General discussion about HAKAI

A DIY digital music streamer with exceptional performance

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David Neel
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Re: HAKAI

Post by David Neel »

lejonklou wrote:
There's a digital volume control in Volumio, which you should turn up to 100 when your volume is controlled later in the chain.

If you disable the DVC in Volumio, it doesn't produce full volume (100) but is instead fixed at some lower setting. I complained to the Volumio team about this, but I'm not sure they did anything about it.
I've tried all three settings, it seems to make no difference?
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Re: HAKAI

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Lego wrote:Thanks very much for the info guys,this is exciting news as I've been trying for years to get a decent sound from a digital file.I decided to forget about the easy stuff (Spending cash) at the moment and concentrate on getting volumio up and running on a laptop and compared to other distros Ive used I was surprised how quickly i got it up and running on my 320 ssd Thinkpad .It found my 2 NAS and router instantly.It has a great snappy feel though a bit flaky at times but a pleasure to use,very impressed..Thanks again guys
Thanks, Lego! It seems you scooped the fairy dust and left me to cop the pain...

But at the moment, pending a fix for my volume problems, I like it!
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Re: HAKAI

Post by lejonklou »

David Neel wrote:
Lego wrote:Thanks very much for the info guys,this is exciting news as I've been trying for years to get a decent sound from a digital file.I decided to forget about the easy stuff (Spending cash) at the moment and concentrate on getting volumio up and running on a laptop and compared to other distros Ive used I was surprised how quickly i got it up and running on my 320 ssd Thinkpad .It found my 2 NAS and router instantly.It has a great snappy feel though a bit flaky at times but a pleasure to use,very impressed..Thanks again guys
Thanks, Lego! It seems you scooped the fairy dust and left me to cop the pain...

But at the moment, pending a fix for my volume problems, I like it!
Set it to Hardware Mixer and the volume to 100.
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Re: HAKAI

Post by David Neel »

Have done. Need max on Sagatun to be listenable?
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Re: HAKAI

Post by lejonklou »

David Neel wrote:Have done. Need max on Sagatun to be listenable?
Not sure what's wrong. Should be as loud as your ADS on this setting.

Settings saved?
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Re: HAKAI

Post by David Neel »

lejonklou wrote:
David Neel wrote:Have done. Need max on Sagatun to be listenable?
Not sure what's wrong. Should be as loud as your ADS on this setting.

Settings saved?
Yes.

Ah! found the MPD Clients Control setting. Problem appears to be fixed.
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Re: HAKAI

Post by lejonklou »

How does play music then? :)
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Re: HAKAI

Post by David Neel »

Err, it's a bit good...
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Re: HAKAI

Post by ThomasOK »

Apparently he rather likes it as his ADS/3 is up in the For Sale section...
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Re: HAKAI

Post by Azazello »

David Neel wrote:Err, it's a bit good...
:D :D :D
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Re: HAKAI

Post by Sopper »

I am following this thread with mixed feelings...

Part of me cannot believe that this configured pc with rather cheap dac can outperform an ADS/3 and part of me wants to test it to find out myself.
But It would lack space optimisation, wich is my saviour and hero in my livingroom with 50% windows...
Stability issues would be annoying and no integration (yet) with Tidal Hifi and Qobuz Sublime...

Eager to read more experiences form others!
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Re: HAKAI

Post by lejonklou »

ThomasOK wrote:Apparently he rather likes it as his ADS/3 is up in the For Sale section...
Yes, I saw that. And that made me want to write:

David, please don't sell your ADS until you've lived a while with HAKAI. You need to get to know it and decide whether it's really better in all aspects and whether you can tolerate its quirks.

I don't want anyone to make snap decisions that they later regret.
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Re: HAKAI

Post by Azazello »

Selling the ADS was a complete no-brainer. What I'm hesitating about is the LP12. I do think the HAKAI is quite a bit better so it's probably going.
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Re: HAKAI

Post by Azazello »

Sopper wrote:I am following this thread with mixed feelings...

Part of me cannot believe that this configured pc with rather cheap dac can outperform an ADS/3 and part of me wants to test it to find out myself.
But It would lack space optimisation, wich is my saviour and hero in my livingroom with 50% windows...
Stability issues would be annoying and no integration (yet) with Tidal Hifi and Qobuz Sublime...

Eager to read more experiences form others!
Build one and decide later. The parts are not going to be easier to find...
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Re: HAKAI

Post by David Neel »

My thoughts after a very late night listening to music are that the HAKAI is exceptional in terms of value for money, and is very musical and enjoyable to listen to. The primary impression I have is that there is a lower noise floor and more musical insight. This has not been a strict A/B comparison for a number of reasons, including getting the interconnects the wrong way round.

