General discussion about HAKAI

A DIY digital music streamer with exceptional performance

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Re: General discussion about HAKAI (Split from original thread)

Post by lejonklou »

cortina wrote:
lejonklou wrote: Yes, but I'm not fully confident in defining it.

As have been mentioned, the motherboard sets the standard and might be number one. Perhaps the SSD is number two and power supply is number three. DAC number four? RAM and cabling number five.

I am guessing now!
To what extent do you think the rating is dependent on the number of different types of each component that has been tested? (For some component perhaps no really bad types has been selected and tested (yet) and it may appear less critical?)
But I got the feeling you have been very thorough in the evaluations so that you have covered many principally different types?
It's certainly possible that my guessed rating depends on how many variations were tested. I haven't tested many cables or RAM modules, mainly because they don't seem to have the same impact as motherboard or SSD.

The casing is also difficult to rate, as I've built most of them myself and don't know how a really bad case might impact performance.
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Re: General discussion about HAKAI (Split from original thread)

Post by Lego »

lejonklou wrote:
matthias wrote:Is there a hierarchy for the components of HAKAI to observe?

Matt
Yes, but I'm not fully confident in defining it.

As have been mentioned, the motherboard sets the standard and might be number one. Perhaps the SSD is number two and power supply is number three. DAC number four? RAM and cabling number five.

I am guessing now!
And where you think a Hakai Nas stands in all of this Fredrik ?
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Re: General discussion about HAKAI (Split from original thread)

Post by lejonklou »

Lego wrote:
lejonklou wrote:
matthias wrote:Is there a hierarchy for the components of HAKAI to observe?

Matt
Yes, but I'm not fully confident in defining it.

As have been mentioned, the motherboard sets the standard and might be number one. Perhaps the SSD is number two and power supply is number three. DAC number four? RAM and cabling number five.

I am guessing now!
And where you think a Hakai Nas stands in all of this Fredrik ?
That we have yet to find out.
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Re: General discussion about HAKAI (Split from original thread)

Post by Lemmy »

I too got my Hakai up and running last night. All in all it went very well, installation of Volumio was a breeze following Azazellos instructions.
A couple of reflections so far:
1. It’s really good! I have only been able to play when the rest of the house is sleeping (ie low volume), but it’s easy to tell that the value for money is amazing.
2. Volumio is buggy. I can’t even step to the next song in my playlist without the UI hanging for up to a minute. The problem exists both in the IOS app as well as the browser.

A question for the more experienced Volumio users: are there any benefits (sound-wise or other) to use the NAS media server (eg Minimserver) rather than letting Volumio take care of the streaming? It doesn’t solve the above bug, but maybe there are other benefits.
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Re: General discussion about HAKAI (Split from original thread)

Post by Lego »

Lemmy wrote:I too got my Hakai up and running last night. All in all it went very well, installation of Volumio was a breeze following Azazellos instructions.
A couple of reflections so far:
1. It’s really good! I have only been able to play when the rest of the house is sleeping (ie low volume), but it’s easy to tell that the value for money is amazing.
2. Volumio is buggy. I can’t even step to the next song in my playlist without the UI hanging for up to a minute. The problem exists both in the IOS app as well as the browser.

A question for the more experienced Volumio users: are there any benefits (sound-wise or other) to use the NAS media server (eg Minimserver) rather than letting Volumio take care of the streaming? It doesn’t solve the above bug, but maybe there are other benefits.
What do you mean by Volumio taking care of the streaming, do you mean as a server?I know that volumio can act as a server but that would mean installing it on a Nas
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Re: General discussion about HAKAI (Split from original thread)

Post by Lemmy »

Lego wrote: What do you mean by Volumio taking care of the streaming, do you mean as a server?I know that volumio can act as a server but that would mean installing it on a Nas
As far as I understand, I don't have to have Minimserver running on my Nas for Volumio to work. That's why I had to specify IP address (and the shared folders) of the Nas in Volumio settings during installation.

