirely clear but it would make sense that the quality of the VRM "might" impact SQ since the VRM is responsible for the stability of the power that the CPU sees.  As to whether more power phases also results in better power stability, this is not always true since the quality of the power phases matter just as the number of power phases.

Your Extreme4 board is actually a 10+2 design meaning 10 power phases are dedicated to the CPU while 2 power phases are dedicated to the integrated GPU and so only 10 of your power phases have significance.  Your particular board uses SinoPower SM7431EH MOSFETS which are rated at 25A each.  The Asrock Z390 Phantom 9 is a gaming ATX board that uses the same 10+2 design but uses the higher-end Texas Instruments NexFETs which are rated at 40A.  The motherboard I have decided to focus on for now is the Asrock Z390 Phantom Gaming ITX/ac which is a mini-ITX board and because of its smaller size, it incorporates only a 5+2 design but this is where things get deceiving because this board utilizes higher quality power phases comprised of the Intersil Smart Power ISL99227 which many consider to be among the best and are rated at 60A each, more than 2X the current capacity of those used in your board.  Regardless, each of these boards should be able to easily handle something like an i9-9900K that isn't being overclocked.

 

This illustrates the advantage of boards designed for gaming as they generally use better parts, especially with regards to power delivery.  Another example, your board is only a 4-layer design while my board uses 8-layers which in theory, provides better isolation.  Also, my board, even though it is smaller than your board uses a total of 8oz of copper in the traces resulting in better conductivity.  If someone is building a server from scratch, it would be worthwhile to investigate the gaming boards.  They don't cost that much more.

 

Ultimately, I chose the board that I did because of its size.  I would have loved to have gone with a full sized ATX board with multiple PCIe 3.0x16 slots, however, it has been challenging to find a fanless chassis that can house a full sized ATX board that can accommodate multiple PCIe cards without having to use riser cables (ie HDPlex, Streacom).  The problem with riser cables is they are generally of poor quality as they use cheap, thin gauge conductors and so I would prefer to be able to plug cards directly into the PCIe slot but perhaps my paranoia here is unjustified.  If you know of a good full ATX fanless chassis that can accommodate at least 2 PCIe cards without having to use riser cables, I would like to know.

 

On 5/26/2019 at 3:26 PM, Balázs said:

5. The signal path between Core and Endpoint must be taken care of (REF10, audiograde switch and LAN cables etc.)

 

As I already stated, in my signal path between server and endpoint, I was using dual sNH-10G switches that were being clocked by a REF10 and cabling throughout consisted of either SOtM's dCBL-CAT7 or Ghent's double-shielded CAT6A along with with a SOtM iSO-CAT6 LAN isolator (essentially, an isolation transformer) and so I feel my signal path was pretty well taken care of.  I even introduced optical cabling between the 2 switches but ultimately preferred the SQ of copper cabling better.  What is surprising is that all of this stuff is just as important with a single-box setup even though Stylus buffers files fully into RAM before playback.  People will view this comment skeptically but I am convinced no one fully understands how a network impacts SQ.  It's definitely not just about RF noise in the line or leakage current.

 

On 5/26/2019 at 3:26 PM, Balázs said:

6. Both(!) the Core and the Endpoint have to be Euphony Roon servers. Yes, even on a bridge the Roon server software sounds better. Therefore  two full Euphony licences are needed, unfortunately.

 

I actually own 2 full Euphony licenses since the less expensive Endpoint license wasn't available when I bought mine.  Also, I was not successful in running RoonBridge on the endpoint and so I used RoonServer on both machines just like you are.  While I cannot claim that 2 instances of RoonServer sounds better than RoonServer + RoonBridge, I know I prefer the SQ of Stylus.  Having said that, as I own Roon, I continue to use Roon for library management because there is nothing better and then flip to Stylus for playback.  Fortunately, it's not hard to do.

 

On 5/26/2019 at 3:26 PM, Balázs said:

7. The client connection type must be Roon Bridge. No StylusEP, no Squeezlite.

 

I presume you mean RoonServer since you already stated you don't like RoonBridge.  Personally, I find StylusEP sounds better than either SL or RoonBridge but fortunately, Euphony offers you the choice of either one and it's fairly easy to switch.  In the end, my preference for Stylus has more to do with the balance of qualities it offers than any one property and it's obvious that what works for me may not work for someone else.

