Euphony OS w/Stylus player setup and issues thread

[Chopin75]

2 hours ago, drjimwillie said:

Euphony playing Stylus, in a one box system directly to the DAC Is a special sauce I want to try. 
 

To do it I’m going to change the way I’ve been playing music for years, which is with HQ player.

 

Eventhough it will be high powered I’m still thinking about it as an endpoint. 
 

I think people that continue to use HQplayer might want a two box system. Especially in the future if they think they are going to be able to use the EC modulators to DSD512.  Who knows what the future will bring, but you might not be able to passively cool it.  Regardless, you would not want that much noise/activity in the machine connected to your DAC. 
 

and you would want that DAC connected machine to play Stylus. 

I did try HQplayer embedded in the Euphony OS, even upsampled to DSD512, no overheating issue. I am not sure If I would get the best sound from single box though.

[AnotherSpin]

I am using mac mini with HQPlayer 4 desktop and NUC with Euphony or HQP own endpoint alternatively. And, I clearly prefer Miska's endpoint in this configuration. At first it may seem that Euphony gives more resolving sound, but with longer listening and comparison it becomes clear that HQP endpoint offers less disturbing and more natural, musical sound.

[austinpop]

Hi all, if you're up to date on the latest build/feature level of 20200316, I wanted to alert you to a Stylus bug and a workaround.

 

If you're trying to achieve to goal of "no network or disk I/O during playback," then you've probably checked the following flags:

• Use cache in the Settings -> Library tab
• Buffer before play=100% in the Settings -> Music Service tab
• Buffer albums added to queue in the Settings -> Music Service tab

There is an interaction in the current version between caching and buffering that Željko is looking into. What I've discovered is with these flags checked, even if the tracks show the buffered indicator  when you hit play, it seems to go back to retrieve the file from the original storage location. You can see this by monitoring network traffic (click the word REGISTERED on the bottom right.)

 

For now, the workaround is to just turn Use cache off.

 

Why would one want both caching and buffering? Many of us are using a 100Mb/s switch like the EtherRegen, so take the use case of a large album. One of the largest albums I have is the Mahler 3rd in 24/352.8 DXD, which consumes 9GB of space.

 

 

Transferring that over my NAS to Euphony at 100Mbps is painfully slow. On my system, my cache is the /data partition and is about 42GB. Using the new Expert option of Buffering RAM (GB) (try it!) I've set my buffer size to 10GB (probably could go as high as 12 or higher).

 

So when I enqueue this album using "Add and replace," I want the album to be transferred once over the network, and be stored:

• in cache /data/Music/E_CACHE until it gets cleared 
• in buffer for immediate playback.

This way, if I remove this album from the queue but then decide to listen to the same album while it still lives in cache, then the next time I add it to the queue, rather than fetch the album from my NAS over the network, Stylus can just load the buffer from cache.

 

 

[HeeBroG]

Thanks Rajiv. 

Are there any sound quality improvements with this update?

 

Geoff

[austinpop]

6 hours ago, HeeBroG said:

Thanks Rajiv. 

Are there any sound quality improvements with this update?

 

Geoff

 

Hi Geoff,

 

Please clarify if I'm not understanding your question. I wasn't describing a new release. The current release of 20201316 has been out for a month. This release did add a couple of nice performance improvements shown in bold:

 

20200316
- Added option to optimize UI (remove CPU intensive animations on client side)
- In File View, album folders now have cover image
- UPnP convert to WAV option added (before, all online sources were converted)
- Added Expert option to specify RAM size used for buffering (default is half of your total RAM)
- Fixed 'Song not found' problem when using '100% buffering' and 'Use cache' options at the same time 
- Stylus will now pick up volume changes done on UPnP device
- Other fixes to UPnP playback

 

The issue I described was actually a bug I happened to notice due to an interaction between "buffering" and "caching."

 

UPDATE: Željko did provide me with a bug fix to try, and so far, it seems to be working great. He's hoping to put out this fix with other planned fixes in a feature update soon.

[ASRMichael]

I love Euphony don’t get me wrong, but I have mentioned this before. Very frustrating each time you set your album cover view the setting is lost when opening closing either browser or app. 
 

