Pi 2 Design Mercury Streamer

[antonellocaroli]

What did you select in "select dac"? 

[zackthedog]

8 hours ago, Ghettocowboy23 said:

Have anyone tried this:

format the NVME drive and load music files on it before mounting to the Mercury?  Either doing it on a computer that has extra NVME slot or buying an external ssd conversion kit and do it via external SSD drive via computer USB connection. Then mount the drive with music files on them into the Mercury streamer and boot up from Volumio image from microSD drive and to see if it works without any tinkering?

 

 

 

I don't see why you couldn't.  But maybe you wouldn't have Samba or FTP access to the drive to update the selection.  It's best to integrate the drive into the OS, I think.  Gentooplayer makes it easy.

[oneguy]

2 hours ago, congofather said:

@antonellocaroli may help you for Gentoo player. You probably have missing/wrong configuration related with your player or audio output settings. For a simple test, play a basic 16-bit song instead of a DSD file if you are testing with a DSD file.

I also use Gentooplayer and AES output of mercury streamer without any problem.

 

I wasn’t attempting DSD. Only PCM

at 16 and 24-bit. Futher experimentation will have to wait. I’m sending the unit back to Mike as I have been informed that the chip used to drive the AES balanced output is faulty and will need to be replaced. That could be to root of the problem I was having with Ropieee. 

[Powerman]

So a couple issues.... In Volumio, all my albums list all tracks, in order, 2-3 times. The extras don't play, they don't show in the drive, they just show. A bit confusing.

 

Also, volumio freezes. First was clicking through tracks, then playing a bad track, then turning a plugin off. (DSP) Even in SSH. It doesn't crash, I have to turn off/on. Is that normal?

[mitch751]

I can't find anywhere, about the supported sampling rates (PCM and DSD) 

 

[zackthedog]

33 minutes ago, mitch751 said:

I can't find anywhere, about the supported sampling rates (PCM and DSD) 

 

 

For the Mercury?  I believe it's up to 192/24.

[bobfa]

11 hours ago, Powerman said:

So a couple issues.... In Volumio, all my albums list all tracks, in order, 2-3 times. The extras don't play, they don't show in the drive, they just show. A bit confusing.

 

Also, volumio freezes. First was clicking through tracks, then playing a bad track, then turning a plugin off. (DSP) Even in SSH. It doesn't crash, I have to turn off/on. Is that normal?

Re-index the library and see what happens

 

[stefano_mbp]

2 hours ago, mitch751 said:

about the supported sampling rates

On spdif output, coax or aes/ebu it is always 24/192, could be DSD64 DoP eventually , on toslink can be 24/96 or 24/192 depending on hw.

[Powerman]

16 hours ago, bobfa said:

Re-index the library and see what happens

 

Many post just say "index". I think you are telling me to rescan and update my drive in volumio. I have many times. I had to after transferring more music. I have moved everything over, everything shows/plays works just fine, I just have the track list duplicated on every album.

[Powerman]

OK, now I am confused... I set my SSD up, mounted, folder, ect. I finally decide to try Filezilla... super easy. There is my /mt/970music/pishare, I copy music over. I try to get Volumio to see it, put in info, done. Play all my music, brilliant... other than some anomalies

 

Except... I am looking at all the files on my Mercury with Filezilla. I see the other folder I made with earlier attempts and delete them. Yep, there is that "NAS" folder that came on the image. There is the "Internal" folder. On one attempt, I tried to mount my 970 to "NAS" but I didn't do it right. But I look, all my music is in a pishare folder, in a 970music folder, in the NAS folder.

 

I decided to try Volumio Premium, get Tidal connected, looking around. Under "MY MUSIC", the Internal, NAS, and "my" 970music list. So... all my music, I directly copied to 970music will not play. All the music in the NAS folder does play. And as I said earlier, all my albums tracks list trice in my view

 

So the only way I saw to add my 970 SSD, was in the "Sources" tab in Volumio settings under the section "Network Drive". It ask for IP so I put in Mercury IP, Path I put as my folder "pishare"... It sees my music. I thought I was pointing it to my drive.

 

So... The NAS folder is in the "home" directory, but that is set up on the image on the SD card. How the heck did my music go to the NAS folder, when I directly copied it to my mt/970music/pishare folder in my SSD drive I mounted? I think it has something to do with how Linux drives and directories are not like normal DOS structure. But I am still confused how it got there and why my real floder won't play music.

