HQ Player

[ted_b]

What's that optical isolation tweak?

I'm using a sOtm sms100 as a NAA.

 

Probably start here at Edward's post: http://www.computeraudiophile.com/f22-networking-networked-audio-and-streaming/network-isolation-4265/index7.html#post401825

[ted_b]

I am a long time exaSound owner (and reviewer) and now have George's e12 for review, so I mentioned elsewhere that it gave me the opportunity to try HQPlayer again (after a long hiatus) and to disassemble my Jplay dual pc setup temporarily.

 

I am using the more powerful of the two (i7, WS2012, AO) and it is the one with the JCAT USB card, etc. I have bugged Jussi quite a bit with semi-newbie questions (stuff I forgot or that changed since trying it a year ago...I told Geoffrey in the Tidal thread that I wasn't a newbie, but finding that I am sorry). I thought it would make sense to ask some questions here, to give him a break and open it up to other exaSound users.

 

1) I have found that I often enjoy 352k or 384k PCM upsampling of redbook and other PCM, rather than DSD upconverting. Any other exaSound users agree? and is exact multiple upsampling important in HQP (i.e 352k for 44k) or is it better to send 48k-based-upsamples across USB anyway (Miska says earlier that USB likes 48k math)?

 

2) If I check the "direct SDM": checkbox for all DSD recordings it uses the set default filter and modulator, right? And is this considered better for chipsets like the exaSound's SABRE, rather than upsampling to, say, DSD256 using ASDM7, for example? Seems, theoretically, like upsampling all DSD to DSD256 is pushing the chipset capability?

 

3) Since I use the wonderful JCAT USB card what is the advantage of going to an NAA (which likely, if lightweight linux box, has no room or capability for that card...therefore using some cheap USB stock output)?

 

4) Do other folks find that, when choosing a full album of more than 10 songs, it is in 1,10,11,12,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9 order?

 

I tried to do a search on these questions but no real results, so I apologize if these have been answered before. Simply point me there, if so. Thx

[ted_b]

Follow up to my questions two post up:

5) Since I have a WS2012 AO pc (i7, CAPS Zuma basically) my experimentation with something like Primo RAMDISK will cost me $119 (after trial) since it looks like the only edition for WS2012 is the server edition (business copy). Argh! So...of 16GB how much should I make RAMDISK if all that is going in there is HQP (and do I simply move/put the entire HQP install folder in there or do I re-install to it somehow). I play some large files (although atypical I have one DSD256 stereo track that is over 4GB). I realize I need to name it drive R and call it RAMDISK but that's about the extent of my knowledge on this tweak.

[ted_b]

Jud, I am a ramdisk newbie of sorts. How does one put music in a ramdisk, and should I put the HQP executable in R, or the whole folder? if there are instructions (I only found out about "R" and "RAMDISK" from searching. It's not in Geoffrey's or Jussi's manuals) I'd love to know.

[ted_b]

Just the executable should do it.

You just copy the music you want to listen to into the RAMDISK as you would copy it to any other drive.

.

 

Well i don't copy music to any drive. I have 14tb of music on my Synology NAS. Its quite a usability change to go from things like jRemote to HQP. Im not excited to then manipulate and copy playlists etc. I'll pass on ramdisk for music, thanks. ?

[ted_b]

Did you read that folder into library using File | Library? Or did you use drag&drop? Are the files tagged?

 

I over-reacted, sorry. I am very anal about tagging, what with my NativeDSD role, as well as my JRiver tips and techniques, etc. This was simply one DSD128 album (Eric Bibb- A Selection of Analog) that was mucked up tag-wise, not HQP's fault. So.....nevermind. Thanks.

 

Thanks to you guys for all the answers. Tonight I try a couple things, including 12.2Mhz, etc.