[HeeBroG]

17 hours ago, tapatrick said:

 

I found time to set up my NUC7PJYH properly, running euphony/stylus with hardware volume setting (thanks Bob). So these are my first impressions. Everything else is the same except for removing the NUC AL/ramboot endpoint (isolated from network with Aqvox switch and USB out via iso regen and sonore ultra digital). Now I hear what all the excitement is about. The sound is fuller as if all the musicians are closer and the sound has a richer quality, less thin. To put this in perspective, this is a pleasant and noticeable difference but not huge by any means.

 

The real issue for me is that there is a slight harshness to the upper registers of voices which, unfortunately I cannot abide. My Omega super alnico's are beautiful at rendering voices, and I have worked hard to reduce any distractions as much a possible especially in sibilance. My first impressions of Euphony/Stylus, apart from the above fuller SQ,  is that this area of voice is not satisfying and I can't ignore it. I only stream from Tidal (I gave up on Qobuz due to too many glitches in playback) and don't have any hard drives for music so I definitely find with AL/Rambooting and removing the USB sticks this exact issue seems to be alleviated enough to satisfy my tastes. More listening is needed before any decisions can be made....

 

Hi tapatrick,

 

Thanks for sharing your experience.

 

Just to clarify; are you using the NUC7PJYH as a single machine with Euphony Stylus?

Secondly, may I ask how your NUC7PJYH powered?

 

Geoff

 

 

[tapatrick]

54 minutes ago, HeeBroG said:

 

Hi tapatrick,

 

Thanks for sharing your experience.

 

Just to clarify; are you using the NUC7PJYH as a single machine with Euphony Stylus?

Secondly, may I ask how your NUC7PJYH powered?

 

Geoff

 

 

Hi @HeeBroG I'm powering my NUC(s) with Paul Hynes SR4. As there is no doubt about the importance of PSU quality, I'd love to get my hands on an SR7, but it's not going to happen. Down the road I'm going to try out a Ciunas Audio Supercap PSU - but that's a whole different topic.

 

Yes I'm trialling my NUC7PJYH as single box with Euphony Stylus.

 

Thanks to all for the great input on the causes and solutions for harshness problems. Interesting times and much appreciated!

[seeteeyou]

4 hours ago, romaz said:

If you know of a good full ATX fanless chassis that can accommodate at least 2 PCIe cards without having to use riser cables, I would like to know.

 

What's your view on Thunderbolt 3 dock with single / multiple PCIe slots?

 

https://audiophilestyle.com/forums/topic/30376-a-novel-way-to-massively-improve-the-sq-of-computer-audio-streaming/page/565/?tab=comments#comment-961130

 

PCH should be not THAT busy given what we're doing and maybe Thunderbolt 3 port with 4 PCH-connected PCIe lanes might not be too bad? Despite passive Thunderbolt 3 cables have to be really short while no "audiophile" ones are available (only decent USB Type-C ones were made but they're no good for Thunderbolt 3) so far, in theory it might be a slight advantage to distance our PCIe card(s) from other components if proximity were actually playing a role. Finally some of them would come with a cooling fan and therefore we might simply disconnect that, though built-in SMPS should require a mod for obvious reasons.

 

It's somewhat tricky to power Adnaco stuff properly while optical would sound flat according to your and Lee's experiences

 

http://www.adnaco.com/products/s1b/

 

But then again we might get the "Holy Grail" from SOtM soon, let's wait and see what their own motherboard is all about.

[Balázs]

5 hours ago, romaz said:

The problem with riser cables is they are generally of poor quality as they use cheap, thin gauge conductors and so I would prefer to be able to plug cards directly into the PCIe slot but perhaps my paranoia here is unjustified.  If you know of a good full ATX fanless chassis that can accommodate at least 2 PCIe cards without having to use riser cables, I would like to know.

 

I'm not aware of such a chassis (I wish I were). I use Thermaltake's TT Premium PCI-E 3.0 Extender. I tried with and without it (direct in PCI slot) and didn't hear a difference.

[Balázs]

5 hours ago, romaz said:

...As I already stated, in my signal path between server and endpoint, I was using dual sNH-10G switches that were being clocked by a REF10 and cabling throughout consisted of either SOtM's dCBL-CAT7 or Ghent's double-shielded CAT6A along with with a SOtM iSO-CAT6 LAN isolator (essentially, an isolation transformer) and so I feel my signal path was pretty well taken care of.  I even introduced optical cabling between the 2 switches but ultimately preferred the SQ of copper cabling better.  What is surprising is that all of this stuff is just as important with a single-box setup even though Stylus buffers files fully into RAM before playback. 

