Euphony OS w/Stylus player setup and issues thread

[bos3812]

1 hour ago, ASRMichael said:

Hi, interesting view. How did you power your Xeon server? 

I powered the Xeon server with my HDPlex 300W. I also had two Farads but sold them both because I liked the HDPlex better. The HDPlex had more resolution and dynamics.

[al2813]

1 hour ago, ASRMichael said:

I agree, however you don’t need to spend 7-10k. 
 

My LPS for ATX & CPU was around £2.5k and MB + CPU £1k..plus case+cables £0.5k

 

£4k total. You can add extra rails to power other things like Eth card or USB card for £250-£300per rail if i recall. 
 

Yes you can go higher but you can go lower also. Paul Hynes, Farad etc..

 

Maybe the 7-10k was a bit on the high side, although I was in EUR so your £4k is already €5k :-). Then, if you count the extra card (I think you'll need a high end JCAT or equivalent to match the rest, extra work on the networking side (card, cabling, switch). I suspect that the full package gets very close to my €7k. My server is €2-2.5k (case, motherboard + CPU + SSDs, HDPlex 300W, JCAT FEMTO) and for now I settled for a non tweaked Cisco 2900 switch which already delivered a little improvement.  

 

However, I still suspect that my second part (about the other components in the system/room acoustics etc.) holds. I strongly suspect that in order to really see the difference in SQ in a higher end source, you need a high-end setup around it in a proper room. I have come up quite a bit since I started this hobby in a more serious way last year, but probably am still very far from what is required, but maybe I'm wrong. 

 

[al2813]

16 minutes ago, bos3812 said:

I powered the Xeon server with my HDPlex 300W. I also had two Farads but sold them both because I liked the HDPlex better. The HDPlex had more resolution and dynamics.

 

Interesting one. My HDPlex is the first "serious" LPS I got for my server. The previous was a home-grown LPS installed inside the case by the Dutch store who originally built it. The store owner described it as "high end", but the HDPlex outclassed it by a massive distance. Your comment that the HDplex is better than a Farad (which is considered as a very reputable brand) is interesting. 

[ASRMichael]

9 minutes ago, al2813 said:

 

Maybe the 7-10k was a bit on the high side, although I was in EUR so your £4k is already €5k :-). Then, if you count the extra card (I think you'll need a high end JCAT or equivalent to match the rest, extra work on the networking side (card, cabling, switch). I suspect that the full package gets very close to my €7k. My server is €2-2.5k (case, motherboard + CPU + SSDs, HDPlex 300W, JCAT FEMTO) and for now I settled for a non tweaked Cisco 2900 switch which already delivered a little improvement.  

 

However, I still suspect that my second part (about the other components in the system/room acoustics etc.) holds. I strongly suspect that in order to really see the difference in SQ in a higher end source, you need a high-end setup around it in a proper room. I have come up quite a bit since I started this hobby in a more serious way last year, but probably am still very far from what is required, but maybe I'm wrong. 

 

I would recommend treating your room before upgrading a source! Room is 50-60% of SQ! I learned this the hard way! 

[al2813]

5 minutes ago, ASRMichael said:

I would recommend treating your room before upgrading a source! Room is 50-60% of SQ! I learned this the hard way! 

 Yes I am starting to understand this. A more modest setup in my bedroom sounds very close my main setup in my new listening room just because room acoustics is probably better there. If you can send a few tips my way that would be great! 

[ASRMichael]

55 minutes ago, al2813 said:

 Yes I am starting to understand this. A more modest setup in my bedroom sounds very close my main setup in my new listening room just because room acoustics is probably better there. If you can send a few tips my way that would be great! 

Sure send me a PM.

[bos3812]

54 minutes ago, al2813 said:

 

Interesting one. My HDPlex is the first "serious" LPS I got for my server. The previous was a home-grown LPS installed inside the case by the Dutch store who originally built it. The store owner described it as "high end", but the HDPlex outclassed it by a massive distance. Your comment that the HDplex is better than a Farad (which is considered as a very reputable brand) is interesting. 

Of course this is in my situation. I have a 300B amp and an Ayon Skylla 2 tubed dac. When I bought the Farads I liked them the first days. It seemed that during burn in their caracter changed and they became smoother and smoother and for me at the end they were too smooth and a little liveless compared with the HDPlex. For me it was the first time that a device was better before burn in than after burn in. I think this has to do with their super caps that change a lot during burn in. Probably the Farads are very good when your equipment is a little on the harsh side.