 

 

[sch8mid]

Anyone tried VitOS with Mercury. ?

 

https://sourceforge.net/projects/vitos-for-rpi4/

 

Lacks a lot of features , But is rockstable .

Tidal, Qobus , High-Res audio, Amazon HD ,  Spotify Connect,  Roon worked out of the box with RPi4 .

[zackthedog]

18 minutes ago, sch8mid said:

Anyone tried VitOS with Mercury. ?

 

https://sourceforge.net/projects/vitos-for-rpi4/

 

Lacks a lot of features , But is rockstable .

Tidal, Qobus , High-Res audio, Amazon HD ,  Spotify Connect,  Roon worked out of the box with RPi4 .

 

I'd be happy to try it.  Does it work with Audirvana (UPnP)?

[sch8mid]

41 minutes ago, zackthedog said:

 

I'd be happy to try it.  Does it work with Audirvana (UPnP)?

I didn`t try Audirvana as i had to sent back the RPi4  streamer (SA Munich) .

VitOS is a very streamlined and rudimentary OS . Nothing fancy to play with inside , but everything , even my Synology NAS worked out of the box. Even 256 DSD (USB) and 128 DSD (i2S) from an USB 3 attached SSD.

[Riccitone]

@sch8mid

VitOS looks interesting. I’ve only ever used Volumio but desire trying another OS for comparison - learn a little more about options. Also want to try/learn using Gentoo. 
 

Reading about VitOS, looks like it has a controller app available. Dumb question…seems to be optimized for sending through usb to dac. But from what I reward in your post, I’m assuming it can it be configured to send digital stream through other outputs and reserve the usb for attaching storage? 
 

Lastly, does it require Roon or can it operate/render without? 
 

Thanks, and pardon my noobiness 🙏🏼

 

[sch8mid]

1 hour ago, Riccitone said:

@sch8mid

VitOS looks interesting. I’ve only ever used Volumio but desire trying another OS for comparison - learn a little more about options. Also want to try/learn using Gentoo. 
 

Reading about VitOS, looks like it has a controller app available. Dumb question…seems to be optimized for sending through usb to dac. But from what I reward in your post, I’m assuming it can it be configured to send digital stream through other outputs and reserve the usb for attaching storage? 
 

Lastly, does it require Roon or can it operate/render without? 
 

Thanks, and pardon my noobiness 🙏🏼

 

No doesn´t requires Roon. Activating Roon is part of the menu.  Apps for iphone and Android . Controlapp for updates and config.

OS is not updated frequently .  Actually they work on HQplayer integration .

[sch8mid]

"Back orders are still shipping slowly at about 20 per week. There are 63 left so 3-4 weeks max to wrap it all up."

Michael Kelly  06/20/22

 

Are there new Mercury owners ?  Ordered  06/10/22 .

 

 

[drmike]

still waiting, ordered 6/18

[Riccitone]

Still waiting on mine as well…

 

ordered mine on 5/13

 

Messaged Michael, he explained there was some holdback due to AES output issues. This was over a week ago. He also said mine would have shipped out last Wednesday. 

[Riccitone]

Just wondering…

 

Any impressions here on tracks played from storage attached directly via usb to Mercury? 
 

 

[zackthedog]

27 minutes ago, Riccitone said:

Just wondering…

 

Any impressions here on tracks played from storage attached directly via usb to Mercury? 
 

 

 

Not from attached storage but from an added NVMW drive.  I'm using gentooplayer with Minimserver and BubbleUpnP activated.  I transfer files to the NVME drive, update the database with Minimwatch, then use Linn Kazoo for playback.  Quite a difference between that and Audirvana or even straight MPD.  Bigger image, more detail and energy.  As I said in a previous post here, like moving from the back of the venue to a seat near the front. ;-)  The same for Qobuz played the same way.

[Riccitone]

That’s great to know, thank you! Was already planning to stream Qobuz, but wanted to also get things going with my current ssd external storage by plugging into one of the USB ports. 
 

But ultimately I do want to purchase a ssd NVMW drive  and install for better results. New at that side of things, but looking forward to that next level of implementation. Will attempt what you’ve suggested here as well. 
 

