Pi 2 Design Mercury Streamer

[Superdad]

33 minutes ago, bobfa said:

Can we bring this back on track?  Observations, questions, etc. One the device itself.  

 

Sure Bob.  I'm enjoying the heck out of mine (well, technically yours Bob--until I send you a check for it this week or next ).

 

So far I have tried a variety of permutations and comparisons.  When using the Mercury it is always I2S out direct to my Holo Spring L3 via a Pangea HDMI cable, powered by a prototype of an advanced new power supply we are working on.

 

I normally run a Pareto Audio(@lmitche) built AudioLinuxNUC as my Roon Core Server (and endpoint via optical USB--into a heavily modified by @scan80269Singxer SU-1 to I2S)--prior to using the Mercury as endpoint.

[When NUC is DDC-attached Server/Endpoint then it is on 'B' side of optically-fed/externally-clocked EtherREGEN; When Mercury is endpoint the NUC is moved to an 'A' side port and Mercury gets the 'B' port.  All this is VERY audible--especially when using my DSD64 copy of Nina Simone's very first album as remastered exquisitely to SACD by Ryan Smith. Been listening to this LP for 59 years--since I was 1 year old; crazy the sonic details in there besides just the timeless beauty of her performance.]

 

For OS I have so far tried Volumio, PiCorePlayer, Ropieee, and GentooPlayer.

I have tried LMS/SqueezeLite (best with LMS not run on Mercury, and better when LMS was run on the AudioLinux NUC than from my desktop controlling M1 MacBook Pro) and Roon.  

Until this morning the best SQ I got was with Ropieee running RoonBridge.  Then for a short time I had GentooPlayer (configured with system and RoonBridge loaded into RAM) running and was in heaven.  But then I started having problems with the Mercury even being seen on the network with GentooPlayer running (literally its IP address vanishes from my IP scanner utility).  

 

There are other things I plan to try when I get GentooPlayer stable--such as copying a couple of favorite discs to the microSD or RAM. And then later I might buy an M2 flash drive to load a portion of my library there.

 

Having fun with this high-value box! 

 

[oneguy]

4 hours ago, bobfa said:

Can we bring this back on track?  Observations, questions, etc. One the device itself.  

 

 

I’d love to provide observations but I’m still waiting on mine to be shipped :( I ordered on Apr 5th for anyone who’s curious where they’re at in the queue. 

[PoMarantz]

Damn you, oneguy! You are ahead of me! I ordered on April 14th. 😁

[congofather]

20 hours ago, Superdad said:

Until this morning the best SQ I got was with Ropieee running RoonBridge.  Then for a short time I had GentooPlayer (configured with system and RoonBridge loaded into RAM) running and was in heaven.  But then I started having problems with the Mercury even being seen on the network with GentooPlayer running (literally its IP address vanishes from my IP scanner utility).  

 

There are other things I plan to try when I get GentooPlayer stable--such as copying a couple of favorite discs to the microSD or RAM. And then later I might buy an M2 flash drive to load a portion of my library there.

 

I tried RopieeeXL, VolumIO, DietPi, MoodeAudio and lastly my favorite one GentooPlayer with Mercury Streamer.

GentooPlayer with RamSystem Mode=5 (almost everything is loaded into RAM)

,a  RealTime Kernel chosen(5.15.36-GentooPlayer-RT-MIN-NOGRAPH-EUPRCU-rt41+)

,process optimizations made for LMS, Squeezelite-R2 under "System Expert-I" settings

and every process stopped/disabled (I connect to Mercury using SSH and be sure that everything is turned off) except LMS and SqueezeLite-R2 is one of the best solutions for Mercury in my opinion.

 

The other very good alternative(with a better interface) is running Euphony(Roon Server) on a separate fast SSD, and running RoonBridge with the same optimizations explained above using GentooPlayer on Mercury.

