Building a DIY Music Server

[MarcelNL]

a lot of booting and swapping RDIMM sticks...voltage listed for all rdimm slots looks OK, but slots A B and C show 0 GB.

one EPS cable and ATX connected, should IMO be plenty....

I had the mb working using the standard fan coolers, with 4 sticks in the suggested slots, so either the 4 RAM sticks that arrived later (exactly the same) are duds or there is something else wrong.....

[baconbrain]

3 hours ago, MarcelNL said:

a lot of booting and swapping RDIMM sticks...voltage listed for all rdimm slots looks OK, but slots A B and C show 0 GB.

one EPS cable and ATX connected, should IMO be plenty....

I had the mb working using the standard fan coolers, with 4 sticks in the suggested slots, so either the 4 RAM sticks that arrived later (exactly the same) are duds or there is something else wrong.....

 

If you had it running with the 4 original sticks of RAM, then it shouldn’t be an issue related to an improperly seated CPU or Power. 

 

My guess is that your second batch of RAM has a problem…

[lwr]

5 hours ago, MarcelNL said:

I'm back in the room....not sure how, but I'm in the BIOS again, without the ASMB9 module. Guess it was a BIOS reset plus removing the BIOS battery and powering down the board completely.

What stays is that it seems to power down, without being able to see CPU temp or load it's hard to say if it's the MB, the CPU temp or simply the PSU being underdimensioned (400W so should IMHO be up to the task)

 

 

400 Watt power supply may not be up to the task.  I once tried to use a HDPLEX LPS as a temporary supply to listen to while I was modding my Nenon V3, and it quickly overheated and shut down.

[SK8]

13 hours ago, MarcelNL said:

a lot of booting and swapping RDIMM sticks...voltage listed for all rdimm slots looks OK, but slots A B and C show 0 GB.

one EPS cable and ATX connected, should IMO be plenty....

I had the mb working using the standard fan coolers, with 4 sticks in the suggested slots, so either the 4 RAM sticks that arrived later (exactly the same) are duds or there is something else wrong.....

Likely some of the CPU pins not contacting well. Adjust the screws to push the CPU further down to the socket may help. If needed, remove the CPU and check all the pins are clean and in good positions and insert again. As said, I spent half a day to get 2 CPUs in their positions and both seeing all 12 sticks of RAM.

[ciccio1112]

Good morning.  I also had problems showing the RAM, as SK8 says. You have to act on the screws by tightening them in the right way, because the CPU is certainly not aligned perfectly in the socket. Otherwise it happens that some modules are not seen correctly, and you may encounter the problems you mentioned.

[MarcelNL]

thanks all, it must be the CPU seating then...I already found it weird that the order 1-2-3-4 is th eonly instruction listed...I'll try again with screwing all 4 screws down gradually after checking the pins on the MB.

 

If that does not work I'll swap the CPU's to see if one of them has an issue...

[Exocer]

Brief update:
 

On the dual CPU Server I have tried:

Win10 LTSC (Eval version , i'll explain why) -

 

1. With Roon Server and Roon Remote : I loved the user experience.

No Process Lasso tweaks.

No Roon Tweaks

 

Note: This did not sound ideal. I suspect a lot can be gained with the process lasso and roon tweaks.

 

2.Tiny11 - HQPlayer Desktop with HQPlayer Control app all filters turns off playing straight PCM

 

Note: This actually sounded REALLY good but the control app was less than desirable.

 

Since using an eval version "has no supported path" to making it a full on LTSC instance, I went ahead and tried the Tiny10 ISO @seeteeyou suggested, which uses the Windows 10 LTSC Full ISO (Not eval). I am unable to get this OS to boot. It sits at the Windows loading screen forever. 

 

Next step is to find a functional Windows 10 LTSC ISO for this hardware. I had spent hours trimming the ISO using NTLITE only to find out that the "eval" version would not be the right path forward. Hoping to save others a ton of time and energy with this post.😎

 

 

 

[seeteeyou]

Hard to tell what's that all about, though the first question for me to ask myself would be what's the NVMe driver situation?

