iFi audio NEO Stream - Sweet Streams!

[innocentblood]

does the USB-C input at the front of the unit allow iOS or iPadOS devices to be connected for the purposes of playing Apple Music Hi Res?

 

[Nationalizer]

does the USB-C input at the front of the unit allow iOS or iPadOS devices to be connected for the purposes of playing Apple Music Hi Res?

No. It will not work as a USB DAC at all. You can either connect storage devices or a DAC on the USB inputs.

 

[Mr BubbaHyde]

@iFi audio @Rowan94

If at all possible could we have Voltage/Amp Tolerances for the Optibox? I am asking as I would like to try some different Power sources for it and did not want to just rely on the stated specs of the adapter that comes with the NEO Stream.

Thanks in advance!

Cheers!!

 

[Zaurux]

For those who want to test, it is better to specify, it's a simple conversion box that does not require calculation and therefore consumption.
A priori, all the tests and power solutions proposed for RPI should work. I don't think it is necessary to go very high. 5v 3A seems to be the maximum and the principle is that the available power is not consumed.
There is already a lot of literature on optical bridges and the possible gains. Apart from feeding a cognitive bias, I doubt the contribution of the power supply on a single bridge element.
The real interest of the proposed system is that the input converter is integrated in the Neo, thus limiting new perturbations between the converter and the streamer.
But tests are always good to do.

 

[Rowan94]

@iFi audio @Rowan94

If at all possible could we have Voltage/Amp Tolerances for the Optibox? I am asking as I would like to try some different Power sources for it and did not want to just rely on the stated specs of the adapter that comes with the NEO Stream.

Thanks in advance!

Cheers!!

I'll enquire about this for you

 

[OuYang]

I use 5V/1A USB port on KECES P8 to power Opti Box, it works pretty well.

 

[gryffe]

I have a query for HQPlayer buffs.
I have very limited knowledge when it comes to HQPlayer so I'm looking for some advice how to get the best from my Neo and my DAC while using HQP. The DAC is a Mytek Brooklyn DAC and I have taken this info from the doc : • PCM up to 32 bit / 384 kHz. • DSD64, DSD128, DSD256
I found that with the setting in the first screenshot if I played a 96k file it had a sort of weird staticy sound and was glitching every 5 seconds or so, 44.1k files were slightly better, did not have the staticy sound and didn't glitch as often. For info the songs were played back using Roon but I guess that isn't relevant to the problem. (The screenshot shows modulator ADM7 but I got the same results with ADM7EC)
I have the Neo hardwired using the Optibox, and all the equipment is literally 3 feet from my router.
I guess what I need to know is what are the optimum settings I can have on HQP to pl;ay 96k (or above) using DSD. I am not really familiar with the difference between PCM and DSD, so any suggestions for PCM welcome too.

Thanks.

 

[ctrlm]

I have a query for HQPlayer buffs.
I have very limited knowledge when it comes to HQPlayer so I'm looking for some advice how to get the best from my Neo and my DAC while using HQP. The DAC is a Mytek Brooklyn DAC and I have taken this info from the doc : • PCM up to 32 bit / 384 kHz. • DSD64, DSD128, DSD256
I found that with the setting in the first screenshot if I played a 96k file it had a sort of weird staticy sound and was glitching every 5 seconds or so, 44.1k files were slightly better, did not have the staticy sound and didn't glitch as often. For info the songs were played back using Roon but I guess that isn't relevant to the problem. (The screenshot shows modulator ADM7 but I got the same results with ADM7EC)
I have the Neo hardwired using the Optibox, and all the equipment is literally 3 feet from my router.
I guess what I need to know is what are the optimum settings I can have on HQP to pl;ay 96k (or above) using DSD. I am not really familiar with the difference between PCM and DSD, so any suggestions for PCM welcome too.

Thanks.

Uncheck the 48k DSD box in the HQ Player settings. The vast majority of DACs don't do 48k DSD and if your DAC doesn't then you will get static noise.

Edit: maybe the Brooklyn does do 48k DSD?

