HQ Player

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Thank you, Miska, for sharing beta Mac desktop version - I am very much impressed with the sound.

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WARNING: (And I mean it) - do not ever buy HQP license - this player is seduction, you will find yourself listening to your favourite albums much more often than your day time schedule permits. You've been warned...

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Miska, cover art is not displayed right if other windows content is too long.

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I will fix this for the next release...

Ok...) Maybe you can also make cover art display optional (as in Amarra)? And, thank you again - I am listening one of the best live recordings of Wagner's Siegfried right now with your player.

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<...> I am now fully convinced that HQP is the more musically truthful player. And this leaving aside the better filters of HQP as I made a lot of comparison between A+/HQP with all SRC turned off (playing both Redbook and hi-res tracks). With the same comparison earlier last month (with 3.4 beta 6) I was feeling like A+ was doing a somewhat better job "bypassing" CoreAudio and that HQP had a little bit of a "veil" to it. Maybe it is the version change or maybe I am just starting to hear and understand more, but I don't feel that way anymore. (I still wish for a XMOS compatible ASIO driver so we can use HQP with ASIO as back-end.) I do need to listen to the release versions of A+ 2.x. My last listen to any newer-gen A+ build was to the 2.x beta called 1.9.0.3.

Once I turn on HQP's Polysinc-short filter, all need for comparison (to A+) ends for me.

 

 

Fully agree. I had quite similar assessment when first tried HQP beta sometime ago. The sound was pleasant, but... "veiled". Nevertheless, something was immediately planted deeply within me, and I've been returning to HQP again and again. Its sound was strangely attractive, and, simultaneuosly, "not right" in comparison with both Amarra and A+. Now, after HQP became my reference and first choice player for many weeks, both Amarra and A+ started to sound... not right. Probably, as it was said by Alex: "maybe I am just starting to hear and understand more".

 

Well, my suggestion to those who will try HQP for the first time. Stop listening to other players, forget HOW they sound, wash you ears and purge your perception thoroughly. Listen to HQP and stay clean from ANY comparisons. Give its sound a time to grow within you. You will be glad you did.

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Maybe I can preconvert individual albums to AIFF before playing

 

That's what I do. XLD works fine, I preconvert some non-compatible file formats which I have to WAV before playing in HQP, but store them as they are. Not too simple, still better than play them without converting in A+.

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So my strategy will be to convert individual albums <...>

That's exactly what I did with Amarra and do with HQP presently. When I do not care about quality much I drag and drop any format files to A+ 1.x. When I do care, I convert individual album (if it not compatible with HQP or Amarra) before each listening and trash converted files after.

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Just upgraded OS and launched HQP. Yes, there are changes in SQ. Very first impression is good.

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I played with the filter settings until I got what matched best with my system and the results are an order of magnitude better than either of the other players. It is the most natural sound I have ever heard from digital and this is with redbook files.

Could you share your findings? Thank you.

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Here, to be specific, is the difference between Jriver and HQPlayer both set to upscale to 176K.

It was me who was not specific...) Why you choose 176K? Not 96K, or 192K, for example? What is your assessment of various filters?

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Today settings are 176400 Sample rate, NS4 Dither, minringFIR Filter, 18 Dac bits. Grateful Dead May 77 St.Louis show sounds better than any time before.

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I am on Yosemite. Drag and drop is the only way I play music files. Should I upgrade or wait?

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Tried beta on two computers, both with Yosemite.

 

1 - Y clean installed, system files and HQP only. HQP beta installed alongside registered 3.4.1 - beta operates fine, drag'n'drop works.

 

2 - Y installed over Mavericks, no previous HQP versions - run non-registered beta for trial, drag'n'drop doesn't work.

 

Hope it helps.

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Tried beta on two computers, both with Yosemite.

 

1 - Y clean installed, system files and HQP only. HQP beta installed alongside registered 3.4.1 - beta operates fine, drag'n'drop works.

 

2 - Y installed over Mavericks, no previous HQP versions - run non-registered beta for trial, drag'n'drop doesn't work.

 

Hope it helps.

 

Update: it has nothing to do with different ways of system installation. Some flacs could be added to beta's playlist by drag'n'drop, some not....

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More update: If the name of the folder contains square brackets, like this - [FLAC] - i couldn't add folder by dragging and dropping. After removing brackets from the folder name it could be added.

 

Brackets of this type { } also prevent folders from adding to playlist.

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Thanks, this is good info! I'll see if I can do something about this. I will also add some more log output about drop events so that possible misbehavior would be easier to trace...

You're welcome!

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Hi Tony,

Hope you will have a wonderful results in upgrading your system!

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thnx anotherspin...

 

I would prefer not to call it upgrading... my system is already first class imo...

expanding is more accurate here...

 

You're welcome... I was speaking about OS upgrade

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Hi to everyone, a newbie here. I am using the trial version of HQ Player before I purchase it to make sure I find it to be as great sounding in my system as other have in theirs. But I have been having a few difficulties so I need to ask for some help and guidance.

 

When I tried HQP for the first time ever I didn't notice volume control dial on the right top was in far left position - no sound at all...

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I'm getting little gaps between tracks on live albums. Is there some setting in XLD or in HQ Player that activates gapless playback in these cases? I hope I haven't been ripping improperly...

Never had an issue with live albums and HQP... Sorry to tell this, but it seem to be ripping.

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How do you rip, and with what settings?

Not sure it will help - I rip almost everything with EAC on PC, do not have CD drives on my macs.

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This happens to me too.

The same in my system after upgrade to 3.5.1, I guess.

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It is not disk drive activity either. The internal SSD is unmounted. The OS is on a SD card and HQP and the music files are on RAM disks.

 

I have occasional dropouts with the same setting. System on sd card, ssd unmounted - this is my standart setting for many months now, mac mini only for music. Dropouts started after upgrade to Yosemite OR after HQP upgrade to 3.5.x - I can not specify here. I listen PCM files. Poly-sinc shrt / NS5. Some albums plays well, some not, I can not see pattern here. My guess (only guess) is 16/44 files are ok.

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1) booting from the SSD,

I couldn't be hundred percent sure, but I think I have dropouts when booting from ssd as well. I believe dropouts caused either by Y or 3.5 upgrade. Will be very glad to hear your reports.

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Today - same dropout with A+ 1.5.10, Y on sd card. Well, it pretty surely nails dropout problem down to Y.

 

Sound is spectacular, I agree, 5 sec terrible sounding dropout during listening session is nothing to complain about. Nothing is perfect in this crazy world.