Jump to content
IGNORED

HQ Player


Recommended Posts

Those pops seem to be something added on the track end. I clearly hear the track finished and then the series of pops begins. But if transition between 2 tracks is "gapeless" (continuous sound without any real pause), no series of pops occur.

 

Same issue here. DoP and Sabre too...

 

It sounds like a quiet machine gun between tracks (rat-a-tat-tat).

 

Love HQPlayer so much that I wouldn't think of using any other player, even with the current pops issue (which I'm sure will be worked out)...

 

Something that may or may not be related is that when using DoP (with my DAC anyway) the first few notes of a song are dropped or lost (meaning the audio starts playing a second or fraction of a second into the track). Anyone else seeing this?

Link to comment
  • 3 weeks later...
I just uploaded 3.6.1.2 version to the web site. It is collection of this fix and some other small fixes.

 

The glitches that sometimes appear as a track ends and before the next begins seem to be gone now (at least on my end) with 3.6.1.2 in both Windows and Mac OS versions.

 

Thank you Miska.

Link to comment
  • 1 month later...
Miska,

 

Just read this DAC review on Dagogo and to say Doug was impressed with HQPlayer would be an understatement. Congrats.

 

"First, we tried the demo of HQPlayer for about, oh, five seconds, before I blurted out something to the effect, “That’s much better than the 384kHz!” My next words were, “I’m buying it!” "

 

Eastern Electric MiniMax DAC Junior and MiniMax DAC Supreme - Page 3 of 3 - Dagogo | A Unique Audiophile Experience

 

Thanks for alerting me that this review was out.

 

To add a little color, I was the guy at his house that set up HQPlayer.

 

Doug is a really nice guy, and his system and room sounded fantastic.

Link to comment
Clipper,

 

Looking at your posts, you are an early adopter of HQ Player running on WS2012 + AO.

 

Can you tell us about your current preferred set up ? I have have not been able to get NAA running in WS2012 + AO in Core mode

 

Re the Dagogo review, I have trouble accepting that a Mac running HQ Player was not out performed by HQ Player on WS2012 + AO, can you shed some light on this ?

 

Best

 

Ed

 

Hi Ed.

 

I'm a big fan of HQPlayer and WS2012 and AO.

 

Up until the last week or so, I've been running HQPlayer and JPLAY on a Win 8.1 machine, outputting to a WS2012/AO/JPLAY machine. I love the sound and that has been my preferred method.

 

What happens to you when you try to run NAA on WS2012 in core mode? Are you getting an AVRT.DLL is missing error? If so, try to find and copy (from a different Windows installation, for instance) avrt.dll to the directory where networkaudiod resides. I copied mine from a Win 8.1 installation (C:\Windows\System32\avrt.dll).

 

Recently I built a machine for someone (as a favor), and have been listening to it as a single PC solution while it (and the Paul Pang USB card inside) burns in.

 

There's a new version of JPLAY that's in beta (version 6), and it is, in my opinion, outstanding. I've been using it since the early betas, and I think it's almost ready to be released. I use it with HQPlayer, and the the sound is magnificent. I urge people to give it a try. The sound I'm getting is the best I've ever heard (at least on my equipment).

 

I bring up JPLAY because some of the new optimizations are specifically tailored to those using a 1 PC solution (although the JPLAY guys still say that a 2-PC solution is best). I'm going to go back to my 2-PC solution late tonight, but what I've been hearing from the 1 PC with HQPlayer and the beta JPLAY is amazing. Here's a link to a thread on the beta if anyone is interested: http://jplay.eu/forum/index.php?/topic/1607-jplay-6-beta-program.

 

As for why HQPlayer on his mac mini wasn't outperformed by HQPlayer running on two machines (one of them being a WS2012/AO machine): I don't think we were really directly comparing these to each other.

