HQPlayer Embedded Discussion [2023]

6.6 kernel brings some performance improvements, especially on AMD CPUs.

Latest HQPlayer and NAA versions rely on kernel versions >= 6.1 for some of the functionality.

My kernel focuses mostly on DAC support and some other audio related things.

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@Alex_Ovc, can you do Sinc-x filters with EC7v2 DSD512 on this mini pc? And what is fan noise at maximum hard scenarios it can do? Iā€™m going to get one and will appreciate any opinions and pros and cons about it.
Maybe someone here also has experience running HQPlayer with ECv2 modulators and DSD512 on a mini pc, such as Miniforum UM790 with a Ryzen 9 7940HS processor? I would appreciate your comments.

Iā€™m having an issue with a frozen screen after booting.

What I did before was just:
Ran updates and distribution updates on command line as usual

I downloaded latest nvidia.run driver but i cancelled the installation on the first screen as it was showing that another process running the driver, so I just did cmd + c

After the Ubuntu App installers asked me on desktop to do a reboot to finish updating and it booted using the default kernel 6.5 instead of the 6.6.30-jl+ as it was before and I see a frozen screen.

After few seconds it booted again, I selected the kernel 6.5 recovery mode, I ran all fixes, ran updates, then I booted again and again it booted on 6.5 wit frozen screen.

Booted again and selected 6.6.30-jl+ kernel and it booted with no problems all working fine. So I added for the meantime this on the grub configuration and rebooted on the 6.6.30-jl+ kenel:

GRUB_DEFAULT=saved
GRUB_SAVEDEFAULT=true

Anyone with any idea how to fix? I saw this link, mentioned something about nvidia drivers updating, suggesting adding ā€œnomodesetā€ on the grup kernel parameters to disable drivers of graphics card.

Havenā€™t tried it. Any recommendations will be appreciated

What a pain, sorry Iā€™m only going to be of mild help. You need to boot by removing

quiet splash

from the kernel parameters so you can actually see the boot messages and where its freezing. There doesnā€™t seem to be a direct simple way to do this with Ubuntu? so Iā€™ll leave that to your Googlingā€¦ easy way if I was doing it would be to edit the Grub boot line after interrupting the bootstrap sequence. But if youā€™ve never configured Grub manually you could do more damage.

Other way to do itā€¦ boot a ā€œliveā€ os, mount wherever /var is and look at your boot logs.

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Many thanks for your support!
Luckily I can still boot on jl kernel without having issues

I was able to boot on the classic kernel by modifying the boot of the kernel on Grub adding nomodeset .

This is the error I see

I also updated to latest nvidia drivers booting on functional kernel. But no fix

Thanks God I have installed the 6.x-jl+ kernel, when I boot in here no problems!
But my default kernel is dead. Any suggestion on how to fix will be appreciated.!

Fixed!!! By reinstalling linux headers!!!

sudo apt install --reinstall linux-headers-$(uname -r)

1x/Nx sinc-MGa

ASDM7EC-light 512+fs

SDM 512 x 48

DAC correction: On

Kernel: jl+_6.6.30

Holo Spring KTE L3

Great detail on transients, I specially noticed it on percussions. Timbre show with great contrast and clarity on each instrument.



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This is a quote from a rather old thread, but I wanted to check here in HQP Embedded Discussion - is there possible benchmarking for Embedded ?

I would need to add support for it. And now it actually works incorrectly if Idle Time is enabled, which is always the case for Embedded. Not very easy or straightforwardā€¦

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Thank you, clear. @jussi_laako - may be i can put the ā€œbenchmarkā€ question other way around - is there more straighforward way to fine tune ā€œnblocksā€ on embedded rather then ā€œmanualā€ trial and error ?

Not really, and benchmark wouldnā€™t necessarily help that. This is similar to for example Windows Server vs Windows desktop edition. Or in more general server OS kernel vs desktop OS kernel.

Desktop OS typically balance processing throughput performance and latency, so that the OS stays reactive and interactive at all times without becoming sluggish. This is important for games and multimedia cases. On server OS this latency aspect doesnā€™t really matter, only throughput performance does, like serving as many web server clients simultaneously as possible, or providing files at maximum speed form NAS. This throughput and latency have largely opposite requirements regarding the kernel.

Tuning nblocks is about getting maximum throughput with minimal latency. So the total processing time is not representative of best value here.

So you can start with the reported (in log file) default value and then start adjusting it to lower value and see when your CPU/GPU load begins to increase or you begin to get dropouts (unreliable playback), if it gets lower, good. Then you can go to opposite direction and see if your CPU/GPU load drops further from the default value without you having unreliable playback.

The value itself is a bit of black magic, as it depends on internal behaviour of the particular CPU / GPU combo, including the RAM specs. Current default values are result of quite a bit of performance testing and analysis.

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Everything calmed down when I set standard nblocks (8) and changed ROCKā€™s nic. :ok_hand: :ok_hand:

512 with DC super 512+

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priceless! thank you for sharing @jussi_laako , this gives me points where to pay attention in ā€œfineā€ tuning runs.

worth to note, but obvious, while several times already I caught myself thinking that I have a nblocks grailā€¦ it is important to always check full variety of sources, 44,1, 192, DSD64 etc.

Hi.
I hesitate to ask such a basic question, but what are the possible reasons for music playback stopping intermittently?
I use a full-size PC for roon core, a small fanless computer for HQP embedded (max. 192/24 output due to DAC input limitations), and Holo Audio RED as HQP NAA.

I think the small computer for HQP embedded may be the bottleneck, but not sure how to check it is the cause.

192/24 output is something generally even RPi4 can handle without issues. But it is certainly possible to have settings where you have quite a bit of load. So the particular settings, source content, etc would be helpful for determining the possible reasons.

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Any news about HQPlayer will support Ubuntu 24.04.1?

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It happens like once in 30 minutes, but yes, Iā€™ll pay more attention to which source (privately ripped discs or Qobuz) is more likely to happen.
Thank you for guiding me on where to start!

I hope to get a new release out within about a week or so with support for Ubuntu 24.04 LTS.

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Hello!

I plan to try the REW and get rid of the Accuphase DG-68 I use to introduce a better DAC (possibly Holo Audioā€™s May DAC) and enjoy HQPlayer at its full capacity.

In starting this, I chose:
beyerdynamic MM1 microphone
SHURE MVX2U audio interface

I wonder whether it is okay to use the above audio interface, which supports up to 48/24.
Iā€™m not sure whether this is good enough for a measurement or if itā€™s better to look for an interface with higher capacity.

Please let me know, and thank you in advance!

For example MiniDSP UMIK-1 is known to work fine. And also their newer UMIK-2 should work fine as well.

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