Euphony OS w/Stylus player setup and issues thread

[flkin]

Had the same issue when I started. You can try click the 3 dots on the album top right corner and select the next cover option if you already have covers with your tracks. But I occasionally find that sometimes this correction isn’t remembered. 
 

AMD CPUs doesn’t easily publish their core temperature when I discussed this with AudioLinux. Looks like Euphony has the same issues too. 

[flkin]

I’m back on the latest v20200430 after returning to previous then updating again. 
 

Looks like the v20200519 was an accident and shouldn’t have been sent to me. Željko confirmed it’s buggy. 

[flkin]

First impression - Version 2020709 Stylus works fine in my Pink Faun 2.16x streamer and sounds good. Especially HQP which I can now use for the first time. 

[flkin]

4 hours ago, dminches said:

When playing music from Qobuz (or Tidal) is there any buffering? I don't see the "i" information icon turn blue like it does for local music.  I thought someone did a review of this and said it does buffer a couple songs but I can't recall where that was written up.

 

Both Qobuz or Tidal seems to buffer 2 tracks when playing through Stylus despite not showing the blue ‘i’ (however this is not true when using HQP). I wrote about my tests on Tidal a few months ago at the end of a long post here:

 

Rajiv later confirmed this works with Qobuz tracks.

You can unplug the Ethernet cable from the streamer after starting the playback and the tracks play on.

[flkin]

Someone else can confirm this but I believe AMD Rizen CPU doesn’t report temperatures proprtly. I had this issue with AudioLinux and now also with Euphony too.

[flkin]

On 10/6/2020 at 7:43 AM, louawalters said:

I just completed the update, I have ramroot working in stylus, but when I play TIDAL I get no sound....   I authorized Euphony but not sure if a reboot is required or not...  forgot to mention stylus is playing through HQPlayer.   Everything else works including TIDAL on Roon.

Same problem. Tidal through HQP under stylus doesn’t play. Asked for official help already.

[flkin]

Yup, Stylus/HQPlayer/Tidal is broken. 

Just received this from Željko:

 

“ I'm afraid this is HQPlayer problem. It doesn't play on my test system also but when I enter the URL of the song (taken from HQPlayer log) and put it in browser, it plays without problem. 
The change from previous version is that we were forced by Tidal to implement new authorization API (you saw that already) but with that change they also changed some things in API itself (when accessed with new authorization scheme). It seems one of those changes broke the HQPlayer ability either to download the song or parse the song URL. 
I suggest you use Stylus without HQPlayer until this is resolved.. “

[flkin]

Anyone notice that their playlists don’t work anymore?

[flkin]

13 hours ago, flkin said:

Anyone notice that their playlists don’t work anymore?

Restarting the Euphony app twice solves this. 

[flkin]

Yes sample rate mapping is for DACs that are unable to play higher rates but the function can be use for upsampling too. But for me it doesn’t sound as good as HQPlayer probably due to less sophisticated filter options.

 

2 hours ago, walloon said:

Hi,

 

WIth regards to"Samplerates mapping" in Stylus settings, I understand it maps unsupported samplerates to supported ones. 

 

Can it also be used to upsample like HQPLayer does? I guess the answer is no...or why would you pay for HQPLayer licence unless you want to upsample to DSD?

 

Can someone shed some light?

 

Thanks.

 

[flkin]

A minor Euphony bug:

 

If you use Stylus/HQPlayer then switch to Airplay and then switch back to Stylus, HQPlayer switches off by itself and need to be re-enabled in settings again. Thereafter all works fine again.
 

Bug acknowledged and should be fixed in the next version. 

[flkin]

There’s a bug in the bit rate displayed by Stylus in iPhones/iPads. If you exit the Stylus app (not close it but just switch to another app or go to the home screen) and return to Stylus, it updates to show the correct bit rate. This has been going on for sometime now and is highly irritating (to me at least) but seems to not be a priority fix. 

[flkin]

Volume slider automatically appears above the play tracking bar when using HQPlayer inside Stylus. There is no option to switch that off inside Stylus. 

[flkin]

13 hours ago, AudioDoctor said:

 

I guess I haven't seen that...

Ah, this is strange as I’m trying to do the opposite from you - not to enable the volume bar in Stylus/HQP. And I don’t know how!

 

Perhaps you accessed HQP’s settings directly outside of Stylus and HQP remembered it?

 

10 hours ago, davide256 said:

I’m going to suggest you do your own check as that does not agree with observed behavior when I disconnect the ethernet cable during play. Stylus will always play the next song. When I use Roon with HQPlayer it stops after current song if Ethernet is disconnected. I’m also wondering now if Roon is buffering current song to RAM or caching to disk. 

I’m finding that Euphony pre-download works differently for Stylus and Stylus/HQP. In Stylus, local files, Tidal and Qoobuz streaming a minimum of 2 tracks are pre-downloaded into RAM (assuming you have enough ram) and the streamer can be disconnected entirely from LAN and the two tracks plays fine. There’s an option to pre-download the entire album into RAM also but this works for local files only. 
 

When playing normally with LAN connected there is no lag moving from a track to the next due to this. For a 2 track pre-load, when moving to the second track, the third is downloaded during the first few seconds of the second track’s playback.  
 

For Stylus/HQP, there is a few seconds pause while the current selected track is downloaded or processed by HQP before playback starts. This occurs for both local files and streamed files and is true even for pre-downloaded local files or pre-downloaded streaming files. It’s like HQP has its own buffering system. Even fast forwarding in a pre-downloaded file causes a delay. 
 

