LewinskiH01

Thank you!

I went ahead and purchased a micro Windows 11 PC with no motors (HDD nor fan) to use as NAA. I boot it with the NAA image on a USB pen drive. I have Roon and HQPlayer on another PC pointing to the NAA thru LAN. Working well and stable. NAA usually boot headless, but I have an HDMI screen to connect just in case. I'm intrigued by a status message I see. Upon startup it looks good: After a minute or so I get this message: "cannot probe codec, giving up" What does this mean? Is this something I should fix?

Very nice case. Thank you! They don't deliver to my location but I'll be in the US in a couple of months. So thinking of a temporary solution: Would the plain RPi4 board with appropriate electrical insulation around it work as NAA (until I get this case), or do I need heat dissipation beyond natural convection in an open board with air inflow from below?

OK, it seems I won't be able to use the Xeon PC as NAA, The image won't boot with UEFI enable and secure boot is not an option in this ancient BIOS. And it seems like going down the Ubuntu Server 22.04 LTS minimal install is too technical for me. So the options I'm considering: or a used NUC i3 - have seen them for U$50-100 on eBay US. Which one would work/sound better as NAA? Either one would be powered by an LPS. I wouldn't need the NUC perform any other duty. Would they perform better than the old laptop that I'm using now with HDD, fan, SMPS? I Googled GentooPlayer as I wasn't aware. It says "Available for Rpi-3B/3B+, Rpi-4B, PC X86" "PC X86" means it can be installed on a PC, like my Xeon PC?

Back to trying to use my passively cooled Xeon + Intel S1200 mobo as NAA. NAA image from USB stick won't startup despite the machine being 64-bit and UEFI enabled on BIOS (option a. above). Might option b) work? Or should I try the DietPi installation on a USB drive or SSD? @Miska I completely agree/understand the personal taste aspect in assessing audio! Getting a Hapi will take a while so want to explore a good shot at a NAA that is better than an old laptop without spending $1k on an Ultrarendu.

I have not asked for firm quotes, but searching online: s88 is USD7.6k from their online store. at Vintage King US: USD2.7k for Hapi +USD2.9k ADA8P. I look for ADA since I need measurement capability for Acourate (which would need to be solved otherwise with s88). The DA8PRO card you mentioned must be what they list as DA8P, which is the version that can do DSD. Do you think Hapi is surpassed in sound by other DACs of similar price with NAA?

Thank you! I had not realized the s88 included a NAA. Upon looking at the pictures I see it even says NAA in the back! 😳 So buying a NAA would not make sense in neither case. So I will set something up with what I have. Indeed the s88 is more expensive than the Hapi. Would you expect the s88 with built-in NAA to sound better than Hapi, both thru the same ethernet?

Got it. Which of these setups would you expect (or know) to provide the best sound? General purpose PC running HQP and streaming over ethernet/Ravenna to Hapi "Audiophile PC" (passive cooling, SSD, linear power supply, etc) running HQP and streaming over second ethernet port to Hapi General purpose PC running HQP streaming to a NAA (NUC/Ultrarendu) streaming over USB to an exaSound s88 The time might be ripe for deciding the DAC path, which might also imply deciding on the NAA path.

I was able to get this working, and the sound is pretty good despite using as NAA an old laptop with it's spinning HDD, fan, switching power supply. I am convolving into 8 channels for stereo 4-way active system, upsampling to 176 or 192 kHz. I am using NS9 dither and poly-sinc-mp for 1x and Nx filters and the PC is barely running at 10% CPU load - without CUDA offloading, so there is plenty of headroom here. I listen to mostly rock, blues, but also acoustic music. Are there more demanding, generally better filters/noise shaping that I should be trying? More onto the NAA aspect, and the options I think I have: I´m needing the "audiophile" PC connected to the DAC to run Acourate for measurements and filter generation and to run JRiver for watching movies while convolving audio and sending to the DAC. Ideal world would be having the option to boot this PC like I'm doing with the laptop, so I can opt for it as NAA or as PC for Acourate/JRiver. But this doesn't seem to be an option. Best NAA seems to be a a Ultrarendu/Opticalrendu, but it would demand switching the USB cable from the DAC to either Rendu or PC depending on use - a bit cumbersome. Another option is buying a new NUC to replace the audiophile PC and have the NUC boot as NAA or PC. Finally, I have had an eye on a Merging Hapi for a while as replacement for the Hilo. Hapi is an ethernet-based card. Does a NAA make sense in the case of a Hapi? Thoughts would be very welcomed.

No, input was set to ASIO and output set to NAA and didn't show the NAA as an available device. Now I have Roon streaming to HQP streaming to NAA. Next is figuring out the convolution for the 4-way active. Getting there. Thank you!

@bogi OK, I found it. Problem was on settings Input! I wrote the answer to explain I still wasn't finding the NAA and just by chance tried this and worked. I keep tge original answer and edit the end: To avoid doubts I just did the process complete: 1) turned on Hilo and booted the NAA laptop and see this screen: Hilo is seen by NAA. I left both on and booted the HQPlayer Win 10 PC. Here's the log file: HQPlayer sees NAA and Hilo attached to it. However on HQP>Settinds>Output I don't get naa-563f1662 (or anything else): my understanding is the drop down menu under device should show naa-563f1662 when I clicked on the right arrow. But doesn't... Then I tried changing Settings>Input>Backend. For some reason I had it set to ASIO (somehow assuming this was needed to receive the stream from Roon). I switched it to "none" and the NAA appeared on the Output>Backend>device. Great!! Thank you!!! Now I need to figure out how to tell Roon to stream to HQPlayer. Thanks again!!

Must be something here. Ethernet is indeed set as private network. When I open Firewall & network protection, I see private network with the green checkmark (I guess indicating it´s protected). However the options below, including "allow an app through firewall" are greyed so I can´t change them. BTW, which is the app I should let through the firewall: HQplayer or the NAA - if the NAA, what is the name of the app?

Thank you! Now I have it. It´s seeing it: 2023/07/15 23:04:44 NAA output connect to 192.168.100.37:43210 [ipv4] 2023/07/15 23:04:44 NAA output network endpoint: Lynx Hilo: USB Audio (hw:CARD=Hilo,DEV=0) 2023/07/15 23:04:44 NAA output network endpoint: HDA Intel PCH: 92HD93BXX Analog (hw:CARD=PCH,DEV=0) 2023/07/15 23:04:44 NAA output discovered 1 Network Audio Adapters ? 2023/07/15 23:04:44 NAA output adapter '' not found 2023/07/15 23:04:45 NAA output network Audio IPv6 support disabled 2023/07/15 23:04:45 NAA output discovery from 0.0.0.0 & 2023/07/15 23:04:45 NAA output discovered network audio: name='naa-563f1662' version='Signalyst Network Audio Daemon 4.4.0' @192.168.100.37:43210 & 2023/07/15 23:04:45 NAA output discovered network audio: name='naa-563f1662' version='Signalyst Network Audio Daemon 4.4.0' @192.168.100.37:43210 Must be the firewall.

Thank you. The PC has one one active network interface (just on cable; no wifi). I do have AVG running on the HQPlayer computer. How do I check if it´s blocking traffic with NAA, or how do I tell it not to block it?

Thank you for the continued help. Unfortunately I was already doing that and %LOCALAPPDATA%\HQPlayer is returning no hits. FWIW it´s a Win 10 PC. I find the \AppData\Local\HQPlayer folder, but the instruction returns no findings. Same if I run it starting on C: root directory. Log file is enabled in HQPlayer Settings.