What Linux is the best, simplest for n00bs and alltogether the best performing?

Audio Gear Talk HQ Player
122

Thank you for your time anyway, though, you did a great job explaining. :heartbeat:

I think the action is somewhat different, here is Embedded integrated and part of the system. The system knows about the NAS, Having said that, It should be sufficient by simply asking the Embedded to scan the address already available in the Linux Explorer version. I have tried so many addresses, I canā€™t find any more. The searchways and IP addresses are given differently here in Linux, it will take time until I get the hang of it.

123

Hi Stefan

Iā€™m a bit unclear - what is the current problem remaining?

Can try to help if I can follow it - Iā€™m a bit slow :laughing:

124

There is no mount networked nas tab in my version of HQPlayer Embedded for the Ubuntu OS, that is one of them.

The second is that I cannot change volume in Roon, even if i leave fixed volume unchecked in HQP and check device volume in Roon device setting of HQPe. When I use the volume slide it moves, the volume do not respond audibly, and within a second it goes back to where it started from.

The third is that HQPe take possession of my DAC a tie it hard. I cannot stop playing in Client. wait until the RME DAC releases fron direct DSD and then start palying Spotify. I have to shut down my RME, then turn it on again. By then it seems any new player can take possession of the USB DAC again.

It sounds crazy when I describe it, but that is the only way I can tell it :slight_smile:

On top of that I spell like sh*t. Hope you get the general idea ā€¦

1 Like
125

#1 I never used with HQP so I canā€™t help. For hard drive music I use Roon (rarely use Roon these days).

#2 is strange because it works for me. Not sure what is happening here.

#3 I normally change ALSA output to a different USB interface in Config page. Iā€™m then usually able to get control of my DAC on Ubuntu Desktop for example. I donā€™t know if thatā€™s the ideal way but it works. I donā€™t have to turn off my DAC though. That would be annoying! Try my method and report back

126

#3 This is the opposite situation, I have several playback functions, that all sums up in one DAC. So, wether it is the system settings itself (linux) which Spotify use, or the interface of choice in HQP, it is always RME DAC fed by the same USB controller card Matrix Audio Element H. The things is that many audiophile systems, take exclusive possession of the sound output. I think there is something here that is in conflict with my unconventional way to use several different playback streamers, each with the functionality to take exclusive control of the USB controller card, and maybe they are not as keen on releasing it, even after I stop playing. Maybe the HQP needs to be shut down? Since it headless and there is no tab to re-boot or shut down in this version, it will remain open as a process in the system until the pc is shut down.

It is interesting to think about, though. I have not got a clue to fix, that is for sure. :slight_smile:

1 Like
127

if you are not using embedded OS, HQPlayer assumes that you are going to mount the remote filesystem yourself

Edit: i donā€™t think you will need to install the 1st set of pakcages - xrdp, samba-common, samba, smbclient; ignore that part

Edit2: less complicated / invasive guide - networking - How to mount samba drive in Linux using command line - Ask Ubuntu

1 Like
128

Thanks! Will check this out <3

129

You can stop hqplayerd service using:

systemctl stop hqplayerd

and when you want to restart:

systemctl restart hqplayerd

save in your notes ! :grin:

1 Like
130

You need to mount the SMB share properly. It wonā€™t work with the share address, you need to mount it to your local filesystem path.

Yes, that is totally intentional. Remember that HQPlayer Embedded is made for hardware manufacturers to build streamers where HQPlayer is the audio engine handing all audio.

HQPlayer Desktop will also hold the DAC in possession as long as the Desktop server is running.

1 Like
131

Now I have found another issue, that needs manual attention; the HQPlayer starts when the computer starts, that is checked OK. But HQP does not find the DAC upon start. I have to visit the config page to apply the already set configs, in order to get the DAC to show in ALSA backend devices.

There are so many manual things with this computerized playback. I wonder how a studio pro really have the time to sort all things out. I spend more time with problems like each an every tiny malfunction it takes the pleasure from playing music. Just now playing the Roon Server to HQP after reconnecting the DAC to the HQP after restart. The volume in inoperable, it starts at my set -45 in the HQP, but when trying to increase or decrease Roon moves back to the start -45.
I will let it roll, while trying to mount my NAS according the comment from @yo3fxy above. Just the thing said (ā€œafter verifying what library pths are pre-cinfiguredā€) ā€¦ how can I know?

132

Is your DAC powered up when your machine starts?

Have you made sure your DAC is disabled from Roon? And that you donā€™t have any Spotify stuff starting up at boot?

Maybe pulseaudio server is stealing the device at startup. Iā€™ve configured pulseaudio on my desktops to stay off anything else except the motherboard audio output which is the ā€œaudio junk sinkā€ with nothing connected to itā€™s outputs. :joy:

Usually HQPlayer Embedded is used on Ubuntu Server that doesnā€™t have things like pulseaudio installed at all.

1 Like
133

How?

Right. I could from the logic side understand that. The thing is that you also sell this to me (us). No negative intention, here, Jussi! Still I love the software performance. A desired feature would be a click button, release exclusive mode and re-activate exclusive mode in realtime. It should be flexible. It should re-establish DAC contact automatically at startup. I never had to do this in the HQPe OS version.

Have you thought about what is making the Roon Server unable to change volume in HQPlayer? Any info/log from me needed?

