HQ Player

[copy_of_a]

quoted from the SRC thread...

 

HQPlayer works just fine with a USB connection from computer to DAC.

 

HQ Player by itself (not in the variation where you use two computers and one is what Miska calls an NAA) works just like any other player (interface quirks and differences aside). Just download the trial, put the app in any folder, launch, go to preferences and select your USB attached DAC, etc. Come over to an HQPlayer thread to get the low-down on use and settings.

preferences show "core audio" (only setting that shows my DAC), Asio and Network-Adapter. Am I correct assumingt HQ Player utilizes Core Audio and doesn't run in Integer Mode on OS X 10.9.5 (and above) unless you install a dedicated driver (Asio driver obviously)??

[copy_of_a]

It runs in Integer Mode. For Mavericks and Yosemite you don't need a separate driver (like A+ Direct Mode) for Integer Mode. Core Audio will work.

okay, cool - thanks!

 

Knowing you Project Box RS DAC seems to only go to 192Khz on its USB input (though it goes to DSD128 which would seem to imply that it can handle 352.8/384)

yes, it does.

 

try this to start (...)

WOW - this is EXACTLY the starter-info I was hoping to find anywhere here in this thread. Many thanks for summing it up for me!!!

 

Hope the above very rough quick start helps in some way.

you are kidding, aren't you? :-) This is just great - safes my hours of reading the forums or fiddling around in the software. Thanks a lot - much appreciated!

 

Cheers!

[copy_of_a]

Hope the above very rough quick start helps in some way. There are other ways to use HQP (the whole library and full screen interface), but if you just want to get a feel for the SQ, then just start simple.

Have fun. Many HQ Player users here are more savvy with it than me, and I am sure they will be happy to guide you.

Up and running with the settings suggested :-)

 

Now, the soundstage goes from Cologne, Germany to Minneapolis and is just W-O-W impressive. Cool!

But I am perplexed. My DAC has 2 fiilters: frequency optimized and phase optimized. While the 2 filters otherwise do not show a world of a difference with HQ Player upsampling to DSD128 the difference is pretty extreme. The frequency optimized filter is around 5db lower (estimation). Same with playing DSD64 without upsampling to DSD128.

Upsampling PCM (44.1 to 176.4) works as expected (filters act as supposed to).

 

Too, with both filters the sound loses body and grip and at the same time pronounces the highs in my system (and my system is already well choosen to produce gentle highs). Is there any setting that does not take away that much bass ...and maybe also does not emphazise the highs that much?

 

And ... is there a short guide somewhere describing the lot of filter settings available in HQ Player?

 

Many thanks!

[copy_of_a]

And ... is there a short guide somewhere describing the lot of filter settings available in HQ Player?

well, the manual :-/

 

:-)

[copy_of_a]

Too, with both filters the sound loses body and grip and at the same time pronounces the highs in my system (and my system is already well choosen to produce gentle highs). Is there any setting that does not take away that much bass ...and maybe also does not emphazise the highs that much?

ok. Initial impressions: poly-sinc-mp, DSD7 and Pipeline SDM enabled for upsamling Redbook to DSD128 sounds good to me with music containing drums/percussion and deep but tight bass ... most likely with all music that requires some punch and directness. I like it!

[copy_of_a]

The user „Superdad“ has persuaded me to look into the HQ Player.

Now, that was a very good idea - I really like the SQ of this software when upsampling 44.1kHz, 48kHz and 88.2kHz to DSD128!

 

Settings: SDM Pipeline checked, DSD7 and (following Miska’s suggestions) I use the „poly-sinc-mp“ filter for rock/pop/electronic/modern Jazz … and everything that requires some kind of directness and „poly-sinc“ for orchestral-like music (including soundtracks without bold drums/percussion etc.). The „short“ variants of the filters don’t do it for me, though. Haven’t tried the other filters yet. I am on a 2014 MacBook Pro 2.6GHz i5 core with 8GB RAM. So nothing special. However, upsampling with said settings to DSD128 utilizes around 40% CPU (overall). So an pretty average task for the MB-Pro. No hick-ups, crackel or whatever by now. Good!

 

@Miska

As a new user of course I missed all of the possible former user-suggestions for further improvements. So please bare with me …

However, here’s a short first list of things to consider for future updates (Mac version)… only focussed on GUI and user-experience … if you maybe care. Please ignore my suggestions if they contradict certain core-functions of your software … I am only talking as a clueless user …

 

- The software doesn’t store the latest window-position on screen. After restart the software appears on the right side of the screen. This is a common issue with softwares initially designed for windows.

