[TimoJ]

Strange. Mine does it every time the programme format changes. I can sit there with the web GUI open and navigate around the ATV: every time I hear a pop it coincides with the audio programme format changing, as indicated on the web GUI home screen.

Does volume control effect it? Do you hear it from all speakers?

 

[AustinJerry]

Thank you. I'll hook up both the Mac Mini and Sonus Connect. My wife likes the Sonus as it is easy for her to pull up one of the streaming services on her phone and play music. She doesn't understand why I use my laptop to connect to the mini to play music. I tell her I get the highest quality audio using the Tidal app on the Mac. She says she can't tell the difference but then again she doesn't sit down and do critical listening either like I do. I typically listen in 2 channel anyways but I would like to use my 2 subs along with my fronts.

I suppose each of us is entitled to our opinions, but Tidal is lossless FLAC. The Connect is outputting unaltered FLAC on the digital coax connection, which in turn is converted to analog by the HTP-1 DAC. I don't understand how the same lossless FLAC file could sound any different using your Mac and USB. Even if you have a high-quality external DAC between the Mac and the HTP-1, it has already been reported that ANY audio signal submitted to the HTP-1 undergoes an A-D-A conversion. And if you are using Dirac Live, audio is down-sampled to 48KHz as well.

Are you sure that expectation bias is not playing a role when you are using the Mac/USB connection? If not, please explain.

 

[Mashie Saldana]

For movies (Atmos,DTS:X) maybe I notice the wides. I'm not going to compare my memories of my old Denon 4300 7.2.4 setup to the HTP-1 9.2.4.

Until the HTP-1 receives the DTS:X Pro/DSUv2 updates only Atmos and Wide Synth can use your wides unless you move to a 9.1.2 layout.

 

[DougAP]

Does volume control effect it? Do you hear it from all speakers?

No volume doesn't. Just tried at -100dB and it's as loud as -10dB.

Yes, from all speakers.

 

[nevis]

No volume doesn't. Just tried at -100dB and it's as loud as -10dB.

Yes, from all speakers.

I understand you have an unbalanced connection to the amp? I believe this artifact is more noticeable with an unbalanced connection. I switched to a balanced connection and the very small ticks were gone.

 

[DougAP]

No volume doesn't. Just tried at -100dB and it's as loud as -10dB.

Yes, from all speakers.

On further investigation, it doesn't just change when the audio format changes: it happens whenever there's a change in the content. So, for example, I get pops when I switch between icons in Netflix and it plays trailers. It also happens when I change format via upmix select, and when I turn loudness on and off.

 

[DougAP]

I understand you have an unbalanced connection to the amp? I believe this artifact is more noticeable with an unbalanced connection. I switched to a balanced connection and the very small ticks were gone.

I was worried that it might be associated with that. Not great if so.

 

[Carbo]

Is the USB audio input supported in the latest firmware? I stream audio from my Mac Mini using USB. Hoping that is supported now, I don't really want to use my old Sonus Connect and digital out. Just got my HTP-1 yesterday and planning on setting it up today. Apologies if this has already been discussed here. I'm working way through all the post but there are 373 pages here, a lot to get through. Thanks.

It works but it's also only 48k/24Bits for now.

 

[TimoJ]

I was worried that it might be associated with that. Not great if so.

I also noticed that this issue had disappeared when I converted my DIY amps to balanced inputs. I had noticed the pop only from my nearby rear speakers, my main amp already was balanced.

If you have done electronics etc. there is INA2134 (stereo) or INA134 (mono) chip that allow to convert balanced to unbalanced signals with just two extra capacitors and + - 15V power supply. Of course pcb, connectors, case etc. are needed unless you add the parts inside your amplifier.

 

[jperrybp]

I suppose each of us is entitled to our opinions, but Tidal is lossless FLAC. The Connect is outputting unaltered FLAC on the digital coax connection, which in turn is converted to analog by the HTP-1 DAC. I don't understand how the same lossless FLAC file could sound any different using your Mac and USB. Even if you have a high-quality external DAC between the Mac and the HTP-1, it has already been reported that ANY audio signal submitted to the HTP-1 undergoes an A-D-A conversion. And if you are using Dirac Live, audio is down-sampled to 48KHz as well.

Are you sure that expectation bias is not playing a role when you are using the Mac/USB connection? If not, please explain.