[ted_b]

Well, I installed Primo ramdisk. But I have little faith. First off, I asked if moving the HQP exe file was all that was needed, and that was confirmed. Nope, doesn't work! Looking for DLLs, etc. So I deleted my regular copy of HQP and installed 37 again, this time to RAMDISK (drive R, 2GB for now). However, there are a boatload of ramdisk settings as I installed it, with zero ideas of what are the right settings for this use (substances slider with memory vs drive, type of drive, cluster size, images yes/no, etc etc). So HQP now resides in drive R. What happens when I play music that is larger than the ramdisk size, or is that even relevant?

 

Update: upsampling dsd64 to 12.28Mhz has tons of drop outs. Not sure it is the result of ramdisk or sample rate. I redid ramdisk to 6gb and rebooted and reinstalled hqp. No better. Halving it to DSD128 48hz is fine for now.

[ted_b]

My ramdisk experiment is over. The sound was strident, flat, artificial sounding, with one note bass. That is oversimplified but not worth the effort on my system. YMMV, obviously.

[ted_b]

Never implied it would work better, just sound bettr. It hiccupped for the first time in my HQP user history, using ramdisk, so i naturally looked at ramdisk as a possible culprit. Period. Btw, Most said do ramdisk on hqp at least. I have no interest in loading music into a ramdisk, thanks.

[ted_b]

I like to use 12.288 MHz DSD256 with my e28 with poly-sinc-short-mp-2s, but this is certainly area of personal preference.

 

When Direct SDM is checked, all DSD sources are passed through bit-perfect without any processing.

 

When not checked, DSD sources are always processed and re-modulated using the specified modulator. Note that also the Integrator-setting in DSDIFF/DSF Settings has effect..

 

So does this mean you use 12.2mhz even for dsd stuff or do you have direct sdm checked? And what is integrator setting for, only pcm to dsd or any dsd (if direct sdm is not checked)?

[ted_b]

Dropouts were not the reason it sounded bad. I am differentiating audio dropouts from strident flat soundstage. Two different issues. I fixed the dropouts by changing the upsampling to either 44k-based dsd256 or going to 6.1mhz (48k based dsd128)

[ted_b]

Miska,

I wasn't asking what direct SDM does, I was asking if YOU use it, or do you upsample EVERYTHING (including DSD64) to 12.2 on exaSound?

[ted_b]

RAMdisk is no more or less than getting the OS to treat a segment of RAM as a drive. With an app, the executable is read into RAM anyway when the program is run.

 

Then explain why so many here insist on putting HQP into drive R:RAMDISK?

[ted_b]

Perhaps someone can help. I'm running HQplayer on a new Mac Mini, upsampling to PCM 196 as that's the highest my Arcam will go. I wanted to try the NAA route. I set up an old netbook with Debian Gnome i386 build. I installed networkaudiod, and after some fiddling got it to work. It seemed like a big improvement. Then I fiddled some more and it no longer works. :-(

 

I reinstalled Debian, installed all ALSA components, but now I get "ALSA backend uninitialized" message. Oddly, this does not occur on the wireless setting, but when I switch to the ehternet connection that's what it says. I'm annoyed because it WAS working! Can someone suggest a step I may have forgotten?

 

Zack, you may get more traction over on the NAA thread here:

http://www.computeraudiophile.com/f22-networking-networked-audio-and-streaming/hqplayers-network-audio-adapter-13892/

[ted_b]

Thanks for the various answers! I still have two big questions I would love to get an answer to: 1) What touch screen gui do you use for ipad control of HQ player? and 2) which software would be the easiest way to automatically tag all my music files which soon will be in AIFF and DFF files....I would very much like to be able to control the system from an ipad with all the album displayed whether they are in the AIFF and DFF format....Thanks in advance!

I use Microsofts Remote Desktop app to use HQplayer on my iPad. Works great.

 

Do not use DFF if you want tagged albums and tracks. DFF carries no metadata capability, and there is no reason to use it; use DSF instead.

[ted_b]

Wow! The sound quality of HQPlayer is unbelievable...almost brought tears to my eyes. Recordings I have heard a millions times have never sounded so good. There was no A-B'ing needed. The improvement was readily apparent.

