HQ Player

[woodroww]

12 hours ago, Miska said:

 

The older sacd_extract is known to set DSF sizes incorrectly, so that the tails contain unnecessary data. Which results in snap-crackle-and-pop. I don't know about the other one.

 

 

Are you able to also reproduce this with most commercially available DSD content, for example from nativedsd.com?

 

Are you playing in album mode or in playlist mode? Pop suppression algorithm in playlist mode can deal with minor pops, but not large ones.

 

Hi Miska,

 

I've used the latest version of sacd_extract that I could fine (0.3.9.3-107). The issue is less pronounced on the DSF's I purchased.

But it is still there. As I play mostly classical, solo instrumental music it is likely to be more obvious than if you play "louder" music, I think.

 

I run HQPlayer desktop on a Ubuntu 22.04 PC. I drag the directories that I want to play via the Nautilus file manager on the HQPlayer.

This then displays the files the I want to play. Is this wrong?

 

 

[Miska]

4 hours ago, woodroww said:

I run HQPlayer desktop on a Ubuntu 22.04 PC. I drag the directories that I want to play via the Nautilus file manager on the HQPlayer.

This then displays the files the I want to play. Is this wrong?

 

You are then likely playing in playlist mode.

 

You could try playing one album from HQPlayer's library in album mode and see if it makes a difference.

 

[bogi]

6 hours ago, Gato said:

So, under Windows, why are stdout and stderr always empty when, a program creates a sub-process that executes "C:\b>hqp5-control.exe --discover"?

I guess you make some programming error. Try also with some other program producing both stdout  and srderr (or write one).

 

C:\Users\bogi>python
Python 3.9.13 (tags/v3.9.13:6de2ca5, May 17 2022, 16:36:42) [MSC v.1929 64 bit (AMD64)] on win32
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.

>>> from subprocess import run

>>> import os
>>> os.chdir('c:\Program Files\Signalyst\HQPlayer 5 Desktop')
>>> os.getcwd()
'c:\\Program Files\\Signalyst\\HQPlayer 5 Desktop'
>>> run(["hqp5-control", "--discover"], capture_output=True).stdout.decode()
''
>>> run(["hqp5-control", "--discover"], capture_output=True).stderr.decode()
"[::ffff:192.168.0.26] 'md1ep5ac' - Signalyst HQPlayer Desktop 5\r\n[2a01:c844:2507:e100:90cb:9367:9dd1:cdfa] 'md1ep5ac' - Signalyst HQPlayer Desktop 5\r\n"
>>>

It's like you observed in Command Prompt...

[hykbooks]

Greetings

Can I ask for some advise about using HQplayer, can you please share best settings that I should dial in in HQP

here is my set up

1- laptop specs:
i7, 24 giga ram, windows 11

2- holo red
3- holo spring 3 connected via usb to holo red
4- roon using holo red as endpoint
 

[EMINENT]

1 hour ago, hykbooks said:

Greetings

Can I ask for some advise about using HQplayer, can you please share best settings that I should dial in in HQP

here is my set up

1- laptop specs:
i7, 24 giga ram, windows 11

2- holo red
3- holo spring 3 connected via usb to holo red
4- roon using holo red as endpoint
 

Holoe.

 

This is personal conflict one should determine for oneself.

Many preferences out there specific to their chains and rarely ever aligns. 

 

Example, I recently went through another test of 256. 

These rate combos were different from my preference at 1024. Just as last test in past and was expected. I test occasionally anytime there is a change in hardware and software.

 

If it helps, pick a modulator or dither, then try changing filters to hear the composition in full passages, not fast or you will not pick up on how transients interect with sounds, notes and spacial elements.

 

[Mops911]

20 hours ago, Fredc said:

Even if you don't lose anything, you are not gaining anything other than some disk space which is irrelevant. Why hang your hat on one article when there are so many contrary ones. 

 

this is not a question of "so many" or not ;-) it never is!!

[Mops911]

On 4/24/2024 at 11:48 AM, bogi said:

I'm not sure how much such kind of "discussion" can be helpful for you.