 

Edit: I prefered caching the songs before playing and loaded them from a Synology NAS(with SSD drives) connected to a managed Ubiquiti switch in the same network with Mercury Streamer.

 

[Powerman]

Hi everyone... Noob here... And total noob to Pi. My Mercury arrived This past weekend and got some time with it. I didn't realize I was on airplay. I installed roon Bridge. I am going to my Pontus 2 with I2S without any problems. We'll see if that hold true with roon when I get home. I am using wired network and have wifi off. Signed up with Volumino to check it out. So far, I am very happy.

 

I am stopping to get a SSD tonight to mount internally. I do not have a lot of hi-res music but would like change that if it is worth it. I have a metric ton of MP3s. I'm not entirely sure how to get the SSD running, but I assume I'll figure it out. I really know nothing about Pi, but wanted a I2S streamer. Looking forward to seeing everything it can do and optimize my digital streaming.

[PoMarantz]

2 hours ago, Powerman said:

Hi everyone... Noob here... And total noob to Pi. My Mercury arrived This past weekend and got some time with it. I didn't realize I was on airplay. I installed roon Bridge. I am going to my Pontus 2 with I2S without any problems. We'll see if that hold true with roon when I get home. I am using wired network and have wifi off. Signed up with Volumino to check it out. So far, I am very happy.

 

I am stopping to get a SSD tonight to mount internally. I do not have a lot of hi-res music but would like change that if it is worth it. I have a metric ton of MP3s. I'm not entirely sure how to get the SSD running, but I assume I'll figure it out. I really know nothing about Pi, but wanted a I2S streamer. Looking forward to seeing everything it can do and optimize my digital streaming.

I have not received mine yet. I am a total noob to this, also. I bought mine for the exact same reason you did. I wanted cleanest streaming…so…ethernet into The Mercury, then I2S into my Pontus II. I am currently using Amazon Music and my understanding is that that is not compatible. So I guess that I will switch to Tidal…and not sure what OS to use on The Mercury. I have zero experience with these matters. I  thought that Volumio was an OS…but you are saying that you "signed-up"…is there is a subscription?  So now I am more confused. LOL!

 

[Powerman]

18 minutes ago, PoMarantz said:

I have not received mine yet. I am a total noob to this, also. I bought mine for the exact same reason you did. I wanted cleanest streaming…so…ethernet into The Mercury, then I2S into my Pontus II. I am currently using Amazon Music and my understanding is that that is not compatible. So I guess that I will switch to Tidal…and not sure what OS to use on The Mercury. I have zero experience with these matters. I  thought that Volumio was an OS…but you are saying that you "signed-up"…is there is a subscription?  So now I am more confused. LOL!

 

No, Volumino is an OS. You have to register to get plugins. Yes they have a paid version but free gets the job done. Volumino worked just fine starting with wi-fi. Now come the SSD fun....

[Riccitone]

On 6/13/2022 at 8:45 PM, Superdad said:

 

Sure Bob.  I'm enjoying the heck out of mine (well, technically yours Bob--until I send you a check for it this week or next ).

 

So far I have tried a variety of permutations and comparisons.  When using the Mercury it is always I2S out direct to my Holo Spring L3 via a Pangea HDMI cable, powered by a prototype of an advanced new power supply we are working on.

 

I normally run a Pareto Audio(@lmitche) built AudioLinuxNUC as my Roon Core Server (and endpoint via optical USB--into a heavily modified by @scan80269Singxer SU-1 to I2S)--prior to using the Mercury as endpoint.

[When NUC is DDC-attached Server/Endpoint then it is on 'B' side of optically-fed/externally-clocked EtherREGEN; When Mercury is endpoint the NUC is moved to an 'A' side port and Mercury gets the 'B' port.  All this is VERY audible--especially when using my DSD64 copy of Nina Simone's very first album as remastered exquisitely to SACD by Ryan Smith. Been listening to this LP for 59 years--since I was 1 year old; crazy the sonic details in there besides just the timeless beauty of her performance.]