 

We first listened to his system, including his normal method of file playback on his mac mini. The 2-PC system was definitely much better, but I personally attribute much of that to the great HQPlayer software rather than to the hardware. Then we went back to his method of file playback on his mac mini and compared it to HQPlayer running on his mac mini. Again, the improvement was dramatic.

 

If we had had more time, I would have loved to really A/B the 2 PCs and the mac mini...

Link to comment
I'm on Windows 10. After reading your comments I thought I would give Jplay a try. I download the trial and behold it is only for KS no ASIO??? That will not even work with my dac. I also see something about DSD over dop no native DSD??? I don't get the point. Perhaps you could explain more about how this integrates with HQP? Of course if it only works with KS and Dop than it is useless for me.

 

Sorry for the late reply.

 

JPLAY supports ASIO output, WASAPI Event Style and Kernel Streaming.

 

But I think you're right in that there is no DSD playback via ASIO.

 

DSD support is via DoP, but most DSD DACs can do DoP, right?

 

JPLAY appears as an ASIO device in HQPlayer. See attached image.

 

In the JPLAY settings you choose (among other things) the PC (local or network), DAC/driver, etc. See attached image.

 

JPLAY 6 was released earlier today.

 

 

Screen Shot 2015-03-31 at 12.48.12 AM.jpg

Screen Shot 2015-03-31 at 12.47.15 AM.jpg

Link to comment
I was trying to run the 64 bit version of NAA, and I copied the avrt.dll from the WOWSYS64 directory into the HQ Player directory. I will have a go with avrt.dll from Win 8.1

 

Have you run both machines, HQ Player desktop and NAA, on WS2012 ? I have not tried this yet

 

One thing you might like to try is running Primo Ramdisk on both the desktop PC and the NAA PC and have the relevant HQ Player directory files on Ramdisk

 

Unfortunately my DAC is pretty much ASIO only so JPlay is not an option at this time

 

I haven't tried running HQPlayer and NAA on separate WS2012 machines either. I'll probably have to try this sometime.

 

I think NAA sounds great but my preference is to send from control PC to audio PC with JPLAY.

 

I've tried mac, windows and linux versions of NAA. Again, it sounds great. If anyone is interested, a Wandboard (www.wandboard.org) makes a pretty nice little NAA machine. I've only tried it with a quad, but I'm sure a dual and maybe even a solo would be fine (if not better).

 

I'm going to try the ramdisk thing when I have a chance. Thanks for the suggestion.

Link to comment
  • 1 month later...
I have few questions about HQ Player:

 

 

2. Can it be used with AO/JPlay on a CAPS machine.

 

 

 

I have another CAPS setup with AO/JPlay with USB going to DAC.

 

Thanks.

 

This (HQ Player with AO and JPLAY) does work and it sounds great.

 

I usually use a dual pc setup, with HQ Player running on a Windows 8.1 machine with JPLAY (control pc) sending to a 2012 Server (core mode)/AO/JPLAY (hibernate mode on) machine (audio pc).

 

But I just tested by installing HP Player on the 2012 Server/AO/JPLAY machine, and it works well.

 

I'm using the 1.31 beta of AO, which I'm pretty sure (from reading) is necessary for this to work "out of the box."

 

JPLAY version is JPLAY 6.

Link to comment
  • 2 weeks later...
I hope you don't mean that it is toggling while HQP is playing? If it is you have a serious problem. I also have a 3770 cpu and it runs at a consistent 3.9ghz while HQP is in use. I don't really understand how your can max out at 3.5?

 

What are people's thoughts on disabling "SpeedStep, Turbo Mode, C-States, Virtualization Technology & especially Hyper-Threading" like AudioPhil recommends?

Link to comment
ted_b and clipper

 

Which mobo do you have ? You need to access the BIOS and check the CPU speed options. On my 3770 on DH61DL, I have been getting good results with Hyperthreading turned on, and pretty much all of the other performance enhancements turned off

 

Thanks EuroDriver.