 

I guess I have some problems grasping the matter ... so, why do we have to have filter in the first place? honest question..

 

Is HQP using exclusively low-pass or also other filters?

 

[bogi]

6 hours ago, Mops911 said:

I guess I have some problems grasping the matter ... so, why do we have to have filter in the first place? honest question..

There are more ways how high frequency content can become audible.

In order to understand my answer and the subsequent Miska's answer you need to self study the following topics:

- sampling and spectral images

- anti aliasing requirement during downsampling

- digital filters and ringing

- intermodulation distortion

These topics still don't cover all ways how ultrasonic content can influence what we hear.

[Quadman]

@Miska I just downloaded the new HQP desktop 5.7 and one new feature is DAC specific output signal corrections!  

How does this work, I cannot find any setting for it, is it automatic based on driver selection?

 

Also one other question.  I use HQP desktop with your 6.6.16 JL+ image, with roon server; so roon to HQP and HQP PC directly to Holo May dac via USB.  At the end of an evening of listening, HQP in Ubuntu processes shows almost 8 GB of used memory (cache?), I don't remember HQP using this much cache memory before.  Is this new?  Between Roon Server and HQP my used memory at the end of an evening is 22-24GB, back when I only had 16GB ram I never went much above 8gb used.  Seems odd my memory usage is much higher now.

[Miska]

1 hour ago, Quadman said:

@Miska I just downloaded the new HQP desktop 5.7 and one new feature is DAC specific output signal corrections!  

How does this work, I cannot find any setting for it, is it automatic based on driver selection?

 

It is under matrix processor. As "post-process plugin". Although it is not really such. But I thought that this would be most convenient place to manage it. Since it allows you to create profiles with/without it, and switch those on the fly.

 

1 hour ago, Quadman said:

Also one other question.  I use HQP desktop with your 6.6.16 JL+ image, with roon server; so roon to HQP and HQP PC directly to Holo May dac via USB.  At the end of an evening of listening, HQP in Ubuntu processes shows almost 8 GB of used memory (cache?), I don't remember HQP using this much cache memory before.  Is this new?  Between Roon Server and HQP my used memory at the end of an evening is 22-24GB, back when I only had 16GB ram I never went much above 8gb used.  Seems odd my memory usage is much higher now.

 

On Linux, any memory that is not used for something else, is used at least as cache. Because it is wasted RAM if it is not used for anything. So generally the overall all the memory should get used. As more memory is used for something else, kernel shrinks the caches accordingly. I usually have swap disabled completely.

 

As I'm typing this, 9 GB out of total 64 GB is used and rest is cache. Swap usage is 0% (on this machine I have 32 GB of swap just in case). Biggest consumer is the web browser...

 

HQPlayer caches some amount of data to improve performance, so it is totally normal that your memory usage grows to some extent.

 

[Audionumber3]

So.... In order to enable the corrections, you obviously have to select your dac and click the "Enabled" to the left of that.

 

Do you also have to enable at the top of the Matrix settings checked? What other settings would you need to adjust to make sure it's working?

[Schafheide]

35 minutes ago, Audionumber3 said:

So.... In order to enable the corrections, you obviously have to select your dac and click the "Enabled" to the left of that.

 

Do you also have to enable at the top of the Matrix settings checked? What other settings would you need to adjust to make sure it's working?

Well, I found the new DAC feature.  It did detect my May, but it did allow me to easily chose my DAC from the choice of 3 Holo DAC's.  I note also that the column to the right of "Enabled" is blank (the drop-down does not work).

[Fredc]

The new DAC feature does not work for me. The DAC is set to iFi neo IDSD (my DAC is iFi Pro iDSD) and the drop down do not work for me so I cannot change. Enabling it as iFi neo iDSD causes the dsf audio to stutter and also much longer latency to start playing.

[Audionumber3]

I'm running a convolution..... So I disabled the simple convolution section, and added the convolution to the Matrix.