 

For OS I have so far tried Volumio, PiCorePlayer, Ropieee, and GentooPlayer.

I have tried LMS/SqueezeLite (best with LMS not run on Mercury, and better when LMS was run on the AudioLinux NUC than from my desktop controlling M1 MacBook Pro) and Roon.  

Until this morning the best SQ I got was with Ropieee running RoonBridge.  Then for a short time I had GentooPlayer (configured with system and RoonBridge loaded into RAM) running and was in heaven.  But then I started having problems with the Mercury even being seen on the network with GentooPlayer running (literally its IP address vanishes from my IP scanner utility).  

 

There are other things I plan to try when I get GentooPlayer stable--such as copying a couple of favorite discs to the microSD or RAM. And then later I might buy an M2 flash drive to load a portion of my library there.

 

Having fun with this high-value box! 

 

@SuperdadImpressive implementations and avenues taken here! Gives us considerable insight on ways to squeeze cleaner digits etc. 

 

a couple of questions and forgive me if I’ve misinterpreted here…

 

Were you saying that you’ve also tried simply running to your dac straight in without additional ddc conversion/cleanup? My hope is that the Mercury will be impressive enough an upgrade by simply accessing Qobuz via Volumio and sending to my d70s via I2s (hdmi cable). With those impressive clocks etc. I’m imagining it will far outperform my allo digione/rpi - which is already sounding pretty nice after some ssh into Volumio to quiet down the rpi side with some code. 
 

Next…

 

Will we be able to purchase - or carefully kit assemble - this wonderful power supply of which you speak? 🙃

[PoMarantz]

38 minutes ago, Powerman said:

No, Volumino is an OS. You have to register to get plugins. Yes they have a paid version but free gets the job done. Volumino worked just fine starting with wi-fi. Now come the SSD fun....

Thanks for the clarification. I guess this stuff will make more sense once I actually have my streamer and try to implement it. What SSD did you get?

[Superdad]

5 hours ago, congofather said:

I tried RopieeeXL, VolumIO, DietPi, MoodeAudio and lastly my favorite one GentooPlayer with Mercury Streamer.

Hi:  I have followed some of your reports in the thread over on SBAF.  And @clipper (there and I think here) is a VERY good client of UpTone--and his praise for GentooPlayer is what prompted me to try it.

 

5 hours ago, congofather said:

GentooPlayer with RamSystem Mode=5 (almost everything is loaded into RAM)

Having settled on Roon (Forgot to mention above that I even compared sending Roon to SqueezeLite but preferred RoonBridge), I uninstalled from GentooPlayer all other apps and the WiFi stuff. I am running in Ramsystem Mode=6. So everything is in RAM--proven by my being able to remove the microSD card from the Mercury.

 

5 hours ago, congofather said:

,a  RealTime Kernel chosen(5.15.36-GentooPlayer-RT-MIN-NOGRAPH-EUPRCU-rt41+)

SystemInfo reports that I am running kernel 5.15.36-GentooPlayer-ST+.

Is that the realtime kernel?  If I go to SelectKernel the drop-down menu does not work or display any options.  What am I missing here?  (Does seem that on the web GentooPlayer has two completely different web pages for downloading--and their docs leave a bit to be desired.)

 

On the subject of kernel version: My friend @lmitche--a proponent of AudioLinux and builder of my little NUC--recently upgraded my AL to 5.17 and I recall him telling me that it was the first of the realtime kernels. (Might have been because my AL system was almost 2 years old and also I may have misunderstood.  I am a total Linux noob.)

But I do wonder if any of the RaspberryPi Linux kernel are yet on 5.17.

 

5 hours ago, congofather said:

,process optimizations made for LMS, Squeezelite-R2 under "System Expert-I" settings

and every process stopped/disabled (I connect to Mercury using SSH and be sure that everything is turned off) except LMS and SqueezeLite-R2 is one of the best solutions for Mercury in my opinion.

