Euphony OS w/Stylus player setup and issues thread

[Speedy381]

8 hours ago, di-fi said:

Hi, I do have version 20210108 on SSD and USB stick, I am more than happy to share, if that partially helps “pay back” all everyone shared here to my great advantage. But no clue how to make a copy. No Linux knowledge:-( . I use win 10 to access my network. Please PM me. Cheers, Paul

If you have a Dropbox or Google Drive account, you can upload it to there and share the file. I would like that version, for sound quality reasons

[Speedy381]

22 hours ago, TheAttorney said:

I suggest you try giving all of stylus over to gstp, i.e.   0-3 gstp 4-19   and then tinker around with variations of CPU speed vs possibly giving even more cores to gstp (but system responsiveness will go down, and temperature will go up, if you go too far)

It is very interesting how tastes and system/server reactions to changes can vary. In my system, when I initially changed to 217 it was not a pleasant result as I have previously described. I did swap some cables about and other minor changes which tamed the top end. However the deep tactility of the bottom end is still lacking. I have persevered with this release, having gone back for a while to an earlier one, but now on balance it is ok. Although I am looking forward to the next release. 

 

I have tried changing the CPU speed; it would not change it in the program, so I dropped it in the bios. The biggest effect was the soundstage closing in and the music becoming lifeless, however the cores were set. It did not work for me. I then put the speed back up to 3.2 to 4Ghz and tried various CPU setings. The default has the characteristics I described earlier, but any other setting, especially the non Stylus allocation, alters the sound in a negative way. To just describe the 0-3 gtsp 4-11, it is very sat on and lifeless, with no merits other than no harshness at all, but little involvement or other positive feature.

 

System in profile.

[Speedy381]

Great timing. I have been waiting for the last firmware for my PSaudio Directwave and just before it lands I see Euphony has the latest version. The last few weeks have been an odd time for me; I did not like the harshness and lack of musicality of the 117 so went back to 108.

However I had been playing around with cables and supports to calm 117 and was less impressed with 108 than I had been initially. So back to 117 and play around with irqs, core isolation settings and small adjustments in speaker position to get a sound I could listen to.

I was a little trepidatious over installing the latest update, but straight off it has every quality I was missing. Detailed, smooth and just enough warmth and that's with every setting unaltered from my playing with 117. Very satisfied.

That's without the new firmware to the DAC, which is rumoured to be a big step forward. Will that alter the balance again? At least I know Euphony is behaving now.

 

[Speedy381]

I am using 421 and whilst appreciative of its detail, I too find it very etched. I tried disabling ramroot and was very surprised by how much the sound was 'dumbed down' but easier to listen to. I will have to alternate to decide which I prefer, but it does feel wrong to compromise performance to gain listenability. 

I am also using Apacer ram and am Optane drive.

[Speedy381]

I'm running v4 from usb, eventually installed after several attempts with sticks I had around the house then bought a new SanDisk 64gb. 

I appreciate 'putting it out there' as a beta, and would probably have contained my curiosity it were not for the many (all?) positive reports on sound quality. My install went fine, with the new stick and my library on a USB drive. 

As for sound quality; I have not installed to the nvme drive on my NUC and appreciate that will affect things again, but the sound at present is too clinical for my tastes. Yes, possibly the background is darker, although I am not certain, and the top end is not harsh, but the balance of my system has been thrown and bass has lost some authority. I will keep listening to the v4 and reading comments, but I am not tempted to install on my spare nvme drive yet. V3 will be back in a couple of days and I'll see. 

[Speedy381]

I posted earlier re my findings on sound quality. An update now. 

I reverted to v3 and the bottom end was restored; a more visceral sound returned, with a very small loss of air and detail. However the voices were more palpable and emotive with v3. 

But, one cannot resist the latest thing, so I tried again. This time I installed to usb to enable updates. Once more, the bass lightened and the sound was not drawing me in, lacking emotion. I then enabled Ramroot, something that previously I had had mixed results with, but mostly had thinned the sound. So I was apprehensive re the effect this time. However, it gave something back and took nothing; a definite improvement. A few songs in, I tried the update channel,  from 603 (the newer beta I installed) to 608 and after a reboot it was once again improved. Nothing like the magnitude of change that ramroot gave, but a smoother sound. Whether it was a further reboot cleaning things up, or the beta being different I don't know. 

So, at present I am running the beta v4 from a SanDisk USB stick, as opposed to v3 from an Optane 16gb NVME m2 internally and much less concerned that for my system v4 was going the wrong way. Good ram and system disk go a long way in helping sound quality for me.

Current setup;

8gb Apacer ram in 10 series i7 NUC, 16gb Optane m2 nvme drive. Powered by Farad PS. USB external HD. Audioquest Coffee USB to Matrix Spdif2, linear MCRU powered. Audioquest Mocha I2S to PSAudio Directstream DAC with transformer upgrade. Ars Sonum Filarmonia integrated feeding Merlin VSMMe via Mbam module. All powered by Cardas Golden reference or Clear power cables from purepower 2000 mains regen unit.

 

[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. 

 

[Speedy381]

I weakened and took advantage if the upgrade offer as a birthday present to myself (and ensuring an easy choice of present for the foreseeable). However, the registration had gone through, the program sees my codes etc but the date of expiry is undefined. So it still thinks it is a trial. Ticket in and I'll see what is going on. However it won't be an evening of uninterrupted music.

[Speedy381]

So, support as quick off the mark as ever and have fixed the registration issue. I don't know what it was, but it works.

Now installed to the internal M2, the harshness I was getting has gone and I'm pretty happy with the sq. The ethernet isolation, which was so effective with v3, has not functioned with any of the v4 versions I have tried. When support is a little less busy with migrations I will put in a ticket. 

 

[Speedy381]

Hi, 

I have been a long time user of Euphony 3 and 4 since it came out. The sound quality has continued to improve, with a little experimentation with kernels and releases. Aside from a little issue I have had where I hace had to reinstall and lose ...238? version which I preferred to the current.

The issue, which I am struggling to explain to support, and caused my installation to fail, is down to my increasing number of files on attached hard drive. I am running the os from a 16gb Optane M2 in a 10th gen NUC i7. On any of my backups or main external hard drive, the scan recognises the total number of files (179000), but ceases to scan at 150000 and puts one of the cores into stress at 100%. Has anything else seen this happen, or have any suggestions? It did this on my old install and the new one. It may be the 16gb is an issue, but support do not seem to recognise that possibility.

Ian

[Speedy381]

Flkin,

Thanks for your detailed reply. It is actually failing at 153404 of 179413 reported files. The os disc is 16gb, the external hd 6tb and I am unable to run Roon from the 16gb, as the database will not fit, however Stylus obviously has space for 150000 files info. I do not have another M2 drive, perhaps I should buy a cheap 256gb for testing, however I am reluctant to knock the delicate balance of good sound I have with the Optane.  You may be onto something with the corrupted file, although I have trimmed a backup down and it manages that. 

That pointer is what I was hoping for from support, along with the nod regarding os disc size. I didn't get much beyond a couple of exploratory questions and two still open tickets after a week.

Ian

[Speedy381]

As a follow-up to my inability to scan a large music library, I have had some success. It appears that two of my back up drives are faulty. Win11 chkdsk finds no faults, but I will be scanning them on a Linux system. However my no3 back up works fine. So the music is back, but I have lost my earlier firmware and it has taken the best sound with it.