There doesn’t seem to be a pre-download more than the current file. So moving to the next track always causes a noticeable delay - a sum of the track download and HQP’s re-buffering. 
 

As for the latest Roon version and HQP, disconnecting the LAN stops the music after a few seconds of playing. It might be that the track is pre-downloaded also but Roon doesn’t allow playback to continue once the Roon remote is disconnected from the Roon server. So even though pre-download might exist, the constant (2 way?) communication of the Roon components will likely affect the sound quality. Or perhaps Roon/HQP simply doesn’t have track pre-download. 
 

Of course the real question is why on earth anyone would use Roon over Euphony being clearly inferior in sound quality? 😄

 

Actually I do, on a separate server not for playback but for it’s excellent music searching abilities and ability to sort both local and streamed files together by date added. Željko steadfastly refuses to prioritize this despite many prods from me. So it’s Roon for search only and Stylus for playback side by side, best of both!

[flkin]

One the network cable is pulled, you wouldn’t be able to control the music after. So this is only for those purist players who want zero effect from network or for testing the effect of the  upstream network equipment on current setup.

 

Note that pulling the network cable also means making the network card redundant - an item that might be an expensive component now made unnecessary due to the complete buffering of the tracks downstream of the card. 
 

Physically disconnecting the lan cable is not the same as switching off the network using software. An attached cable still allows leakage currents to flow so it’s not as good as a physical disconnect. 

[flkin]

I think that a keyboard is pretty harmless but a monitor requires a graphics card. Graphics cards and any powered eternal drive might inject noise or unwanted leakage currents unless their power source is carefully managed. 

 

It's all a compromise actually how to store the music - internally, externally directly connected, network. Each have many variations and their own Pro and Cons. After applying best practices, I think finally it comes to listening then deciding.

 

 

[flkin]

18 hours ago, dminches said:

 

You don't need a graphics card is the motherboard and CPU support on board graphics.

 

 

It all depends on the motherboard specs.  The specs will state if onboard graphics is present...or if such is supported with a given CPU (the CPU specs will reflect whether it provides graphics capability).

 

Many older motherboards came with onboard graphics but...as many higher power boards cater to gamers today, I would not expect a newer/recent board to provide onboard graphics (gamers tend to prefer discrete GPU cards).

 

I expect that motherboards without graphics support is probably best for audio applications as it allows the graphics card to be removed after the streamer is setup properly. This is what I do with my Pink Faun gaming board and I hear a difference with and without the card installed.

[flkin]

4 hours ago, ASRMichael said:

The feature I’ve been waiting for! Well for local files...

 

Add album, buffer, then in expert menu press play. See below, it automatically shuts down network completely. It also auto populates how long for (album time length). 

 

 

Oh didn’t notice this part of the update. Thanks for bringing it up! 😄👍🏻
 

For sure this helps isolates all upstream devices from the sound. 
 

This software method is good but I would imagine some hardware design with some toggle to physically switch network connection on and off would be better still.

[flkin]

22 hours ago, ASRMichael said:

Today I’ve listened to 5 full albums! Which is very rare! Thoroughly enjoyed it! No itch either to change track because would have to reboot! 
 

 

Yes, here’s something to be said for a forced sit thorough of the playlist.
 

It’s a whole different experience from flicking through tracks made available with remote controls. A slower and deeper experience of music. Especially with a good drink 😄

[flkin]

A lot of great suggestions above. Once connection is lost with streamer, how about a countdown timer showing minutes till online instead of the usual “Euphony is offline” message.
 

Alongside the switch back on button in X seconds @TheAttorney. I think a minute is ok, 5 might be a touch too long?

[flkin]

Or even return online after current track is finished rather than a set time. 
 

 

[flkin]

Just so that others might find it useful too - the new ethernet offline time function can be adjusted. It defaults to the length of the playlist and it's easy to miss the field beside the play button that allows you to insert an alternate time in minutes for the offline function.

 

For my longer playlists - I set it to 10min or so and click Play, usually timing it to end in between tracks 

 

[flkin]

On 1/13/2021 at 9:44 PM, dminches said:

What is the process for moving a license to a new net card?  I am upgrading to the JCAT XE.

 

Look forward to your opinion about improvements in sound with a good network card and the latest version of Euphony playback, especially if offline mode is selected.

 

I am finding that this latest Jan version is offering a better sound even without offline mode selected. Having used HQP over Stylus previously, for this latest Euphony version I am considering moving to Stylus for all playback the sound being so good.

[flkin]

2 hours ago, biosailor said:

Unfortunately, still fighting numerous problems with Euphony's library. For example, Allen Toussaint's album American Tunes is imported only from track two on. I deleted the file in the music folder, updated the library, but it is still there on Euphony's web app! I re-copied the same album containing all tracks and I still see only tracks 2-12, track 1 is missing. How come that Euphony's web app doesn't refresh? Library management in Euphony is a real mess!

 

 

Use the i button to check the meta data of the tracks. Mismatching is usually due to slightly different meta data especially the top few fields. 

Sometimes a ‘restart app’ or a reboot refreshes the fields also. On occasion I’ve had to unplug the streamer, wait a few seconds then replug the power cable again. 

[flkin]

http://audiokernel.com/EuphonyGuide.pdf