I would be VERY interested in what process tweaks you might offer for a GentooPlayer user using it on a Mercury strictly for RoonBridge.

And other things to check to be sure turned off/unloaded?

 

5 hours ago, congofather said:

Edit: I prefered caching the songs before playing and loaded them from a Synology NAS(with SSD drives) connected to a managed Ubiquiti switch in the same network with Mercury Streamer.

Ultimately I would like to be able to point Roon to some directory on Mercury/GentooPlayer (either the microSD card, RAM, or an M2 flash drive stick if I get one) to play copied over music files.  But I need to figure out how to set Gentoo to share (is Samba the same as SMB?) and what path to enter into Roon's network drive share watch list.

 

Sorry @bobfa if this post is a bit into the weeds.  

The Mercury is performing at a VERY high level! So much fun...

I need to call Michael Kelly to see if he will sell me an aluminum case for your/my acrylic beta box. But first I have to send you $$ for it.

[Superdad]

 

46 minutes ago, Riccitone said:

 

Were you saying that you’ve also tried simply running to your dac straight in without additional ddc conversion/cleanup?

Not quite sure of your question.  

Despite having installed into my original Holo Spring L3 the newer USB>I2S input board (not the more exotic one that is in the May and also available with Spring 3 Kitsune edition), the I2S input--driven by my heavily-modified Singxer SU-1 at least--is still MUCH more musical than the Spring's USB input.

So my use of the Mercury is to give me an Ethernet>I2S setup. Which eliminates my NUC>optical USB>SU-1>I2S chain.

 

The interesting thing is that it took landing on GentooPlayer before the Mercury (as Roon endpoint straight into my DAC) finally surpassed my carefully tweaked NUC (as both RoonServer and endpoint as described).

 

46 minutes ago, Riccitone said:

Will we be able to purchase - or carefully kit assemble - this wonderful power supply of which you speak? 🙃

Oh yes!  All our $$ and time have been poured into this new supply all year (which has been hard since the global chip shortage situation ground to a halt most all other UpTone sales other than JS-2s).  This thread is not the place nor the time for us to reveal any details about the new supply. But trust me we will and there will be a ton to talk about and explain--both in pictures and words.

 

I am excited because I am picking up @JohnSwenson from the Amtrak station tomorrow. He will be spending 5 nights at my house and we will be playing and testing all sorts of devices (including the newest near-beta board of the the aforementioned dual 2A/4A power supply, a couple of variants of Sonore ultraRendu, an opticalRendu, and an opticalModule Deluxe).  Plus we will be doing more strategizing on our development plans, BBQ-ing, stargazing, and maybe taking a trip into Yosemite National Park.  So happy to be seeing my dear friend in person again after too long.

[Will probably be mostly off the forum for the duration of his visit as there is so much to do.]

[Powerman]

Hummm... Clueless so far. I don't even know how to get in. I downloaded putty, I enabled SSH in Volumino. Says it can't open my connection...

[antonellocaroli]

On 6/14/2022 at 2:45 AM, Superdad said:

 But then I started having problems with the Mercury even being seen on the network with GentooPlayer running (literally its IP address vanishes from my IP scanner utility).  

These are often problems that arise from the habits of assigning static IPs through the router...
I don't know if this is your case...

PS: when using the ramsystem, but also when not using it, and you want to remove the sd-card (in the case of the ramsystem enabled) it is also a good thing to set 'SD-Card Polling' to disable (in TWK)... this prevents the system from regularly checking for the presence of the sd-card...

[Powerman]

Well I managed to get my drive partitioned, formatted, and mounted. I followed a good procedure, and the one on SBAF... made an entry in etc/fstab... But volumio doesn't see it. Or, there is nothing to list that it does see, because I can't figure out how to copy files to the new drive. It will have to wait to tomorrow.

