Hqplayer: best NAA with best sound quality

[Miska]

2 minutes ago, ambre said:

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

 

Yes, it is USB Type-C connector, but it has the lightning logo to indicate Thunderbolt capability. Type-C connector is special in a way that it has multi-role support. In addition to USB, it can function as Thunderbolt or DisplayPort connector if the hardware supports it. So just having the connector doesn't mean it would have Thunderbolt or DisplayPort functionality, both the host and the device need to support such for it to work. Thunderbolt functionality is thus indicated with the lightning symbol. Essentially these change completely meaning of the connector pins, and only the physical connector itself stays the same.

 

Apple makes Thunderbolt - Gigabit Ethernet adapter.

 

9 minutes ago, ambre said:

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

What is your advice ? Dump the special powercord?

 

Yes, I would dump the special power cord and use regular one and the built-in Ethernet. There are also thin round CAT6 UTP cables and flat ribbon CAT6 UTP cables that have also relatively small connector, so these may be easier to accommodate in tight spaces.

 

[ambre]

4 minutes ago, Miska said:

 

 

 

Thanks for quick reply.👍🏼

[Miska]

5 hours ago, seeteeyou said:

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

 

Which RPi version are you talking about? RPi4 is totally different from the earlier ones. Since RPi4 is so much better than the old ones and so cheap, I don't see a reason no to upgrade to RPi4. Just remember to install heat sinks on the CPU and memory.

 

[Zauurx]

On 9/16/2020 at 2:03 PM, 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.

...

 

Allo use ASIX chip as USB ethernet with an integrate hub texas.
This hub is usb2, and i suppose there are some limitations than an extern ethernet adaptater on USB3.
Rpi is a RPI (3) compute.

https://allo.com/sparky/usbridge-signature-pcb.html

 

http://3.230.113.73:9011/Allocom/USBridgeSig/

 

A good streamer but i can't used your image. So i suppose is ethernet driver.
Actually, i use Gentooplayer

 

Not my screeshot but another found on this forum

[Miska]

48 minutes ago, Zauurx said:

A good streamer but i can't used your image. So i suppose is ethernet driver.

 

I think it is more than just a driver, likely it would need a Device Tree Source (.dts) for the board to work.

 

[Zauurx]

2 hours ago, Miska said:

 

I think it is more than just a driver, likely it would need a Device Tree Source (.dts) for the board to work.

 

I don't think that .. DietPi, Volumio, Ropiee, GentooPlayer .. work.
But you can ask Antonello (GentooPlayer on this forum), if needed.

[antonellocaroli]

6 hours ago, Zauurx said:

I don't think that .. DietPi, Volumio, Ropiee, GentooPlayer .. work.
But you can ask Antonello (GentooPlayer on this forum), if needed.

I think Miska's image is based on raspbian as dietpi, volumio and moode, so you can directly use their installation script

http://3.230.113.73:9011/Allocom/USBridgeSig/install.sh

[Zauurx]

Perhaps but there is no ssh or console with Miska's image 😓

[blueninjasix]

18 hours ago, Zauurx said:

Perhaps but there is no ssh or console with Miska's image 😓

I would very much like to be able to SSH into Miska's NAA image for the sole purpose of downloading the asix driver from Allo so that my USBridge Signature might operate correctly.

[Zauurx]

I respect Jussy's choice to deliver "plug'n'play" images without putting your hands in them.
It is for this reason that I made this request.
If there is a "beta", I want to test.
For now, the Gentooplayer with a 4.xx and IP6 kernel works well on the USBridge Sig...
To compare with a Miska 's image

[il Carletto]

My system (i7-10700 no gpu + Gentooplayer HQP 4.6) now works perfectly with Ropieee on Usbridge Sig.

Great sound playing DSD256 - Xtr - ASDM7EC - convolution.

Roon is running on my iMac

I had problems with some cables cat7, I solved the issue upgrading to cat8

 

[StreamFidelity]

1 hour ago, il Carletto said:

My system (i7-10700 no gpu + Gentooplayer HQP 4.6) 

 

Why not HQP 4.7.1?

[il Carletto]

I'm also using 4.7.1 on macOS Catalina but I noticed some clicks and pops (same setup and Naa).

 

[Miska]

4 hours ago, blueninjasix said:

I would very much like to be able to SSH into Miska's NAA image for the sole purpose of downloading the asix driver from Allo so that my USBridge Signature might operate correctly.

 

There's no SSH because it is not very useful and for security reasons because it would be bad idea with a default password.

 

OTOH, drivers need to be built specifically for the kernel they are being loaded on, so you cannot download a driver from another kernel. In addition, many distributions for RasPi are 32-bit, while my OS images are completely 64-bit. This would make anything built for a 32-bit OS version not work.

 

[dmccombs]

Thank you to Jussi and the folks that have posted here in this thread.  I got one of the Mini PC's that folks suggested for the USA based folks.  With Jussi's help, the NAA software is loaded and working.  