 

Well, there's this thing for Optane 900P with Intel 9th Gen processors + SOtM sMB-Q370

 

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/download/19755/intel-rapid-storage-technology-driver-installation-software-with-intel-optane-memory-8th-and-9th-gen-platforms.html

https://downloadmirror.intel.com/773230/SetupRST.exe

 

Extracting that driver ahead of time

 

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000094664/technologies/intel-rapid-storage-technology-intel-rst.html

https://downloadmirror.intel.com/773229/readme_18_7_6_1010.txt

./SetupRST.exe -extractdrivers SetupRST_extracted

 

Assuming that Tiny11 might include the latest driver by default, maybe that's why everything turned out to be silky smooth.

 

---

 

https://reboot.pro/index.php?showtopic=22621&page=8#entry221675

Quote

Yes, MinWin istallations always take a very long time to reach the desktop for the first time, in my tests usually about 1 hour (minimum) in desktop PCs with mechanical 7200 RPM HDD, or SSD HD, no appreciable change in time.

 

BTW, here's yet another avenue for those us who aren't ready for Win11PE yet

 

https://reboot.pro/index.php?showtopic=22621

 

MinWin Medium Profile

https://reboot.pro/index.php?showtopic=22621&page=7#entry221615

[Exocer]

9 hours ago, seeteeyou said:

Well, there's this thing for Optane 900P with Intel 9th Gen processors + SOtM sMB-Q370

Thanks @seeteeyoubut I have been using a dual Xeon build. I finally found an Win10 LTSC 2021’ image that works. I am absolutely thrilled with the sq now, with Roon server, process lasso and Taiko’s Roon setting guide.

 

I will have to build up another EPS cable, and fill the remaining 8 ram slots.

 

I will refrain from comparing it to my SOTM build (which sounds wonderful with Euphony V4) until I re-insert it into my chain several weeks from now.

[Johnseye]

13 hours ago, Exocer said:

Thanks @seeteeyoubut I have been using a dual Xeon build. I finally found an Win10 LTSC 2021’ image that works. I am absolutely thrilled with the sq now, with Roon server, process lasso and Taiko’s Roon setting guide.

 

I will have to build up another EPS cable, and fill the remaining 8 ram slots.

 

I will refrain from comparing it to my SOTM build (which sounds wonderful with Euphony V4) until I re-insert it into my chain several weeks from now.

 

Did you try Euphony on your Xeon server? I'm very curious to know how the SOtM build compares with the same OS. Not to mention your thoughts on Euphony with this build. I went through the same exercise using LTSC, then Euphony. I recently switched to Audiolinux a few months ago. I'm going to switch back to Euphony and see how the two compare again. 

 

What Taiko Roon guide are you referring to? 

[BCRich]

1 minute ago, Johnseye said:

 

Did you try Euphony on your Xeon server? I'm very curious to know how the SOtM build compares with the same OS. Not to mention your thoughts on Euphony with this build. I went through the same exercise using LTSC, then Euphony. I recently switched to Audiolinux a few months ago. I'm going to switch back to Euphony and see how the two compare again. 

 

What Taiko Roon guide are you referring to? 

@Johnseye @Exocer I’ll let Rob chime in as I have the SOtM MB as well but have not gone down this path as of yet. No intentions of doing a Dual CPU Build but I might try Windows at some point. Here is a link to the Taiko Roon setup guide:

https://taikoaudio.com/taiko-2020/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Taiko-Extreme-Roon-Settings_V5.x22069.pdf?v=9b7d173b068d

 

Cheers…Mike

[Exocer]

2 hours ago, Johnseye said:

 

Did you try Euphony on your Xeon server? I'm very curious to know how the SOtM build compares with the same OS. Not to mention your thoughts on Euphony with this build. I went through the same exercise using LTSC, then Euphony. I recently switched to Audiolinux a few months ago. I'm going to switch back to Euphony and see how the two compare again. 

 

What Taiko Roon guide are you referring to? 

The guide referenced in @BCRich's post. He is the one who sent it to me. (I had totally forgotten it exists).

 

"Did you try Euphony on your Xeon server?" Yes and it worked without a hitch. The motherboard is very new so I'll refrain from making any definitive statement. Eupony sounds really good with the Xeon server. The SOTM build wasn't too far behind with Euphony. I think the SOTM "may" have a slight edge in clarity but that may be because:

1. I am using the SOTM TX-USBHubin, reclocked.

2. The SOTM TX-USBX10G feeds the TX-usbhubin via DIY cable, also relocked.

 

Both are reclocked by the SCLK-EX which sync with a Mutec Ref10. SCLK-EX is powered by an SJ DC4, as are the TX-USBHubin and TX-USBX10G. Also, that build uses the Femto NVME, also DC4 powered.