 

- I also use Audirvana Plus (well… and Amarra and Fidelia). A+ features a really nice setting in the prefs regarding upsampling-options. Namely a custom „table“ where you can choose which sample rates you wish to upsample to what rate (so it’s not just setting power by 2 or to max rate or so). I would love to use such a table to pre-define in my settings that I want to upsample PCM 44.1kHz, 48kHz and 88.2kHz to DSD128 (with the respective integer rates) but up from native 96kHz I don’t want to apply any upsampling or format conversion at all. Such a preset would be extremely useful!

 

- player icon bar: the choice to have small icons would be very nice (Mac-Standard). Of course this is not important, but would be very convenient. Maybe at some point you will also consider to make the player icon bar customizable (also a Mac-Standard). Again not important but it would be nice for us Mac users.

 

- typically on Mac certain core-functions can be executed by keybord-shortcuts (the respective shortcuts are typically displayed in the respective menu—entry). At least Play/Pause (blank space), Previous/Next (left/right arrow keys) would be handy. Personally I do use all kinds of softwares extremely customized and extremely keyboard driven (one of the reasons why I am a still a faithful Mac-User). Thing is: when you assign a certain number of shortcuts to basic features we can use generic iOS devices as a remote for HQ Player.

 

- displaying the max. volume gain somewhere in the GUI would be useful. I can only see the max volume when I turn the volume knob … but the value disappears when I leave the volume knob alone.

 

- a feature of Fidelia I also miss in A+: a level indicator! If possible 2 bands (1 with digital values and one with true peaks … which of course also Fidelia does not provide). Alternatively an option to use Audio Units (or VST plugins) would be cool … so that I could use one of my meters (just like in A+ and Fidelia) when need is.

 

- there are some (minor) bugs ... but I can't recall them in detail... will come back to you as soon as I have the time to replicate them (right now HQPlayer is playing good music... and I don't wnat to stop it:-) ... ).

 

Many thanks for this great piece of software!

[copy_of_a]

re VST plugins (or AU plugins) quoted from the 5th page of this thread ...

Easy tasks are boring...

However, I have two DSP engines, one for PCM and one for DSD and I want to keep both equally capable. So I want all processing algorithms to support both PCM and DSD processing. I want to have one that works for DSD too.

please excuse my technical ignorance ... but wouldn't it be possible to apply VST/AU plugins BEFORE any further conversion in the processing chain? It's obvious that you can't apply any plugin on 1-bit DSD files... but you could apply it to the PCM data before it is converted/upsamled to DSD.

Of course I coud be wrong ...

 

HQPlayer already plays one second of silence when playback is started... This also allows DACs with DoP to switch mode without losing anything from the beginning of the track.

Would you consider to make this delay a user-choice in the prefs? I for one would favour 3 seconds... the setting I use in Audirvana (0-4 seconds selectable). It's not only about DSD... in my experience Xmos based switches may require quite some time to lock correctly when samplerate is switching (and therefore you may hear a short "click" now and then when a song with different samplerate starts to play). I think 1 second is a bit too short...

[copy_of_a]

After some days of listening to HQ Player mostly palying 44.1 Redbook upsampled to DSD128 (poly-sinc-mp & poly-sinc & DSD7-Filter & SDM-Pipeline checked) I have to say this was a really worthwhile investment. There's texture and detail everywhere but no fake-like sounding details or fuzzy/nebulously sounding instruments. The whole thing simply makes sense (acoustically/musically) as far as timing and space goes.

My MacbooPro (simple 2014 2x i5 Intel Retina / 8GB RAM) runs at around 40% CPU in said configuration and isn't even getting warm. In the last days I've encountered 3-4 times short drop-outs after some hours of continously playing music. Nothing to worry about, though ... still, I will investigate why/when these dropouts occour.

The usability and interface of the software may leave something to be desired ... but as a music player software HQ PLayer is really great. I am really very happy with it!

[copy_of_a]

.

Miska, are you planing to also design a "asymFIR" poly-sinc filter to be used in SDM mode (if at all possible)?

I really like your ready made filter set a lot but an "intermediate" filter between poly-sinc and poly-sinc-mp (with all your iterations of "short", "2s" and "short-2s") would be really great!!

:-)

[copy_of_a]

54 minutes ago, Miska said:

 

The difference is mostly that HQPlayer alone you don't need to route all audio through Roon.