It's my understanding Sonus Connect only supports Tidal HiFi quality not Master quality. HiFi quality recordings are limited to 44.1 kHz / 16 bit, Masters will reflect the original source, which can range from CD-quality, to 96 kHz / 24 bit. Several streaming devices support Tidal Master quality. I installed the Tidal app on a mac mini which gives me Master quality. Don't really want this to get into a discussion of the pro and cons of MQA. Lots of folks have strong opinions of it.

 

[audioworker]

Thanks. I have seen it now! I wasn't looking to control the unit, more just react to status changes... That way you can implement a status OSD without any business logic so to speak - all you do is watch for a change in the reported volume level and when that happens, display the volume for a couple of seconds.

While I could use the IR protocol to do it as it returns the current unit status with each keypress, it means I need to adapt my control stuff to receive the volume button presses from the Harmony, deal with key repeats etc, send the volume control codes to the unit (one keypress at a time) and then parse the returned info.

Better would be like the NAD, where it just opens a socket connection and all status outputs are received automatically, then watch for applicable changes and display them.

I did just try using the IR commands with status feedback, and a little annoyingly it wouldn't even work that well. When you send a volume up or down command, the return string from the unit includes the previous volume value, not the new one after the keypress takes effect!

@MonolithGuy is the above a little bit of a bug, or by design? On V 1.8.2. Is there a simple way to open a socket that will just stream parseable status updates from the unit?

So you are looking for push notifications. Take a look at the preset recorder mentioned in post#2. Look for "var mso = JSON.parse(json);". It should contain what your are looking for. Just print it to the console and watch the console output as you interact with the HTP-1.

 

[jperrybp]

It works but it's also only 48k/24Bits for now.

I setup my new HTP-1 this afternoon. Wasn't exactly as smooth as I had hoped. When I first power the system up it would show the Monolith screen for about 5 seconds then went black, a few seconds later it would flash it again and then the power button just flashed on and off. Nothing on the LCD screen, no video, no audio. I power it off and on a few time from the back including pulling the power cable but it just kept doing the same thing. I was expecting it to show the IP address on the LCD screen but it was just black. I decided to log into my router to see if it connected. I saw it under the wired connection, grabbed its IP address, and was able to open the Web UI. I configured the speakers and the inputs but just could not get any audio or video through the hdmi input 1 which was connected to my xfinity box. I decided to upgrade the firmware and voila the video and audio appeared on hdmi 1. It installed version 1.7.1. I tried the usb audio but no sound. The Tidal app sees it and I set it as the default output device but no sound. Someone mentioned this was supported in a new beta release... 1.8? How do I go about getting that beta release?

 

[Carbo]

I setup my new HTP-1 this afternoon. Wasn't exactly as smooth as I had hoped. When I first power the system up it would show the Monolith screen for about 5 seconds then went black, a few seconds later it would flash it again and then the power button just flashed on and off. Nothing on the LCD screen, no video, no audio. I power it off and on a few time from the back including pulling the power cable but it just kept doing the same thing. I was expecting it to show the IP address on the LCD screen but it was just black. I decided to log into my router to see if it connected. I saw it under the wired connection, grabbed its IP address, and was able to open the Web UI. I configured the speakers and the inputs but just could not get any audio or video through the hdmi input 1 which was connected to my xfinity box. I decided to upgrade the firmware and voila the video and audio appeared on hdmi 1. It installed version 1.7.1. I tried the usb audio but no sound. The Tidal app sees it and I set it as the default output device but no sound. Someone mentioned this was supported in a new beta release... 1.8? How do I go about getting that beta release?

Click on the "I" and then history. You will get a list of all firmware. The one at the very top is preview 1.8.2

 

[jperrybp]

Click on the "I" and then history. You will get a list of all firmware. The one at the very top is preview 1.8.2

Nice, thank you for your help!

 

[bobof]

So you are looking for push notifications. Take a look at the preset recorder mentioned in post#2. Look for "var mso = JSON.parse(json);". It should contain what your are looking for. Just print it to the console and watch the console output as you interact with the HTP-1.

Thanks,now have something rudimentary working in Python now that just gets the volume updates.