🙏🏼👍🏼
 

[Powerman]

I have an external, but didn't want to bother. Installing a SSD isn't that difficult. Use the same write up I did. I never did get windows to connect as samba share. Filezilla was much much easier to transfer my files. I know Linux directory is different... However volumio sees things... The NAS directory is how it shows. I moved all my gear to the living room to play stereo barbie with a friend... Including modem for wired. It didn't see my drive, got that corrected, then "couldn't open ALSA file" error... Turned off I2S, reboot, turned back on per Google... Whalla! Now my files read correctly, no multiple listing... I don't care anymore why they show in the NAS folder... Point is, I know absolutely nothing, but stumbled my way through, and it's not too difficult.

 

Just jump in... Because playing from internal drive is definitely worth it.

[zackthedog]

2 hours ago, Riccitone said:

That’s great to know, thank you! Was already planning to stream Qobuz, but wanted to also get things going with my current ssd external storage by plugging into one of the USB ports. 
 

But ultimately I do want to purchase a ssd NVMW drive  and install for better results. New at that side of things, but looking forward to that next level of implementation. Will attempt what you’ve suggested here as well. 
 

🙏🏼👍🏼
 

 

I can't recommend gentooplayer highly enough.  It's the difference between a music player and a musical instrument.  Also, it's incredibly versatile and makes turning the Mercury into a full-fledged music server/streamer very easy.  And the support is fantastic. ;-)

[Powerman]

So I went thru a couple boxes, then I got a Pontus II. Definitely better, but still thought I was missing the mark. Sold my other boxes for a LTA Z40. Holy crap... That was it. Then got the Mercury cause now I needed a streamer. This weekend my friend brought his B&W 705 S2 signatures over to listen in my big room. Absolutely incredible!

 

We A/B'ed the Mercury/Streamer chain to a Bluesound node. It was like AM radio... 2D, flat, thin... Night and day. And yes, streaming roon thru the mercury vs NVME was better. Clean, just perfect. My friend left his speakers for the night. I set up true near field in a 6ft triangle. I have never heard my system like that before. Endgame.

 

To be clear, the Z40 was the biggest improvement. It couldn't sound that good without the Pontus... But the Mercury is definitely the icing on top. Finally a clean source, thru a great DAC, to a phenomenal amp... And those speakers! And I finally hooked up my 707 s2... They are no 705 Sigs, but I couldn't believe what was coming out of such small 2-ways in such a big space. I will definitely be listening to more 2 channel in my office, in a better near field position. Fun weekend! So happy I got a Mercury.

[zackthedog]

1 hour ago, Powerman said:

So I went thru a couple boxes, then I got a Pontus II. Definitely better, but still thought I was missing the mark. Sold my other boxes for a LTA Z40. Holy crap... That was it. Then got the Mercury cause now I needed a streamer. This weekend my friend brought his B&W 705 S2 signatures over to listen in my big room. Absolutely incredible!

 

We A/B'ed the Mercury/Streamer chain to a Bluesound node. It was like AM radio... 2D, flat, thin... Night and day. And yes, streaming roon thru the mercury vs NVME was better. Clean, just perfect. My friend left his speakers for the night. I set up true near field in a 6ft triangle. I have never heard my system like that before. Endgame.

 

To be clear, the Z40 was the biggest improvement. It couldn't sound that good without the Pontus... But the Mercury is definitely the icing on top. Finally a clean source, thru a great DAC, to a phenomenal amp... And those speakers! And I finally hooked up my 707 s2... They are no 705 Sigs, but I couldn't believe what was coming out of such small 2-ways in such a big space. I will definitely be listening to more 2 channel in my office, in a better near field position. Fun weekend! So happy I got a Mercury.

 

Very nice to hear about your system and listening impressions.  That LTA is based on David Berning's ZOTL design, which uses  "virtual" output transformers.  I've had the pleasure of meeting David when I lived in Maryland.  He's a regular member of the DCaudioDIY group there, and it's been a privilege for that group to hear his experimental designs, including his flagship ZOTL push-pull 845 amplifiers, which absolutely floored everyone at a meeting some years back.  He's also very generous in offering advice to the local DIYers, and he's never, ever, dismissive of their efforts.  A really, really nice guy, in addition to being one of the true audio geniuses.

 

I should add to my comment above that the Mercury is LOVELY with Audirvana, just a different perspective on the sound.  Audirvana has a rich, solid sound that the Mercury conveys very well.  I was listening tonight to some Saint-Saens four-hands piano pieces, and some Gabrielli.  Very musical and satisfying.