Pi 2 Design Mercury Streamer

[Superdad]

7 hours ago, sch8mid said:

 

@Superdad

This is what you wrote :

 

Volumio : Maybe if I have time this week I’ll boot that and run DSD (over DoP) and take a picture for you.

Well I found that my original microSD card with Volumio had been overwritten.  I spent a couple of hours yesterday trying to make a new Volumio boot drive but never got one to boot.  So now I am out of time to spend on this project just to prove something to you.  I did play DSD with Volumio for a short time when I first received the Mercury, but I moved on to other operating systems and player software. 

Perhaps you can get support from the Volumio folks on this matter. After all, they do charge for their software.  
As you can see from my photos and my testament, it is NOT a hardware issue with Mercury.  It does play DSD64 (not DSD128) over DoP via I2S.

 

Best of luck,

—Alex C.

[Superdad]

Duplicate.

[Superdad]

Duplicate..

[Superdad]

2 minutes ago, stefano_mbp said:

have you already tried to connect to the Mercury with coax? … maybe yes but I don’t remember … 

You should try to play a DSD64 file … DoP must be configured in Volumio

Feels like this conversation is going around in circles... 

[Superdad]

1 hour ago, stefano_mbp said:

unfortunately your experience is with Roon

I also have played DSD to Mercury as Squeezelite endpoint—both with LMS on Mercury and on a different PC. 
And I did play DSD to I2S under Volumio—but this week I don’t have the time to figure out why I can’t seem to make a new Volumio boot card work. 

[Superdad]

1 hour ago, sch8mid said:

Not with Picore, not with Volumio not with Ropieee

Aside from Volumio (which has its own player app), what music player s/w are you willing to use?  Roon or Squeezlite perhaps?  Ropieee is primarily about Roon, and both it and Sqeezelite for certain are playing DSD over I2S via Mercury here.

[Superdad]

38 minutes ago, sch8mid said:

annoying locking problems wirh Holo Audio DACs PLL . (Long locking times when changing resolution because of a strict PLL)

I’m pretty sure that it has been explained to you that PLL lock time issue is a function of that feature of your Holo Spring 3.  Really can not blame the Mercury for that.

[Superdad]

50 minutes ago, sch8mid said:

I miss as well a statement why there is no DSD at all with I2S and no custom overlay and drivers for Mercury.

No need for such a statement as DSD (over DoP) comes out the Mercury’s I2S output just fine—as I proved with photos—into my original Holo Spring L3.

Your issue, as documented by you and discussed at length elsewhere, is with your Spring 3 (or the May) and its PLL. I recall that @Miska suggested you turn off the PLL.

 

You issue

50 minutes ago, sch8mid said:

tested by proven betatesters instead of well known storytellers.

You repeatedly make this snarky dig, which I know is directed at me since you called me out by name on other forums, even going to length of making some insult in an EtherREGEN thread.  How about knocking that off!  I and others have gone to some lengths to assist you. If you are unhappy with the Mercury then I am sure you can sell the fine device to someone else.  
If it does not suit you with the particular DAC you own and the software you choose to run then simply move on. Life is too short. And it not as if the Mercury cost a fortune.

 

P.S.: On the other forum (ASR) you repeatedly refer to me as a “Fairytale Betatester.”  I was never a beta tester for Mercury. I bought my unit (a beta test unit) from reviewer @bobfa. Gladly paid him the same price he paid for it ($500 for the 4GB model) and it has worked flawlessly with every operating system and every player software I have tried on it. 

[Superdad]

31 minutes ago, sch8mid said:

Dont even try to believe in one of Superdads false statements .

He was not even able to prove that a Mercury with Volumio out of the box plays DSD over I2S and instead showed a screenshot of a Picoreplayer , LMS , Roonendpoint combo .

Always the same.

A historical track record of misinformation , reported  not only over @ ASR and Archimago , home of a whole array of genuinely knowledgeable people and home of some of our best audio engineers.

Wow. Just wow. I—and others here—tried to be nice and help the guy use the Mercury with a DAC whose I2S input has a known, very-slow-to-lock PLL.  And all I got in return for my time was his off-topic scorn? 
Guess it proves the maxim that “No good deed goes unpunished.” Good riddance to you sch8mid whoever you are…

[Superdad]

3 hours ago, zackthedog said:

I'm happy to walk you through GP, it takes an hour or two but once it's done it's done.  The Mercury is an interesting beast, it has enormous potential but needs a little fussing to get it all going.