 

The Dual xeon build uses the JCAT USB XE + Master OCXO but no other specialty clocks.

 

Both were powered by the same exact ULPS V3 + Taiko DC-ATX.

 

With Euphony, i'll have to revisit listening with the SOTM board but I remember initially not being too impressed with the dual CPU build vs the SOTM early on. Several days in, I texted @Nenon saying "oh, ok I think i'm starting to get the fuss" because the Xeon build started settling in a bit and sounding better than before. I want to give this comparison a very thorough observation and in order to do that i'll have to re-insert the SOTM SMB Q370 and listen again after the Xeon build fully settles in. Let's give that a few weeks.

 

The SOTM is REALLY good and sounds much closer than you would expect given the size differences of the board, the 1 vs 2 cpus. My guess is the results will be depenedent upon the clock yo use for synching the SCLK-EX with has a tremendous effect there. The OCK-1 vs Ref10 feeding the SCLk-ex could convince just about any clock naysayer that clocks CAN and DO have an affect on what you hear.

 

Give me a few weeks and I promise i'll have more feedback on the SOTM vs Dual Xeon comparison with Euphony. Unfortunately I will not have the ability to conduct a complete apples to apples comparison with some fundamental changes (USB card differences, dual reclocked USB layers on the SOTM build) but I suspect it will be very educational info to have. As for people being worried about the older i9 CPU, I wouldn't lose sleep over it. It is becoming next to impossible to find new in box CPUs for the SMB Q370 though, which is unfortunate.

 

Euphony with the Xeon build sounds good. Windows 10 E LTSC 2021 / Tweaked Roon sounds better than Eupony on the Xeon and its not close.

 

 

 

 

[seeteeyou]

Honestly I'm still struggling to understand why anyone would pay "just a bit too much" for Linux distros with "mediocre at best" kernels these days, even RPi CM4-based devices could do significantly better with the Linux kernel called Xenomai 4 / EVL due to much improved latency

 

https://www.diyaudio.com/community/threads/symphonic-mpd.355137/page-20#post-7167650

Quote

My god, Symphonic MPD is more real and lively. Instruments seem to be so separated and black background. I thought Gentooplayer 70$ was excellent but this takes the crown on my Pi2aes Mercury.

 

https://www.superbestaudiofriends.org/index.php?threads/symphonic-mpd.11713/

Quote

I went in to this pretty skeptical. The whole project was giving off mad audiophile red flag vibes, and after all, how much difference can there be between different barebones Linux distributions running MPD? Turns out, a fair bit. No idea what they are doing, but it's legit: it sounds way more focused than Volumio, not in a Scotch mist, can I hear this or not, oobly woobly kind of way but in an obvious, I could blind test this with my eyes shut kind of way.

 

https://www.superbestaudiofriends.org/index.php?threads/symphonic-mpd.11713/#post-377971

Quote

TL;DR - sounds great and works well with Raspberry Pi 4 (versions 1.1 and 1.2 boards) fed through both Allo and Pi2AES. Still not had success with compute modules (versions 3 and 4) or the newest board revision (1.4).

 

https://www.stereonet.com/forums/topic/317583-journeys-with-a-pi-from-a-standing-start-to-symphonic-mpd/

Quote

I have seen the phrase "no trace of digititis" used for every latest digital gadget since I got into this hobby 30 years ago, and until now I never really considered it could apply to anything I heard over the long term. But with s-mpd, I find that there is so much less glare that I am thinking that is what everyone must have been talking about. The naturalness of this player is something else.

Pitch definition over the low register - big check.

Transient definitiion, low level information, micro dynamics - all these qualities overlap with the next. Big check.

Silence between notes - big check.

Sense of acoustic space - its there. its big. its spacious. it sounds natural enough that you say to yourself maybe this is correct.

Sense of musicians actually playing. I am very sensitive to this as I play the piano and grew up with musicians. I can hear how the musicians are playing the music. Ever so subtle inflexions in how and when and how hard they play the note. Can hear it,

My listening room is also my work space. When I am working on the day job - I sit 5 feet away and stare straight into the speaker driver as I work in my desk and hear music, and not a speaker.

