HQ Player

[lmitche]

Yes, I have a list of steps to optimize Win10. I'm currently on my phone and will post the details in the am.

[sig8]

I installed Win 10 on two computers, named HQPC and NAA, installed HQ Player on HQPC, DAC ASIO drivers on NAA. I cannot see anything under devices on HQPC when I go under settings. Backend is selected NetworkAudioAdapter. I think some kind of networking issue. Both machines are part of Workgroup. Someone said should be part of same domain, I thought you needed some kind of domain controller to do that. I can see both machines from each other. I can remote-in to them. I do not know what is going on. Let me know please. Thanks.

[jabbr]

I installed Win 10 on two computers, named HQPC and NAA, installed HQ Player on HQPC, DAC ASIO drivers on NAA. I cannot see anything under devices on HQPC when I go under settings. Backend is selected NetworkAudioAdapter. I think some kind of networking issue. Both machines are part of Workgroup. Someone said should be part of same domain, I thought you needed some kind of domain controller to do that. I can see both machines from each other. I can remote-in to them. I do not know what is going on. Let me know please. Thanks.

 

Try:

 

1. quit HQPlayer

2. unplug and replug DAC

3. reboot NAA

4. restart HQPlayer

[EuroDriver]

bogi

 

Trebles became more smooth, air became clearer, more natural.

 

+1

 

i would add that the sound of the instruments and voices became fuller and richer. Especially very noticeable on both acoustic and electric guitar, you almost jump out of your skin

 

out of about 40 people who heard HQP with Realtime priority at our stand in Munich, only one person preferred Normal over Realtime.

 

Between Silvio Peira, Geoffrey Armstrong and myself, we had heard quite a few systems, and we have never heard a sound as good as this anywhere digital or analog

 

(it's 5 am in morning, I just woke up, still on Munich adrenalin)

[EuroDriver]

signature8

 

Try:

 

1. quit HQPlayer

2. unplug and replug DAC

3. reboot NAA

4. restart HQPlayer

 

watch the command window on the NAA machine, you should be able to see the NAA announcing the properties of the DAC when it sees the HQ Player Desktop machine

 

where is the DHCP residing on your LAN, and what sort of router, / box / access point ?

[Chodi]

+1

 

i would add that the sound of the instruments and voices became fuller and richer. Especially very noticeable on both acoustic and electric guitar, you almost jump out of your skin

 

out of about 40 people who heard HQP with Realtime priority at our stand in Munich, only one person preferred Normal over Realtime.

 

Between Silvio Peira, Geoffrey Armstrong and myself, we had heard quite a few systems, and we have never heard a sound as good as this anywhere digital or analog

 

(it's 5 am in morning, I just woke up, still on Munich adrenalin)

 

No argument about your findings but if you plan to use your computer for anything other than HQP Realtime will create problems. I set mine to High instead of Realtime and get most of the benefits without borking my computer. Just as a side note, for anyone who uses or has tried Fidelizer with HQP you are already doing that as the program launches set in High priority. I believe that is where much of the benefit of Fidelizer comes from. It also saves you the trouble of manually killing unnecessary windows processes. It does that for you. If you try it I would not recommend Extreme mode. Audiophile mode does most of what you need with one click.

[ted_b]

I installed Win 10 on two computers, named HQPC and NAA, installed HQ Player on HQPC, DAC ASIO drivers on NAA. I cannot see anything under devices on HQPC when I go under settings. Backend is selected NetworkAudioAdapter. I think some kind of networking issue. Both machines are part of Workgroup. Someone said should be part of same domain, I thought you needed some kind of domain controller to do that. I can see both machines from each other. I can remote-in to them. I do not know what is going on. Let me know please. Thanks.

 

I don't see a step where you install the NAA daemon (networkaudiod.exe) on the NAA.

