Euphony OS w/Stylus player setup and issues thread

[ASRMichael]

1 hour ago, dc-audiogeek said:

 

Earlier this week, I upgraded my headphone system Summus server "back" to version 20212017v3 of Euphony Stylus. I got tired of seeing the pop-ups (after every reboot) notifying me that there was a newer version available. I've made some power-related tweaks to my headphone system since my 3/11 post that have smoothed the overall sound a bit, so I haven't noticed the "digital" quality of Stylus 20212017v3 returning to my system.

 

My living room/home theater Euphony PTS server is still on version 20210108. I'm not going to mess with that one until the next Stylus version update.

Was it 216 or 217 that caused the issue with SQ? I run my NUC with 217 on my 2nd license. I use my NUC like a NAS. Hence the photo below. 
 

 

[dc-audiogeek]

4 hours ago, ASRMichael said:

Was it 216 or 217 that caused the issue with SQ? I run my NUC with 217 on my 2nd license. I use my NUC like a NAS. Hence the photo below. 
 

 

I went straight from 20210108 to 20210217, so I assume it started in 20210216 and carried over to 20210217? I was never offered the option to go to 20210216.

[Joerg D]

Hello
How do you organize your albums?
With tags or playlist ?
Can you show screenshot of it ?
Unfortunately I have not found a way to tag favorites on Stylus.

 

Greetings 
Jörg

[di-fi]

On 4/2/2021 at 6:20 PM, 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

UPDATE: I found out with ASRMichael that the 108 files I have could not be used to install and get back to Euphony 108 (or at least I do not know how). I do know it takes specifically this file: <euphony20201108v?.img.gz>. This is a part of Euphony-downloader from around (end of?) January 2021. If ever someone has <euphony20201108v?.img.gz> it can be flashed to USB stick with a program like balenaEtcher. Sorry. (but please let us know if you have this file)

[ASRMichael]

Ref core isolation - Is there a maximum amount of cores/threads gstp use? 
 

My core isolation is 0-3 stylus 4-7 gstp 8-19

 

 

[di-fi]

On 3/12/2021 at 5:36 PM, di-fi said:

(Euphony Stylus) When changing to a track with a different bit depth the next track plays with heavy distortion

 

I am hoping that someone in this great and resourceful community (many thanks for sharing!) could give me a clue how/where to troubleshoot. With my setup (details in my profile)  I did not have any problem until end last year.  Then suddenly my (1 box) Euphony Stylus (ram root and buffer) started randomly playing distorted tracks when changing from 16 bit to 24 (and 24 to 16) from a play list or 'radio' function. Basically in my day to day listening (all my music is on a NAS) I can only play 1 album (same bit-depth either 16 or 24) or make playlists with one bit depth. When it happens I can hear the song play, but it is extremely distorted, a lot of high, no bass. Sometimes the song will play distorted and at a faster pace. 

(edit)
Does anyone have an idea? Thanks in advance,
Paul

Sound file below (you can hear me change tracks). You do not need to listen for long, it sounds pretty awful:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1mUCSuq2aRNqnRXJcBfu7gmRhesa2rLBK?usp=sharing

 

(edit)

UPDATE: I reached out to Schiit today. I had a chance to replace my Yggdrasil with an other DAC (instead of reinstalling the previous USB that recently was replaced by Unison USB); problem solved, no more distortion when changing bit depth. It seems more likely Unison is to blame.

YMMV and even My Mileage May Vary, really scratching my head. I am back to Yggdrasil for 30 mins. and I can not force distortion anymore as I could earlier today. 

[TheAttorney]

On 4/6/2021 at 1:35 PM, ASRMichael said:

Ref core isolation - Is there a maximum amount of cores/threads gstp use? 
My core isolation is 0-3 stylus 4-7 gstp 8-19

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)

 

On my 4 core/8 thread NUC, I initially found it hard to tell any difference with any core isolation, but there's a sweet spot combination of CPU speed and core isolation where it all seems to happen - and the differences are now much clearer to me.

 

My previous best combination of core isolaton and CPU speed was   

    0 gstp 1-7   and 1.2GHz.

... because it lost a touch of brighness that came with 0-1 gstp 1-7, even though the latter gave a clearer, more dynamic, sound.

 

As my recent Apacer 2666 RAM has smoothed out slightly with further burn-in, I feel I can now push the dynamic parameters a bit harder, with any remaining brightness controlled by adjusting CPU speed, with the following giving me the best of all worlds:

    0-1 gstp 1-7  and 1.1GHz

 

The differences are probably objectively tiny, but somehow matter more than they should in terms of musical engagement - in fact the balance of clarity vs smoothness is the best I've ever experienced on any previous system. And this is with the latest 217 version that others have had a brightness issue with, so I'm hoping the next Euphony version will be better still 🙂

[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.

[flkin]

After testing each process cpu usage when isolated separately, seems there is significant cpu usage outside the listed processes. So I figure that isolating the listed processes from the hidden processes might be good.

