Hqplayer: best NAA with best sound quality

[ambre]

18 minutes ago, ericuco said:

 

I don't think you are permitted to log-in to the computer when using one of images.

How to proceed than??

[The Computer Audiophile]

3 minutes ago, ambre said:

How to proceed than??

What do you need to do by logging in?

[brother love]

7 minutes ago, ambre said:

How to proceed than??

 

After starting NAA & getting to log-in screen, you are done with endpoint. Start music server, open HQPlayer, set backend to NetworkAudioAdapter & device to your mini pc, then you are good to go.

[ambre]

21 minutes ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

What do you need to do by logging in?

But I am now asked for NAA login and password?

[ambre]

2 minutes ago, ambre said:

But I am now asked for NAA login and password?

I tried several logins but I am denied. What kind of login and password is needed

Therefore I cannot start NAA 

 

My Window Pro 10 Wintel Pro ask only for a pin.🤫

[The Computer Audiophile]

1 minute ago, ambre said:

I tried several logins but I am denied. What kind of login and password is needed

Therefore I cannot start NAA 

 

My Window Pro 10 Wintel Pro ask only for a pin.🤫

NAA is started. 

[ambre]

2 minutes ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

NAA is started. 

Chris, 

Sorry,  I am still asked for login and password. NAA doesn't start because I cannot enter resp, do not know the login credentials and password.

Sounds silly but that's present situation.

[AnotherSpin]

32 minutes ago, ambre said:

But I am now asked for NAA login and password?

 

Just leave it as it is. There is nothing to do there. You need to choose NAA in HQPlayer settings on server side now and listen to the music.

[ambre]

17 hours ago, AnotherSpin said:

 

Just leave it as it is. There is nothing to do there. You need to choose NAA in HQPlayer settings on server side now and listen to the music.

Thanks for support. Running now.

 

Clue: I have installed my Mini PC W8 Pro Intel x5-Z8350 HD Graphics Fanless Mini Desktop Wireless etc. with many updates etc.

 

I did not know resp could not find that this NAA-image only support wired Ethernet and not Wireless.

 

I like HQPlayer a lot but sometimes the learning curve is  real steep. At those very moments I try to swear a little bit in Finnish. Sorry Jussy🤯.

 

Sorry for inconvenience. Thanks all helped / attended in this post.

 

Best regards, Andreas

[AnotherSpin]

6 hours ago, ambre said:

Thanks for support. Running now.

 

Clue: I have installed my Mini PC W8 Pro Intel x5-Z8350 HD Graphics Fanless Mini Desktop Wireless etc. with many updates etc.

 

I did not know resp could not find that this NAA-image only support wired Ethernet and not Wireless.

 

I like HQPlayer a lot but sometimes the learning curve is  real steep. At those very moments I try to swear a little bit in Finnish. Sorry Jussy🤯.

 

Sorry for inconvenience. Thanks all helped / attended in this post.

 

Best regards, Andreas

 

You can try also HQP Embedded image from here: www.signalyst.eu/bins/hqplayerd/images/ 

 

Procedure is the same, flash to USB with Etcher and boot NAA endpoint from it. It contains the same (according to Miska) NAA image as part of the package. You may or may not hear some differences in sound, check and decide for yourself.

[Miska]

20 hours ago, ambre said:

Clue: I have installed my Mini PC W8 Pro Intel x5-Z8350 HD Graphics Fanless Mini Desktop Wireless etc. with many updates etc.

 

I did not know resp could not find that this NAA-image only support wired Ethernet and not Wireless.

 

Since NAA image has practically read-only filesystem, it is not possible to change configurations on it.

 

HQPlayer OS boots a normal read/write filesystem and thus allows adjusting settings and such. It also contains drivers and other components needed for WiFi (wpa_supplicant), although this is not officially supported feature and not tested much.

 

[ambre]

4 hours ago, Miska said:

 

Since NAA image has practically read-only filesystem, it is not possible to change configurations on it.

 

HQPlayer OS boots a normal read/write filesystem and thus allows adjusting settings and such. It also contains drivers and other components needed for WiFi (wpa_supplicant), although this is not officially supported feature and not tested much.

 

Jussy,

thanks for reply and explanation.

 

Is there a SQ benefit to switch from Hqp 4.0 to embedded? For the NAA task? 

 

For upsampling etc I still need My present Apple Mac Mini 6 core I7. Or an I misstaken?

 

Regards,Andreas

 

[Miska]

4 hours ago, ambre said:

Is there a SQ benefit to switch from Hqp 4.0 to embedded? For the NAA task? 