 

Is there a noticeable improvement in SQ if you upgrade the stock power wallplug, with a better power supply?  If so what would you suggest?

 

Also, have you found any benefit to upgrading the stock usb cable between the Mini PC and the DAC?

[Miska]

14 hours ago, dmccombs said:

Is there a noticeable improvement in SQ if you upgrade the stock power wallplug, with a better power supply?  If so what would you suggest?

 

This is very much system dependent.

 

For my UpBoard and UpSquared I'm using Meanwell's medical grade PSU:

https://www.meanwell-web.com/en-gb/ac-dc-medical-desktop-adaptor-output-5vdc-at-6a-ac-gsm60b05--p1j

 

For my CL100 I'm using a Mascot PSU:

https://www.mascot.no/catalog/power-supplies/acdc/desktop/230v/9320/c-24/c-1318/p-122

 

If you like something better, take a look at Teddy Pardo PSUs, you get those with various different power connectors.

 

14 hours ago, dmccombs said:

Also, have you found any benefit to upgrading the stock usb cable between the Mini PC and the DAC?

 

I use inexpensive ones with a ferrite bead. This can significantly reduce amount of RF/EMI noise entering the DAC.

 

[Zauurx]

On 9/19/2020 at 3:03 PM, Miska said:

 

There's no SSH because it is not very useful and for security reasons because it would be bad idea with a default password.

...

 

Yes, but in the end you are the only one able to update it. So, integration of the ASIX driver ? 😉

Allo Sig as NAA endpont.. a good marketing idea !! 😎

[dmccombs]

4 hours ago, Miska said:

 

This is very much system dependent.

 

For my UpBoard and UpSquared I'm using Meanwell's medical grade PSU:

https://www.meanwell-web.com/en-gb/ac-dc-medical-desktop-adaptor-output-5vdc-at-6a-ac-gsm60b05--p1j

 

For my CL100 I'm using a Mascot PSU:

https://www.mascot.no/catalog/power-supplies/acdc/desktop/230v/9320/c-24/c-1318/p-122

 

If you like something better, take a look at Teddy Pardo PSUs, you get those with various different power connectors.

 

 

I use inexpensive ones with a ferrite bead. This can significantly reduce amount of RF/EMI noise entering the DAC.

 

Thank You for the info Jussi.

[Miska]

7 hours ago, Zauurx said:

Yes, but in the end you are the only one able to update it. So, integration of the ASIX driver ? 😉

Allo Sig as NAA endpont.. a good marketing idea !! 😎

 

Now there are updated NAA images for RPi3, RPi4 and x64. I think the previous RPi image also had ASIX driver, but at least this new one has.

 

[Zauurx]

I tried RPI3 NAA's image on Allo USBridge Sig... no boot, no dac detected.. 

Others had more success ??

[blueninjasix]

1 hour ago, Zauurx said:

I tried RPI3 NAA's image on Allo USBridge Sig... no boot, no dac detected.. 

Others had more success ??

Same for me too. New image works perfectly in my Pi4, but the equivalent image for the Pi3 will not boot past the splash screen in my USBridge Signature.

[il Carletto]

17 hours ago, Zauurx said:

Allo Sig as NAA endpont.. a good marketing idea !! 😎

Why? It works great in my system (with Ropieee).

 

6 minutes ago, blueninjasix said:

but the equivalent image for the Pi3 will not boot past the splash screen in my USBridge Signature.

The same here.

[Miska]

4 hours ago, blueninjasix said:

Same for me too. New image works perfectly in my Pi4, but the equivalent image for the Pi3 will not boot past the splash screen in my USBridge Signature.

 

Have you tried on a standard RPi3 board? For me it boots up fine on my RPi3, but is as useless as before with USB outputs on RPi3, so only useful for I2S (and maybe HDMI, but I have not tested that).

 

RPi4 works fine for USB outputs though.

 

[blueninjasix]

4 hours ago, Miska said:

 

Have you tried on a standard RPi3 board? For me it boots up fine on my RPi3, but is as useless as before with USB outputs on RPi3, so only useful for I2S (and maybe HDMI, but I have not tested that).

 

RPi4 works fine for USB outputs though.

 

I'm afraid I don't have access to a Raspberry pi 3 apart from the one inside the USBridge Signature, which is 3+ compute module

[Miska]

5 minutes ago, blueninjasix said:

I'm afraid I don't have access to a Raspberry pi 3 apart from the one inside the USBridge Signature, which is 3+ compute module

 

Likely the compute module is already different from RPi3 and in this application would need a separate device tree file describing the connections.

 

Remember that on ARM platform there is no such thing you have on a PC called ACPI that can describe to the OS what parts are there and how they are connected. On ARM platforms device tree file is needed to describe this information to the OS kernel.