HQPlayer, Ethernet Regen and 1.536M PCM

Playing over ethernet to a NUC running NAA.
NUC to Holo spring 2 dac via USB.

If I play pcm and upsample to max 1.536M, for songs that playback to 1.4112M the playback is perfect. But for songs that get upsampled to 1.536M, every 20 to 25 secs there is a short half second gap/pause in music.

This happens with whatever filter/dither I apply. Any ideas why?

Songs like this are fine:

Songs like these have the regular transient pauses/drops in music.


Could it be related to MQA music?

Try these free 96kHz tracks to test:

Are you using the 30.12 firmware in the Spring II ?

There is some discussion about how to update firmware here and some notes about latest firmware here.

I understand the later 30.14 firmware is limited to 768 PCM.

yep i’m running 30.12

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ok so I tried using the NUC as the core instead of as an NAA, and the issue goes away.
playback with the NUC as the core at 1.536M pcm is fine; no regular “gaps/stops” in the music.

loaded NAA on the NUC again just to check the dialog box and it does show 1536000 compatible output.

i’m stumped.

I have also tried NAA but sending at 768k and it is fine.

Just an update on the issue I had with NAA and gaps/stops in music upsampled to 1.536M pcm.

I’ve solved the issue and turns out the problem was with the Uptone Audio EtherRegen.

If I remove the ER, I get playback with no issues at 1.536M.
If I connect ER to nuc (NAA) using only the A side ports, playback with no issues.
If I connect ER to nuc using ethernet cable from the B side port, I get the problem of gaps/stops in music.

Must be something to do with the B side port on the EtherRegen which is limited to 100mbps transmission rate.

Am relieved I found out what the issue was. Now to consider if I want the ER or I want 1.536m pcm playback.

I had same issue, it went away when I took it out as part of going with an Ultrarendu as NAA

I tried taking out the ER, but ended up putting it back into the chain… It sounded like the music was a little “wrong” without the ER. Perhaps upsampling to 1.536M is not too impt to me.

Anecdotally, last night I did some testing of the ER in and out of the chain, with the help of my wife. I played the first 40 to 50 seconds of one song several times with ER in and out of chain (random) and every time, she could pick out the ER in chain.

It may be tied to the nuc you are using as the NAA. I believe the Ultrarendu has the ER function built into it, but my prior NAA certainly benefitted from it, I just couldn’t upsample beyond DSD128 without stutters.

I tried Ether Regen between Nucleus Plus and Cisco network switch and lost my connection to Nucleus after about 30 minutes playback. I was also loading another folder of network server content - maybe the Ether Regen’s 100mb is overloaded under such circumstances?

hmm quite possibly.
is playback normal again after that episode?

what did u think of the ER? my ears (and mind) tell me it does bring some sonic benefit.

Too soon to say - didn’t have enough time before the problem arose. Waiting now for some feedback from supplier.

and no playback possible with ER in the mix right now