 

There are some functional differences between Desktop and Embedded. But algorithms are the same and thus sound quality is the same for both.

 

4 hours ago, ambre said:

For upsampling etc I still need My present Apple Mac Mini 6 core I7. Or an I misstaken?

 

Upsampling happens wherever HQPlayer is running. So if you have a separate HQPlayer Embedded server, you don't necessarily need your Mac Mini for anything.

 

I personally run Roon on iMac (previously Mac Mini) and then HQPlayer on various other servers.

 

[Account Closed]

Jussi, I have a question. I know that you have a Spring DAC as I do so my question relates to this DAC and the NAA device feeding it. 

 

Would there be any advantage to the NAA being on a Win 10/64 board with the Holo Spring ASIO driver installed to feed it vs using your Linux image on the same board?

 

I am thinking of using one of the UpBoard variants for this project. I saw your post that you use one for running the NAA with the Linux image. I was considering one of the more capable versions that I could run WIN 10/64 on if there would be an advantage to this approach.

 

I have had good results with ASIO drivers for my desktop system but had not previously considered the Win/ASIO approach for the NAA for my main system.

 

Thanks in advance.

[Miska]

2 hours ago, bobflood said:

Would there be any advantage to the NAA being on a Win 10/64 board with the Holo Spring ASIO driver installed to feed it vs using your Linux image on the same board?

 

I am thinking of using one of the UpBoard variants for this project. I saw your post that you use one for running the NAA with the Linux image. I was considering one of the more capable versions that I could run WIN 10/64 on if there would be an advantage to this approach.

 

I have had good results with ASIO drivers for my desktop system but had not previously considered the Win/ASIO approach for the NAA for my main system.

 

No, there is no advantage, but a big disadvantage of using Windows for NAA. Windows just adds massive amount of unnecessary bloat. My bootable NAA image is very minimal OS custom built for this particular purpose.

 

[Account Closed]

5 minutes ago, Miska said:

 

No, there is no advantage, but a big disadvantage of using Windows for NAA. Windows just adds massive amount of unnecessary bloat. My bootable NAA image is very minimal OS custom built for this particular purpose.

 

Thank you. That is what I suspected. I just thought there might be something special about the ASIO aspect but I doubted it.

[motberg]

4 hours ago, Miska said:

 

No, there is no advantage, but a big disadvantage of using Windows for NAA. Windows just adds massive amount of unnecessary bloat. My bootable NAA image is very minimal OS custom built for this particular purpose.

 

Does the Windows NAA always use the DAC's ASIO driver? No possibility to use Windows KS ?

 

I am using a single pcie SoC SuperMicro MB, JCat or PPA USB card, WinServer 2019 GUI and AO - this has been rock solid, actually amazingly the most stable audio software I have used. I am pretty sure the AO filters are allowing me to adjust the NAA output's presentation, but will check again. This NAA is linked to the i7 server with a PPA switch with Ghent cables dedicated to these 2 computers only.  

 

Has anyone tried the double-switch idea from server to NAA?

[Miska]

17 hours ago, motberg said:

Does the Windows NAA always use the DAC's ASIO driver? No possibility to use Windows KS ?

 

By default ASIO, optionally WASAPI. KS is ancient obsolete unofficial remnant from the days before WASAPI.

 

But running NAA on Windows or macOS is sort of workaround for the cases where you cannot run the bootable image for one reason or the other.

 

[dmccombs]

On 6/5/2020 at 3:41 PM, Miska said:

 

It's a PC, not entirely regular one, very low power one, but still a standard PC. You need my software to make turn it into a NAA.

 

From my web page you can download bootable NAA images that include OS and the NAA software module, all in one. You dump such image for example on USB memory stick using tool like Etcher, and then boot up the device using that image. And that's it. When there's software update, you dump the new version on a stick (same or different) and boot up from that one.

 

Hi Jussi,

   If I get the UP/Atom computer, what is the minimum size USB stick size that you recommend, and does the USB stick transfer speed matter?

 

   Can you point me to the latest image for the atom computer and NAA software?  

[Miska]

16 hours ago, dmccombs said:

   If I get the UP/Atom computer, what is the minimum size USB stick size that you recommend, and does the USB stick transfer speed matter?

 

Current NAA image is about 300 MB, so let's say 4 GB stick gives you plenty of extra capacity. Speed of the the stick affects the time it takes for the system to boot up. Since NAA image runs from RAM, everything is read at boot time and then not accessed after.