 

Found that all systemd processes sound a touch better when isolated so I group them and isolate and the rest into one core too. Then the other computer process into core 0.

 

Given this, my 8-core CPU (non-hyperthreading) isolations are:

 

0 systemd 1 nfm 2 dhcpcd 2 dbus-daemon 2 haveged 2 lvmetad 2 avahi-daemon 2 gstp 3-5 stylus 6-7

[aangen]

In a moment of weakness I bought a Pink Faun 2.16. It will be here soon. I may just run Euphony Endpoint on it but I will most likely buy the full license cause it’s priced to sell. It will likely replace my Signature Rendu Optical streamer and I’ll leave my PTS as the server. But who knows? Any of you have experience with the 2.16?

[TheAttorney]

On 4/9/2021 at 8:24 AM, flkin said:

Given this, my 8-core CPU (non-hyperthreading) isolations are:

0 systemd 1 nfm 2 dhcpcd 2 dbus-daemon 2 haveged 2 lvmetad 2 avahi-daemon 2 gstp 3-5 stylus 6-7

I liked the methodical way you came to this - way more patience than I could ever muster. I also tend to get into a muddle when faced with too many variables, which I why I usually go for simple options.

 

Anyway, I copy & pasted the above exactly as is onto my 4 core/8 thread 7i7DN - and I really like the end result, despite our two systems being very different, and also despite this being a completely different configuration to my previous favourite. So I'll be running with this new one for a while.

[BCRich]

22 minutes ago, TheAttorney said:

 

Given this, my 8-core CPU (non-hyperthreading) isolations are:

0 systemd 1 nfm 2 dhcpcd 2 dbus-daemon 2 haveged 2 lvmetad 2 avahi-daemon 2 gstp 3-5 stylus 6-7

How would this work on a 16 Core System? Also for some reason gstp does not show up in my config, it had in the past. Could a Bios setting affect it?

 

[Exocer]

18 minutes ago, BCRich said:

How would this work on a 16 Core System? Also for some reason gstp does not show up in my config, it had in the past. Could a Bios setting affect it?

Curious about this as well.

 

On 4/9/2021 at 3:24 AM, flkin said:

0 systemd 1 nfm 2 dhcpcd 2 dbus-daemon 2 haveged 2 lvmetad 2 avahi-daemon 2 gstp 3-5 stylus 6-7

 

Is this what it would look like for an 8 core CPU with hyperthreading?

 

0-1 systemd 2-3 nfm 4-5 dhcpcd 4-5 dbus-daemon 4-5 haveged 4-5 lvmetad 4-5 avahi-daemon 4-5 gstp 6-11 stylus 12-15

 

I will probably try this once I break in some other new parts in my system. Don't want to change too many variables at once.

[ASRMichael]

1 hour ago, BCRich said:

How would this work on a 16 Core System? Also for some reason gstp does not show up in my config, it had in the past. Could a Bios setting affect it?

 

You’re using HQPlayer. gstp is part of Stylus. also you’re not using all your cores. 4-7 are not active. 

[ASRMichael]

One point to note. With some motherboards like my Asus Z490 XII Extreme. All cores are running at 5.1 with turbo on with the exception of last two threads that run on 5.3. So I tend you use the fastest (5.3) for gstp. 

[ASRMichael]

On 4/9/2021 at 8:24 AM, flkin said:

After testing each process cpu usage when isolated separately, seems there is significant cpu usage outside the listed processes. So I figure that isolating the listed processes from the hidden processes might be good.

 

Found that all systemd processes sound a touch better when isolated so I group them and isolate and the rest into one core too. Then the other computer process into core 0.

 

Given this, my 8-core CPU (non-hyperthreading) isolations are:

 

0 systemd 1 nfm 2 dhcpcd 2 dbus-daemon 2 haveged 2 lvmetad 2 avahi-daemon 2 gstp 3-5 stylus 6-7

Are you saying they’re process there that are not shown?

[BCRich]

6 hours ago, ASRMichael said:

You’re using HQPlayer. gstp is part of Stylus. also you’re not using all your cores. 4-7 are not active. 

So trying this again......

Copy and pasted your settings and this is how it was processed.

Shows Cores 0-3 assignments missing, how can I utilize my cores more efficiently?

Should I be more specific and reassign based on what is showing up as actual usage as in the photo below or is something wrong?

[BCRich]

33 minutes ago, BCRich said:

So trying this again......

Copy and pasted your settings and this is how it was processed.

Shows Cores 0-3 assignments missing, how can I utilize my cores more efficiently?

Should I be more specific and reassign based on what is showing up as actual usage as in the photo below or is something wrong?

Music playing shows Cores 0-7 in use and 8-15 idle. Does this make sense? I’m sure I’m not fully grasping this.

[Tokyokyoto]

While it’s pretty easy to experiment with these settings on the fly, I haven’t seen any comments on frontend/endpoint core settings for reference.  I have a 4 core nuc/frontend and a 2 core Mitec 170 for endpoint.  Anyone have creative settings that work?