GUI - super easy. Goldilocks right. Not too simple, not too much. Everything I want and need laid out that's so easy to use.

Web interface. I just type the ip address into my android, my HP laptop, and my iphone, and I am in s-mpd with the same GUI.

Low level listening vs high level listening. Both so enjoyable that I just relax into listening and I am not driven to ask myself to tweak the paramer. That is of course except when OCD kicks in and because I know that disabling sw volume control is better, I revert to disabling volume control on the pi. We are audiophools after all.

 

Kona Linux 7.0 (based on Debian 12 "Bookworm")

 

http://simosnet.com/debian/packages/Konalinux/debian/kernel2/

http://simosnet.com/debian/packages/Konalinux/debian/update/7.0/soundrivers/

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1OhuEMrj-GosWOF-MFS3GUYYyuUmsnQjl

 

ArchQ (based on Arch Linux)

 

https://github.com/sam0402/ArchQ#readme

https://github.com/sam0402/ArchQ/tree/main/kernel

 

---

 

But then again Win11PE with the right tweaks could have the potential to be "next-level" once we've got everything handled.

[AVdweeb]

8 hours ago, Exocer said:

The guide referenced in @BCRich's post. He is the one who sent it to me. (I had totally forgotten it exists).

 

"Did you try Euphony on your Xeon server?" Yes and it worked without a hitch. The motherboard is very new so I'll refrain from making any definitive statement. Eupony sounds really good with the Xeon server. The SOTM build wasn't too far behind with Euphony. I think the SOTM "may" have a slight edge in clarity but that may be because:

1. I am using the SOTM TX-USBHubin, reclocked.

2. The SOTM TX-USBX10G feeds the TX-usbhubin via DIY cable, also relocked.

 

Both are reclocked by the SCLK-EX which sync with a Mutec Ref10. SCLK-EX is powered by an SJ DC4, as are the TX-USBHubin and TX-USBX10G. Also, that build uses the Femto NVME, also DC4 powered.

 

The Dual xeon build uses the JCAT USB XE + Master OCXO but no other specialty clocks.

 

Both were powered by the same exact ULPS V3 + Taiko DC-ATX.

 

With Euphony, i'll have to revisit listening with the SOTM board but I remember initially not being too impressed with the dual CPU build vs the SOTM early on. Several days in, I texted @Nenon saying "oh, ok I think i'm starting to get the fuss" because the Xeon build started settling in a bit and sounding better than before. I want to give this comparison a very thorough observation and in order to do that i'll have to re-insert the SOTM SMB Q370 and listen again after the Xeon build fully settles in. Let's give that a few weeks.

 

The SOTM is REALLY good and sounds much closer than you would expect given the size differences of the board, the 1 vs 2 cpus. My guess is the results will be depenedent upon the clock yo use for synching the SCLK-EX with has a tremendous effect there. The OCK-1 vs Ref10 feeding the SCLk-ex could convince just about any clock naysayer that clocks CAN and DO have an affect on what you hear.

 

Give me a few weeks and I promise i'll have more feedback on the SOTM vs Dual Xeon comparison with Euphony. Unfortunately I will not have the ability to conduct a complete apples to apples comparison with some fundamental changes (USB card differences, dual reclocked USB layers on the SOTM build) but I suspect it will be very educational info to have. As for people being worried about the older i9 CPU, I wouldn't lose sleep over it. It is becoming next to impossible to find new in box CPUs for the SMB Q370 though, which is unfortunate.

 

Euphony with the Xeon build sounds good. Windows 10 E LTSC 2021 / Tweaked Roon sounds better than Eupony on the Xeon and its not close.

 

 

 

 

Have you had a chance to compare the sound quality of having your server run both the Roon core and player, versus having the Roon core on a different device and using your high end server for playback only?

[Exocer]

8 minutes ago, AVdweeb said:

Have you had a chance to compare the sound quality of having your server run both the Roon core and player, versus having the Roon core on a different device and using your high end server for playback only?

I have not, but I am thinking to try that now that I have two really good servers. I could power the Roon core with my spare PH SR7T 19V rail.

[maxijazz]

Motherboard: Asus TUF Gaming X670E-Plus WiFi

CPU: Ryzen 7

Enclosure: HdPlex H5

 

I followed instruction from HdPlex website as close as possible.

Two surprises.

