Euphony OS w/Stylus player setup and issues thread

[PavelDosko]

34 minutes ago, Gbn said:

ví někdo, když si koupíte jejich summus hardware dostanete vers. 4 doživotně nebo pokud potřebujete zaplatit předplatné

Even the sales department probably doesn't know this now, but buy it, they will count everything for you several times over time

[Darryl R]

On 7/19/2022 at 5:43 AM, Billgates307 said:

 

"Stylus 4 software is licensed as a subscription. This means you pay annual or monthly fee to use software for agreed period of time"

 

To me this is a big disappointment as i hate subscriptions. I rather just buy it and be done with. Wouldn't care if that was 800 bucks.

But off course I'm in. Don't want to miss its stellar SQ. 

 

 

 

Guess they want to be like Roon now.  Maybe Devcic saw a decline in new purchases and wants to make everyone buy it again (and again).  I assume he'll need to support V3 for a while, but bugs I reported were routinely deferred to V4.  I'm sure he has development costs he needs to recoup, but this was a letdown.  The verbiage around the unsubscribe link in the email shows he expects some attrition.

[dminches]

10 hours ago, AngeloVRA said:

An Open Letter to Robert Devcic, CEO - Euphony Audio

 

"New Stylus 4 is licensed only as a subscription. Also it represents all new software we developed which includes a lot of new features. Simple upgrade is not possible, because it is all new software licensed at different model then old.
So only what is left is to offer you a good discount when buying new software. In return for discount, we ask you to allow us to digitally scrap your old software.

If you are interested in this proposal, we are able to offer you new Stylus 4 subscription valid next 12 months for value of EURO 59.50. This is a 50% discount from subscription which is sold for EURO 119.00 when billed annually."

 

The promo proposal only offers Euro 59.50 value for the E3 (Euphony V3) perpetual license that I paid Euro 249 for. After which I would start paying Euro 119.90 per year instead.

 

 

 

Isn't the Euro 59.50 for E4, not E3? My understanding is that if you choose to stay on E3 there is no future cost (although it likely won't work forever and there is little, if any, future support).

 

[Darryl R]

Just now, dminches said:

 

Isn't the Euro 59.50 for E4, not E3? My understanding is that if you choose to stay on E3 there is no future cost (although it likely won't work forever and there is little, if any, future support).

 

 

I believe so.  But there was also verbiage indicating they'd like to get rid of V3.

[Speedy381]

In my system, v4 gave the obvious small increase in gui functionality, but an arguable benefit to sound quality. The sound is clearer, no doubt, but harsher and less musical, with less presence. This is booting from usb, and I found previously that installing to an internal M2 stick improved things greatly. However, I have been unable to verify this for v4. My ethernet isolation also had a very good effect on v3 but did not work with v4 from usb.

I was pretty happy with v3, and reverted when my trial of v4 concluded, awaiting what deal would be available. 

As it stands, I will not be surrendering my v3 for a subscription. That's is both for reasons of sound quality and my own values. 

 

[morningstaraudio]

Seems a small price to pay for superior sound quality. Thank you for all your hard work Euphony team.

   I haven't heard the beta version 4 yet but a buddy who is computer friendly says it is stunning. I'm looking forward to hearing V4.

Warmest Regards,

Bill O'Connell

 

[Smaragdhk]

37 minutes ago, Speedy381 said:

In my system, v4 gave the obvious small increase in gui functionality, but an arguable benefit to sound quality. The sound is clearer, no doubt, but harsher and less musical, with less presence. This is booting from usb, and I found previously that installing to an internal M2 stick improved things greatly. However, I have been unable to verify this for v4. My ethernet isolation also had a very good effect on v3 but did not work with v4 from usb.

I was pretty happy with v3, and reverted when my trial of v4 concluded, awaiting what deal would be available. 

As it stands, I will not be surrendering my v3 for a subscription. That's is both for reasons of sound quality and my own values. 

 

I paid the full USD299 in June last year, so I’ve used V3 for about 13 months. Foolish to think that us beta testers would get a “special deal” for our efforts helping out beta-testing V4. Never mind that. I noticed just like many others a nice step up in quality even when booting from USB. Like many others here with V3 I also had a nice step up when booting it from @darkforce’s Femto M.2 SSD, so I’m curious to hear what V4 would sound like when completing the installation… Guess I’ll never know now since I don’t want to give up my V3.

 

During the beta V4 I had some audio enthousiast friends over and they were amazed at the difference, getting them interested in getting V4 when it would come out…

Whatever you choose, stay - upgrade -  or go, enjoy your music… 

[davide256]

hmm. The problem with subscription fees is that it encourages users to perpetually comparison shop as I did with Roon. Whereas with a permanent license you

feel like you have an investment and when you have an investment you expect there to be maintenance costs in order to keep up its value. I will  replace

my v3 license but the "nag" factor of a subscription renewal to keep using software is a negative.

[walloon]

3 hours ago, Yiakubou said:

Yes, works fine for me. Euphony v4 has HQP embedded v4.30.3 preinstalled and Roon requires at least v4.29.3 now. Although you have to switch to the 4.30.3 version binary in system settings as by default there is an older version active that does not work with Roon.

Sorry I don’t see where I can change HQP version in Euphony :-(

[Lukasluis]

22 hours ago, davide256 said:

I keep going back and forth between HQP and Stylus.  HQP is better controlled, digital nasties are far less likely to jump out at you. But Stylus delivers

the subliminal cues that persuade it's life like vs  a copy even with its occasional digital nasties.

