Euphony OS w/Stylus player setup and issues thread

[motberg]

15 hours ago, Holzohr said:

 

It is possible to install the trial on hd/ssd. I did it with booting an Ubuntu USB stick and the tool/program Disks. Before you must unzip the euphony image and moving it to a second USB stick.

 

At the moment I have Euphony installed on an Optane 32GB SSD. Euphony replaced a Windows Server 2019 core installation with Fidelizer and AO. All I can say is I am not in the mood to change to Windows again.

 

Some pics:

Thanks!  If you don't mind a quick question - - what playback software are you using ?

[motberg]

On 3/30/2019 at 10:06 AM, Chopin75 said:

Is your Euphony on the same USB stick? If you have your euphony OS in a drive different from the USB storage where the music files are, then you need to make sure that the drive is detected by Euphony. Look at "Library" (I think)  and it should list all the drives Euphony detects. The drive of the music files needs to be "mounted". U can also try "update Library" and that may help. Then you should see 2 folders now attached under "files"- Euphony and the other USB music files drive,  Somewhere you can also click Ecache (but perhaps that is only available for the full version). Email Arthur if you are still stuck. 

 

This requirement to mount (I think they use "attach") and add file locations to the library got me also... it would be great if someone who knows more about this would add these instructions to the original post... I also ran into a problem were my SSD internal partitions are all the same name, so cannot mount more than one currently .

 

I also noticed that the shutdown button shuts down the computer - not just the software 😲

 

Anyway - I am only starting, but so far I have found Euphony the most intuitive music application of those I have used..  first time for me with anything Linux based I think...

[motberg]

On 5/3/2019 at 12:07 PM, austinpop said:

Just wanted to update this thread on some interesting Euphony/Stylus features coming down the pike.

 

@romaz and I have had detailed interactions with Željko Vranić, the lead developer of Euphony. He and their team have been very receptive to our ideas and recommendations. You've already seen the rollout of the outcome of some of these discussions in the latest release, in the form of the support for bridging, and the addition of expert parameters for Squeezelite command line options, and for setting CPU frequency.

 

Very soon, the expert options will be expanded to allow ethtool command line options. This would enable overriding auto negotiation of speed, and setting 100Mbps for an Ethernet interface.

 

As many of you have found, the Stylus player in Euphony has significantly superior SQ to Roon. Of course, functionally, Stylus does not match the sophistication of Roon's library management and UI. For many of us, Roon library management has become a non-negotiable, as there is just nothing like it out there. As currently implemented, Stylus is a monolithic, standalone player, that does not have a remote interface. We asked Željko whether they could make Stylus an endpoint that could work with Roon.

 

Well, to our delight, it looks like they have done it. We've tested a prototype endpoint implementation of Stylus - let's call it StylusEP for now. The final released name is TBD. Like squeezelite, StylusEP looks like a Squeezebox to Roon.  This enables both distributed configurations (Roon core on server, Stylus EP on endpoint), as well as standalone (Roon core + StylusEP).

 

In terms of SQ, Roon core + StylusEP approaches, but doesn't quite match the SQ of Stylus. Since there is no control of what Roon Core does internally, the team couldn't implement 100% buffering, for example, the way standalone Stylus does. Still - the SQ of the prototype Roon core + StylusEP I tested was head and shoulders better than standard Roon, and even better sounding than Roon core + Squeezelite with large buffers. It also did not suffer the glitches that have plagued those of us who've tried to live with Roon + squeezelite. 

 

The team needs to do some more testing, but I've been told that they hope to ship this in a GA release by the end of the month.

 

This is pretty exciting stuff!

 

 

 

I hope this will lead to a easy to configure dual-PC version of Stylus (hopefully requiring a single license though....)

 

I have no interest in Roon, but have tested Stylus briefly and think within a dual-PC configuration, it could possibly unseat Windows Server/JPlay in my systems for ease of use as well as sound quality.

 

[motberg]

Just my opinion, but I think that there is a substantial international market for a proper simple player/OS/remote, with HQPlayer based oversampling option (and maybe VST plug-in options for EQ, etc), available as a single software package that will run on both single and dual PC's and offering the highest level of sound quality. 

 

(I am not sure if there is any type of consensus in the industry concerning a technical benefit to the streamer/end-point configuration, but it sure seems to me that a lot of computer audiophiles would consider this is the case. )

[motberg]

10 hours ago, austinpop said:

I notice several reports of increased harshness, loss of smoothness, and the like associated with trying Euphony on a standalone server, whether with Stylus, Roon, Roon+StylusEP, HQPlayer, Roon+HQPlayer, and Stylus+HQPlayer.

 

I've written about this myself, and it's the reason I don't consider my system finished just yet. What going to a powerful standalone system, compared to NUCs and other endpoints, gives you is big, weighty, DYNAMIC sound. However, this puts a bigger burden on the quality of the PSU on the server. And limitations of PSU quality manifest as harshness.

 

Very few of us besides @romaz have SR7 rails powering our server's ATX and EPS inputs. In my system, with the HDPlex 400W LPS powering the ATX and EPS inputs, and with an SR4-5 powering the JCAT Net Card Femto, I still find lingering harshness to be a problem.

 

My solution, and something I suggest people try, and report back - is to tune the "Max frequency" in Expert settings.

 

For example, on my server that has the i7-8700T CPU, the base frequency is 2.4GHz, and the peak is 4.2GHz. I have set the BIOS to be wide open - i.e. I've enabled Hyperthreading and Turbo. With Min and Max frequencies unspecified, Euphony's frequency hovers between 3.9 and 4.0GHz. This behavior is expected because - as confirmed by Željko - Euphony is preconfigured to use the "performance" CPU governor, so frequency is effectively pegged to the max allowed.