I’m sure this must be a easy fix/update. Please when considering new feature you don’t forget about making exciting features more intuitive. 
 

As I say Euphony is fantastic

[flkin]

So glad someone else is asking for this change too. It’s caused by keeping the sort and album preferences in browser cookies which gets reset upon exit - probably for security reasons. Hopefully if enough ask for more sticky preferences it will ... stick!
 

Another irritating issue for me is lack of sort for Tidal favorites. Apparently the Tidal API might not have the option for a sorted display. Roon has a special deal with Tidal and is able to do it as they have a copy of Tidal’s metadata database. With that they can do what they want with the display. 
 

[flkin]

The way Roon displays both streaming files alongside local files is very nice. This isn’t possible in Euphony but I’ve found an obvious workaround that others may have been using all the while but it only just occurred to me recently. 
 

When using Euphony, I find myself switching from from local to tidal files and adjusting settings all the time. The current interface works but isn’t fast for me. 
 

Euphony’s control screens are just browser pages. You don’t have to access them through the Euphony app. You can do the same using Euphony’s IP address in a standard browser. So simply openIng  multiple pages of Euphony in a browser works fine. Then switching from local/Tidal/settings etc is a simple case of a single tap or swipe. 
 

Not sure if this might cause more overhead in the streamer though  

[austinpop]

Hey guys, strongly suggest you open tickets for this, otherwise unclear how these ideas get Implemented.

[flkin]

28 minutes ago, austinpop said:

Hey guys, strongly suggest you open tickets for this, otherwise unclear how these ideas get Implemented.

Brought it up with Željko already. 

[austinpop]

6 minutes ago, flkin said:

Brought it up with Željko already. 

Excellent!

[HeeBroG]

15 hours ago, austinpop said:

 

Hi Geoff,

 

Please clarify if I'm not understanding your question. I wasn't describing a new release. The current release of 20201316 has been out for a month. This release did add a couple of nice performance improvements shown in bold:

 

 

 

Thanks Rajiv.

 

I must have missed that update as I am on 20200227!

 

Is there an "update" notifier I'm missing?

 

I run Ramroot Enabled and Loaded.

Nothing happens when I check for an update via the cogwheel.

It's a pain to come out of Ramroot and reboot each time just to check

 

Cheers,

 

Geoff

[austinpop]

9 hours ago, HeeBroG said:

 

Thanks Rajiv.

 

I must have missed that update as I am on 20200227!

 

Is there an "update" notifier I'm missing?

 

I run Ramroot Enabled and Loaded.

Nothing happens when I check for an update via the cogwheel.

It's a pain to come out of Ramroot and reboot each time just to check

 

Cheers,

 

Geoff

 

That's bizarre, and I have no idea why you're not seeing a new update. I just did "Check for updates" from time to time. I didn't have to come out of ramroot. All of the recent updates have been "feature updates" best I can tell, so they don't affect the OS, just the Stylus web app. Maybe that's why the notifier doesn't work? I'm stumped.

 

Here's the change log I see if I click on the release number on the Settings > System page:

Change log
20200316
- Added option to optimize UI (remove CPU intensive animations on client side)
- In File View, album folders now have cover image
- UPnP convert to WAV option added (before, all online sources were converted)
- Added Expert option to specify RAM size used for buffering (default is half of your total RAM)
- Fixed 'Song not found' problem when using '100% buffering' and 'Use cache' options at the same time 
- Stylus will now pick up volume changes done on UPnP device
- Other fixes to UPnP playback

20200227
- Fixed UPnP MediaRenderer operation for certain cases
- Fixed 'Convert non-DSD formats' HQPlayer playback 
- Fixed HQPlayer restarting playback after pause and clear queue

20200226
- Improved UPnP MediaRenderer recognition
- Improved logging for some reported problems
- Improved ethtool param line parsing ('-s' is optional and other flags can be used instead of '-s')
- Fixed 'Convert non-DSD formats' HQPlayer option use and conversion itself (output bit-depth was fixed to 16 regardless of source's bit-depth) 
- Fixed conflict during album buffering
- Fixed list display of Qobuz playlists
- Fixed HQPlayer playback of files with '#' symbol in filename
- Fixed some border-case ramroot problems