 

 

My feeling is it largely depends on the overall processor (and other) load/activities ...
When you run Roon full App and stream to HQPlayer and within HQPlayer upsample directly to high DSD rates all on the same computer you may very well encounter degraded SQ.
Aside from doing the heavy processing on one computer and streaming the upsampled audio to another computer that feeds the DAC you can also try to minimize the load when you are doing all on one computer. The Roon GUI is extremely processor intensive. Running only RoonServer (so without GUI and remote operated for instance by an iPhone) and streaming to HQPlayer (on the same computer) and within HQPlayer upsampling to 4x PCM with minringFIR-mp (& TPDF Dither) my mid 2014 i5 Macbook Pro (8GB RAM) runs super relaxed at something like 5-8% CPU and it sounds remarkably good. Pretty much the same as HQPlayer stand alone. RoonServer -> HQPlayer upsampling to DSD128 with poly-sinc-short-2s is also fine (30%-35% CPU ... here I‘d say HQPlayer alone sounds somewhat better, though).
But with heavier filters and non 2s variants you clearly start to hear restricted (constrained) sound... while things may still look good with HQPlayer alone.
IMHO ...

[copy_of_a]

16 minutes ago, Sevenfeet said:

I haven't tried Roon yet...but I think I'll be pulling the trigger in the next few days along with a HQPlayer license now that I've been playing with it for months now.  This combo is a bit expensive for me but I'm hoping it's all worth it.

HQPlayer is definitely worth it!

Roon is too expensive IMO. Great software, great usability. Outstanding documentation (manual, knowledge base, forum). Works „out of the box“ and is more or less bug-free. Still... something like €300,-  for a lifetime license would be more balanced. Then again... it just works and therefore is really a joy to use. But only in conjunction with HQPlayer... Roon as a player sounds just mediocre... IMHO

 

[copy_of_a]

12 hours ago, Miska said:

And yes, HQPlayer always soft limits and small overs of one or two dB may even go unnoticed by listening. But if the peak is high enough, particularly at low frequencies, then the limiting will still sound nasty, because it is relatively quick compared to the waveform cycle length. The limiting algorithm is fancier when you have volume control enabled in HQPlayer and in that case adjusting volume will also reset the limiter.

Miska, just to double-check ...: so if I set the max gain to -5db the the limiter will effectively be "bypassed" (assumed -5db is enough even with sharp mixes to avoid any intersample peaks due to upsampling)?

Any chance to implement an on/off setting for the limiter (I for one would prefer to set it off)?

 

As far as your library goes: apart from a more userfriendly GUI (that you may or may not implement) you should at least improve metadata handling. HQPlayer favours "artist" over "album artist"... which is a real mess. A compilation of "Various Artists" contains, say, 10 different tracks of 10 different Artists. HQPlayer shows the "track"-Artist as the "Album Artist". It should show the "Album Artist" (and only in case this tag is missing should refer to "Artist").

I've just batch-retagged a copy of my entire library and copied the "Album Artist" filed into the "Artist" field. This way the library of HQPlayer actually works for me. Problem is the metadata of this retagged library now is incorrect and therefore not really usable in softwares that respect common tagging rules.

[copy_of_a]

9 minutes ago, Miska said:

If there's nothing to do for it, it does nothing. There's no point in "turning it off"

Thanks Miska!

So the limiter only affects the signal when it exceeds 0db ... at -0.1db it isn't active?

 

9 minutes ago, Miska said:

This has been discussed several times before

I wasn't aware of that ... sorry (didn't follow the whole 462 pages ?)

 

As to the Artist field I'd say it's pretty self-explanatory.

"Album Artist" is the Artist the whole Album is labled under.

For instance "Dire Straits".

Album: Brothers in Arms.

The Aritst of the track "Money for Nothing" is Mark Knopfler & Sting (or maybe "Dire Straits" & Sting ... don't know, since I don't have that album).

Finally we can also have a composer of a certain track who is not the Album Artist (say Trent Reznor is the composer of "Hurt" performed by Johnny Cash - who is the Album Artist - on the Album "American IV: The Man Comes Around")

 

Audirvana, JRiver and Roon display the Album Artists / Artists / Composers according to these tags... all within the same Album

 

 

 

 

[copy_of_a]

2 hours ago, Miska said:

 

Exactly, it is always "active" meaning that it is always watching the data flowing through. But it doesn't touch it unless there's a need.

 

 

Yes, I don't have a problem understanding that. But if you look at the specifications I was referring to you see what I'm talking about.

 

ID3v2 for example doesn't have a thing called "album artist". It only has things called TPE1, TPE2, TPE3, TPE4, TOPE, TEXT, TOLY, TCOM, TMCL, TIPL and TENC.