 

So far I dig it. I have been waiting for a dedicated streamer. I had a Matrix Audio mini pro3, and a Naim Atom. Got the Pontus, and then a headphone amp. I sold most of it to get a LTA Z40 to drive everything. I was using my friends Blusound till the Mercury came in. My chain now is Mercury>I2S>Pontus>AQ Water XLR>Z40>B&w 707/Focal Utopias. Thing is I can not hear a big difference to the Bluesound straight to the Z40 with RCAs. Go figure.

 

Again though, the Mercury is looking pretty good right now. I just want a clean stream, and the ability to play straight from a SSD without the computer messing things up. I will have to get used to the Pi platform and see how I can optimize. I like Roon, but it is annoying at times with not seeing my streamers. I have to unplug the network cable on the Bluesound constantly. So far... the Mercury pops up every time. I will try out the other music platforms through to see if another one is better that Volumio/Roon.

[congofather]

 

5 hours ago, Superdad said:

I would be VERY interested in what process tweaks you might offer for a GentooPlayer user using it on a Mercury strictly for RoonBridge.

And other things to check to be sure turned off/unloaded?

 

I shared some of my settings below that I used (the tweak and process settings). Every Gentooplayer user is recommended to find their optimum settings on their own by testing how they hear after making these changes. Therefore, I can not claim that these settings are the optimum settings for these processes etc. They are just my settings. You can try and see whether or not it works yourself.

 

The settings below are the process settings for LMS, SqueezeLite-r2 and RoonBridge. Instead of entering these values one by one, there are pre-defined profiles listed under "System Config Advanced/Profile Select". But what each profile does different from the others is not clear enough for me. Therefore, I preferred entering all the required parameters as I want. I feel that it's more under my control this way. 

 

In addition to this, as I said in my previous post, I always want to be sure that everything except the process I prefer is turned off. Therefore, event though it may not be necessary, I check everytime I started Mercury once by using ssh.. I will share the details of the gentooplayer-ready commands in my next post.

 

By the way , @antonellocaroli does not recommend and do not want the users to use ssh. Instead, everything on the interface should be enough to do the same things. But I feel on the safe side :) when I run the scripts from the commandline. It's just my way of handling things; not the advised/proposed solution.

 

 

 

Similarly, my Squeezelite-R2 process settings;

LMS settings is a little bit different. IONice Priority set to 1(Real Time) means, according to the help page, is "“Realtime” tries to give processes immediate access to the disk"

[congofather]

5 hours ago, Superdad said:

And other things to check to be sure turned off/unloaded?

 

After connecting to the streamer using ssh, there's a custom home screen that shows basic informations to you. You can return to this screen whenever you want by just writing/running home command.

 

 

When you run players-commands; you see a list of commands for most of the players that you can use.

 

roonr is an interesting and useful command. It stops every other player except roonBridge. Even when I want to use other players, I run this command and then run roonstop to also stop roon bridge. After that I run the start/restart script of the player I will use :)

 

Similarly, when you return to home(run home  command), you will see a command that shows you a new screen to select the DIFFERENT TYPE of Kernels. I find this interface easier to understand than its web interface :). Again, it's  only my preference..

[congofather]

5 hours ago, Superdad said:

I uninstalled from GentooPlayer all other apps and the WiFi stuff. I am running in Ramsystem Mode=6. So everything is in RAM--proven by my being able to remove the microSD card from the Mercury

 

RamSystem Mode=6 is "God Mode- On" 😃 I also removed /uninstalled everything that I do not use from its web interface. It is better to run it more lightweight. RamSystem Mode=5 is also fine for Mercury.  

 

Lastly, as a wish only :), it would be great if Gentooplayer supported Tidal Connect natively. Currently, it is possible to use Tidal over LMS and Roon which are also both fine. But for simplicity, Tidal Connect support like Spotify Connect would be very very good. As far as I learnt, Tidal does not open source its APIs with other companies like Spotify did. Therefore, licensing etc. is required which cost extra money. 

