Hqplayer: best NAA with best sound quality

[firedog]

30 minutes ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

Anyone tried an ASUS tinkerboard as an NAA?

No.Have done an RBPi.

Do you already have a tinkerboard? I know that you can get a diet-pi version for tinkerboard and then add the hqp naa plugin that's availble for diet-pi. I'm not sure about other OS's for tinkerboard. It's hard to know if what works on a Pi will work on a tinkerboard. 

If NAA will work on Volumio, it will work on tinkerboard, as they make a tinkerboard based streamer. 

[firedog]

1 hour ago, Miska said:

This is what I use mostly:

https://up-shop.org/home/339-up-gws01w4g-memory32g-emmc-boardwo-vesa-plate.html

It also works for USB input side.

 

I may soon add also one more ARM-based board that also works for USB inputs.

 

 

That board seems to only have 32GB of storage. Isn't that an issue when you do a Windows Update? It is. for me with my similar little device - or do you have additional storage attached? Also, will it pass on  all sample rates, or is it limited?

[firedog]

10 minutes ago, Confused said:

I note that  few people here are running products like the Allo USBrigdge Sig and Digione Signature.  Has anyone ever been able to compare these Allo products with anything in the Sonore Rendu series or SOtM sMS-200 range? 

 

I am intrigued by this, there seems to be a general view that products like the ultraRendu are better, but I have seen very few direct comparisons, so I am not so sure.  Measurements look good with the Allo products, and you can use a decent quality power supply of your choice. (which seems to matter with all "end point" type products)  Are the Sonore and SOtM items really any better?

Some will tell you yes. Some will disagree. Some will always say the newer more expensive device is better. Others disagree. There's no consensus. Have you compared your SOtM to anything else? Compare it unsighted to another device - even a $40 Raspberry Pi, and see what you think. 

[firedog]

5 hours ago, Confused said:

Is this capable of running NAA?  To be clear, I note that the product is not offered with NAA, I am simply curious if the device is intrinsically capable of running NAA, should the manufacturer choose to implement.

 

https://en.wattson.audio/emerson

 

https://en.wattson.audio/

Isn't any way to know for sure. One can assume it runs a fairly common SBC and a version of Linux, so theoretically it can be hacked and NAA installed. But without knowing what HW and software is inside, can't know for sure. 

The best thing to do would be to lobby the manufacturer and have them update the device.

[firedog]

3 hours ago, rossco said:

I have a Allo USBridge Signature with Gentooplayer installed, running on an HDPlex LPSU, I also have a 'spare' rpi4 at the moment, which I loaded the HQ Player NAA image. I have had a little play this afternoon, and will play more. Anyway, I wondered if I should objectively have a similar or different experience with these two streamers, any thoughts? From what I have heard so far, I can't hear much of a difference. Should I hear a difference?

There is no "should". There is what you hear. Some people hear differences in their setup; some don't. It's not a given you will hear a difference between a standard Pi and the Allo. 

[firedog]

1 hour ago, rossco said:

Its an interesting area. Ideally there would be some objective measurements that could help us, then backed up by a reviewers opinion and finally listening yourself.

There are measurements showing a Pi is as good as anything else; but I don't want to get into that argument here (obectivist/subjectivist). This thread is not in the objectivist section, so I'm suggesting people listen for themselves and decide. 

[firedog]

3 hours ago, jkelly said:

 

I am using a RPI4 with an Argon case (that has a fan connected to daughter board/GPIO pins) running your NAA image. Is there anyway to be able to install fan software to turn on the fan? 

 

curl https://download.argon40.com/argon1.sh | bash

Will the NAA image report interal temperatures if you give it the command? That case has some passive cooling, doesn't it? If it isn't too hot inside, don't worry about it. Running an NAA isn't something that should make your Pi run hot. 

 

38 minutes ago, blueninjasix said:

Are you sure you really want a fan running? It would only add unnecessary noise. Pi4 is extremely easy to cool passively. I don't think that NAA software would put a big strain on the CPU.

 

[firedog]

1 hour ago, ambre said:

 

Unfortunately not the case restarting HQ player doesn’t help.

Ps. The same happened a while ago when I also owned an Allo Usbridge Signature. The combo with Vega gave same result. Losing Ethernet connection😩

 

What about my last question concerning Stack Audio LINK II is it official a NAA device?

The Stack Audio Link II runs a proprietary version of Ropieee XL. So it works perfectly as an NAA. Jussi can answer, but other than his own software, I don't think he makes devices official. Anyone is free to download NAA and run it. 

[firedog]

1 minute ago, Miska said:

 

Some devices are more official than others. I prefer companies to ask me for approval before delivering products that include my software. Many companies do that, but not all.

 

Products I'm personally testing with can also end up on my recommended hardware listing.

