HQ Player

[Hammer]

Hi, is it possible to run HQPlayer in "server" mode so that other UI programs like iPeng can control it? Thank you. Hammer

[Hammer]

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]

Yes, I do mean DoP encapsulated in FLAC since I am coming from a squeezebox/LMS/ipeng world. I can't try tonight, but will the instructions provided by Ted still work? All my DSD files are DoP encapsulated in FLAC. 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.

 

I tried the above settings, but I am just getting static. Interesting, however, that when I play the file, my DAC (Auralic Vega) will say DSD64. So, it seems like it recognizes the DoP header, but alas just static. Are there any other settings I can try? I am using the ASIO driver in Windows Server 2012R2.

 

Thanks, Hammer.

[Hammer]

Hi Hammer,

 

What settings did you use to get the tears?

 

Just the default settings at this point, but the sound quality is noticeably much improved for redbook files. It would be awesome if down the road, we can change settings on the fly to hear the differences real time. I can sort of do that on my DAC, but fumbling through the menus to get to the filter settings always takes longer than I want.

[Hammer]

I tried the above settings, but I am just getting static. Interesting, however, that when I play the file, my DAC (Auralic Vega) will say DSD64. So, it seems like it recognizes the DoP header, but alas just static. Are there any other settings I can try? I am using the ASIO driver in Windows Server 2012R2.

 

Thanks, Hammer.

 

 

Found my problem - I need to set the Pcm settings to "none." Sounds great now!

 

Is there a way to switch between playing pcm and dsd files without going back and changing the settings?

[Hammer]

On the right side of the main screen there is a box that will say pcm. Click on the little arrow and you can change to DSD,

 

I tried that at first, but it seems I also need to change the PCM filter settings to none before DSD files will play properly. What am I doing wrong?

[Hammer]

Hi, my DSD files are in DoP format. I find that if I set all the PCM settings to none and then set the drop down box under volume to dsd, then these files play fine. However, if the PCM settings are what I would like for playing PCM files like Poly-sinc, guass1, then the Dsd files do not play and I get static. Volume in hqplayer is set to max. I am using the latest driver from the auralic website (I have a vega dac). Thanks, hammer.

[Hammer]

I see. They are in DFF format. The DAC plays them fine - I also have a daphile/"Squeezebox" setup and the files play fine using that setup. Thanks. Hammer

[Hammer]

I'm on windows using ASIO. However, all my files are DFF encapsulated in FLAC / DoP and I really would like to avoid having to convert them to another format. Is there a workaround? It seems to me that HQPlayer is not recognizing the fact that these are really DFF files and so applying the PCM settings before outputting to DAC. That's why if I set the PCM settings to none, the files play fine. Having said that, I know I'm a complete newbie, but I would like to get this working since the sound from HQPlayer is so addictive! Thank you for your help.

[Hammer]

Yes, that's the file format I mean. I am coming from a squeezebox world and so all my DSD files are formatted this way.

[Hammer]

Agreed and my files play fine - it's just that I need to set all the pcm settings to none to get it to work which makes switching between pcm and dsd tough if I have both types of files in a playlist. Thank you.

[Hammer]

You should use the original DFF (DSDIFF) or DSF files instead of encapsulating DoP in a FLAC which easily results in these kind of problems...

 

Thanks. I was hoping that's not the answer as the original DFF's are all deleted. Maybe checking the headers can be a future enhancement?

[Hammer]

Hi, I am trying to run HQPlayer on my high end pc with noisy fans outside of my listening room and having that of connect to my quiet pc which is connected to my DAC using networkaudiod. However, when I select network audio in HQPlayer on my high end PC, I don't see my dac listed. The drop down box is empty. What am I doing wrong? Thank you.

[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.

[Hammer]

Hi, I am starting to play with converting redbook to DSD. I find that converting to DSD64 works great, but when I select DSD128 (5.6) as output, a lot of static comes out unless I have a song playing. In other words, when I am playing a song, it works fine, but when I press stop, the static comes out until another song is playing. This does not happen when output is DSD64 (2.8). I am using poly-sinc-mp.