20200217
- Album covers added in File view to indicate album folders (where possible)
- Added 'Song pos. update' Settings option
- Fixed DSD DOP playback via Roon - StylusEP via HQPlayer API
- Fixed re-initialization for the same audio-device after device disconnects and reconnects again (if it was the only device on the system)
- Fixed saving Queue to user playlist
- Improved metadata scanning (added ffmpeg as an alternative when taglib fails) 

20200210
 - Added 'Eject CD' option in File Manager (shown when CD is present)
 - Enable also Mac ⌘  key where Ctrl key is used for special operations
 - Fix song histogram bug
 - Fix playback of local songs that have '#' symbol in filename

20200131
- Critical fix - some Stylus audio card settings were missing

20200130
- Enabled StylusEP playback of DSD files via DOP from Roon when using HQPlayer Control API
- Enabled force-rescan of current folder in File View
- Improved metadata scanning 

20200127
- Fixed footer cover click bug
- Added 'Buffer albums added to queue' option to automatically buffer albums added to queue (no need to click 'Buffer Queue to RAM' each time)
- Added re-applying CPU isolation after starting HQPlayer playback to override affinities set by HQPlayer (use with caution - HQPlayer developer strongly recommends not using any CPU isolation while running HQPlayer because HQPlayer manages affinity of its own threads) 

20200124
- Clarified use of HQPlayer Ccontrol API by StylusEP both in Euphony app and in Signal path display in Roon client
- Fixed StylusEP playback of DSD files converted to PCM by Roon via HQPlayer Control API
- Fixed UI hangup when clicking albumartist in Album info dialog
- Fixed NAA endpoint device selection in HQPlayer settings
- Fixed initial volume when using StylusEP through HQPlayer Control API
- Fixed Artist view list display (sometimes, when songs without artist tag were found in library, nothing was displayed in the list) 
- Fixed Summus playback mode when using StylusEP through HQPlayer Control API 
- Fixed Summus playback mode indication when used as endpoint (refresh page if necessary to see current status of Summus playback mode)

20200114
- Summus server special features (only active on Summus server)
- StylusEP can be used as HQplayer endpoint in Roon 
- Added option to convert all formats (except DSD) to WAV for Stylus + HQPe upsampling
- Added support for UPnP renderer endpoints
- Added option to buffer entire Queue to RAM
- Added indication of cached (light blue) and buffered songs (blue) in Queue
- Added option to skip library scan on startup
- Added 'Recendly added' Dashboard menu item
- Added intro page with option to change registration email for first-time users
- Added Expert option: Disk spindown timeout
- Added SMB version option to 'Add network drive' dialog
- Fixed Youtube playback issue that recently appeared due to changes in Youtube API made by Google
- Introducing 'Radio' flag - after last song put in Queue by user, next song is automatically added from local library (basic matching for now - to be improved..)
- 'Complete instalation' function now fully prepares the system - the same as 'Install'  
- Fixed Stylus + HQPe Qobuz playback (song is fully buffered before it is given to HQPe) 
- Fixed calculation of available RAM for entering ramroot
- Fixed Artist pic retrieval for currently playing song
- Updated HQPe to 4.12.2
- Added latest HQPe options to Euphony HQPe settings
- Monitor Roon updates while in ramroot (if update happened root fs is saved to disk automatically)
- Hostname change and timezone change should work in ramroot
- Improved update image download behaviour (you can resume interrupted/incomplete download) 
- Optimised communication between browser client and server
- Click on artist name opens artist's page on LastFM
- CTRL + click on release number on Library page opens Settings with Expert section expanded
- Fixed search for NAA devices on network
- Improved checks for internet connectivity
- Kernel security mitigations are disabled now

[AnotherSpin]

To see and instal updates Complete Install or Install should be completed. I also had a problem with updating which was resolved after Z. reminded about routine. So, I disabled ramroot, did Complete Install, updated and enabled ramroot again. Details are here: https://euphony-audio.com/hesk/knowledgebase.php?article=10

[davide256]

I've never seen an update as available when in RAMroot with the load appdata to RAM option enabled

[abdodson]

I very skeptically made the switch from running a dual system Roon setup over ethernet to a single system Euphony setup with simple USB out to the DAC. The jump in sound quality was actually stunning. Can't go back.