[oneguy]

@Powermanwhen did you order your Mercury?

[lmitche]

8 hours ago, Superdad said:

I recall him telling me that it was the first of the realtime kernels

Hi Alex,

 

Sorry not to have been more clear, 5.17 is one of a long, long line of realtime kernels. The difference with 5.17  is that is has a greatly enhanced TCP/IP stack that is much more efficient. This enhanced efficiency is audible.

[Superdad]

6 hours ago, congofather said:

I shared some of my settings below that I used (the tweak and process settings). Every Gentooplayer user is recommended to find their optimum settings on their own by testing how they hear after making these changes. Therefore, I can not claim that these settings are the optimum settings for these processes etc. They are just my settings. You can try and see whether or not it works yourself.

Thank you very much for sharing all your tweaks in such a clear manner! Very helpful. I will experiment a bit as soon as I have time.

[Superdad]

8 hours ago, antonellocaroli said:

These are often problems that arise from the habits of assigning static IPs through the router...
I don't know if this is your case…

No, I do not have static IP address set.  But since yesterday I am not having anymore problems with the player being found. Hopefully it stays stable.

 

8 hours ago, antonellocaroli said:

PS: when using the ramsystem, but also when not using it, and you want to remove the sd-card (in the case of the ramsystem enabled) it is also a good thing to set 'SD-Card Polling' to disable (in TWK)... this prevents the system from regularly checking for the presence of the sd-card...

I’ll be sure to adjust that!

 

Also Antonella, you gave me a trial user key. Now that I know I wish to purchase a license, what is the procedure—for payment and installation?  Importantly, if there is a new license key, can that be loaded without my having to start all over—with optimizations, settings, tweaks?  It would be inconvenient to have to do so?

Is there some time limit on the trial key you gave me? Does it just stop working at some point?  This current week is a busy and important one for me (my engineer partner is visiting) so I hope GentooPlayer continue to work without incident for at least another 6 days.

 

Many thanks,

—Alex C.

 

[antonellocaroli]

3 minutes ago, Superdad said:

Is there some time limit on the trial key you gave me? Does it just stop working at some point?  This current week is a busy and important one for me (my engineer partner is visiting) so I hope GentooPlayer continue to work without incident for at least another 6 days.

Hi, can you write an email for this info?

[Superdad]

2 hours ago, lmitche said:

The difference with 5.17  is that is has a greatly enhanced TCP/IP stack that is much more efficient. This enhanced efficiency is audible.

Thank you for clearing that up Larry.  You know I have the memory of a goldfish… 

 

@antonellocaroli: Will GentooPlayer begin using 5.17 kernel soon? Is that even available for Pi distributions?

Indeed I recall an audible SQ improvement when Larry installed the 5.17 kernel for my AudioLinux NUC (though as the box running my RoonCore Server playing files from a shared network drive I expect the TCP/IP stack gets worked pretty heavily—perhaps more than through the little Mercury endpoint?

[Superdad]

6 minutes ago, antonellocaroli said:

Hi, can you write an email for this info?

Sure.  In a couple of hours when I get to my desk.  It is very early here in California—and I’m still in bed! 

[antonellocaroli]

5 minutes ago, Superdad said:

Thank you for clearing that up Larry.  You know I have the memory of a goldfish… 

 

@antonellocaroli: Will GentooPlayer begin using 5.17 kernel soon? Is that even available for Pi distributions?

Indeed I recall an audible SQ improvement when Larry installed the 5.17 kernel for my AudioLinux NUC (though as the box running my RoonCore Server playing files from a shared network drive I expect the TCP/IP stack gets worked pretty heavily—perhaps more than through the little Mercury endpoint?

GentooPlayer x86_64 has kernels 5.17 and 5.18,

The upstream sources of the kernel for raspberry is 5.15.x.... compiling version 5.17.x might be a lottery...