 

RAVENNA version of HQPlayer OS is the biggest image, which is now at 1.7 GB, of which about half is empty. So for that purpose too, 4 GB stick would be fine. Difference is that the HQPlayer OS image runs from the stick, but the speed mostly affects boot time, because after boot up the amount of access is minimal.

 

You can also run either one from a microSD card, either using a USB adapter or your computers microSD or SD card slot if it has such.

 

16 hours ago, dmccombs said:

Can you point me to the latest image for the atom computer and NAA software?

 

There are links to the folders from the website, I'm not eager to post links here because those become outdated too fast.

[Zauurx]

Hi Jussi,

Please, can you integrate ASIX AX88179 driver in NAA image ? 😉
So your version become compatible with more usb ethernet adaptater (good audiophile solution with 5v PSU) and with Allo USBridge Signature. Most distributions have problem with NAA and PCM (751/768 >> 60Mb ethernet flow with some clics and drop out).
Thks

[dmccombs]

5 hours ago, Miska said:

 

Current NAA image is about 300 MB, so let's say 4 GB stick gives you plenty of extra capacity. Speed of the the stick affects the time it takes for the system to boot up. Since NAA image runs from RAM, everything is read at boot time and then not accessed after.

 

RAVENNA version of HQPlayer OS is the biggest image, which is now at 1.7 GB, of which about half is empty. So for that purpose too, 4 GB stick would be fine. Difference is that the HQPlayer OS image runs from the stick, but the speed mostly affects boot time, because after boot up the amount of access is minimal.

 

You can also run either one from a microSD card, either using a USB adapter or your computers microSD or SD card slot if it has such.

 

 

There are links to the folders from the website, I'm not eager to post links here because those become outdated too fast.

Thank you for the info on the USB stick.  That's very helpful.

 

I sent you an email for more info on specifically which file I need to download for the NAA.

[Miska]

16 hours ago, Zauurx said:

Please, can you integrate ASIX AX88179 driver in NAA image ? 😉
So your version become compatible with more usb ethernet adaptater (good audiophile solution with 5v PSU) and with Allo USBridge Signature. Most distributions have problem with NAA and PCM (751/768 >> 60Mb ethernet flow with some clics and drop out).

 

I believe I have all USB ethernet drivers enabled, but I can check.

 

However, I would strongly recommend against using USB for networking or music content storage. It causes lot of unnecessary CPU load.

 

RaspberryPi4 is first that uses the on-chip ethernet controller and it is much better to use that one than a USB one. With USB connected one you easily end up with problems that RasPi2/RasPi3 had with their USB connected ethernet controllers, ending having clicks and pops on the playback. Transformation between ethernet and USB packets is unnecessary work.

 

Ethernet controllers should be connected directly to the CPU data bus, or alternatively to PCIexpress. Not to anything else. Also pay attention that the ethernet controller has proper DMA access support and hardware offload for TCP/IP checksumming and such.

 

If you want an external ethernet controller, you should use a Thunderbolt one instead, it is essentially same as PCIexpress connected one.

 

[seeteeyou]

FYI - Allo USBridge Sig (ASIX AX88179) should be different from the plain vanilla RPi (Microchip LAN9512 / LAN9514) according to these sources

 

https://www.diyaudio.com/forums/vendor-s-bazaar/337859-shanti-dual-lps-5v-3a-5v-1-5a-43.html#post5900417

Quote

Since USB and Ethernet are "off the IC" , we implemented our own solution .

 

https://www.diyaudio.com/forums/pc-based/329911-getting-allo-coms-katana-dac-40.html#post5945645

Quote

- An added Ethernet chip to resolve the on-chip IO Ethernet/USB conflicts along with filtering on the Ethernet input to reduce noise fed back into the USBBrdgSig board

 

[ambre]

19 hours ago, Miska said:

 

I believe I have all USB ethernet drivers enabled, but I can check.

 

However, I would strongly recommend against using USB for networking or music content storage. It causes lot of unnecessary CPU load.

 

RaspberryPi4 is first that uses the on-chip ethernet controller and it is much better to use that one than a USB one. With USB connected one you easily end up with problems that RasPi2/RasPi3 had with their USB connected ethernet controllers, ending having clicks and pops on the playback. Transformation between ethernet and USB packets is unnecessary work.

 

Hi Jussy,

in case of Thunderbolt =Usb C connector for an Apple Mini 6 Core machine.
 

Due to use of another big powercord there hardly space for using regular ethernet connector.

What is your advice ? Dump the special powercord?

 

Best regards, Andreas