Euphony OS w/Stylus player setup and issues thread

[aangen]

Hello, I have rad this entire thread and I am a new owner of a Euphony PTS server. I am quite taken with it so far. 

I was hoping one of you could answer a couple of simple questions for me. The topic is Roon.

So far, I have managed to avoid Roon. I am pretty certain Roon may be the right thing for me, but I fear it may be an endless time hole. From reading this thread I get a couple of notions:

 

1. Using Roon as a media playback solution does not offer the best sound.

2. Using Roon with the core running on another device and using a Euphony device as a Roon Endpoint can offer better sound.

3. Using Roon with Euphony set in Roon Core + StylusEP sounds better still.

4. I wonder what Roon Bridge mode offers?

 

I was using a Lenovo PC with the paid version of Fidelizer to playback my music. I was using and enjoying JRiver software to choose and play my music. I find listening to Euphony Stylus on the new server sounds wonderful. I also have found setting Euphony to Squeezelite mode and using JRiver to stream music to it sounds great too.

Is there a loss in fidelity doing this? I'm not certain myself.

 

Euphony seems like they are all set to have my little server be a Roon Core but I think I might prefer using my other server for that and have the Euphony server do as little as possible to get the best sound out of it.

 

Am I on the right track? 

Is Roon avoidable or am I missing out?

Should I do it all on the Euphony PTS server or am I thinking right running the Core on another machine. 

I have so many machines available so it would not cost me a cent to use one.

 

Thanks for any advice you can offer, I have enjoyed this thread a great deal.

 

I am using:

NBS Universal II Preamp

NBS Universal II Power Amps

PS Audio P20 Power Plant

PS Audio DirectStream DAC

Wilson Audio Yvette Speakers

And the new Euphony PTS Server

 

[aangen]

Thanks guys! I appreciate the feedback.

It's hard for me to make changes to a setup that sounds so amazing at the moment....

 

[aangen]

I have a Keces P8 feeding power to the PTS and the Matrix X-SPDIF 2. It is more than worthy. I haven't touched the included adapter.

[aangen]

Thank you for the welcome!

I am familiar with that thread. I believe it was my introduction to this site. There is a bit of information in that monster thread.

[aangen]

I am sad streaming is broken. I signed up and paid for a one year subscription to Qobuz and minutes later Euphony loses it's ability to stream it. Bah.

[aangen]

I have heard that Tidal is affected as well for Euphony users which made me think......

[aangen]

I am very unimpressed with Qobuz at the moment. Unimpressed, I am quite angry. I have my Euphony server in Squeezelite mode and I am playing music to it via JRiver 25. Like a fool I downloaded the Windows app to the computer I have JRiver on. When I run the  Qobuz app it wants to use the speakers in the monitor attached to the computer for output. When I try to select JRiver it loads something into the playlist on JRiver. Meanwhile the Qobuz app goes into not responding mode, and when it comes out it says it couldn’t use JRiver but here, we can play out of your half inch monitor speakers. Bah.

And of course I kept fiddling with it thinking it could be solved.

 

Qobuz is a French company, isn’t it?

 

(not that there is anything wrong with that)

 

at at least I can sleep well knowing they have my money.

[aangen]

3 hours ago, bobfa said:

Go to the following website for Euphony and put in a support ticket:

 

https://euphony-audio.com/hesk/

Hi Bob,

I did this two days ago, as well as notifying Qobuz. Euphony responded within an hour, Qobuz no response.

 

As far as the JRiver part goes, the Quboz application offered it as a connection. It just couldn't let go of wanting to connect to the computer monitor speakers. The Quboz app seems to think JRiver is an option.

[aangen]

I am right there with you. I tried to get the Qobuz app to work on my pc but it would be easier to make new recordings of everything I listen to than to accomplish that. What a nightmare. The day the service went out I had just paid for a year sub. Bah. I miss it.

[aangen]

I am back in business with Qobuz and Euphony! 

Thanks to Željko Vranić and the Euphony Team!

All in all a weird first week with my new Euphony server and Qobuz subscription.

[aangen]

4 hours ago, bobfa said:

Hurray.  What did you have to do?

Wait for Euphony to get Qobuz to allow the data to flow.

I created a trouble ticket the moment I noticed the issue. They told me they were aware of the problem and had contacted Qobuz. Apparently something was worked out. No change on my end, no new software or upgrades. They asked me to "try it now" I did, and it worked.

 

I blame you Bob.

[aangen]

So now, just to make it interesting I have a new Tidal account.