 

In my system, I can almost completely tame the harshness by setting the Max to 2.4GHz (or 2400MHz). Based on trial and error, I find a minimal rise in harshness up to 3200MHz, and depending on the music, I can stand to go up to 3600MHz.

 

Why bother to skirt this harshness boundary? In a word - dynamics! That is the elixir that this config provides, and I think we all have different thresholds of what we're willing to pay for it.

 

So bottom line - to those experiencing harshness with Euphony - try tuning the Max frequency and see what you think. Please report back.

I wonder what would happen if you power the EPS with a separate LPS ....

I have my audio PC setup like that - ATX 20 pin with ATX LPS, and then a separate 10A 12V LPS for the EPS (Ghent cable)

[motberg]

19 hours ago, davide256 said:

Curious if anyone else is noting this with latest RAM loaded  version of Euphony where all can be loaded in RAM? Using buffer and cache options with RAM load,

I've been able to eliminate an edgy discordant  overtone on CD quality choral passages with external SSD/SDXC media direct attached to server, NAS and direct attached media now sound pretty much the same vs different when run off USB or Optane disk.

I think this is great news so far....

If you do not mind, how much RAM are you using in the Euphony PC?

[motberg]

On 10/30/2019 at 1:47 AM, aangen said:

In my setup I bought a server from Power Holdings that was equipped with a 4TB Internal SSD (Samsung) that Euphony installed to and also stored my music library. As you mentioned, one device with no need to talk to any other devices other than the DAC.

This device sounds better than my finely tuned windows machine running Win 10 Pro. The same machine running the Euphony OS on a thumb drive sounded better still. The new dedicated server sounds best of all.

Hi, thanks for the comments - are you doing any upsamping with Euphony?

 

I need find time to install the trial and test without having to travel for work during the trial, but want to try mainly for sampling to DSD...

I remember some comments that Euphony's own upsampling to DSD was very good, on par with some HQPlayer filters.

For this test, I will use my Win10 box using a 25W i5 (10A/19V with HDPlex DC-DC + 10A/12V to CPU), but easy enough for me to upgrade to one of the known power configurations if moderate success with the preliminary setup which is ready to go.

 

(note Win10 is absolutely no comparison to WinServer...I have 2 PC's with Win10 Pro and 2 with server versions, and the server OS is a completely different environment to my experience)

[motberg]

On 11/1/2019 at 12:46 PM, Chopin75 said:

Hey the euphony uses embedded HQplayer to upsample or switch from PCM—>DSD. I don’t think the stylus itself can upsample dsd, or do conversion to DSD unless I am just not aware that it now can (with the V3). The audiogd R7 plays native dsd really nicely now with euphony that i don’t feel the HQplayer has any benefits. The dirty noise of DSD256 is gone. i can also play native DSD512 from euphony though it eats up lots of RAM so 100% buffer cannot be done. Per euphony programmer guy there is a bug he needs to fix for DSD. BTW, your USB bridge is amanero or F-1 ? It needs new fw to play DSD512, and the F1 needs a faster clock 40..hz i think.
 

oh make sure u have a latest V2 board and at least TDA fw for the DSD as this works much better now with R7

Thanks for the additional comments...

 

The system where I like to try Euphony will be a single PC to Gustard U16 i2s -> Gustard A20H (AK4497 x 2)

I have a native DSD512 classical sampler, and from the brief listening I have done so far think this DSD idea may be something to try for classical. I have also tried the older version of HQPlayer upsampling PCM to DSD256 which sounds promising. I would need to do upsampling for most my files, probably to DSD 256. The Gustard setup is currently seriously popping with DSD though Windows,  so I am hoping Euphony maybe can help with that... the AK4497 generally has some nice attributes as implemented in the Gustard DAC, so I really hope I can fix the DSD popping one way or another. I did give Euphony a very brief try a while back and liked the interface and easy installation, but not evaluated the sound. I heard a r2r DAC with Volumio in my system and that offered a nice sound, different, but complementing, my normal Windows Server setup* with JPlay. I should be able to have a chance for my serious Euphony test later this week - so will report back how it goes and if it offers any help with the DSD popping.

 

Big thanks to everyone who posts here. It seems the Euphony developers are considering these comments and testing/implementing various ideas.. It is pretty expensive, but for someone who does not relish the opportunity to become a Linux expert, such a relatively mature product could be considered money well spent (I follow every AL thread here also... have no idea half the time what they are talking about... jejejeje)... All these Euphony posts and comments are greatly appreciated as they can seriously help potential users get the most out of the evaluation period.    

 

Quick question, my full library is on an external 4TB USB WD Red HDD drive (LPS, Intona, Matrix H USB card, good USB cables). Almost the entire 4TB is full... would it be better to use another drive for the test, maybe a small internal SSD? I am worried that indexing the entire 4TB may be difficult. Or maybe I can point the Euphony indexing to only a single particular folder?

 

*I have another setup for PCM, with 2 PC WINServer to an Audio-GD 8xPCM1704UK NOS DAC that is just perfect for prog and classic rock .. no need to touch that setup currently.. that (NOS7) DAC is very special and I am feeding it with a M10 clock / U16 via i2s also.. It sounds great with upsampled PCM as well as all native rates. Due to problems I have had with JPlay, I want to try changing this setup to HQPlayer, (server and endpoint)... but if Euphony works well on the Gustard (hopefully DSD) system, then will give it a try on the Audio-GD PCM system also. If I cannot fix the popping of the Gustard stuff, then will change the DSD side back to Audio-GD r2r with Euphony.