[ASRMichael]

I’ve finally got to grips with how IRQ Affinity work in Expert core isolation. 
 

With no CPU isolation IRQ handler is spread over every core. So when I hit apply with core isolation. (Here’s mine for example)

 

0-3 stylus 4-7 gstp 8-19

 

It puts all the IRQ handlers into core 0-3. You’ll see this later in the process below. You want to move your Ethernet & USB handler back to gstp cores you have isolation.

 

Here’s how I do it;

- Remove any core isolation

- Put back to default eg 0-19 or 0-how     . many cores you have.

- Reboot

- Type . Into Core isolation 

Menu will show up (don’t use a phone, screen will be too small, pc is better)

Note down 1st column & cpu numbers that relate to Ethernet card & USB card (any card really) I copied & pasted the data to Excel. 

- Then put your core isolation in & apply eg 0-10

- Then using 1st column & cpu number where your gstp is enter data into CPU isolation field & click apply. (You’ll need to remove your cpu isolation data to do this.

 

Here’s my example - irq/146 8 irq/148 10 irq/165 7 irq/166 8 irq/167 9 irq/168 10 irq/169 11 irq/170 12 irq/171 13 irq/172 14 irq/173 15 irq/157 19

 

example - IRQ/166 is from 1st column, the 8 is the cpu you want it to go to. 8 is part of my gstp core isolation

 

When you click apply, do it twice. 2nd time you’ll see something like this. 
 

Does it sound better? I’m not going to answer because it will cloud your judgment. Try it for yourself. 

[ASRMichael]

I’ve actually noticed a mistake I made. 733 is set to core 7, which is outside my gstp range of cores. Will change to 8. 

[TheAttorney]

13 hours ago, ASRMichael said:

I’ve finally got to grips with how IRQ Affinity work in Expert core isolation.

 

I've also had a go at this. Being a simple kinda guy, I went for a simple approach  without changing my current favourite core allocation of

 

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

 

I first checked the default IRQ situation by typing ".".

The irq's were evenly spread across my 8 virtual cores, and  the biggest IRQ activity (USB data) happens to be called irq-131 running on core 6 (which is shared between gstp and stylus).

 

I then looked for the quietest core I could find, in terms of visible processes, other IRQ activity and core temperature. This turned out to be core 3, which had only gstp and one of the smallest other IRQ activity. So I then isolated 131 onto that core by adding "irq/131 3" to the end of the above string. I don't know how accurate this amateur logic is, but you have to start somewhere.

 

In short, this was just a single IRQ isolation change added to the end of an unchanged main core isolation.

I will also not disclose the end result impact on SQ, as this is early days yet and I was still in the honeymoon period with the previous change, but I will say right now that you've got to try it 🙂.

 

I also tried a few other options of both IRQ and main core isolation changes and soon got into a muddle, so nothing conclusive to report on how far this can still go.

[ASRMichael]

17 minutes ago, TheAttorney said:

I've also had a go at this. Being a simple kinda guy, I went for a simple approach  without changing my current favourite core allocation of

 

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

 

I first checked the default IRQ situation by typing ".".

The irq's were evenly spread across my 8 virtual cores, and  the biggest IRQ activity (USB data) happens to be called irq-131 running on core 6 (which is shared between gstp and stylus).

 

I then looked for the quietest core I could find, in terms of visible processes, other IRQ activity and core temperature. This turned out to be core 3, which had only gstp and one of the smallest other IRQ activity. So I then isolated 131 onto that core by adding "irq/131 3" to the end of the above string. I don't know how accurate this amateur logic is, but you have to start somewhere.

 

In short, this was just a single IRQ isolation change added to the end of an unchanged main core isolation.

I will also not disclose the end result impact on SQ, as this is early days yet and I was still in the honeymoon period with the previous change, but I will say right now that you've got to try it 🙂.

 

I also tried a few other options of both IRQ and main core isolation changes and soon got into a muddle, so nothing conclusive to report on how far this can still go.

Hi your findings are the same as mine. 