 

Now, if only I can get a few things worked out. I listen to both PCM files and DSD (via DoP). PCM works great, but I can't seem to get my DoP files to work. I've gone through as many threads on HQPlayer as I can find, but most seem to reference playing native DSD file (DFF). Is it possible to play DoP files using HQPlayer?

 

Also, when I change settings, my music queue goes away. Is this normal behavior?

 

Thank you. Hammer

 

Hammer, go back to your DAC driver settings in HQPlayer settings menu and pick DoP (file -> settings -> SDM pack). It will ask you if you truly have a DoP acapbale dac, and answer yes. Then when you pick SDM(DSD) in the playback menu (the pulldown on the main screen, right under the big volume wheel..says either PCM or SDM) you have DSD playback via DoP.

 

Yes, a quirk in HQPlayer currently (hope it's fixed soon) is that the playlist goes away for many many reasons, the least of which is simply looking at your own settings. Due to the great sq I can live with that for awhile.

[ted_b]

Jabbr, great point. I may have misread his intent. DoP files (encapsulated FLAC) are over-engineered containerized files to allow for Dop passthrough on things like Squeeboxes, etc. No need to do that AT ALL. Just play the original DSF files.

[ted_b]

I can confirm that getting "DAC Bits" set right is a sonic revaluation in that it allows the best of HQP's dither options to shine. With the XMOS-based WaveIO USB>I2S converter feeding my NOS PCM1704K DAC board, setting DAC Bits to 24 changed my world at the end of 2014.

 

So, what is the best DAC bits setting for an exaSound USB input...32 bits? I have it set to "default" right now.

[ted_b]

Me thinks a new user manual section needs to be written, with these settings prerequisites/relationships spelled out. There are several (but not infinite) combinations. I ran a test sweep and had my acoustics guru, Jeff Hedback, make me a 72hz scalpel eq IR file for the convolver. I was a bit confused as to when it was in effect, as I could hear it during certain setups but assumed it was off based on if-then-else logic posted here. I was wrong in my logic (but right in my ears...good news I guess ).

[ted_b]

Bogi, I am under the impression that checking DirectSDM is irrelevant to any PCM sources, whether upsampling in PCM or converting to SDM/DSD. DirectSDM is ONLY a setting for DSD-based material/sources. When DirectSDM is checked, DSD-based sources are left alone and played back without any processing whatsoever. Period. The checkbox is irrelevant for PCM anything. Correct? (I could easily be wrong )

[ted_b]

Bogi, now I understand. Thanks. I will have to check that myself on my copy. Sorry for the further confusion.

[ted_b]

So, I have a question about conventional wisdom on upsampling:

Now that I have a tool like HQplayer that allows incredible flexibility to get upsampling right, I wondered about what HQplayer users (esp Jussi) use as telltale signs that a certain sample rate is the target for upsampling. Is it always the choice to first simply go to the max rate of the DAC, and if DSD-capable simply the max DSD bit rate? What about the idea that max is usually never a good goal in anything audio...wouldn't max (as a standard) always involve the risk of "outside of spec" kinds of problems, pushing the limits? Is max always the sweetspot or do folks listen for something special (pace, timbre, noise) to assign targets?

[ted_b]

Hello!

 

I am working at a project that does a similar thing like HQplayer, but with a different algorithm for resampling, it contains an algorithm for transient recovery, and a very different, intuitive and elegant user interface!

 

I invite you to my project's page!

 

http://www.computeraudiophile.com/f11-software/i-am-building-ideal-free-music-playback-software-24373/#post423098

 

Seriously? Let's keep discussing this thread's subject.

[ted_b]

 

There are two options with a particular DAC to figure out what is the sweet spot; listening and measuring...

 

So, for any particular DAC (exaSound, Mytek, Chord, etc) , have you measured, so we can jump ahead and just listen?

[ted_b]

Jussi, is an SACD ISO capability (or allowance for some sort of ISO reader on the front end) anywhere in your to-do list? I know that you likely have other priorities, as HQPlayer traction seems at its highest right now.....just wondering what is on your to-do list to attract even more interest. SACD ISOs is a big one for me and others who have ping'd me. Regardless, great job.