 

Has anyone experienced the same thing? Any way to avoid this issue? Thank you. Hammer.

[Hammer]

?? Ummm...that's not at all what he said. He is asking why static is occurring during non-playback time when set to DSD128.

 

That's the issue...static during non-playback time when output is DSD128. No issue when it's DSD64. Anyone else have this issue?

[Hammer]

I have now made a first beta build of the upcoming 3.8.0 version. It doesn't yet contain all the things, but it has some of the most notable ones like

• Extended hqp-control functionality
  
• New matrix processing for channel routing and mixing
  
• Adjustment of some of the internal thread priorities based on feedback
  
• Remember more of the UI state across restarts
  

 

Plus of course usual bunch of various other changes (I don't even remember all, I'll have to compile a changelog for the final release announcement).

 

As before, it is recommended not to touch externally the process priority, because it will screw up the internal relative priorities of threads.

 

You can get the beta here:

http://www3.signalyst.com/bins/HQPlayerDesktop3-setup-380b1.exe

 

Source code for the hqp-control is now also available here:

https://www.signalyst.eu/bins/hqp-control-380b1-src.zip

It's been written in such way that extracting the XML protocol spec from the implementation is not too hard if someone wants to implement it in a different way.

 

 

Hi, I just tried to install the new beta over my existing installation and while it instantly with no errors, I now have no sound! I checked all the settings and they all look okay. I also tried uninstalling and reinstalling 3.7.1, but still no sound. Any ideas? Thanks!

[Hammer]

Hi, I just tried to install the new beta over my existing installation and while it instantly with no errors, I now have no sound! I checked all the settings and they all look okay. I also tried uninstalling and reinstalling 3.7.1, but still no sound. Any ideas? Thanks!

 

I'm running Windows Server 2012r2. And it was working last night before I installed the new beta version. Thanks.

[Hammer]

Given the new control API, is there any way to make HQPlayer compatible with the many Squeezebox UI programs such as ipeng? Perhaps a standalone program that runs on the same machine as HQPlayer which identifies itself as a Squeezebox and then translates incoming commands to HQPlayer API?

 

Seems like that would enable the best of both worlds!

[Hammer]

Given the new control API, is there any way to make HQPlayer compatible with the many Squeezebox UI programs such as ipeng? Perhaps a standalone program that runs on the same machine as HQPlayer which identifies itself as a Squeezebox and then translates incoming commands to HQPlayer API?

 

Seems like that would enable the best of both worlds!

 

Another (and maybe easier to program) possibility is for HQPlayer to take input from one USB port and output to another. So, instead of playing from a file, HQPlayer processes an USB input stream and outputs another. This second "player" can be any streaming device/PC that determines the music being player and the HQPlayer PC is the "enhancing engine". Yes, it means having two pc's, but hardware is cheap these days and the one feeding HQPlayer does not need to be too powerful.

 

Miska, would this be a possibility?

 

 

thank you.

[Hammer]

This is slightly off topic, but I've been trying to purchase HQPlayer on the Signalyst website and my payment keeps getting declined. I have tried both paypal and a credit card. Has anyone else experienced this, and how did you get it to work? Thanks, Hammer

[Hammer]

Oh yes, good point...maybe something like this will work? Although I don't know if the circuit in the middle will affect the sound quality.

 

Usb Network Cable

[Hammer]

Yes, everything matches. Can I paypal you the amount directly to your personal account? My trial has expired and I'm back to using my old setup and I miss the sound of HQPlayer very much!

[Hammer]

Hi all, for those of you who use HQPlayer for critical listening and something else for convenience, spotify etc., and would like to avoid physically switching USB cables between the two players, I have found that a computer KVM switch can be used to "share" the DAC. This one even has a remote - SIIG 4 x 1 USB 2.0 HDMI KVM Switch (CE-KV0111-S1). Works really well for me and so thought I'd pass it along. Enjoy!