 

I disable all that stuff but have never done an A/B comparison of just hyperthreading enabled or disabled.

 

Was just wondering what others thought of this (since I don't remember it being discussed much).

 

I have some Gigabyte motherboards here, by the way (Z77X-UP5 TH and GA-Z97X-UP7 TH).

Link to comment
  • 1 month later...

When you install HQPlayer, you have a choice of installing a 32-bit program or a 64-bit program.

 

You'll see it on one of the install screens (called Choose Components).

 

Try uninstalling HQPlayer and reinstalling with 32-bit selected.

 

Good luck.

Link to comment
  • 1 month later...
Thanks, Miska, very much appreciated.

 

Noone has answered my question, about the need of 2 machines to run HQPlayer...

 

Hi vmanuelgm.

 

I have a few Minimax Juniors and like them a lot. I use HQPlayer to upsample everything to DSD128 on the Juniors.

 

You can certainly get some great sound from 1 PC. But I find that I get better sonics when I use 2 computers, either using JPLAY in dual pc mode or HQPlayer in NAA mode.

 

Your computer is a beast (crazy processor!) and if you ever went with a 2-PC setup you wouldn't need (or probably want) anything even close to that in terms of sheer power for the PC hooked up to your DAC.

 

Also, I would tell you to consider picking up a Regen if you haven't already.

Link to comment
Thanks for your reply, Clipper...

 

Have you tried the Eastern Supreme???

 

Would it be an upgrade over Junior for usb only use??? Mine has single Sparkos Opamps (tried Dexa discrete, but too grainy)...

 

In regards to Regen, wouldn't it be something like Iusb power and Gemini I already have???

 

USB REGEN – UpTone Audio

 

micro – iUSB

 

Accessory – Gemini

Thanks again...

 

I don't want to get too far off topic, so I'll (try to) keep it short and send you a PM.

 

I have a Supreme and use it in my main system, but have never really A/B tested it against the Junior. They both sound great. I need more than 1 input where my main system is, so that's why I have the Supreme there. Plus it's fun to mess around with 12AU7 tubes once in a while.

 

I like the Dexas better than the Sparkos, but that's probably due to personal preference and is system dependent, I'm sure...

 

Like the iUSB Power, the Regen provides 5V of "clean" power. But the Regen does more. Put it this way: I put my iUSB Power out to pasture when I got the Regen. If you got one, I'm guessing that you wouldn't even have to use the power leg of your Gemini, as the Regen would provide your 5V of USB power right before the DAC.

Link to comment
  • 1 month later...
  • 2 months later...
Anyone run HQPlayer with the Yggdrasil? Yggy also has a closed form filter. How would you set the filters in HQP for the Yggdrasil? I don't have either, but with the new Roon integration I am strongly considering it.

 

I use HQPlayer with a Yggdrasil. To my ears, it sounds best when filter and dither are set for none and none with no upsampling (where the native PCM file is being sent to the DAC with no DSP). I know this isn't really what HQPlayer was intended for, but I still get better sound with HQPlayer set this way versus what I get from other players. Lately I've been using HQPlayer in conjunction with Roon (since the integration), and love it.

 

I have some SD DACs (Eastern Electric Supreme and Junior) and with these I definitely get the best sound when upsampling everything to DSD128 (poly-sinc, DSD7 is my favorite).

Link to comment
Thank you bibo01, Miska and SamuelT ... I disabled the ayre in Roon; I've changed the DSD output rate...

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]23203[/ATTACH]

 

Still... when I play Roon/HQ, my system goes to the Built In output.

Regards

 

I thought the QB9-DSD maxed out at 192,000 PCM and DSD64 (2,822,400 in HQPlayer).

 

Could that (HQPlayer settings higher than those limits) be the problem?

Link to comment
And if I don't ?

 

I use HQPlayer with an Yggdrasil.

 

Though I love HQPlayer's filters with other DACs, the Yggdrasil sounds better to me when I send it native files.