 

FLAC has three things specified, called ARTIST, PERFORMER and ORGANIZATION.

 

Thanks Miska!!

 

I have no idea how Audirvana, JRiver and Roon handle ID3v2 tags and read the (optional) „Album Artist“ tag... but they do.

 

Maybe your library has to „root“/„map“ and/or prioritize the tag (something like „prefer ‚albumartist‘ as main artist if ‚albumartist’ is present“ ...).

 

Maybe this is of help?

 

https://help.mp3tag.de/main_tags.html

 

[copy_of_a]

2 hours ago, Miska said:

P.S. At this point you may have realized what kind of mess and disaster the entire tagging thing is

Sure... agreed.

However ... I really don't want to bother you - not at all!! - but said other softwares do handle/display (and sort by) these sensitive tag fields correctly.

They also work as supposed to after conversion to AIFF, ALAC or AAC through XLD ... so it's not FLAC-specific.

I've tagged all my files by hand (with Yate), so there is no mess at all in my library due to incorrect data from the internet or so.

I only have trouble with the library of HQPlayer.

For the time being I can live with the retagged copy of my library for HQPlayer. But it would be nice if you could look into this at some point...

 

Another little "feature request" ?

Library -> full screen mode.

Switching views by flick gestures on an i-device display works fine. However, on a regular display with mouse or trackpad it's really somewhat cumbersome and it would be extremely handy if you could ad either keyboard-shortcuts to swipe the 3 views left/right or - alternatively or even in addition - add buttons on the 3 screen to swipe left/right.

 

BTW...: im on Mac OS X ...

 

Thanks ?

[copy_of_a]

7 hours ago, Miska said:

OK, so here's the deal:

- I can add custom "ALBUMARTIST" tag as a priority tag for artist name for Vorbis comments (this covers FLAC files)

- Misusing TPE2 of ID3v2 is plain outright wrong and breaks the spec, so it is a definite no-go (so won't happen for WAV/AIFF/DSF/DSDIFF files)

For me this would be a really helpfull change - many thanks for considering this!

 

7 hours ago, Miska said:

You may then like the 3.22 release I just made

 

I love it! These little helpers improve the user experience appreciably. Great - many, many thanks!!!

 

[copy_of_a]

@Miska

 

while we're at it...

There's one particular thing in Roon's convolution engine I'd consider really well implemented with regard to "audiophile" (whatever) sound quality:

When you have a correction curve applied to IR files at different sample rates (all common rates from 44.1kHz to 384kHz) you can store them in wav format and pack them all into a zip file. In Roon's convolution engine you simply select said zip file containing your correction at different sample rates and Roon will pick the correction file that corresponds to the source file sample rate you are playing back. So there's 1.) no need to internally adapt the IR files. 2.) better audio quality since convolution works best when the IR correction files match the sample rate of the source file the convolution is applied to.

Maybe something to consider for a future update of HQPlayer.

 

I'm sure you know this, but just in case here's the description re Roon:

https://kb.roonlabs.com/DSP_Engine:_Convolution

Quote

Filter resampling

If no filter is available that exactly matches the playback sample rate, Roon will resample the provided impulse response file to match.

You can avoid filter resampling by providing a separate filter for each sample rate. This can improve performance--both CPU performance and sonic performance--so you should try to provide a filter for each rate when possible.

______________

 

If you have a set of impulse response files, one per sample rate or channel layout:

1. Place all of the impulse response files in the same directory

2. Create a .zip file from that directory

3. Browse to the .zip file and select it in Roon

4. Enjoy the music.

 

[copy_of_a]

22 minutes ago, Miska said:

That is completely unnecessary exercise to provide multiple IR files.

I'm a bit confused now since this is from page 7 of your current manual ...?!

Quote

Note! When source material sampling rate differs from the impulse sampling rate, impulse responses will be scaled to the source material's sampling rate. This can have a huge impact on CPU load, and with large impulse responses will require significant amount of CPU processing power.

 

--

 

22 minutes ago, Miska said:

Just provide one at highest sampling rate (from Acourate at 384k) and you are fine. Convolution in HQPlayer is processed at native content source rate...

Ok, this is new to me. Thanks! Does this also apply when I upsample PCM in "auto rate" family (so by power of 2)?

So when upsampling 44.1kHz to 176.4kHz I simply use a 192kHz IR correction and HQPlayer does not have to resample the IR file?

 

[copy_of_a]

20 minutes ago, Miska said:

 

Yes, externally providing different IRs for different sampling rates don't change anything. If you look at IR for 176.4 it is likely about 4x bigger than IR for 44.1k. Rate is higher and the IR is bigger -> higher CPU load.