[ted_b]

Back to our regular program in a minute, but just had to interject something:

I just got out of a wonderfully musical hour+ of listening to two of my new SACD rips (Roxy Music Stranded and Roxy Music For Your Pleasure...thanks PS), two SHM analog-to-DSD transfers, played back at convolved DSD64 to DSD256 (11.2Mhz). WOW! An amazingly musical and time-machine experience. It was a massive reminder of why we do this stuff.

 

Thanks Jussi and the HQplayer gang here.

 

Hijack over.

[bogi]

we have never heard a sound as good as this anywhere digital or analog

 

That's also my experience on my headphone setup. The things I changed in the last weeks:

- Softperfect RAM disk for actually played tracks as well as HQPlayer program folder

- I am using [x] Pipeline SDM setting with my i5 based notebook

- [x] DirectSDM sounds me better enabled than disabled. There is some audible difference in processing when doing PCM to DSD if DirectSDM is enabled vs. disabled, although Miska refused that.

- Based on Chodi's post I tried Fidelizer in the free Workstation mode. My notebook runs as before and the changes should not be permanent, reboot should return settings back.

- Priority Normal vs Realtime is interesting thing too, but Realtime is applicable only when I'm doing nothing other on my notebook than listening music.

 

Alltogether these things, made for free, bring me clear improvement and I can also say I never heard PCM recordings to sound so naturally. These changes are addition to my previous small and cheap set of improvements http://www.computeraudiophile.com/f11-software/hq-player-20293/index84.html#post425973

 

For improved headphone listening, I am enjoying Foobar's Meier crossfeed DSP plugin with PCM recordings, converted in HQPlayer to DSD128. Better, more natural positioning of instruments leads to better focused, more concrete sound of instruments. Many 24/96 and 24/192 recordings sound on headphones very well this way. I am now missing the same effect in the case of DSD recordings.

[Hammer]

It could be a firewall issue. At the suggestion of this board, I allowed networkaudiod.exe in my firewall settings and it now works for me. Previously, I had the same issue where HQPlayer did not list my DAC which was connected to the NAA machine.

[Le Concombre Masqué]

the trick works for me too : Isaac Hayes got tighter and more focused and I cranked the volume while he was inviting Dylan's Lady to lay Lady lay (RB to DSD 128)...

Miska once showed graphs to prove me wrong but I still wonder if each and every path inside HQP is Absolute Polarity kosher... that what be my hypothesis...

 

if by chance I get Miska's attention : how about my previous post and a way to implement a buffer in OS X (to avoid stutter dropouts what have you) by empowering NAA on the Desktop machine ?

 

- [x] DirectSDM sounds me better enabled than disabled. There is some audible difference in processing when doing PCM to DSD if DirectSDM is enabled vs. disabled, although Miska refused that.

[Miska]

if by chance I get Miska's attention : how about my previous post and a way to implement a buffer in OS X (to avoid stutter dropouts what have you) by empowering NAA on the Desktop machine ?

 

You can run networkaudiod on the same machine too, if you like. You'll get some extra buffer for the playback this way. The network communication between the two is sort of unnecessary extra in this case, compared to just running HQPlayer Desktop alone.

 

Regarding the DirectSDM setting, I've checked my code couple of times. During processing, it is only considered in DSD -> DSD case.

[wisnon]

Back to our regular program in a minute, but just had to interject something:

I just got out of a wonderfully musical hour+ of listening to two of my new SACD rips (Roxy Music Stranded and Roxy Music For Your Pleasure...thanks PS), two SHM analog-to-DSD transfers, played back at convolved DSD64 to DSD256 (11.2Mhz). WOW! An amazingly musical and time-machine experience. It was a massive reminder of why we do this stuff.

 

Thanks Jussi and the HQplayer gang here.

 

Hijack over.

 

Good hijack Ted.

 

I can only imagine hyow good it will sound when you deploy the full arsenal with AO style Win10 and Regen upconverting with HQP. I know your server is already tricked out.

 

Please be kind enough to do a Win10 conversion tutorial, as you are great at making those.

