Go digital with Windows Server 2012

[johanjongstra]

I have a wonderful system for digital streaming. I built a computer myself, core i7, fanless, external psu and ssd. Running HQPlayer embedded on Linux (Ubuntu studio). The sound is great, but as we all know, you keep wondering if it can any better. So I read a lot about using Windows Server 2012. The idea is that normal OS-es are running a lot of processes at the same time that are unnecessary and intervene with the audio process. When you start up a mac, OSX is running at least 70 processes, most are not needed, windows and Linux are probably the same, if not worse. It isn't easy to strip down a standard OS and a lot of knowledge is needed not to screw-up the computer totally.
Server versions however are much lighter after a fresh install. So yesterday I installed Windows Server 2012 with JRiver 20 as music software. I could only test if the software was running and it did, it gave me music. Time for testing the result the coming days.
Interesting to know is that I installed my Linux OS on a mSATA 120GB disk. It is very easy to swap the disk for another. So I bought a 34 euro 32 GB mSATA disk and installed Windows Server on that. That gives me the opportunity to compare both distributions easily.
This is what I did so far:
Installed Windows Server 2012
Installed the ASIO driver for the Lampizator dac (Amanero Combo)
Installed JRiver 20
Imported some music from my NAS
Set the output for JRiver to DSD128 Natively (no DOP)
Activated the JRiver media server (makes it possible to use JRemote, or BubbleUPnP to choose music, and stream Qobuz through JRiver)

It was too late yesterday to give it a proper listening check. I can't wait to do that tonight

If you are interested I am posting my findings the coming weeks. If you have comments or questions, please ask.

[Fretless]

Seriously heavy DIY computing there. Impressive.

How does that compare to a Pi, Johan? I presume you have a lot more processing power and the power supply will also be larger.

I can see the advantage of a 'tailored' operating system in place of one that is busy doing a lot of unnecessary extra stuff. How about integrating a DAC board in with the PC ?

[terrybooth]

Each to their own and congratulations on wrestling the Microsoft OS down to more manageable proportions for sound reproduction. And logically, the server build of the OS is based on adding the services you need whereas with the PC variant lots of services you don't need come as standard.

I've had PC based audio. For a time I switched between Linux and Windows 7. I thought that there was a difference in the sound - Linux being a bit more laid back or veiled, depending on your preference.

Of course there are quite a few Linux based music thingies out there - being open source it lends itself to that sort of thing.

Ultimately, I've always been attracted by minimalism when looking at things to reproduce music and it was that that got me to try the Pi in the first place. But it's how it sounds to your ears that matters.

I'm not familiar with the Lampizator DAC but I very much suspect that the sound you are getting is more down to that than the digital streaming part of your system.

Anyway, back to your system. Obviously with dual boot, you can do a fairly quick A/B comparison. So we await your conclusions.

[johanjongstra]

DSD processing, especially the DSD128 and DSD256 need a lot of horsepower due to the heavy filtering that is needed. Even my i7 CPU has trouble with DSD256, is getting very warm and at times the music starts to stutter. I don't think the pi is powerful enough to do that. However the pi has the advantage of having no fan and has an external psu. Beside of that I can imagine that Volumio tweaks the pi and makes sure it only uses the necessary resources. Probably a very good choice for the normal 16/44.1 files and maybe also the HD PCM files like 24/192. Does Volumio do DSD?

I invested in a pretty good linear PSU from HDPlex, I guess that helps a lot in keeping a lot of noise out of the PC's data path and makes the PC stable.
By integrating a DAC board in the PC you wouldn't need the USB-bus probably. However I think that the PSU for the DAC is also critical and needed for good sound, so from that point integrating a DAC into a PC might not be a good idea.

What might be a nice solution is the 'Network Audio Adapter', NAA, that HQPlayer provides. HQPlayer is running on a pc and does all the heavy processing, the output is not going to USB but to LAN. You need a second computer that has a stripped down Linux distribution which converts the LAN signal into USB again which is feeding your DAC. That computer could be a Pi, or a Cubox. The transfer is asynchronous and maximum isolation. Side effect is that the main computer could be out of the way. Details about that on their website: http://www.signalyst.com/consumer.html

[johanjongstra]

Thanks Terrybooth for your reply and encouragement.

[terrybooth]

Raspberry Pi/Volumio doesn't do DSD. 24bit/192khz is as far as it goes.

I recognise the temptation to go for 'more bits' but in my system, the recording quality of the music has more of an influence on the sound than the bitrate of the media file. Most of the stuff I have is 16/24 (i.e ripped CD).

As you are finding , more bits = more processing. There's a lot of stuff online about this written by people who know more about it than I do.

There are more than one way of doing all this. Personally, I don't understand the difference between streaming audio and reading a file from a disc off a network. My NAS box can do this but I didn't go down that line because I didn't understand it and because I felt (rightly or wrongly) that reading a file was just simpler.

Personally, I'm currently trying to understand the concept and impact of 'jitter' - the variation in the rate of the bit flow. If cables have any effect in the digital domain, I think it will be here.

[terrybooth]

On the processing bit, it may be worth trying to get hold of a copy of Server 2016 which is currently in beta. Microsoft are making their OSes more efficient. This is built on the same codebase as Windows 10. There may be minor differences in your application.

[johanjongstra]

Hi terrybooth,
I don't understand your 'not understanding the difference between streaming and reading a file' (from disk off a network). Isn't streaming just that? Reading a file over a network as opposed by downloading a file before you can read it?
Maybe it is my English failing here.
I know there is a lot written about the difference in sound quality to where the file is placed. There are people hearing differences between a file located at their NAS or located at their hard drive, or even files that loaded first onto a RAM disk. I tried several of these options, but I don't hear any differences. You could say that reading from a NAS is convenient and, because the file is coming in through LAN the USB-bus can be used exclusively for your communication with the DAC.

[terrybooth]

Different network protocols are used.
Streaming is part of the Internet Protocol Suite https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real_Time ... g_Protocol
File access is SMB or CIFS in windows land, NFS in *nix land - older protocols which serves slightly different purposes.

[johanjongstra]

Update:
As you could read in an earlier post I installed Windows server 2012 on my pc, together with HQPlayer and JRiver. It all was a bit of a dissappointment because I couldn't stream DSD128 files anylonger. They stuttered all over the place. I tried and tried with latency and buffer settings, but no result.
A program that I all ready had in mind is Audio Optimalizer, a swiss product, specially made for Windows server 2012. License fee however is 119 Euro, but frustration drove me to it.
So I did a complete fresh installation, and followed step by step the very clear manual that AO provides. AO cuts out all unnecessary drivers, processes etc. that are not needed for the audio process.
The result is amazing!
A very clear sound, imaging and focus like I never heard before... I can process DSD256 without any problem, even with the heaviest filters that HQPlayer provides. In order to keep an eye on the temp of my fanless pc I installed 'Core Temp', a small but very convenient program. I process 16/44.1 files to DSD256 without a problem, but also native DSD256 files that are very large aren't any problem.
So for now I am a happy guy and is the 119 Euro a good investment. Now we are talking about licenses: Windows 2012 server isn't cheap, but there are free evaluation versions. I am lucky to work at a University where we can have a free license... Apart from that I needed to buy a new license for the Windows version of HQPlayer (I had a Mac/linux license) and I allready owned a JRiver 20 master license. So the investment in licenses was reasonable.