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Building a DIY Music Server


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9 hours ago, Nenon said:

 

You should try Windows LTSC and ProcessLasso. 

I will be publishing a guide for tweaking Windows for this motherboard sometime next year. Planning to share everything I've learned since April. I am also working with Emile from Taiko on testing some of his technology that will most likely treacle down to the DIY market sometime next year. This coming year will be very exciting for DIY. 

Thanks for your advice.

I will try Windows LTSC and ProcessLasso.
I am also looking forward to the publication of your guide for tweaking Windows.

 

8 hours ago, ray-dude said:

 

I have been having a LOT of fun with this combo on my Extreme.  My recommendation is to carefully study the block diagram.  All the answers are there, and become VERY obvious as you play around with CPU affinity, memory affinity, I/O affinity, etc, and balance priorities.  Stunning what an impact even the smallest tweaks make to SQ. As a hint, pay very close attention to which PCIe slots have affinity to which CPU, the UPI channel between CPUs, and the affinity of built in I/O to CPU1.  As you get to next level, pay attention to the affinity of memory to each CPU.  This block diagram is the roadmap to design and balance processing and playback.

 

 

2029580907_WSC621ESAGEblockdiagram.thumb.png.fa0ca413589b97c5020eef3f1ed1dca4.png

 

Thanks for the block diagram of WS C612E SAGE.
I will be doing some careful research and tweaking myself.

Learning how the sound changes is going to be a lot of fun.

 

6 hours ago, OAudio said:

@ray-dude great points.

 

The sage archtecture diagram or equivalent for other dual CPU motherboard are very important inputs to working up affinity strategies.

 

Another hint @kyoya78would be not to forget that that LTSB's kernel threads, many SW device drivers and other OS owned services cannot have their CPU affinities set by user performance tuning tools.  These OS processes are scheduled by the OS across available cores on both CPU sockets, which can be challenging and needs consideration. Attaching your critical replay hardware (eg OS disk, USB ports) and setting core affinities to pin your music endpoint software to CPU socket 0 / NUMA node 0 is a good place to start for SQ. 

 

Setups that relay on the USB output audio stream being transmitted across the UPI channels don't sound so good. 

 

Using CPU socket 1 / NUMA node 1 to handel with less time dependant data in the replay chain such as reading in of music media from local storage and running the audio players UI can be useful. This removes the processing load of these functions from CPU 0 allowing it to better service realtime audio streaming to the USB port.

 

Hours and hours of fun working through all this  😉

 

Thanks for your hints.
I will try to set up Windows OS with your hints.

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  • 2 years later...
On 5/6/2022 at 10:58 AM, Superdad said:

Since someone mentioned the AfterDark Nocturnes optical USB box set, and since I know a bit about all these various optical USB solutions at the chip level (see my prior posts, though I won't go into too much detail about the actual transceiver and translator chips used--there are only a couple of basic variants), I thought I would post about some experiments that I finally got around to today.

[With EtherREGEN and ISO REGEN, and UltraCaps all out of production, and JS-2 production running ahead--I have a lot more time these days while we wait for new board prototypes to come back. 9_9]

 

As mentioned, the Audiowise OPTO/Lindy boxes are just private labels of an Asian piece and technically about the same as the offerings from https://www.transwan.com.cn

And then there are a bunch of 2-box SFP setups on AliExpress, which are based on this somewhat obscure USB2.0 extender/controller chip: 

http://www.wch-ic.com/products/CH317.html  But its usage is a bit cumbersome and not ideal since it must be paired with Ethernet RGMII>SGMII PHY transceiver chip.

Here is the box set that uses that technique:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005002086574264.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.0.0.4c071d55Z1kFJM&algo_pvid=9cc51ad5-3213-40d3-a0d7-29d1c49f0010&algo_expid=9cc51ad5-3213-40d3-a0d7-29d1c49f0010-3&btsid=0b0a555916223217208672489e55c8&ws_ab_test=searchweb0_0,searchweb201602_,searchweb201603_

The one I bought is exactly that but in black.

If you look closely at the jack layout of the AfterDark Nocturnes, you will see it is based on these same boards.  Only AfterDark added internally an OCXO--and I think they give you a 10MHz clock out. (Not sure how they do that since the USB board needs 25MHz and I am sure they are not using a clock synth to take 10MHz OCXO and make 25MHx; maybe it has two OCXOs.)

 

These CH317 chip based units, as well as the method used in the OPTO/Lindy and Transwan boxes is not as clean and simple as the translator chip used in Monoprice Slimrun and FIBBR Alpha USB (same as the now discontinued Adnaco/Everpro SU-1 which saw a lot of favor for a bit with Asian audiophiles).  And even though none of these devices are actually developed with power and clocking, flip-flop, and USB output techniques that ought to be used for best SQ, I think the simpler chip versions sound MUCH better (sorry I am avoiding naming the chip directly for several reasons; the curious can figure it out.; I have 500 of them that might find there way into a product someday...)

 

So here are some pics of my experiments today with the optical SFP box set I got from AliExpress:

IMG_4591.thumb.jpg.535483115a9b22a2c8c53ec10f560d4b.jpg

IMG_4589.thumb.jpg.e31172fafad823fd52a50b490a7f1ea0.jpg

 

The transmit side box on the bottom shelf is getting USB from my Pareto Audio (@lmitche) NUC that is running tweaked AudioLinux Roon Server & Bridge.

Then SFP/fiber to the receive box positioned with a UpTone USPCB Adapter right at the input of the heavily modified (thanks @scan80269!) Singxer SU-1, which in turn feeds I2S over HDMI cable (wow those cables can sound really different!) to an original Holo Spring Level 3.

All devices (including the EtherREGEN) are being powered by beta boards of a big new LPS we are working on (ignore that they are in UltraCap LPS-1.2 cases, it was just a convenient size for the beta boards; actual supply will with completely different, much larger, with Cree diodes, triple regulation, and special transformers).

 

Anyway, today's test was the Aliexpress optical box set versus the Monoprice Slimrun.  Long story short, the Monoprice is MUCH better in every way.

Looking forward to receiving the FIBBR Alpha Optical USB as it is the same chip/tech as I refer to above--as used in the Monoprice--but gets powered at the downstream end.

 

Lastly, you may notice a beta unit of the Pi2Design Mercury streamer in acrylic case on the floor.  On kind loan to me from @bobfa.  I have been having a lot of fun with it and its great appeal is that it is Ethernet to I2S (and AES, S/PDIF) with good clocks and regs and careful layout.  But it is crazy just how different server/player s/w and operating systems sound on it. Have so far tried Volumio and PiCorePlayer, the latter I am liking with both LMS and Squeezelite running on its Pi Compute4 module.  With a great PS it is not within a hair's breath of my Pareto NUC/Roon setup, though @lmitche will be doing a major AudioLinux upgrade for me tomorrow and that is likely to move the goal.

 

It has been great to have some days to play around, experiment, and enjoy more music--though I would welcome a few more JS-2 orders this month... B|

Can't wait until @JohnSwensoncomes down from Washington for a 4 day visit in June.  It has been a long time since he heard my system, plus we are likely to be playing with some other secret prototype goodies! 

 

Have a great weekend everyone.

--Alex C.

 

 

 

IMG_4590.jpg

Hi Alex,

How was your experience trying the FIBBR Alpha Optical USB?

 
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