Help with setting up HQPlayer for Merging Technologies NADAC+Player

I am building a digital front end as following:  Google Fiber 1G router -> Trendnet unmanaged switch -> SFP -> After Dark NetOnes switch -> SFP -> After Dark Roon server (i5-13599T 13th Gen + Nvidia 1030 GPU + 64GB DDR5) -> SFP -> EtherRegen(sideA) -> Ethernet CAT7(sideA) -> Merging Technologies NADAC+Player.  All front end digital clocked by one AfterDark Project-Giesemanhn OCXO clock.

I have Merging Technologies ASIO, HQPlayer Desktop 5 and Roon Server/Player all installed on my Roon PC server.

I have tried many different configuration settings but I cannot get sound from HQPlayer to NADAC.  I can play directly from Roon to NADAC and get sound, but my intent is to use HQPlayer to up sample all inputs to DSD256 for NADAC.

I would appreciate any help with setting up all the SW correctly.

Phuong

After playing with different settings, Aneman does not detect any devices and now will not run.  When I launch Aneman, I get a grey box and the app kills itself after launch.

Here are some ALSA screen capture settings:

Here are some ASIO screen captures:

Here are the MAD panel and NADAC screen captures:

@pt999 maybe you can find some hints here

Thank you Stefano, but I don't understand what those messages mean or how they translate to SW settings.

26 minutes ago, pt999 said:

Thank you Stefano, but I don't understand what those messages mean or how they translate to SW settings.

Just read the thread the link is pointing to and you should find a solution

Please try factory reset for your NADAC.

You’ve come to the right place. We’ll get you squared away. 
 

People here use HQP with Merging devices every day. 
 

Try the reset mentioned above and let us know. 

Thank you El Guapo, the factory reset restored Aneman.  Roon still can't play to NADAC yet.  I see HQPlayer sends PCM, but it was setup for DSD256. The clock stays still so it's not playing anything. There's some other settings I missed.

I'm out with Saturday activities until evening, will check back and thank you everyone for helping.

Phuong

11 minutes ago, pt999 said:

Thank you El Guapo, the factory reset restored Aneman.  Roon still can't play to NADAC yet.  I see HQPlayer sends PCM, but it was setup for DSD256. The clock stays still so it's not playing anything. There's some other settings I missed.

I'm out with Saturday activities until evening, will check back and thank you everyone for helping.

Phuong

 

 

Is 48k DSD a problem?

5 hours ago, pt999 said:

There's some other settings I missed.

The +Player has another small computer running ROCK + Ravenna/AES67 ALSA LKM inside. If you want +Player to accept HQPlayer output without fault code, you must disconnect the ALSA LKM from NADAC in ANEMAN first then connect the MAD to +Player. Unicast is preferred.

Unfortunately the most recent version of ANEMAN won’t show ALSA LKM (I believe it’s a bug). Please install older version of ANEMAN it should show the ALSA LKM’s connections.

14 minutes ago, El Guapo said:

Unfortunately the most recent version of ANEMAN won’t show ALSA LKM (I believe it’s a bug). Please install older version of ANEMAN it should show the ALSA LKM’s connections

Very annoying. I’ve been going back and forth with Merging support about this one. 

13 minutes ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

Very annoying. I’ve been going back and forth with Merging support about this one. 

Another annoying thing is the Ravenna/AES67 ALSA LKM cannot be built on kernel >=6.6… the PCM structure is changed again (no idea why Linux kernel always changed).🫠

It's looking better but Roon client still cannot connect to HQPlayer.  I will try to find an older version of Aneman to disable Ravenna/AES67 ALSA LKM.

running Aneman 1.3.2 from 2021, I see 3 devices. Which one is ALSA LKM and how do I disable it?

7 hours ago, pt999 said:

Which one is ALSA LKM and how do I disable it?

Go menu: Action: Clear all connections.

You only need to connect MAD to NADAC. Do not connect ALSA to MAD. Create a sample rate zone and put the MAD and NADAC to that zone. Put MAD to crown position then see if any error messages.

After clearing all connections, leave ALSA Session Sources and Session Sinks blank, I moved ASIO to Aneman crown position, connect 2 channels to NADAC. In Matrix view I only see option for Multicast and Cancel, no Unicast option to select. I chose Multicast and play something on Roon.  Roon showed correct DSD256 output, but still no sound coming out of NADAC.  It feels so close. Thanks so much for your help.

there is a discrepancy, Roon shows DSD256, but the time is stuck at 0:00, while the NADAC+PLAYER is showing DXD.  On Aneman, I can't find how to connect Unicast, only Multicast option shown.

14 minutes ago, pt999 said:

there is a discrepancy, Roon shows DSD256, but the time is stuck at 0:00, while the NADAC+PLAYER is showing DXD.  On Aneman, I can't find how to connect Unicast, only Multicast option shown.

 

I had the unicast/multicast issue when using a new version of ANEMAN. 

I have not used the NADAC in this situation but, in the past, when I've had a similar issue, I was able to get it running by manually forcing the client (in my case, a Hapi II) to the same bit rate as the ASIO.  Once synched that way, it continues when the sample rate changes.

4 hours ago, pt999 said:

there is a discrepancy, Roon shows DSD256, but the time is stuck at 0:00, while the NADAC+PLAYER is showing DXD.  On Aneman, I can't find how to connect Unicast, only Multicast option shown.

 

Remember to disable RAVENNA from Roon Settings / Audio when using HQPlayer! Otherwise you will have problems. ASIO is exclusive use driver, but some ASIO drivers don't entirely block subsequent application's access, but instead begin to behave weirdly.

This is documented in last bullet point here:

https://help.roonlabs.com/portal/en/kb/articles/hqplayer

One of the most common issues when using Roon + HQPlayer combination is that the DAC has not been disabled at Roon side.

When playing, hover your mouse over the channel connection square block in ANEMAN and see what it says about status of that channel.

Please note too that if you are running out of CPU/GPU power and having drop-outs, RAVENNA is going to just stay silent, but playback seems to proceed (although slower).

On 8/17/2024 at 2:39 PM, pt999 said:

I am building a digital front end as following:  Google Fiber 1G router -> Trendnet unmanaged switch -> SFP -> After Dark NetOnes switch -> SFP -> After Dark Roon server (i5-13599T 13th Gen + Nvidia 1030 GPU + 64GB DDR5) -> SFP -> EtherRegen(sideA) -> Ethernet CAT7(sideA) -> Merging Technologies NADAC+Player.

I'd like to suggest isolate possible network issue here (ASIO clock always missing). Please connect +Player directly to your i5-13599T (I think your i5-13599T should have at least one RJ45 available). On MAD select that RJ45 port and click ASIO Settings: Restart Server on Advanced Settings side of MAD. Also reboot +Player. After reboot you should see link-local IPv4 addresses will be used on both. Then back to ANEMAN and try establishing audio connections. 

I have disabled all devices in Roon Settings Audio except for HQPlayer.  Both Roon and NADAC are showing DSD256, but still no sound.  My Roon server PC is currently in a different room from the music room with NADAC.  Tomorrow night I will move the Roon PC, monitor/keyboard to connect directly to the NADAC as suggested.  Thank you everyone.

Phuong