 

 

It is scaled ("resampled") to the needed rate, that is not a problem. If you make a room measurement at for example 48k, then same thing happens for all the other IR output rates you generate. It is just math, nothing special about that.

 

HQPlayer anyway does bunch of operations on the IR to prepare it for use, scaling is part of that.

 

ok, cool - thanks for clarifying!

[copy_of_a]

1 hour ago, Miska said:

On 7/7/2018 at 8:26 AM, Le Concombre Masqué said:

Based on the manual, I created 176.4 and 192 IR files from Rephase (have no 384 content) and convinced myself that SQ is a bit softer/muddier if the IR and content sample rates differ : so this is entirely placebo effect and I can stop changing the IR files ?

Hard to say, but your content is not all 176.4 or 192? Your measurement is in any case only at one rate, so you compare scaling of the IR either by Rephase or by HQPlayer?

Room correction created through measurement at a certain rate is not the only use case for convolution. I for one use  convolution in HQPlayer to apply some slight EQing. It's a matter of only a few minutes to apply a certain EQ setting to IR files at different rates and safe them as wav. In this case it would be handy if HQPlayer would automatically pick the IR files corresponding to the respective source sample rate of the currently played track (from a chosen directory ... folder or zip... like Roon). Having said that, with the very moderate adjustments I apply it makes no difference to speak of whether or not the IR files are at the source sample rate or have to be scaled within HQPlayer. So not a big deal for me personally. Would just be convenient ...

[copy_of_a]

On 7/5/2018 at 12:29 AM, Miska said:

OK, so here's the deal:

- I can add custom "ALBUMARTIST" tag as a priority tag for artist name for Vorbis comments (this covers FLAC files)

 

Quote

Jul 28 2018

HQPlayer Desktop 3.22.1 released!
Added support for custom "ALBUMARTIST" tag in FLAC. Improved search with track names.

 

great!! many thanks! ☺️

[copy_of_a]

On 7/5/2018 at 8:30 PM, Miska said:

Yeah, Ales made a really nice GUI (HQPDcontrol) for controlling HQPlayer from Android devices. Nobody has yet made similar for iOS

(...)

WiFi-only Android tablets are cheap and quick solution to that problem, even if not used for anything else.

I did just that: I bought a little Android device a few days ago only to use HQPDcontrol. It works like a charm!

Since you've modified the ALBUMARTIST tag in the latest release HQPlayer's library really works for my needs now.

 

I would be glad if the "Albums" section could be sorted by "Artist" name ("Album Artist" that is)... not by Album name (this goes for HQPDcontrol obviously, but if I'm not mistaken Ales' HQPDcontrol can only take (read) what the actual HQP library provides).

 

If you could also possibly add support for "sort by" tags one day I would be totally happy (i.e. Album Artist: "The Smiths" / Sort by: "Smith, The" so that "The Smiths" are listed under "S" instead of "T").

[copy_of_a]

46 minutes ago, Le Concombre Masqué said:

mqa mp for lesser recordings RBCD

with 44.1kHz sources ps-mqa (mp) starts to roll off somewhere at around 14kHz or 15kHz or so ... so possibly not the best choice here.

IMO ps-mqa is excellent for highres content when the transition of the filter is far above the audible specturm (88.2kHz and higher source files...).

 

46 minutes ago, Le Concombre Masqué said:

will give minringFIR a try

you should!

 

[copy_of_a]

4 hours ago, Le Concombre Masqué said:

MinringFIR could have taken the place of Poly sinc short in my settings if your set of rules allowed it with n48 hires  yet. Wish it will be too !

not sure what you are referring to...? Are you talking about 48x->DSD?

Generally minringFIR can be used for any source rate, but due to its design is only suited to resample by power of 2.

So 48kHz sources can be upsampled to 96, 192 etc. PCM or to 3.072 (etc.) DSD ... but not to 88.2kHz, 176.4kHz (etc.) PCM or 2.822 (etc.) DSD.

minringFIR is non-apodizing; with 44.1kHz soruces the transition starts at around 20kHz. However, due to its special design the ringing is very, very low (short). Personally I use minringFIR-mp all the time for everything (I used to switch to polysinc for classical music but meanwhile I just stay with minringFIR-mp).

 

[copy_of_a]

12 hours ago, semente said:

I am getting a strange message when I try to open the v3.25 DMG:

 

 

@Miska   - same here:  the *.dmg seems to be faulty ...