Have you tried poly-sinc-xtr-short-lp NS9 1.536M? Better than V4 on my system. Local files and minimserver on NAS and send music to Hqp embedded using Bubble Upnp app. Tidal files are sent directly from bubble upnp to Hqp embedded. I use HQPlayer OS burned to USB stick for easy ABing with V4 which is also on USB stick. 

[Yiakubou]

27 minutes ago, walloon said:

Sorry I don’t see where I can change HQP version in Euphony :-(

Go to Settings -> Music Service -> Audio Outputs. Select HQP and it should show the HQP version. If you click on the version, it will give you selection where you can change HQP binaries.

[walloon]

8 minutes ago, Yiakubou said:

Go to Settings -> Music Service -> Audio Outputs. Select HQP and it should show the HQP version. If you click on the version, it will give you selection where you can change HQP binaries.

I only see my DAC as Audio Output.

[Yiakubou]

Make sure you have audio system selected that has HQP enabled (e.g. Stylus+HQP or HQP mode only), hit refresh button in audio outputs if needed, or try to restart the app.

[davide256]

As expected, when I used the voucher code from the promo, it wouldn't work because HW ID changed going from v3 to v4. Will advise on my experience getting this handled,

in mean time if you have 10 or 11 series NUC with v3, you may want to wait on upgrade until I report back how this resolves.

[walloon]

4 minutes ago, Yiakubou said:

Make sure you have audio system selected that has HQP enabled (e.g. Stylus+HQP or HQP mode only), hit refresh button in audio outputs if needed, or try to restart the app.

What I’m trying is using StylusEP connected to a Roon server using HQP protocol. I don’t have HQP license as I don’t upsample, just using it as transport protocol. It used to work with Euphony v3 before Roon upgraded HQP. It was the best config for my system.

[Yiakubou]

Not sure I understand what you are trying to achieve. If you use Stylus endpoint mode, I don't think there is a way to have HQP in the chain. You can only have Roon connected to StylusEP and that is not using HQP protocol

[davide256]

Just now, Yiakubou said:

Not sure I understand what you are trying to achieve. If you use Stylus endpoint mode, I don't think there is a way to have HQP in the chain. You can only have Roon connected to StylusEP and that is not using HQP protocol

But he is correct that it worked before using Roon to Stylus endpoint, before Roon required an updated HQP version. It may no longer be possible due to HQP changes.

[davide256]

43 minutes ago, Lukasluis said:

Have you tried poly-sinc-xtr-short-lp NS9 1.536M? Better than V4 on my system. Local files and minimserver on NAS and send music to Hqp embedded using Bubble Upnp app. Tidal files are sent directly from bubble upnp to Hqp embedded. I use HQPlayer OS burned to USB stick for easy ABing with V4 which is also on USB stick. 

Opposite direction. Straight pass thru with HQP. Tossed my PGGB 768/706 up-sampled files several months ago, now using all that space to convert all FLAC to WAV

[stefano_mbp]

16 minutes ago, davide256 said:

now using all that space to convert all FLAC to WAV

FYI … using MinimServer/MinimStreamer you can transcode flac (and even alac) to wav on the fly preserving original bit/sample rate

[Yiakubou]

There is no difference in bit/sample rate between flac and wav formats. Flac is compressed, wav is uncompressed and that's it.

[walloon]

35 minutes ago, Yiakubou said:

Not sure I understand what you are trying to achieve. If you use Stylus endpoint mode, I don't think there is a way to have HQP in the chain. You can only have Roon connected to StylusEP and that is not using HQP protocol

What I'm trying to achieve is described by Euphony when you select StylusEP:

 

StylusEP implements several endpoint protocols:

<snip>

HQPlayer Control protocol - If you add Euphony hostname or IP address in Roon's HQPlayer setup and on that Euphony machine you start StylusEP Roon will be able to use StylusEP for playback using HQPlayer control protocol. 
 

It stopped working when Roon upgraded HQP. Euphony folks said it won't be fixed in v3. Sadly it looks like it won't be supported in v4 either. It was a wonderful combination though.

 

Currently I use Euphony v3 with Stylus as audio player. For Roon, I have Rock running on a NUC connected to a Raspberry PI4 with a HiFiBerry Digi2 Pro hat. Both Stylus and PI are connected to my DAC. Stylus in USB and the PI in SPDIF.

 

[Yiakubou]

I see, thanks. Forgot this was an option in v3. Yeah, looks like it's no longer possible in v4.

[stefano_mbp]

8 minutes ago, Yiakubou said:

There is no difference in bit/sample rate between flac and wav formats

Of course, it is well known 😉 But as MinimStreamer can resample too it was just a way to say that transcoding flac to wav can be done preserving original bit/sample rate

[Lukasluis]

12 minutes ago, stefano_mbp said:

FYI … using MinimServer/MinimStreamer you can transcode flac (and even alac) to wav on the fly preserving original bit/sample rate

Yup, this is what I use to send music  directly to a Hegel upnp streamer/integrated amp which sends the reclocked data to an external DAC then analog is sent back to the Hegel via XLR cable. 

[walloon]

5 minutes ago, Yiakubou said:

I see, thanks. Forgot this was an option in v3. Yeah, looks like it's no longer possible in v4.

Funnily enough, the statement about HQPlayer Control protocol is still mentioned in v4. Not on the main audio system page but still when you select this mode.

 

Config still works with Squeezebox protocol but it is limited to 192k and without native DSD support.