[One and a half]

JS-2 is dual power but one ground, so make sure the other side is not connected. The JS-2 is great but, like some other dual power supplies, is best when powering two pieces of same equipment that shares ground (SSD and mobo of pc, for example). Connecting it to something and the exaSound defeats exaSound isolation, among other things. I'm sure the Regen then helps but.....

 

The connections at the back of a pre-amp have all the outside shells of the RCA joined to the one plane. If all the inputs were floating, then the chance of hum and noise increases, since the 0V (the shells) are not tied together.

 

In the case of the JS-2 example above, the 0V is the same for both outputs. The current for each device that's connected flows back to the same 0V. Like the pre-amp there's a common reference, otherwise noise and hum *increase* if the 0V was at some other potential.

 

It is quite OK (and preferred) to connect the Exasound or any DAC's DC power input for that matter plus the regen to the JS-2 at the same time. If there is noise, and we can't discount this altogether, the source of the power supply is the same and the noise winds up in the low impedance trap of the JS-2 (usually the DC bus caps), where we want it to be.

 

There's no defeating the isolation properties of the Exasound at all, it doesn't care, since Exasound have taken on the (correct) assumption that any USB signal is rubbish quality, and offer corrective actions for it in the DAC for processing.

[sig8]

I don't see a step where you install the NAA daemon (networkaudiod.exe) on the NAA.

No I did not. I asked few posts back and was told only Win 10, and ASIO driver is required on NAA. Where do I find networkaudiod.exe? Thanks.

[bogi]

No I did not. I asked few posts back and was told only Win 10, and ASIO driver is required on NAA. Where do I find networkaudiod.exe? Thanks.

 

Scroll quite down on the page Signalyst

[4est]

Miska:I am having a similar issue- cracks/glitches every 30 seconds or so randomly with an Amanero. I have tried to access the ASIO pull down, but nothing appears. Does the Amanero have ASIO parameters accessible? I have set buffer to 100ms and turned off DoP under the Setting window.

If your audio device is USB and you are using WASAPI backend, change "Buffer time" setting to 100 ms. The OS default 10 ms is a bit too short with USB for many computers.

 

If you are using ASIO backend, try increasing buffer size from the ASIO driver's control panel which you can open from the Tools-menu.

[Chodi]

Miska:I am having a similar issue- cracks/glitches every 30 seconds or so randomly with an Amanero. I have tried to access the ASIO pull down, but nothing appears. Does the Amanero have ASIO parameters accessible? I have set buffer to 100ms and turned off DoP under the Setting window.

 

My dac has Amanero usb and no it does not have an Amanero control panel. If you post a screenshot of your HQP settings it might be easier to track the problem.

 

In my case I had faint clicks which was caused by my wireless router being too close. Sounds like your problem may be different.

[AnotherSpin]

Regarding the DirectSDM setting, I've checked my code couple of times. During processing, it is only considered in DSD -> DSD case.

I guess something wrong with ears of one guy from France, one from Slovakia, and one from Ukraine... Sure, ears can not read code

 

Now, that's funny. A day or two ago I was asked is it possible to make buffer setting available again in Mac OS version. Meanwhile, I run HQPlayer old version (it was 3.6.0, I keep some in archive), which has ability to access buffer setting, and changed it to 100 ms. Then I returned to most recent version, 3.7.1. After opening preferences I found out buffer was set to 100 ms, grayed...

[bogi]

Maybe you have now mixed older and newer libraries.

[Le Concombre Masqué]

yes but it only says so, does not do so

I guess something wrong with ears of one guy from France, one from Slovakia, and one from Ukraine... Sure, ears can not read code

 

Now, that's funny. A day or two ago I was asked is it possible to make buffer setting available again in Mac OS version. Meanwhile, I run HQPlayer old version (it was 3.6.0, I keep some in archive), which has ability to access buffer setting, and changed it to 100 ms. Then I returned to most recent version, 3.7.1. After opening preferences I found out buffer was set to 100 ms, grayed...