 

IRQ typically spread across all core with default isolation. The key thing to note for others is; don’t think because it sits on the same core as your gstp there is no need to change. As soon as you put your core isolation in & hit apply it will put all the IRQ onto system core. In my case 0-3. For example 

 

USB IRQ was in my gstp core range (8-19) prior to setting core isolation 

 

When I set my core isolation it now put my USB IRQ to 0-3 core isolation range

 

The key is to now put it back to the gstp range. In my case 8-19

 

Took me a while to get my head round this. I confirmed my findings/understanding with Zeijko I was correct. 
 

I encourage others to try this. Hopefully in future releases as soon as you set your core isolation it can automatically set IRQ to gstp. Euphony hasn’t done any tests with regards to increase in sound quality. Hopefully many of us can try here and report our findings. 

[al2813]

Another topic which I had an issue with recently is copying very large files into my music SSD. I use the euphony files manager but when I have very large files 700mb and upwards, I get an error "400: ENOSPC: no space left on device, write" - anyway to work around that? 

[ASRMichael]

1 hour ago, al2813 said:

Another topic which I had an issue with recently is copying very large files into my music SSD. I use the euphony files manager but when I have very large files 700mb and upwards, I get an error "400: ENOSPC: no space left on device, write" - anyway to work around that? 

Did you open a ticket with Euphony? 

[RickyV]

@ASRMichael and @TheAttorney very interesting, trying to get my head around this. So what I gathered from your posts, correct me if I am wrong.

 

First I removed core isolation, 0-7.

Then put a  .  in the cpu isolation command line. And got,

 

scroll sideways 

 

I am trying to follow @TheAttorney’s method so I put 0 systemd 1 nfm 2 dhcpcd 2 dbus-daemon 2 haveged 2 lvmetad 2 avahi-daemon 2 gstp 2-6 stylus 6-7 in the command line and applied. Then I emptied the command line and put the  .  in cl.

 

To me core 4 is not doing much, so isolate IRQ131 (eth0) into core 4? (irq/131 4)
Is eth0 the usb and Ethernet nic ? Not sure what to call it.

scroll right

 

Is this correct?

 

[al2813]

3 hours ago, ASRMichael said:

Did you open a ticket with Euphony? 

 Just did. Željko will take a look. I have a feeling my disks are not configured correctly. 

[ASRMichael]

23 minutes ago, RickyV said:

@ASRMichael and @TheAttorney very interesting, trying to get my head around this. So what I gathered from your posts, correct me if I am wrong.

 

First I removed core isolation, 0-7.

Then put a  .  in the cpu isolation command line. And got,

 

scroll sideways 

 

I am trying to follow @TheAttorney’s method so I put 0 systemd 1 nfm 2 dhcpcd 2 dbus-daemon 2 haveged 2 lvmetad 2 avahi-daemon 2 gstp 2-6 stylus 6-7 in the command line and applied. Then I emptied the command line and put the  .  in cl.

 

To me core 4 is not doing much, so isolate IRQ131 (eth0) into core 4? (irq/131 4)
Is eth0 the usb and Ethernet nic ? Not sure what to call it.

scroll right

 

Is this correct?

 

Put your Core isolation in first click apply

 

Then delete text in core isolation box and put in IRQ & then apply. It should come up with something like this

[ASRMichael]

25 minutes ago, RickyV said:

@ASRMichael and @TheAttorney very interesting, trying to get my head around this. So what I gathered from your posts, correct me if I am wrong.

 

First I removed core isolation, 0-7.

Then put a  .  in the cpu isolation command line. And got,

 

scroll sideways 

 

I am trying to follow @TheAttorney’s method so I put 0 systemd 1 nfm 2 dhcpcd 2 dbus-daemon 2 haveged 2 lvmetad 2 avahi-daemon 2 gstp 2-6 stylus 6-7 in the command line and applied. Then I emptied the command line and put the  .  in cl.

 

To me core 4 is not doing much, so isolate IRQ131 (eth0) into core 4? (irq/131 4)
Is eth0 the usb and Ethernet nic ? Not sure what to call it.

scroll right

 

Is this correct?

 

Anything that is Eth or XHCI set to your gstp cores. 

[TheAttorney]

@RickyV, I'm just a beginner on this too, but I think you've got it correct.

 

Your USB IRQ was already in a good place, so you left it alone.

