I have an Hifiman Serenade and I love the sound. It is amazing with Roon and HQPlayer.
But I have a huge problem. When on USB in Windows, the driver is very basic, only allowing for DoP with a VERY thin sound, and only when I use the NAA. When I don’t , it doesn’t even move… In Linux, it works flawlessly.
When I use the ethernet adapter - which has way better sound - it cracks and pops profusely when trying to oversample to DSD256 or 512 (which the machine is capable of reading very well with my DSD files). No problem oversampling DSD128 tho…
Does anybody have a possibly an idea of a XMOS generic driver like the one on Linux for Windows and/or a possible fix on the Ethernet connection cracks?
Sorry about any mistakes in my English, I’m not native
Thank you so much!
I have a 5700x with Corsair Vengeance Pro 3600 DDR4 DRAMM and a 2.5gbit ethernet connection…
USB network interfaces are rather inefficient and basic. Essentially you have extra protocol (USB) stacked with the network protocols. While PCIe connected network interfaces offer NIC offloading and busmaster DMA transfers between NIC and RAM, so the NIC can transfer data straight to/from RAM without involving CPU. But one important aspect with USB NICs and such is to ensure network has support for the 802.3x (flow control / pause frames) standard, so that the NIC can tell sender to pause sending when it’s hardware packet buffer becomes full. Otherwise it will lead to packet loss and subsequent resends, which in turn make things worse by increasing total amount of traffic (sending same data multiple times).
Can you describe your setup a bit more, how things are connected. Linux based NAA would be pretty straightforward solution.
I have a AMD 5700x, 32GB Corsair Vengeance DDR4 DRAM, AMD 7800XT (yes, I can change for an nVidia…) and my Hifiman Serenade connected to my ISP router (Vodafone) with the PC connected from the router to the onboard 2.5 Gbit MediaTek ethernet controller.
Also USB-B to USB 3.0 connection from the PC to the Serenade.
I could buy a PCI-e network interface. Any good suggestions?
Your computer motherboard has integrated ethernet controller? At least I would expect it to have, and that one would be connected to PCIe.
If Linux solves your driver problems, one option would be to get Raspberry Pi 4 and boot it up with NAA OS. That would handle output to the Serenade. If running Linux on your PC is not the preferred solution.
The Serenade has both USB-b and Ethernet inputs. The latter has a better sound than the former. And I have two sets of problems.
The ethernet input crackles and pops when I reach the DSD256 or DSD512. In any filter and any modulation. I tried every combination. Which is a shame, as it sounds glorious when it does not crackle. And it happens in both Linux and Windows.
The USB solution only handles the Native DSD, without DoP, in Linux with a generic XMOS USB driver that it has. It decodes up to 512 easily. But only on Linux. On Windows, the supplied USB driver for the Serenade only theoretically allows for DoP, because it is very outdated, and Hifiman USB driver does not work on Goldenwave Serenade… a mess. It only KIND OF works in DoS when I use your Network Audio Daemon. If I don’t it does not work in any way.
I have most of my life in Windows. If I can make it work either way - or both - that would be great.
If a dedicated PCIe network card (I only have Realtek’s onboard 2.5Gbit solution on my B550) , I would greatly appreciate a recomendation.
If you happen to know any generic XMOS USB driver that would work with the Serenade, I would greatly appreciate it also.
Thank you so much for your interest and kind answers.
My point was that you could use external NAA:
HQPlayer computer running Windows → NAA running Linux (RPi4 for example) → DAC USB input
I don’t think there are any such generic ones for Windows, apart from the built-in driver. But then you would be bound to using DoP through WASAPI backend.
This onboard solution should be fine. I would just confirm whether your network infra actually supports 802.3x, since the crackle could be due to excessive packet loss.
I have noticed some crackling when tracks end and nothing is left in the Roon queue, they are randomly in both channels. They happen again several seconds later, seems to correspond to the idle time setting in hqplayer… so guessing it has to due with the engine stopping.
Maybe dc offset issue with the Mac M1 Studio, could that happen?
Still have not. I was about to upgrade my graphics card for professional reasons so, why not give it a try and see if it is about processing power?
Tried it with a different router, with a different WiFi connection, with a different Ethernet card, with Roon’s Headroom Management, with EQ, with all the filters and all the possible modulations and nothing.
I don’t have a more powerful PC to test it with, but I tried just the DAC portion of the Serenade with another amp, and it still cracks and pops.
Also, tried native DSD files in x128, x256 and x512. They all worked fine in Roon and Audirvana. On HQPlayer, they did the same cracks and pops, even with DirectSDM.
Curiously, they match the inconsistencies in USB x512 processing. Seems very much like a processing issue. Odd, because it is just on HQPlayer, but maybe that is the “nature of the beast”.
If you want, I will update you once I receive my graphics card. I’m going for a 5070 ti.
If it was the Serenade would this not have been reported by other users as I would imagine there are plenty who use HQPlayer upsampled on the ethernet connection?
Yes, you are right, I thought the same. And I searched profusely.
A couple of things may have happened.
Everybody that has a Serenade uses the ethernet to stream only (it’s streaming is excellent on Roon, Audirvana and mConnect, don’t understand the “high” cap on Tidal, tho).
Nobody that uses ethernet connection really cares about PCM 768 or DSD 256/512 upsampling in HQPlayer. The Serenade isn’t on the DAC Corrections list, that is a fact. Upsampling to 256 on Audirvana works fine, Roon’s actually goes to 512 on my system. Of course, to my ears, HQPlayer really has a much superior quality of upsampling.
People don’t care about the thinness of USB compared to ethernet connection, or the limitations of the stupid driver. Or they use Linux. And/or an external warm leaning amp. The only limitation in USB, in my system, is the PC capabilities. The MG or the Lx family are a no-go for me. I actually pushed some bass and weight with some EQ in the Matrix Pipeline, AutoEQd on Squiglink to my Arya Stealthes. (Neutral/bright leaning headphones). My FT1s are fine on USB also.
Not with Mac, but it could be with the DAC. Since when the DAC stops, it will usually engage output mute (relays or transistor) that switches the output pins from DAC output to the signal ground. If there’s some DC offset, it will cause some amount of pop. Of course DAC may also otherwise have some noises when the stream stops.
I have heard Hifiman is aware of this problem when using HQPlayer on the Ethernet input with the Pops and crackles on the Serenade and is working on a software update.
This will be available within 15 days.
Have you heard this?
The upgrade gives you way more soundstage, instrument separation, detail and resolution. It is very worth it, imho. What it does not do is solve this issue.
I know because I upgraded my Serenade a couple of months ago.
No. Linux uses a much more updated USB generic driver (XMOS USB Audio) - tested on Ubuntu and Nobara - and HQPLayer upsamples fine at PCM768 and DSD512 (depending on the filters).
Ethernet does the same cracks and pops, unfortunately.
I’m going to wait ordering the Serenade until the new software gets released and tested as my main reason for buying the Serenade is to use with HQPlayer upsampled to 768KhZ and DSD512.
If you would not mind letting me know on here if the new latest software that’s due to be released in a few weeks fixes the pops and crackles that would be great.
Thank you