 

 

Yes, but not distribute it...

 

So just curious how it works: did the writer of Ropieee XL get your approval for including NAA?

He apparently supplied a specialized version of Ropieee XL to Stack Audio for their streamer. Is that also approved?

[firedog]

1 hour ago, Miska said:

 

Are you on latest HQPlayer version? It keeps trying to reconnect to the DAC if the DAC gets lost. Also connection is established when HQPlayer is started.

 

However, you shouldn't do things that cause USB disconnection when HQPlayer is running. It may cause the Linux audio driver to end up in confused state.

 

 

I've just heard  on this forum earlier that the device exists, but I don't have other information about it.

 

https://stackaudio.co.uk/link2/

 

Page says NAA "coming soon". It was added around the New Year, AFAIR. The Software is Ropieee XL, version written specially for Stack and this product.

[firedog]

30 minutes ago, ambre said:

Miska, LOOK AT YOUR SITE!!!😁

StackAudio on yr webpage

 

 

 

There are two lists: Recommended and "devices with". The Stack Audio is on the latter, not the recommended list. Not recommended because he didn't test it, maybe, is the answer.

[firedog]

51 minutes ago, ambre said:

Dear Miska,

 

Strange especially referring to your earlier statement " 

Some devices are more official than others. I prefer companies to ask me for approval before delivering products that include my software. Many companies do that, but not all. Products I'm personally testing with can also end up on my recommended hardware listing. Yes, but not distribute it...

 

That you put it on your Home Webpage and NOT knowing what of  kind of device and/or software is used only creates confusion in this way.  

 

Sorry Miska, Our discussion concerning NAA for moreover a week was by no .....means enlightening and did not help me at all. 

 

Very best regards, Andreas 

 

Sorry, don't assume because you didn't read carefully that the confusion is with anyone but you. I think many people can understand the difference between a listed component and a recommended device. 

 

You keep asking about the Link II (and you mix it up with the LinQ, a different device). If you look, you'd see that I have a Link II in my system and in my experience it works perfectly as an NAA, as I wrote previously.

 

 

[firedog]

On 8/4/2021 at 2:32 PM, Confused said:

My Zen Stream arrived last week.  First impressions are good. It is far from a luxury hifi item, but considering it's price point it seem to be very solidly built, it is quite heavy for a small device, and it actually looks and feels a lot nicer than it looks in photographs. It also runs "slightly warm", which is a nice change from stuff like the microRendu that I used to have that would almost burn your fingers if you touched it.

 

It is by far the simplest NAA type device that I have used with HQPlayer, I connected it up, loaded HQPlayer on my PC, I could see the iFi in the HQPlayer settings, selected the iFi, hit play, got music.  No additional software needed on the PC, no messing about with IP addresses or similar, it just worked.

 

I spent some time at the weekend comparing it with my SOtM sMS-200ultra and tX-USBultra. This was interesting.  Both devices were feeding my Mutec MC3+USB, the SOtM kit via USB, the iFi by S/PDIF. What surprised me was just how similar the two sounded, I had great difficulty discerning any difference between the two.  It look a few seconds to swap between the two, a case of changing the input settings on the Mutec and the device settings in HQPlayer. With much swapping between the two, there were times I felt that the iFi was a little better, maybe a touch better sound stage, a bit better bass definition. There were other times when maybe I though the SOtM kit was better, a fractionally better mid range. But to be honest, the margins of difference were small, and with much switching one way or the other I started to wonder if they did actually sound pretty much identical and that any perceived differences were imagined.

 

I started with a simple plan, try the iFi, if I did not like it, send it back. If I preferred the iFi to the SOtM kit, then the SOtM kit could be sold.

 

I am now not sure what to do, so in the short term I will keep both, try a few things, then make up my mind. I have a few ideas of things that I want to try and I would rather take my time rather than rush things and maybe make the wrong decision.  If nothing else, I'd like to run the iFi for more long term listening in my system and see how I get on with it, rather than messing about with A/B testing.

 

I have to say that I am very impressed with the iFi, it seems to work perfectly (in my set up at least), it sounds great.

 

I am also beginning to suspect that it does actually sound a fraction better than the SOtM kit, and when you consider that the iFi is a fraction of the cost of the SOtM kit, that is rather impressive.

If after a while you can't really tell the difference or think the iFi MIGHT be better, it probably means there really isn't a difference.

 

Really intense listening sessions attempting to hear differences also effect our perceptions, and I think also distort perceptions - it's a kind of expectation bias ( the brain really WANTS to hear a difference). And even if you accurately hear a small difference, it's probably something you won't hear in normal listening for enjoyment, as your brain is working differently.

 

If your present results continue, trust your perceptions and sell the SOTM. 

I did something similar and "downgraded" to a streamer that costs about a third of what I had before. Haven't regretted it.