And your Eth IRQ was in a less good place, so you moved it to a better one.

 

After a brief correspondence with ASRMichael, a couple of things have been clarified for me:

 

1. Both USB and Eth IRQs should be on the same cores as gstp, which you now have.

2. Different servers may behave differently with IRQ allocation after running the initial core allocation (processes only, not IRQs): On Michael's server, the default positions of IRQs moved after running core allocation. On my NUC the IRQs stay in the same position whether core isolation is used or not. It looks like your NUC did move the IRQs after initial core isolation, but not in the same way as Michael's.

 

BTW, when you type "." to get the display, there is no need to clear the field first. The dot does not overwrite anything. This saves much time.

 

 

[RickyV]

8 minutes ago, TheAttorney said:

@RickyV, I'm just a beginner on this too, but I think you've got it correct.

 

Your USB IRQ was already in a good place, so you left it alone.

And your Eth IRQ was in a less good place, so you moved it to a better one.

 

After a brief correspondence with ASRMichael, a couple of things have been clarified for me:

 

1. Both USB and Eth IRQs should be on the same cores as gstp, which you now have.

2. Different servers may behave differently with IRQ allocation after running the initial core allocation (processes only, not IRQs): On Michael's server, the default positions of IRQs moved after running core allocation. On my NUC the IRQs stay in the same position whether core isolation is used or not. It looks like your NUC did move the IRQs after initial core isolation, but not in the same way as Michael's.

 

BTW, when you type "." to get the display, there is no need to clear the field first. The dot does not overwrite anything. This saves much time.

 

 

 

 

14 minutes ago, ASRMichael said:

Anything that is Eth or XHCI set to your gstp cores. 

 

Which one is the USB IRQ? XHCI?

 

Many thanks 
 

[TheAttorney]

4 minutes ago, RickyV said:

Which one is the USB IRQ? XHCI?

 

Many thanks 
 

Correct. Some more complex systems may have more than one eth or xhci - my simple NUC has only one of each.

[RickyV]

22 minutes ago, ASRMichael said:

Put your Core isolation in first click apply

 

Then delete text in core isolation box and put in IRQ & then apply. It should come up with something like this

I am not getting this. Do I type IRQ or IRQ & ?? Sorry

[ASRMichael]

6 hours ago, RickyV said:

 

 

 

Which one is the USB IRQ? XHCI?

 

Many thanks 
 

Yes, sorry been out golfing hence the delay in getting back to you. 

[ASRMichael]

6 hours ago, RickyV said:

I am not getting this. Do I type IRQ or IRQ & ?? Sorry

Looking at your post above. Type irq/131 4 into cpu & apply. Something like this shows up. Can you screenshot it and post here? 

[RickyV]

So I have been playing around a bit this evening. I was on 0-1 gstp 1-7 before I started.

Then went straight to, 0 systemd 1 nfm 2 dhcpcd 2 dbus-daemon 2 haveged 2 lvmetad 2 avahi-daemon 2 gstp 2-6 stylus 6-7 irq/131 4. To me it sounded a little harsher and thinner, so not liking it in comparison with 0-1 gstp 1-7. 
So I modified it to 0 systemd 1 nfm 2 dhcpcd 2 dbus-daemon 2 haveged 2 lvmetad 2 avahi-daemon 2 gstp 2-7 irq/131 4, wich seem to help. Resulting in:

 

 

Edited 

 

[ASRMichael]

9 hours ago, RickyV said:

So I have been playing around a bit this evening. I was on 0-1 gstp 1-7 before I started.

Then went straight to, 0 systemd 1 nfm 2 dhcpcd 2 dbus-daemon 2 haveged 2 lvmetad 2 avahi-daemon 2 gstp 2-6 stylus 6-7 irq/131 4. To me it sounded a little harsher and thinner, so not liking it in comparison with 0-1 gstp 1-7. 
So I modified it to 0 systemd 1 nfm 2 dhcpcd 2 dbus-daemon 2 haveged 2 lvmetad 2 avahi-daemon 2 gstp 2-7 irq/131 4, wich seem to help. Resulting in:

 

 

Edited 

 

Presume you using USB also. If so put IRQ/130 5

 

You see your 1st photo it’s sitting now in core 0. The 2nd photo is obsolete now, even though it shows counts. The counts includes now before & after all in one.