Tweaked GentooPlayer has given me by far the best SQ on the Mercury—especially when the OS and apps are loaded into RAMdisk.  I just wish I knew why it takes nearly an hour for the RAMdisk loading process to complete.

 

3 hours ago, chrisd552 said:

 Has anyone experimented with different PSUs yet? Is SQ impacted a lot by choice of power supply?

 

Yes, and yes!

I’m sure you are going to enjoy your new Mercury. 

[Superdad]

3 hours ago, Guitarman said:

Does anyone know for a fact if the Mercury supports DSD over I2S?

 

Yes.  I own a Mercury (1st generation) and a Holo Spring L3 (original Spring, not Spring 3).  I use I2S output of Mercury and can play DSD over DoP to the Spring with Roon or Squeezlite.  Have done so with Ropieee, piCorePlayer, and GentooPlayer, the last one being by far my favorite as I tweak with real-time kernel and everything loaded into RAM.

 

I seem to recall that someone here with Holo May or Spring 3 found that the only way to get DSD working was to turn off the DAC’s PLL feature.  That is as much as I know. You may find more info upthread—where the other fellow became quite rude with me about it all, despite my attempts to politely assist him. (He never believed me even though I posted screenshots. )

[Superdad]

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[Superdad]

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[Superdad]

On 8/16/2022 at 8:16 AM, sch8mid said:

Dont even try to believe in one of Superdads false statements .

He was not even able to prove that a Mercury with Volumio out of the box plays DSD over I2S and instead showed a screenshot of a Picoreplayer , LMS , Roonendpoint combo .

Always the same.

A historical track record of misinformation , reported  not only over @ ASR and Archimago , home of a whole array of genuinely knowledgeable people and home of some of our best audio engineers.

Short and funny excurs :

Concerning  EtherRegen : Last year , as a former writer for "Computervideo" Germany and out of interest   I sent all the technical data , claims and discussions available for this device  to one of the engineers at Fraunhofer society  (the guys who brought us MP3 ).

Answer : " Is this a 700 €  joke ? Or the empirical evidence that audiophiles are so bloody stupid ?"

 

Since you continue to be nasty about this towards me--on this forum and elsewhere--when I was just trying to help you out, I bought another microSD card (my others were bad), made a Volumio image ran the following test:

 

This is Volumio running on a Pi2Design (V1; only thing making it "beta" unit is acrylic case before their aluminum cases were ready) playing DSD64 (over DoP) via I2S to a Holo Spring DAC (original Spring, not Spring 2 or Spring 3).

 

 

[Superdad]

45 minutes ago, Powerman said:

What is the issue with DSD on mercury/Pi4,

Pi2Design’s Mercury plays DSD just fine—but only framed as DoP, and only up to DSD64 (methinks).  Nothing wrong that. 

[Superdad]

2 hours ago, the_bat said:

I know the maximum output rate on the spdif/aes/toslink outputs is, as expected, 192 kHz, but does the same apply to the i2s interface?

 

Yes, 192KHz PCM and DSD64 are the max rates for the Mercury's I2S output.

[Superdad]

1 hour ago, Powerman said:

Well poop. Thanks. I run my wireless with a LPS. Should be too noisy, but I get it. I really don't want to send it back, but I don't want regrets either.

Indeed I2S (and the S/PDIF if one is inclined) are the only worthwhile outputs of the Mercury—its reason for being.

If your new DAC (Lampizator I think you mentioned elsewhere) is USB-only, then perhaps consider trading for a Sonore ultraRendu. Extremely well done Ethernet>USB. Small and trouble free, easy to use, and excellent software support. You might even find one used for a good price (though the most recent version they are shipping now has some final optimizations that make it the best sounding so far).

Your Mercury V2 is in limited production and a fine piece (just not special for USB), so you shouldn’t have any trouble finding a buyer. I’m still enjoying my V1 unit—I2S into a Holo Spring L3.  Scales great with a first rate LPS. 

[Superdad]

On 6/29/2023 at 9:40 PM, mitch751 said:

Some people said Mercury can’t do DSD 64 on l2S, I just bought Ferrum Wandla Dac … confirmed it can play DSD 64 without any issue.

Yeah, it was just one guy causing a ruckus on multiple forums—and being rather nasty to me when I tried to help and posted picture proof—because his Holo May or Spring 3 (with their odd PLL circuitry) was not able to play DSD with the Mercury.