The downside is that it appears to be very difficult to set up the connection with the NAS, but now that I have done that and the disk has been scanned it seems stable. What it has not done is to find all my albums, or to represent them correctly. All albums ripped with EAC share one of two pieces of cover art, and do not seem searchable by artist. Albums ripped with dbPoweramp display the correct cover art, but I can't find all the artists....

The context is that for me, digital has been only a secondary source, used for convenience and for music not available on vinyl. I have not even completed ripping all my CDs since I built my LSNAS five years ago! So I have already been contemplating a complete re-rip and perhaps moving from Asset to minimserver. When/if I do this, I could build a HAKAI NAS (if I can find another motherboard) and re-purpose the LSNAS as a ripper. One issue here would be to find whether minimserver, for example, works better with Volumio than Asset.

I will make further comparisons with the ADS/3, but if I can make the HAKAI work better with my music library (even if re-ripping is required) then I suspect its musicality will win.
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Re: HAKAI

Post by Azazello »

David Neel wrote: I can't find all the artists....
That might be because it needs to be left alone for a ridiculous amount of time during the "scanning" process. Initiate a new scan and just leave it alone for a couple of hours and see if that helps.
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Re: HAKAI

Post by Lego »

Azazello wrote:Selling the ADS was a complete no-brainer. What I'm hesitating about is the LP12. I do think the HAKAI is quite a bit better so it's probably going.
Strong words Azazello, but that's in effect what we all want to hear, so I will be looking out for the parts sooner rather than later :0)
Quick question Azazello.
In a rush to flash the distro I forgot to do it in Safe Mode, why do you recommend SM?
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Re: HAKAI

Post by Azazello »

Lego wrote:In a rush to flash the distro I forgot to do it in Safe Mode, why do you recommend SM?
You mean in etcher? Etcher won't write to an HDD/SSD in safe mode, only to a flash memory. You will have to set it to unsafe mode :)
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Re: HAKAI

Post by Azazello »

Lego wrote:Strong words Azazello

Maybe my LP12 is tired (it's Lingo3/Ekos/Adikt), but I'm listening to a lot of music that for me has been reserved to vinyl only (70's stuff), and actually the reason that I bought a new LP12 a couple of years after selling my first one.

Most of the time I feel it's better than I've ever heard it. The exception so far is my Roxy Music-rips. They seem to suffer a bit too much from digital remastering. I've been listening to a lot of old David Bowie albums the last week, and they are just amazing, not at ALL a tiny tiny bit washed out in the way I have always perceived digital reproduction of older records.
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Re: HAKAI

Post by Lego »

Lego wrote:
Azazello wrote:
Lego wrote:In a rush to flash the distro I forgot to do it in Safe Mode, why do you recommend SM?
You mean in etcher? Etcher won't write to an HDD/SSD in safe mode, only to a flash memory. You will have to set it to unsafe mode :)
lol my mistake is the default not 'unsafe' mode
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Re: HAKAI

Post by David Neel »

lejonklou wrote:
ThomasOK wrote:Apparently he rather likes it as his ADS/3 is up in the For Sale section...
Yes, I saw that. And that made me want to write:

David, please don't sell your ADS until you've lived a while with HAKAI. You need to get to know it and decide whether it's really better in all aspects and whether you can tolerate its quirks.

I don't want anyone to make snap decisions that they later regret.
Thank you for these words of caution! I'm now starting on some more comparisons, and I have to remember that I only gave the ADS/3 a few moments with the new ethernet cables. So going back to it, it now sounds better than ever.
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Re: HAKAI

Post by lunch »

Hi guys.

I’m also curious about the Hakai. Been looking into sourcing the parts now, and as has been mentioned already the recommended Intel 320 SSD is discontinued. What would be a decent alternative to this (and also sata cable if a different one is required with a different SSD)?

Thanks.
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Re: HAKAI

Post by Azazello »

I find 320’s quite easy to find used on eBay. There are no options unfortunately.
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Re: HAKAI

Post by Spannko »

tokenbrit wrote:Speaking of build components, have the BJCo cables been compared against the MicroConnects? I guess I could order some Blue Jeans Cat 6a while I am waiting for a suitable motherboard to show up... Just curious whether anyone has done an A-B since the MicroConnect was the old 'favourite'.
I've just ordered 3 off, 2.5m BJCo cables. When they've run in I'll post some shoot-out videos between the BJ's, Microconnects and Meicords.

UPDATE: BJCo’s service is amazing. I ordered the cables on Friday and I’ve just had a tracking notification letting me know that they’re crossing the Atlantic and they’ll be with me before midday on Monday!
Last edited by Spannko on 2018-08-18 13:00, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: HAKAI

Post by lunch »

Azazello wrote:I find 320’s quite easy to find used on eBay. There are no options unfortunately.
Thanks. I found one there which looked fine. I hope. I usually don’t use eBay.
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