 

I assume your music is on a NAS or you listen to streamed music like Tidal. If the music files are on an internal  SDD/Optane/USB drive I'm not sure how the network could have any influence (only control information flows to the Euphony server)

[austinpop]

8 hours ago, HeeBroG said:

 Thanks Rajiv.

 

Is the "Buffer before play" equal to "Use Cache" if one doesn't have an Optane SSD boot drive?

 

No, Geoff.

 

"Buffer before play" has to do with preloading a song into memory before initiating playback.

 

"Use cache" has to do with transferring a music file from its original storage location to a new storage location (/data/music/E_CACHE) on the "Euphony Drive," or boot disk. This applies to whatever you chose your boot disk to be - whether Optane SSD, regular SSD, HDD, etc.

[Nenon]

8 hours ago, romaz said:

The motherboard I have decided to focus on for now is the Asrock Z390 Phantom Gaming ITX/ac which is a mini-ITX board and because of its smaller size, it incorporates only a 5+2 design but this is where things get deceiving because this board utilizes higher quality power phases comprised of the Intersil Smart Power ISL99227 which many consider to be among the best and are rated at 60A each, more than 2X the current capacity of those used in your board.  Regardless, each of these boards should be able to easily handle something like an i9-9900K that isn't being overclocked.

 

I have mostly played with low powered CPUs / motherboard, but following the latest trends, I am curious to try a combination like that with the i9-9900K CPU. Please correct me if I am wrong, but I am assuming that the EPS connector is where the most power is consumed on those motherboards. Two questions about that:

1. How many amps do we need to sufficiently power up a CPU with TDP of 95 Watts for Euphony? Romaz - are you using a 10A SR7 rail? Have you tried a 6A rail? 

2. Can we power up the EPS connectors with multiple independent DC rails on this motherboard? The keyword is "independent", because if each +12V on the connector is in parallel with the others, we are essentially paralleling multiple power supplies, and we know by experiments with paralleling multiple LPS2.1's that unless they are closely matched, this is far than ideal (if it even works). 

[sig8]

I downloaded Euphony over the weekend and tried to compare Euphony+Stylus to AL+HQPe, which I have been using for almost a year. Bottom line, Euphony+Stylus sounded a bit harsher (worse) than AL+HQPe in comparison, or might just be very similar, but certainly not better.

 

Now, there were differences in setup; I run my AL on a two box solution, an i9-9900k server with a Gigabyte Z390 Aorus Pro motherboard powered by HDPlex ATX power supply and an i7 NUC running as NAA. All low voltage DC devices including NUC powered by two multi-rail Paul Hynes SR7's. In this scenario music files resided on a NAS.

 

Euphony+Stylus were running on the same server but as a single box solution, and the music was stored on an external USB drive. I could not get my NAS to connect to Stylus.

 

In the end, I am staying with AL+HQPe. I think most people who have reported improved SQ are coming from Roon, and from my own trials with Roon in the past, it could never compete with HQP(e). Euphony+Stylus might be better than Roon, but in my experimentation it certainly could not better AL+HQPe. YMMV.

[HeeBroG]

10 hours ago, austinpop said:

 

No, Geoff.

 

"Buffer before play" has to do with preloading a song into memory before initiating playback.

 

"Use cache" has to do with transferring a music file from its original storage location to a new storage location (/data/music/E_CACHE) on the "Euphony Drive," or boot disk. This applies to whatever you chose your boot disk to be - whether Optane SSD, regular SSD, HDD, etc.

 

Thanks Rajiv.

What if one boots from a Euphony from a USB stick and there is no internal SSD/HDD. Music files are stored on an attached USB HDD.

 

G

[austinpop]

2 minutes ago, HeeBroG said:

 

Thanks Rajiv.

What if one boots from a Euphony from a USB stick and there is no internal SSD/HDD. Music files are stored on an attached USB HDD.

 

G

 

Good question. According to the popup help:

 

I think the assumption is that the Euphony drive is "fast." My guess is if you're booting off a USB, you should probably turn "Use Cache" off.