 

But like many of you I am missing the Roon interface. I am wanting to play around with integrating the two and am unclear on the setup. From what I can discern, Roon Core is preloaded in Euphony? Does this mean I can just point the Roon client to the Euphony server? How do I set this up?

[HeeBroG]

13 hours ago, AnotherSpin said:

To see and instal updates Complete Install or Install should be completed. I also had a problem with updating which was resolved after Z. reminded about routine. So, I disabled ramroot, did Complete Install, updated and enabled ramroot again. Details are here: https://euphony-audio.com/hesk/knowledgebase.php?article=10

 I guess my problem is that despite doing a full install, I boot from USB.

I therefore don't see any available updates when in Ramroot.

Easy fix is an alert here when an update is released

 

Cheers,

 

G

[AnotherSpin]

48 minutes ago, HeeBroG said:

 I guess my problem is that despite doing a full install, I boot from USB.

I therefore don't see any available updates when in Ramroot.

Easy fix is an alert here when an update is released

 

Cheers,

 

G

 

The same here, I boot from USB. After "Complete install" updates check works ok even in ramroot. It is seen on picture below: ramroot enabled, update check works.

[johnli]

Hi All,

 

I've found another problem after I updated to the latest version 

In Roon, after playing a track, sometimes it can't go on to radio mode, where Roon chooses your potential favourite songs

sometimes, when it stops playing, even if you press on an album, it won't play

things will get back to know if you're in euphony and restart Roon bridge.

but time and again it will revert to this bug.

 

I'll open a ticket and see how it goes

 

anyone has the same problem?

 

Thanks

[TheAttorney]

On 4/18/2020 at 3:33 AM, flkin said:

Euphony’s control screens are just browser pages. You don’t have to access them through the Euphony app. You can do the same using Euphony’s IP address in a standard browser. So simply openIng  multiple pages of Euphony in a browser works fine.

Thank you for this idea. Multiple windows seems to work fine. As you said, it's not clear what impact this has on load/traffic, but I haven't noticed any issues.

 

Useful, for example, when changing expert settings and seeing the results immediately in the side-by-side temp/CPU window, without having to keep navigating from one to another.

[HeeBroG]

Hi All,

 

I am new to Tidal and streaming.

 

When one is streaming, does is the "Buffer to RAM" functional?

 

Thanks

 

Geoff

[davide256]

On 4/18/2020 at 9:12 PM, abdodson said:

I very skeptically made the switch from running a dual system Roon setup over ethernet to a single system Euphony setup with simple USB out to the DAC. The jump in sound quality was actually stunning. Can't go back.

 

But like many of you I am missing the Roon interface. I am wanting to play around with integrating the two and am unclear on the setup. From what I can discern, Roon Core is preloaded in Euphony? Does this mean I can just point the Roon client to the Euphony server? How do I set this up?

To use Roon interface, Roon server has to be running either on a separate machine or on the Euphony server. Like you I find Roons interface better... but

it doesn't sound as good as Stylus server, lacks that midrange rightness and correct transient decay over time

[davide256]

1 hour ago, HeeBroG said:

Hi All,

 

I am new to Tidal and streaming.

 

When one is streaming, does is the "Buffer to RAM" functional?

 

Thanks

 

Geoff

I don't believe so... there is no option to tell it to do so as there is with local media.

[HeeBroG]

Hi All,

 

Does Euphony do the unfolding of MQA Master Quality files automatically?

 

On my system it somehow only does 24/48.

 

Is there a setting I need to switch on?

 

Cheers,

Geoff

[Holzohr]

1 hour ago, HeeBroG said:

Does Euphony do the unfolding of MQA Master Quality files automatically?

 

On my system it somehow only does 24/48.

 

Is there a setting I need to switch on?

 

Nope. You need Roon to do the first unfold.