[lmitche]

As promised.

 

Warning: - Do this only if you are dedicating your machine to playing audio. We are going to be disabling the general purpose functions of Microsoft Windows in an effort to make your machine a dedicated realtime audio player.

 

Tuning the Win10 10041 preview for realtime audio takes time. Here is what I do:

 

- During Windows installation take the custom route and disable all options except for driver downloads.

- Make a restore point immediately after installation.

- Enable Remote Desktop sharing if you need remote access.

- Turn off all firewalls and malware protection from the control panels.

- Download and use the Microsoft autoruns tool to unload all startup programs and unused drivers. There are many. Makes sure you load the NIC driver.

- If you have 2 NICs, setup network bridging across both NICs and set a static IP address. This eliminates the need for a noisy network switch.

- Disable all offload settings on the NICs, except IP and TCP checksum offloads. Set transmit buffers to 128.

- Make a restore point

- Disable all unused and unnecessary devices using device managers 'show by connection' view. This is dangerous, and why we made a restore point. Running minimserver, I disable as many devices as possible, the HD audio drivers, unused PCIE buses, serial ports . . . etc. Audiophil documents this procedure in the AO installation guide.

- Make a restore point

- There are many standard and non-standard loggers running in the WIN10 release. I turn off all WMI logging using Computer Management/Systemtools/Performance/Data Collector Sets/Startup Event Traces/ including and espcially ReadyBoot.

 

The Win10 preview runs a keylogger, that can be disabled using the script below in the command line with admin privileges:

 

sc delete dmwappushsvc

sc delete "Diagnostics Tracking Service"

cd C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Diagnosis\ETLLogs\AutoLogger

echo "" > AutoLogger-Diagtrack-Listener.etl

cacls AutoLogger-Diagtrack-Listener.etl /d SYSTEM

 

- Start eliminating services, first stopping them from services manager, testing, and later by disabling them in service manager. Screenshots of the remaining and disabled services on my machine are below. Note - Leave the Windows Management Instrumentation service running if you use HQplayer.

 

Once done with the above steps your machine will boot into the normal Windows desktop. Once there I go into the Task Manager Details tab and manually kill the following processes:

 

Explorer

WSHOST

and All Brokers

 

This last step is optional.

 

In the end, there are 25 processes running with 26 services, see below. Using the task manager run tab to browse to your music player and start it running. Once done, go to the task manager details tab, right click and assign process priority. My suggestion is to use realtime priortity for your player. When I forget to change the priority, I can immediately hear the degradation in SQ.

 

This config has been tested with Minimserver and HQPlayer only. With other players YMMV.

 

The SQ with this configuration is incredible. Some of this maybe overkill and controversial. Also, I am sure much more can be done, but this is a good start.

 

My hope is that someone, will automate this process for Win10. Hint, Hint . Rest assured, it won't be me.

 

Enjoy,

 

Larry

[Le Concombre Masqué]

how do I do that ? of course I tried ; I asked for I failed : NAA does not see the DAC

You can run networkaudiod on the same machine too, if you like. You'll get some extra buffer for the playback this way. The network communication between the two is sort of unnecessary extra in this case, compared to just running HQPlayer Desktop alone.

 

Regarding the DirectSDM setting, I've checked my code couple of times. During processing, it is only considered in DSD -> DSD case.

[shadowlight]

No I did not. I asked few posts back and was told only Win 10, and ASIO driver is required on NAA. Where do I find networkaudiod.exe? Thanks.

 

Sorry, I assumed that it was a given to install NAA.

[Lionelh2]

Larry,

 

This Win10 work you have done is quite impressive.

 

My question is: will it have a significant positive impact in a NAA setup? I just got my SMS-100 and it really blew me away over the OSX Mac Mini NAA configuration I had previously.

 

Would a Win10 setup on the player side only be worth the effort?