134

What was the main reason to move away from HQP OS image and ROCK machine?

Just to reduce boxes? Or other reason?

Sometimes more boxes is actually better :laughing:

HQP OS is the most optimized thing for HQPlayer and ROCK is the most optimized thing for Roon.

1 Like
135

Yepp

Yepp, Spotify is not allowed to self-start at pc start-up

:slight_smile: Can I do the same? How?

Yes I have noticed that recommendation. When I rebuild the computer and install GPU, maybe I will start all over using Ubuntu Server instead. May that also be a ghost stealing the volume? :rofl: * f*ck him *

136

The original reason was that I wanted to create a head to head contest between HQPlayback and Roon. When I tried HQP client on a third computer, to control the HQPe OS onboard player it completely blew Roon out of the window.

In order to fixate my final judgement, I simply had to remove any reason for the difference in SQ, as the comparison involved three computers.

Hence the wish to join all in one box. When I started this journey, I found also the Spotify app pre-installed in the Ubuntu release. Now it became clear that if this succeed, I have everything in one pc, the very same sound output for all three ways to play and I could have my wife play on same pc as I, removing two other pcā€™s from the equation and the consequential and disturbing differences for my wife to play music compared with me.

It is right now quite challanging and highly frustrating, but if I can get this configuration working as supposed to, I will have a very lean system. I cannot house my gear in a separate room, it is in the living room shared with my dear wife who has an abundance of patience mostly. Just the fact that one of three computers may fail, and I want to concentrate my efforts making one pc as good as possible, is a goal in itself.

So that is why I will try to endure and hopefully with the help of you all, kindest of all support community I have ever experienced. will succeed in doing a superior version of what Antipodes have done, at a fraction of the cost. I will not however ry to implement Squeeze and other stuff, because the HQPlayer as a central part is just so much better than everything I have ever heard, and we got som expensive stuff at workā€¦

1 Like
137

@jussi_laako if I am to try this way to mount the nas, where is the place in the directory I am supposed to mount it? It says I have to check that the place is pre-configured to e found, but which places are? Is there any tutorial for this, or is it just understood a dude who knows his way in Linux can find this on his own? Sorry gals, I know you exist, did not mean to be a sexist.

Possible to write the commands required for this action? Anying ā€œdependenciesā€ from me needed?

138

Yes, it is offered also to DIY streamer builders. But you need to choose right product for your purposes.

Thereā€™s Land Rover Defender, it is not optimal car for high speed racing circuit. And there are Ferraris which are not the optimal cars for driving off-road. And Iā€™m pretty sure neither manufacturer wants to adjust their product for the other domain.

It does for me, when I run it on a supported OS. On HQPlayer OS you had supported software setupā€¦

Does it work from HQPlayer Client?

Yes, thereā€™s PulseAudio documentation here:
https://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/PulseAudio/Documentation/User/

Maybe not, if you count amount of time you will spend doing it. Especially if you are not very familiar with Linux command line and system components.

You can choose which ever place you like. Just make sure hqplayer user has access to it.

I believe internet is full of all kinds of Linux tutorials and instruction pages how to deal with the OS.

139

The only diiference is that a Land Rover or Ferrari is quite obvious what they can and canā€™t perform. Here it is finding out along the way, trial and error. You do not have to be clever at all to realize that the Ferrari is nothing you use to bring water to cows in fields, however a significant share of Ferrari owners or drivers end up off road one way or the other anyway. Even our King have a part of a road named after him; The Kings Curve in Stockholm. :joy:

I hear you, the road I am trying to drive were never the intended. I need a Land Rover ā€¦

Yepp, it does.

From the reactions above I get the feeling I entered a road not intended and it takes to much time to support. I will see how to act from this point, I certainly can understand this is not the place for a Linux course. Will await the graphic adapter and SSD M.2and see which road to take. At least the HQPe and Client works :slight_smile:

1 Like
140

as Stefano pointed out, in ā€œLibraryā€ tab you have 2 pre-configured paths available /run/media & /smb; first one is defined in your hqplayerd.xml config file, while the 2nd one (i think) is hard-coded in the application binary; stick with /smb

root@HQPemb:~# egrep 'library|removable' /etc/hqplayer/hqplayerd.xml 
	<engine auto_family="0" cd_drive="/dev/cdrom" channels="2" direct_sdm="0" dsd_6db="1" fft_size="512" multicore="auto" pdm_conv="8" pdm_filt="12" removable="/run/media" sdm_conversion="2" sdm_integrator="5" volume_hw="0" volume_max="0" volume_min="-60" volume_scaler="0.75">
	<library path="/run/media"/>
root@HQPemb:~#

manually create /smb directory (ex: mkdir /smb), and use ā€œ/smbā€ as ā€œ/your/mount/pointā€ when you update /etc/fstab; after you upate /etc/fstab, instead of rebooting the system you can manually mount it (ex: mount /smb) and verify/check FS usage (ex: df -hPT /smb)

if you get any errors while manually mounting the filesystem, verify user/pass credentials & /etc/fstab entry; once everything looks fine, you can reboot the system to validate that your SMB share is automatically mounted at boot

edit: any other steps / commads are explained in that ā€œarticleā€

1 Like
141

There is likely some graphical tool in Ubuntu for doing this, but since I have been doing such things from command line before Linux could even run X, I never use such graphical tools :sweat_smile:

2 Likes