1. In order to dissemble original CPU heatsink rack i had to remove everything (as on pictures) to be able to install HdPlex-provided rack.
2. New heatpipe package for H5 is common with H3. You can see short pipes reaching a little over 60% of copper block.

 

I hope it will help others since there are very little pictures of installing AMD AM5 CPU.

 

Original CPU rack:

 

 

to be continued...

[maxijazz]

The original CPU rack removed:

 

HdPlex rack in:

 

[maxijazz]

HdPlex rack in:

 

[maxijazz]

Copper block installed with short heatpipes:

 

[MarcelNL]

Brief update; Dual xeon server is up and running, a big THANKS to Exocer for all his support!

I suspect two RAM sticks to be faulty, both CPUs are recognized properly...

 

Meanwhile, while waiting for a gazillion reboots I adapted a second router for cascaded operation...that transformed the sound of the current server!

 

 

 

 

[NewOldman]

I have used this combination
Dynatron B12
https://www.dynatron.co/product-page/b12
and Noctua 90x90 fan on top of it with rubber stands
with external power supply

[seeteeyou]

http://jplay.eu/forum/index.php?/topic/3063-pink-hq-minorityclean/?p=66847

Quote

For the best results, it is recommended to use Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows Server 2022 or Windows 10 22H2. WS 2012R2 is bloat-free, WS 2022 is bloated but incredibly efficient at using system resources. Both will likely provide SQ superior to any other Windows build.

 

http://jplay.eu/forum/index.php?/topic/3063-pink-hq-minorityclean/?p=64471

Quote

I have spent 3 months of my life focusing (almost) solely on finding the best Windows version, so I'm going to share my 0.02$.

topazzo might be actually right. Not because Windows Server is bad OS per se, but because most audiophiles are using Windows Server 2019, which is based on 1809, which might be the worst version of Windows since Windows Vista.

Builds before and after 1809 are much better.

Windows 8.1 have the timers of Windows 10 but without all the bloat, 1709 is probably the lowest latency OS ever made, the newer OSes (especially 22h2) are incredibly efficient in the way they use memory and CPU.
 
So I'd recommend either 8.1, 1709 or 22h2/w11, depending on your hardware.

 

Exciting time ahead?

 

https://blogs.windows.com/windows-insider/2023/08/31/announcing-windows-11-insider-preview-build-25941-canary-channel/

Quote

This is apparently the second official preview. (Not sure what the first one was, but I think it was 25370?)

 

Apparently it won't expire until September

 

https://archive.org/download/win11-ltsc-2024-25941/25941.1000.230825-1352.rs_prerelease_CLIENT_ENTERPRISES_OEM_x64FRE_en-us.iso

[Antanas]

Hello!
Help needed.
My music server: Motherboard MSI MAG B550M MORTAR, CPU AMD Ryzen9 3900 3.1 MGHz 64 MB L3, RAM 8 Gb single module, Euphony Stylus OS, Pink Faun SPDIF Bridge. I want to ask which is better, two 4 Gb modules or one 8 Gb module.

[MarcelNL]

14 hours ago, seeteeyou said:

http://jplay.eu/forum/index.php?/topic/3063-pink-hq-minorityclean/?p=66847

 

http://jplay.eu/forum/index.php?/topic/3063-pink-hq-minorityclean/?p=64471

 

Exciting time ahead?

 

https://blogs.windows.com/windows-insider/2023/08/31/announcing-windows-11-insider-preview-build-25941-canary-channel/

 

Apparently it won't expire until September

 

https://archive.org/download/win11-ltsc-2024-25941/25941.1000.230825-1352.rs_prerelease_CLIENT_ENTERPRISES_OEM_x64FRE_en-us.iso

awfully interesting, seriously! May I ask you kindly to write a few lines of thought to the links you post? For me it's a bit hard to follow your train of thought just from a few links.

[MarcelNL]

15 minutes ago, Antanas said:

Hello!
Help needed.
My music server: Motherboard MSI MAG B550M MORTAR, CPU AMD Ryzen9 3900 3.1 MGHz 64 MB L3, RAM 8 Gb single module, Euphony Stylus OS, Pink Faun SPDIF Bridge. I want to ask which is better, two 4 Gb modules or one 8 Gb module.

The CPU has two memory lanes, so I'd opt for 2 sticks, the MB manual will tell you which ones to best populate.