 

[ctrlm]

Also poly-sinc-guass-xla uses a fair bit of juice, so try using poly-sinc-gauss-long for 1x and poly-sinc-gauss-hires-lp for Nx to see if you can run DSD without glitches. What are you running HQ Player on?

 

[Zaurux]

It all depends on the HQPlayer server machine and what it can run. I think it's a mac.
Does it work in DSD128?
There seems to be a lot of stuff running. The ideal is an HQPlayer server with nothing else ... only HQPlayer.

 

[gryffe]

Hi @ctrlm and @Zaurux. It's a Macbook Air with 8gb memory that is running the HQP. I will have a play about with your suggestions later and report back. Thanks.

 

[gryffe]

I can play 96k files on HQP with the bit rate setting of 48 x 128 as per @Zaurux suggestion, with the poly sinc settings that @ctrlm suggested - see 1st screenshot. I also had to select the 48k DSD box otherwise the song would not start to play, or sometimes HQP just crashed before I even selected the song to start playing. However every 10 mins or so I get a glitch where a song will stop playing for a couple of seconds, but I am sure others have reported this. I have also experienced this very rarely myself over the last few days, although I can't remember if I was using HQP at the time or not. I have also attached two screenshots that show what is using the most CPU and Memory on the Mac. The CPU is approx only 25% in use, although the memory is being pushed really hard, especially by Roon which is using over 25%. Regarding Zaurux suggestion that HQP is better running on a dedicated machine I don't have such a machine but I do not use this Mac for anything else apart from playing music, although there will obviously be background tasks running, so it's not as if its used for any other heavy processing.
I guess I could just quit Roon and play back the music on HQP itself, which will obviously free up loads of memory, although I would like to be able to use either/or.

Edit - I've just quit Roon and Memory usage has dropped from just over 75% to just over 50%, so a big drop.

 

[Mau10]

I have a query for HQPlayer buffs.
I have very limited knowledge when it comes to HQPlayer so I'm looking for some advice how to get the best from my Neo and my DAC while using HQP. The DAC is a Mytek Brooklyn DAC and I have taken this info from the doc : • PCM up to 32 bit / 384 kHz. • DSD64, DSD128, DSD256
I found that with the setting in the first screenshot if I played a 96k file it had a sort of weird staticy sound and was glitching every 5 seconds or so, 44.1k files were slightly better, did not have the staticy sound and didn't glitch as often. For info the songs were played back using Roon but I guess that isn't relevant to the problem. (The screenshot shows modulator ADM7 but I got the same results with ADM7EC)
I have the Neo hardwired using the Optibox, and all the equipment is literally 3 feet from my router.
I guess what I need to know is what are the optimum settings I can have on HQP to pl;ay 96k (or above) using DSD. I am not really familiar with the difference between PCM and DSD, so any suggestions for PCM welcome too.

Thanks.

Mytek Brooklyn DAC uses an ESS chip. Since ESS chips can't do direct DSD, there's not much sense into using any of the HQplayer Sigma-Delta modulators and sending DSD anyway. If you do so, there is a double PCM-DSD conversion in your digital processing. You can get the best of your Mytek by upsampling to the highest supported PCM rate and your filter/shaper of preference. If you want to play with the HQplayer Sigma delta modulators, use the NS internal DAC. There you may easily notice the benefits of using the HQplayer modulators.

 

[gryffe]

Mytek Brooklyn DAC uses an ESS chip. Since ESS chips can't do direct DSD, there's not much sense into using any of the HQplayer Sigma-Delta modulators and sending DSD anyway. If you do so, there is a double PCM-DSD conversion in your digital processing. You can get the best of your Mytek by upsampling to the highest supported PCM rate and your filter/shaper of preference. If you want to play with the HQplayer Sigma delta modulators, use the NS internal DAC. There you may easily notice the benefits of using the HQplayer modulators.

Thanks for that info. I'll have a play about.

 

[gryffe]

Thanks for that info. I'll have a play about.

Having some success with PCM Sample rate of 384, and Dither of NS9. Could you have a look at the top half of the attached screenshot and confirm whether or not the settings are correct or should be adjusted in some way. Thanks.