Does Euphony OS have any MQA ability?

[aangen]

That's the thing. I have a PS Audio Directstream DAC. It can do the MQA thing but only through the Ethernet Bridge. I am not sure how to send something from the Euphony server to the Ethernet Bridge card on the DAC. 

It's looking like Roon is the answer.

[aangen]

An hour ago I set my Euphony PTS server to run in Roon Core + StylusEP mode. This is my first experience with Roon. I added Tidal a few days ago, and Qobuz a few weeks ago. At first I had Roon stream to the Bridge II card in my PS Audio Directstream DAC, just to verify the MQA was properly functioning. It was my first experience with MQA. I am not political about MQA yet. Now I am listening via the USB out to my Matrix and then to I2S. It sounds pretty much the same as it did pre-Roon. From what I have been reading I was afraid Roon would take the sound down a notch. This does not seem to be the case.

it all sounds better than my highly refined audio computer running that Windows stuff. It sounds pretty darned BOLD at the moment.

 

I enjoyed the commentary of the last 24 hours or so here. Some of you have experience with equipment I can only read about. Thanks for sharing!!!

[aangen]

On 10/27/2019 at 7:36 PM, AnotherSpin said:

 

Would you please mention which components you use to get such wonderful audio from Windows? Thank you.

 

I agree 100%. I would ask Bob to kindly allow it.

[aangen]

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.

[aangen]

Hi, no sir, I have not done any upsampling with the Euphony setup as my DAC does all that. 

[aangen]

People on a forum I visit are comparing the sound of their systems when using Roon 1.7 and a system driven by JRiver. Some believe the JRiver setup sounds noticeably better. Seeing as how Euphony makes it so easy to switch from a Roon Stylus mode to a Squeezebox setup that can easily be used with JRiver, I am now listening to that setup. I love what I hear with the Roon setup but this is sounding a bit better.

 

I am curious if anyone has any thoughts on this.

[aangen]

Hi David, I am not looking for advice about my system, I'm curious if others have compared listening to music via Roon vs. say, JRiver on their systems. After extended listening I have decided there does not appear to be a large difference on mine.

[aangen]

I am confused. I have LMS running on another computer on my network. That computer has a copy of the same audio database that also lives on my Euphony PTS server via an internal SSD drive. I have Euphony running Roon Core + StylusEP. 
 

So what do I do to listen the way you are suggesting. I want to use the Roon interface but I want to listen to the Logitech Music Server? 
 

I don’t get it. I probably will seconds after I save this message.  
 

Switch to Roon Core + Squeezelite mode for a step up in sound quality? I can still use Roon but it sounds better than StylusEP mode?

[aangen]

He did say “color me dense”......

[aangen]

57 minutes ago, austinpop said:

Unless your SSD is an Intel Optane SSD, I would not recommend putting it in the NUC, as NVMe SSDs have been reported to sound harsh.

I don't know about NVMe SSDs but I can tell you for sure that Samsung SATA SSDs sound wonderful. So much so I have never been interested in even trying Optane. I have a 4TB Samsung on my Euphony PTS server and harsh is not a word anyone would use to describe it's sound.

To me it feels like one guy said use Optane and a religion formed around it. Haven't heard it, so shame on me, but still.....

[aangen]

You gotta believe in something I guess.

[aangen]

I do a little testing myself Bob. What I have been doing lately is to make 24.96 recordings of an LP and then play the recording on my Euphony server and compare the sound of the recording to the sound of the actual LP. My thinking is there are fewer variables between the two and when testing you should try to avoid variables, i.e. "my system was different during 1,2,3:  DAC, amp, speakers!". My system stays the same for these tests. I am very pleased with how close my digital sound is to my analog sound. It is very close. So close that I have gone many weeks now without buying or trying another component. This year alone I added very significant components at great expense to my system. Feeling calm about it right now is a luxury I hope you might appreciate.

 

There was intended tongue in cheek in my statement about the Optane religion. I get it, really I do. My system has many very expensive components that most people would think absurd. (cables etc..) My only point was to say that in my direct experience, I don't notice the noise some speak of with a SATA SSD. 

[aangen]

8 hours ago, Poldi said:

But as the switch is bringing some sonic improvements I would like to continue using it. Does anyone have a clue how to fix this?

http://notthenetwork.me/blog/2013/05/28/reset-a-cisco-2960-switch-to-factory-default-settings/

 

I have a 2960 as well and I stopped worrying after I replaced it. But this is supposed to solve the problem. I have not tried it.