When I browse for music, I can either browse Media Servers (ie Minimserver) or Artists, Albums etc (internal Volumio):
https://volumio.github.io/docs/User_Man ... e_page.png
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Re: General discussion about HAKAI (Split from original thread)

Post by David Neel »

Some HAKAI clips posted in the playground...

http://www.lejonklou.com/forum/viewtopi ... start=1119
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Re: General discussion about HAKAI (Split from original thread)

Post by Lego »

Lemmy wrote:
Lego wrote: What do you mean by Volumio taking care of the streaming, do you mean as a server?I know that volumio can act as a server but that would mean installing it on a Nas
As far as I understand, I don't have to have Minimserver running on my Nas for Volumio to work. That's why I had to specify IP address (and the shared folders) of the Nas in Volumio settings during installation.

When I browse for music, I can either browse Media Servers (ie Minimserver) or Artists, Albums etc (internal Volumio):
https://volumio.github.io/docs/User_Man ... e_page.png
Ok I get you now ,but surely there's a server on the Nas ..no?
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Re: General discussion about HAKAI (Split from original thread)

Post by teatime »

I hadn't really visited the forum for a few weeks.. only to come back a find a whole new section! Interesting development! If a motherboard can be found that is actually available, I might well be tempted to give this a try! :)

One thing I don't understand at all though.. Unless I'm misunderstanding the recommendations, the Intel SSD is important for HAKAI performance, even when it is only used as a streamer, not a NAS.

Is this correct? How can this be? Post boot, I would expect the disk to do essentially nothing, when HAKAI is a network streamer.
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Re: General discussion about HAKAI (Split from original thread)

Post by Lemmy »

Lego wrote: Ok I get you now ,but surely there's a server on the Nas ..no?
No, currently there’s no media server running on my Nas, Volumio finds the music via the shared folders.
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Re: General discussion about HAKAI (Split from original thread)

Post by Lego »

Lemmy wrote:
Lego wrote: Ok I get you now ,but surely there's a server on the Nas ..no?
No, currently there’s no media server running on my Nas, Volumio finds the music via the shared folders.
ok I understand now, many thanks
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Re: General discussion about HAKAI (Split from original thread)

Post by Azazello »

I've had too much other things to do for the last couple of weeks, so I havent been contributing here a lot.

But I thought it would be good to share with you that I've had quite substantial problems with performance variation in my HAKAI. Some days it has actually been quite bad. I've tried to reinstall volumio on the 320 and accidentally ended up with a new version of Volumio *sigh* making things even more complicated. I haven't really felt anything has helped, but now its good again. Really really good.

Just so that I have said it. Now back to hating computers...
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Re: General discussion about HAKAI (Split from original thread)

Post by ThomasOK »

Azazello, are you sure you don’t want to resuscitate your LP12? With mine I just set the stylus in the groove and I get music every time. :-)
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Re: General discussion about HAKAI (Split from original thread)

Post by Lego »

Azazello wrote:I've had too much other things to do for the last couple of weeks, so I havent been contributing here a lot.

But I thought it would be good to share with you that I've had quite substantial problems with performance variation in my HAKAI. Some days it has actually been quite bad. I've tried to reinstall volumio on the 320 and accidentally ended up with a new version of Volumio *sigh* making things even more complicated. I haven't really felt anything has helped, but now its good again. Really really good.

Just so that I have said it. Now back to hating computers...
What issues did you have before reinstalling and after reinstalling and how did you resolve everything?
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Re: General discussion about HAKAI (Split from original thread)

Post by Azazello »

ThomasOK wrote:Azazello, are you sure you don’t want to resuscitate your LP12? With mine I just set the stylus in the groove and I get music every time. :-)
I've had quite a lot of problems with my LP12 as well, so I don't have the same warms feelings you seem to have for it ;)
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Re: General discussion about HAKAI (Split from original thread)

Post by matthias »

Has someone compared HAKAI to a similar priced reference like a Sonore Ultrarendu with a good power supply?