 

So I set both filter and dither/noise shaping to none in HQPlayer.

 

Even though I'm not having HQPlayer do any upsampling or noise shaping with the Yggdrasil, it (HQPlayer) still sounds better to me than other players do.

Link to comment

Assuming I can use this ATOM PC, here is configuration I am planning to use. Please let me know if you see any issues.

 

HQPlayer embedded running on PC#1 and used as a renderer

Minimserver acting as Media Server

BubbleUPnP as control point

Jplay is ASIO output from HQPlayer

 

My network configuration will remain as it is now:

 

NAS >> Wireless router ---- Wireless bridge >> PC#1 >> PC#2

 

>> = wired connection, CAT 6 cable

---- = wifi connection, WIFI AC

 

As you can see, I do not intend to use an NAA on PC#2 as I would like to keep using my 2 PC Jplay set up.

 

 

I'm pretty sure HQPlayer embedded is only for Linux.

 

Is that what you intended?

 

I use HQPlayer (desktop, not embedded) in a 2-PC JPLAY setup with Windows on both machines.

Link to comment
Sorry about that. I read somewhere that if I want to use HQPlayer as a renderer I need the embedded version? It looks like from your experience I can just use desktop version of HQPlayer. So am I correct in that to use Jplay I need to set the output of HQPlayer to Jplay ASIO?

 

Any thoughts on running HQPlayer on ATOM based PC?

 

Yeah, you can just use the desktop version of HQPlayer.

 

You can even use Roon as a "front end" if you want.

 

Before Roon added HQPlayer compatibility, I controlled HQPlayer by RDPing into my control pc and dragging and dropping music into the HQPlayer window.

 

Yep. In HQPlayer set Backend to ASIO and device to JPLAY Driver. This assumes the right drivers are available for your DAC.

 

What DAC will you be using? The Luxman in your sig via a USB converter?

 

I'm looking at the 6moons review of the Luxman and it says: "The unit is compatible with S/PDIF data from 32kHz to 96kHz and supports 44.1, 48 and 88.2kHz in-between."

 

If that's the case, your control pc (running HQPlayer) doesn't need a ton of horsepower (since you won't be doing any PCM to DSD conversions, for instance). Upsampling redbook to 88.2 or 48 material to 96 isn't very CPU intensive (even with some of the better filters). So I'd definitely give it a shot with the Atom-based PC and see what happens.

Link to comment
Out of curiosity, have you tried closed form filter/NS9 as well at PCM4x? What was the difference compared to no filter?

 

I have tried that (and probably every conceivable filter/noise shaping/upsampling combination as well).

 

Just tried closed form/NS9/PCM4x again though. I still feel the same way.

 

Compared to closed form/NS9/PCM4x, no filter and no upsampling sounds more natural, more organic, more holographic, less constricted and has better dynamics and better bass response.

 

It doesn't sound bad with closed form/NS9/PCM4x. It just sounds better the other way.

 

I should reiterate that with all the other DACs I've used with HQPlayer (other than the Yggdrasil), HQPlayer's filters and upsampling blew away what the DACs themselves could do.

Link to comment
Remember that you must set "DAC Bits" to 20 for Yggdrasil in HQPlayer settings? Otherwise the noise shaping goes completely wasted, because Yggdrasil is 20-bit DAC and any extra bits will just get thrown away (as a result any noise shaping).

 

I recommend also trying all poly-sinc filter variants to 192 (-ext to 176.4 in case of RedBook) as well as closed-form. For starters, just make sure DAC bits is set to 20 for Y and set dither to TPDF. Once you have found best filter, you can experiment with NS9 and Gauss1.

 

For Gungnir DAC bits must be set to 18 and for Bifrost MB it must be set to 16. Otherwise you get incorrect and suboptimal results.

 

Awesome!

 

I have never tried this, but I will.

 

Thank you for this. I never would have thought of it.

