PassiveO

Understood, and thank you, Jussi.

Some quick feedback on the recent NAA 460 release. I'm finding the x64ramfs image not functional with a 2012 Mac Mini (8GB). Looks like it's failing mounting the filesystem. I reverted back to 450 x64ramfs and it works. 'Standard' 460 works fine. Thanks, love HQPlayer.

👍

Thanks, Dirk. I boot from USB and use the latest images found here: https://www.signalyst.eu/bins/naa/images/ You'll want to use naa-***-x64ramfs.7z

Hello, Everyone. More of a researcher than a 'poster', but thought I'd share my experience from the lower end of things. I run HQPlayer sinc-S, AMSD7EC 512+fs using a M1 Mac Mini and have tried two different types of hardware using NAA. I also compared these to direct from the M1 (DSD256, DoP). The two different types are an old 2012 Mac Mini and a RPI4. While I won't try to account for the differences at the hardware level, I can say the Mini sounds significant better, IMHO. They are now quite cheap and I expect a 2011 Mini would also work well. I removed the hard disk (SSD) and unplugged the WiFi antenna (maybe unnecessary). The first comparison was direct from the M1 vs. the 2012 Mini as a NAA. I was quite surprised by the difference. Technically, everything performed better, the system was more responsive (less lag) than direct from the M1 despite the change to DSD512, though I did dial the filter overhead back a bit by using sinc-S. Sonically this setup is far smoother while increasing detail slightly. Not that the M1 direct was poor. The NAA setup is just a different league. I chalked it down to DSD512/NAA vs. DSD256/Direct after making the change. This morning I tried a RPI4. I have several of these around in difference cases or naked. I also have an iFi power supply. I'm an enthusiast and use PIs for all sorts of networking services. Sound wise I found the PI to be behind the 2012 Mini across the board. My experience with PIs and audio up to this point had been as Roon endpoints direct USB (not good, 'sluggish', not sure why) or using a few different SPDIF hats (pretty good). The PI as NAA sounded harsh compared to the 2012 Mini NAA. The smoothness had disappeared. The detail and sound-staging were the same, but the smoothness that reveals nice timbre and unforced details was gone. The next step for me is to dig up the purpose built PC I used a Roon endpoint for comparison. It was built with an i3-7100T and a Gigabyte motherboard that features their DAC-UP output. I dabbled with it back when I was using HQPlayer early on for PCM upsampling. It was the NAA at the time (USB boot). My only issue with it is form factor. It's built in a small Micro-ATX case but that's still much bigger than a Mac Mini. 2011/2012 Mac Minis can be had cheaply on eBay these days. I just happened to have one around gathering dust and decided to see if it would work as a NAA (wasn't sure about the NIC). Glad I did, best sound from my system so far. Cheers and hope this was a contribution.

Thank You!

Hello Everyone, After a long period of deliberation I've purchased HQPlayer for Mac M1. While I found embedded on Ubuntu 20.04 appealing from a usability and emotional perspective (*nix guy since 1993) the power of an M1Pro enables more tweaking. I am all about tweaking ;-). I can currently run sinc-M and Closed-Form-16M with ASDM7ECv2 at 48k x256 from sample rates up to 24/192. I can also run from the same sample rates and filters using AMSDM7 512 +fs at 48k x512. My DAC is an Ares II. Given the long history of this thread and the extensive experience of those who have replied, which would you choose for stable reproduction? Other suggestions are also welcome.

Indeed it did. Thank You!

Hello Everyone, I read this thread often but haven't posted anything yet. I don't know if this has been reported or observed, but today I had a problem with 4.30.1-120 embedded on Bullseye. Output to NAA on a PI 4 works fine. However, ALSA direct to my USB DAC doesn't work (Schiit Gen5). From the log file: 2022/02/25 10:28:51 No suitable output rate for 96000, stop 2022/02/25 10:28:51 Stop request (tail) & 2022/02/25 10:28:51 Stop... The same holds true for any source rate or filter configuration I tried. I rolled back to 4.29.3-116 and everything works. General info from my side: Linux version 5.10.0-11-amd64 ([email protected]) (gcc-10 (Debian 10.2.1-6) 10.2.1 20210110, GNU ld (GNU Binutils for Debian) 2.35.2) #1 SMP Debian 5.10.92-1 (2022-01-18) i3-7100T, 8GB RAM, GA-B250M-Gaming 5

I'd opt for used AKG 701s or 702s.

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