Here it is for anyone who wants a tiny and probably badly written example of how to do something with the HTP1 from a Python script. I've made it check string starts with msoupdate, strip it, check for the desired volume statuses, and it deals with broken connection / reconnection / reboot reasonably. Anyway, hope it might be useful for someone else. I'm going to use this as a basis for adding OSD via the Lumagen unit I have. Thanks to @3ll3d00d and @audioworker for the pointers in getting me there.

# A very basic example showing how to get volume messages from the HTP1 using Python
# Probably very bad.  But it does work.  Python3.
import asyncio
import websockets
import json
import re
import time

# edit to be host name / IP address of HTP1
htp1 = "192.168.10.185"

# This function actually does the listening for JSON on websockets,
# working out if it is a volume message and displaying if it is
async def listen():
    uri = "ws://" + htp1 + "/ws/controller"
    async with websockets.connect(uri) as websocket:
        while True:
            message = await websocket.recv()
            # uncomment following for debugging
            #print (message)
            if message.startswith ("msoupdate ["):
                # strip the  "msoupdate " from the returned message
                message =  message[10:]
                jsonlist = json.loads (message)
                for jsondict in jsonlist:
                    # if this was a volume message, print volume value
                    if jsondict['path'] == '/volume':
                        volume = jsondict['value']
                        print (volume)

# main loop, try the connection, if it fails wait 5s, try again.  Forever :)
while True:
    try:
        asyncio.get_event_loop().run_until_complete(listen())
    except:
        print ("An exception occurred with websocket connection.  Retry in 5 seconds")
        time.sleep (5)

 

[AustinJerry]

It's my understanding Sonus Connect only supports Tidal HiFi quality not Master quality. HiFi quality recordings are limited to 44.1 kHz / 16 bit, Masters will reflect the original source, which can range from CD-quality, to 96 kHz / 24 bit. Several streaming devices support Tidal Master quality. I installed the Tidal app on a mac mini which gives me Master quality. Don't really want this to get into a discussion of the pro and cons of MQA. Lots of folks have strong opinions of it.

I agree, this is not the thread to discuss MQA. But you may have missed my point. To preserve the audio quality benefits of high-quality external DAC's and MQA, you need to have a guaranteed analog path through the processor. The HTP-1 has no analog path. See: Monoprice HTP-1 announced. (16ch, 9.1.6 Atmos Surround.... So, regardless of what signal you feed the HTP-1, you are listening to the HTP-1 DAC (which is quite good, actually). There should be no difference between the audio from the Mac vs. audio from the Sonos digital output.

 

[harrisu]

Alright guys. I just purchased HTP-1 . Thank you all so much for helping me out with my questions. More to come of course. I got a very good deal on 11 channel amp on MX A-5000 Amp. Special thx to @M0ltar for reaching out to me and answering my questions. This will initially cover 11 channels including L/C/R. In a couple months, I'll get NC500 for my L/C/R and expand from 7.4.4 to 9.6.4. This will allow me to observe a few changes
1 - Going from 7.4.4 with ceiling speakers untreated using minidsp 88a To 7.4.4. with ceiling speakers treated with Dirac.
2 - Going from 7.4.4. all driven With Dirac to 9.6.4.

Should be fun. @AustinJerry where is your guide on HTP-1 ;-) ??????? Now I think I need 11 XLR wires to connect HTP-1 to MX A-5000 amp. Any recommendations on this? I can have HTP-1 and Amp next to each other stacked with a distance of 1 feet apart.

Finally, anything else I'm missing besides XLR wires?
Finally, I'll have minidsp 88-a to sell now and Emotiva EPA-700.

 

[AustinJerry]

The first post of this thread has all the resources you will need to get you started.

 

[WOKNROX]

Monoprice for cables

 

[jperrybp]

Nice, thank you for your help!

I agree, this is not the thread to discuss MQA. But you may have missed my point. To preserve the audio quality benefits of high-quality external DAC's and MQA, you need to have a guaranteed analog path through the processor. The HTP-1 has no analog path. See: Monoprice HTP-1 announced. (16ch, 9.1.6 Atmos Surround.... So, regardless of what signal you feed the HTP-1, you are listening to the HTP-1 DAC (which is quite good, actually). There should be no difference between the audio from the Mac vs. audio from the Sonos digital output.

I see, thanks for clarifying. It's unfortunate there isn't a pure analog path through the HTP-1. It means there is no sense using my RME ADI-2 DAC with this unit.