 

I'll report back after some listening.

Link to comment
Thank you for the reply. Yeah my poor old outdated Luxman CDP/DAC. I am planning to upgrade that so that I can get rid of the USB converter. I also want to try DSD conversion which is why I am also upgrading my control PC soon. Based on your comments I will give HQPlayer a try on my ATOM.

 

Last question, I assume you think HQPlayer outputting to Jplay is better than Jplay by itself? What was your configuration prior to using HQPlayer? I am hoping to pretty much keep my configuration the same using Minimserver and BubbleUpnP. Looks like the only change will be to specify HQPlayer as renderer in Bubble.

 

 

When you say JPLAY by itself, do you mean using JPLAYmini as a player or using JPLAYStreamer with MinimServer?

 

In both cases I still prefer HQPlayer outputting to JPLAY. This is especially true with a DAC that benefits from upsampling, PCM to DSD conversion, better filters, etc.

 

I could easily be wrong, and I'll let someone else confirm, but I have a feeling you can't do the MinimServer/BubbleUPnP thing (and just choose HQPlayer as a renderer) unless you go the HQPlayer Embedded (running on Linux) route.

 

What did I use before HQPlayer? I think I luckily found HQPlayer within a week or two of getting my first DSD DAC (an Eastern Electric Minimax Supreme). But I'm pretty sure I started with Audirvana on a mac for a short time. Then I read about Audiophile Optimizer and JPLAY, tried them with JRMC and preferred that. Tried the JPLAY dual PC thing and liked it even more. Then I tried HQPlayer (upsampling to DSD128) with AO and JPLAY and 2 PCs and there was no going back...

Link to comment
Thank you. Now this is getting complicated because I still want to use JPLAY in a 2 PC configuration and BubbleUPnP as a control point. JPLAY is not available in a Linux version. I know I could use HQPlayer Windows version but I prefer not to use remote desktop to control playback.

 

I know it's not what you wanted, but you could try Roon on a computer or tablet (iOS or Android) to control HQPlayer playback (with 2-PC JPLAY).

 

It's pretty great. I like it MUCH better than BubbleDS Next (which I use once in a while with MinimServer and JPLAYStreamer).

 

14 day trial of Roon...

Link to comment
  • 4 weeks later...
There is now 3.13.0beta5 with setting for keeping the sample rate family even if filter can do other ratios too.

 

Thank you for this!!!

 

It's great not to have to manually switch between 5,644,800 and 6,144,000 (in my particular case).

 

Love this feature...

Link to comment
clipper, are you using native DSD mode or DoP when you output DSD to your DAC? My DAC is DoP capable only.

 

It works for me with PCM output mode set. I see on my DAC that it re-evaluates the sample rate when switching between tracks. The sample rate blinks few times on the DAC display. It adapts to sample rate family of the track played - I see the sample rate both on DAC display and also on XMOS Control Panel.

 

It doesn't work for me with SDM(DSD) output mode set. The DAC shows DSD128 continuosly when switching between tracks. XMOS Control Panel shows no change of PCM sample rate.

 

Normally, when playback is stopped and then started, I see on my DAC at first the PCM sample rate (for example 352.8 for 5.6 DoP DSD) and only after a while it starts to display DSD128. It seems to me that DAC does not re-evaluate the incoming PCM data stream when switching tracks in the case of DoP. It seems to me that the new Auto rate family feature is not used in this case, no processing happen.

 

It's working for me in SDM mode and I'm using DoP.

 

If I play 44.1 material (for example), my DAC indicates 5,644,800. If I play 96k material (for example), my DAC indicates 6,144,000.

 

I have HQPlayer running on a Windows 10 machine.

 

Here's a screenshot of my settings:

 

Screen Shot 2016-02-04 at 9.28.01 AM.png

 

The DAC (in this case) is an Eastern Electric Minimax Junior.

Link to comment

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now



×
×
  • Create New...