 

So, I enabled the matrix and made sure the post correction at the bottom was enabled too. It completely locked up my computer.... Had to actually manually turn it off.

[Mops911]

20 hours ago, bogi said:

There are more ways how high frequency content can become audible.

Yes, sure understood, but you did not answer my question...why filters?

 

if we downsample why do we need filters? Can we not just sample a 96/24 with 44/16. Does not the lower sampling rate cut off all upper frequencies?

btw: I am not disputing that the filters are one of the main points of HQP. Ok, modulators are fine too, but the filters shape the result of what we hear (yeah, its tone control but not possible to do without in the end.) Got it. Question is really why we need filters to downsample. Lets say the recording and processing is done in 96/24, and all is good. Why cant we just throw away the freq above 24khz by downsampling to 48kHz? 

[Kirbyt]

I have t+a dac 200 with corrections enabled and I believe it to be working. Can anyone (or Miska) give a brief explanation of what dac corrections are?

[Markus8]

Yes the new DAC specific output features really needs an explanation! Should it be this?

 

but I am using the Holo Audio Red as a streamer and the DAC is the Devialet 440 Pro Dual Mono which is run by a T.I 1792 DAC each. So where do I setup this correctly?

[dericchan1]

@Miska

the correction feature seems to work properly, it detects and let me choose Holo Spring/May/Cyan 2. 
I selected Cyan 2, but it takes almost 1 minute with a loading bar before getting started playback. Is this normal to take this long for hqplayer to load the correction settings?

[dericchan1]

4 hours ago, Fredc said:

The new DAC feature does not work for me. The DAC is set to iFi neo IDSD (my DAC is iFi Pro iDSD) and the drop down do not work for me so I cannot change. Enabling it as iFi neo iDSD causes the dsf audio to stutter and also much longer latency to start playing.

Same here with my ifi pro, I suppose the correction is indeed only for neo and the pro might have very different output signal…

[stefano_mbp]

3 minutes ago, dericchan1 said:

Same here with my ifi pro, I suppose the correction is indeed only for neo and the pro might have very different output signal…

Ifi Pro is not mentioned in the supported dacs

[dericchan1]

4 minutes ago, stefano_mbp said:

Ifi Pro is not mentioned in the supported dacs

Yes, just worth a shot to try since the neo was detected in the menu hahahah

[Markus8]

2 hours ago, stefano_mbp said:

Ifi Pro is not mentioned in the supported dacs

Ah I see - so some classic DAC are missing yet and will be added. Any timeline on that?

 

And regarding the correction, what correction is actually applied to the signal?

[Apollo]

7 hours ago, Kirbyt said:

I have t+a dac 200 with corrections enabled and I believe it to be working. Can anyone (or Miska) give a brief explanation of what dac corrections are?

Do  you hear any difference with correction disabled/enabled?

Dirk

[blackhawk579]

#1. I am having difficulty using DSD 512 48K (without skipping) on a Intel 14900K, 32GB, SSD w/ 4070Ti Super.  Using Holo Red (w/new Red firmware), w/May (w/latest firmware) in NOS.  Using CUDA Offload.   

 

Here are my settings (below).  Runs at 256 (shown), but skips at 512.   Any setting suggestions / tweaks / redflags are appreciated.    

 

Is IIR2 Filter with 7EC Super 512+FS heavy?  

What's odd is my processor and video card are both under 50% utilization (in windows task mgr).   Seems like I should be able to get there....  

 

#2. Anyone who has found thick and meaty (analog sounding) filters /modulator combinations outside of II2 + 7EC Super combo's...let me know.   The aforementioned is meatiest (with good detail intact) I have found yet.  

[skipspence]

18 hours ago, Miska said:

It is under matrix processor. As "post-process plugin".

Should I enable matrix processor and dac correction both, even if I don't  use any matrix presets at all, or enabling correction only is enough?

When I enable both, not using other matrix presets, it loads enormous, ie continuing dropouts at DSD512, otherwise enabling dac correction only  plays smoothly..

I'm on 13900h