 

[c-w]

11 hours ago, BCRich said:

Music playing shows Cores 0-7 in use and 8-15 idle. Does this make sense? I’m sure I’m not fully grasping this.

 

 

 

 

HQPlayer does its own isolation so Jussi recommends not to mess with it. And since there is no way to exempt HQPlayer when using Euphony CPU isolation it is maybe better not to use Euphony isolation at all when playing through HQPlayer.

 

To explain the screenshot: CPU0 probably has a USB IRQ handler on it and since your output is DSD256 it has a lot of data going through it.,,

CPU4 is obviously HQPlayer upsampling from DSD128 to DSD256.

[flkin]

On 4/11/2021 at 3:00 PM, aangen said:

In a moment of weakness I bought a Pink Faun 2.16. It will be here soon. I may just run Euphony Endpoint on it but I will most likely buy the full license cause it’s priced to sell. It will likely replace my Signature Rendu Optical streamer and I’ll leave my PTS as the server. But who knows? Any of you have experience with the 2.16?

Ah, welcome to the group, there’s a few of us in AS using the PF streamer. I’m one of them. I run it as an all in one streamer under Euphony and output to DAC via USB. 

[flkin]

23 hours ago, TheAttorney said:

I liked the methodical way you came to this - way more patience than I could ever muster. I also tend to get into a muddle when faced with too many variables, which I why I usually go for simple options.

 

Anyway, I copy & pasted the above exactly as is onto my 4 core/8 thread 7i7DN - and I really like the end result, despite our two systems being very different, and also despite this being a completely different configuration to my previous favourite. So I'll be running with this new one for a while.

Great to hear it works for you too although it’s slightly surprising as like you say our systems are quite different. 

 

22 hours ago, Exocer said:

Curious about this as well.

 

 

Is this what it would look like for an 8 core CPU with hyperthreading?

 

0-1 systemd 2-3 nfm 4-5 dhcpcd 4-5 dbus-daemon 4-5 haveged 4-5 lvmetad 4-5 avahi-daemon 4-5 gstp 6-11 stylus 12-15

 

I will probably try this once I break in some other new parts in my system. Don't want to change too many variables at once.

Just double the core allocations I suppose. But I think it’s important to check the listed running services. It might not be the same for non-AMD devices. Mine is AMD. 

 

20 hours ago, ASRMichael said:

Are you saying they’re process there that are not shown?

Yes there are process not shown in the list. If you allocate the listed items to some cores you’ll find that the other unassigned cores still have activity. That when I realized it might be an idea to group those unlisted processes into a core to separate them. 

 

14 hours ago, BCRich said:

So trying this again......

Copy and pasted your settings and this is how it was processed.

Shows Cores 0-3 assignments missing, how can I utilize my cores more efficiently?

Should I be more specific and reassign based on what is showing up as actual usage as in the photo below or is something wrong?

My list of core assignments are for Stylus playback. Whereas you are using HQP. 
 

Jussi from HQP and suggests not to allocate cores if using HQP as the program assigns cores itself. 

[Topk]

On 4/9/2021 at 9:24 AM, flkin said:

After testing each process cpu usage when isolated separately, seems there is significant cpu usage outside the listed processes. So I figure that isolating the listed processes from the hidden processes might be good.

 

Found that all systemd processes sound a touch better when isolated so I group them and isolate and the rest into one core too. Then the other computer process into core 0.

 

Given this, my 8-core CPU (non-hyperthreading) isolations are:

 

0 systemd 1 nfm 2 dhcpcd 2 dbus-daemon 2 haveged 2 lvmetad 2 avahi-daemon 2 gstp 3-5 stylus 6-7

Why do you give 2 cores to Stylus? I thought stylus was only the GUI? My instinct would give only 1 to stylus and more to gstp since it’s the player itself, but please let me know what you found!

[Exocer]

5 hours ago, flkin said:

Just double the core allocations I suppose. But I think it’s important to check the listed running services. It might not be the same for non-AMD devices. Mine is AMD. 

Yes, thanks. That is exactly what I was intending to do. It sounds good with the line I past several posts back.

.

[flkin]

6 hours ago, Topk said:

Why do you give 2 cores to Stylus? I thought stylus was only the GUI? My instinct would give only 1 to stylus and more to gstp since it’s the player itself, but please let me know what you found!

Honestly, I can’t remember! Chances are I looked at the cpu consumption of Stylus and allocated the cores accordingly. 

 

My approach at that time was to separate and allocate cores to the listed services that seem to use the CPU.
 

I found that after isolating all the services listed, there was still some CPU action suggesting there are unlisted services running. So I grouped these under Core 0. The only way to separate them would be to allocate another core number to the other listed services one at a time. Thus the manual allocation of core 2 items
 

Later I found that I liked systemd type items separated and I gave it core 1

Try reducing Stylus from 2 cores to 1 and see which you prefer?