https://www.vortexbox.co.uk/Sonore_Ultr ... 31218.aspx

Thanks

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Re: General discussion about HAKAI (Split from original thread)

Post by Lego »

matthias wrote:Has someone compared HAKAI to a similar priced reference like a Sonore Ultrarendu with a good power supply?

https://www.vortexbox.co.uk/Sonore_Ultr ... 31218.aspx

Thanks

Matt
That's very interesting Matthias, have you heard the Sonore ? Though I bet the cost of parts in the above is a lot less than 600 Euros
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Re: General discussion about HAKAI (Split from original thread)

Post by lejonklou »

matthias wrote:Has someone compared HAKAI to a similar priced reference like a Sonore Ultrarendu with a good power supply?

https://www.vortexbox.co.uk/Sonore_Ultr ... 31218.aspx
The main problem is that there are no good off the shelf single voltage power supplies.

I've tried a bunch of main boards that require a single voltage input only, and none of them have been any good without an excessive rebuild of both power supply and main board.
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Re: General discussion about HAKAI (Split from original thread)

Post by matthias »

Lego wrote:That's very interesting Matthias, have you heard the Sonore ? Though I bet the cost of parts in the above is a lot less than 600 Euros
Agree regarding the cost of parts but it is maybe an alternative for people like me who are not very experienced in building a computer.
Sonore is a small manufacturer which sells directly without a dealer network so a little bit difficult to get an audition. So far there is good feedback from show reports and reviews and a few clips on youtube.

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Re: General discussion about HAKAI (Split from original thread)

Post by matthias »

lejonklou wrote: The main problem is that there are no good off the shelf single voltage power supplies.
In this case I would build my own with diy parts.
Sorry for two OT posts.

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Re: General discussion about HAKAI (Split from original thread)

Post by lejonklou »

matthias wrote:
lejonklou wrote: The main problem is that there are no good off the shelf single voltage power supplies.
In this case I would build my own with diy parts.
Good luck with that.
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Re: General discussion about HAKAI (Split from original thread)

Post by Lego »

matthias wrote:
Lego wrote:That's very interesting Matthias, have you heard the Sonore ? Though I bet the cost of parts in the above is a lot less than 600 Euros
Agree regarding the cost of parts but it is maybe an alternative for people like me who are not very experienced in building a computer.
Sonore is a small manufacturer which sells directly without a dealer network so a little bit difficult to get an audition. So far there is good feedback from show reports and reviews and a few clips on youtube.

Matt
It's just plugging in a few components, it's an opportunity not to be missed Matthias, go on youtube and watch a few tutorials and just do it.

Or you could buy the components and pay someone 5000 euros to do the build for you as that's the level of performance the Hakai is at.

Here's an example of what skills are required

https://youtu.be/dlDoPg4VRzI?t=612 turn the volume down to zero
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Re: General discussion about HAKAI (Split from original thread)

Post by Sopper »

Has anyone managed to run HAKAI (exact build as described and with ESI dac) and Volumio stable?

Mine is only running stable with music from usb HDD and Rigelian Control point app.
Everything else fails after 1,2 or 3 songs, or when switching albums, adding to playlist, etc. etc.
This is the case with media servers running on laptop, with Kazoo app, with LUMIN app, with web-ui and Volumio app...

Cannot PinPoint the cause...

I can listen for hours without problems from usb HDD with rigelian app, so it just can’t be the ESI dac causing the problems. Or am I missing something here?
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Re: General discussion about HAKAI (Split from original thread)

Post by David Neel »

Maybe I'm lucky, but I find Volumio stable in use. My Hakai is exactly as per specification, and all the music is on a LSNAS, with either laptop or tablet as Volumio control points.
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Re: General discussion about HAKAI (Split from original thread)

Post by flojo »

Same here. Running HAKAI as per spec, using a LSNAS for music storage. Control points: Kazoo and/or Lumin. No problems sofar.
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