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thanks for this ! I don't use HQPlayer for Rock, that's Rhapsody over Sonos for that.

 

On HQ Player the music is exclusively jazz, chamber, orchestral, and Hotel California for the whistles.

 

we can continue to suggest to Mac users to try putting HQP in RamDisk ;-)

 

I use a ram disk on my desktop with HQ player for the app and the music files. I play mostly classical and jazz, and I definitely notice a difference--more air and detail. I'm using a 2015 stock Mac Mini with Yosemite.

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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?

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I know of no music player sold today that doesn't support Alac . It's convenient for me because I have Apple products .

 

Presumably you have ripped your collection to ALAC. It takes a couple of hours of transcode your whole collection to FLAC. There's no reason not to. And you cannot purchase commercial ALAC hi-res files, everything is sold as FLAC. Plus iTunes is a terrible ripper, there are much better ones available to convert CDs to FLAC.

 

I understand your point, but by sticking stubbornly to ALAC you're missing the boat, so to speak. And there are actually quite a few high-end musci players out there that don't support ALAC.

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There are a *lot* of reasons not to convert to FLAC, not the least of which is that iTunes doesn't support it. Our entire music library is in iTunes, and my partner only knows how to use iTunes / iPod, etc. Switching to another solution just for one player is not viable, for me at least.

 

And, no, "everything" is not sold as FLAC - every store I buy from offers *either* FLAC or ALAC (and some WAV or AIFF).

 

I agree FLAC is the most widely-supported format, but *every* other player I use (and I have a *lot* of them) support ALAC - HQPlayer is the lone holdout.

 

PS - I don't mean to sound so negative about HQPlayer - I bought it and enjoy it regularly. But it *is* a pain to have to convert everything to AIFF just to listen to it. I've taken to maintaining a completely separate / much smaller subset of my music just to use HQPlayer - my main 80k track collection (almost 2TB) is just too large to convert to AIFF without a substantial investment in disk space :/

 

I understand. I didn't mean to sound confrontational. :-) HQPlayer will play FLAC files, BTW, so you don't need to go all the way to AIFF.

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  • 3 weeks later...
Most probably a stupid question which may have very simple answer, nevertheless I couldn't resolve it. When I play rips from mono archive recordings through HQP I have a sound only in left channel. Is it a way to get sound from both?

 

Same problem here. I use dbPoweramp with the Channel Count DSP plug-in to convert single-channel to two-channel.

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  • 2 months later...
Are there any special optimizations for the mac mini running Yosemite with HQ Player?

Searched this thread but didn't find anything.

 

I use it only for running HQ and splash top remote connection to my ipad.

I need to give HQ all the horsepower I can.

 

 

Google "optimize Yosemite for audio." You'll find lots of tips from pro audio sites. One even offers an optimizer script, but I forget where I got it. CAD also offers a script that runs in Terminal, you can find it on their web site. I find their version a little too much (sound gets a bit too lean on my system but it definitely makes a difference.

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  • 3 weeks later...
OK, looks like I introduced some regressions while trying to fix the bug reported by Geoff... I've now fixed this issue, for testing purposes it is enough if you load some other transport type from the GUI to make things work again (problem happens if playlist is cleared and playlist is still the active transport). I'll wait couple of days before building 3.8.1 in case people spot more problems in the new 3.8.0 version. There are lot of changes vs beta3, so I may have not spotted everything on my testing.

 

In the desktop version for Mac, clearing the playlist results in being unable to drag new tracks to the window.

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  • 2 weeks later...
Thanks for this link. What are the only allowed files?

 

I may be wrong but I think HQ Player reads properly tagged files, not folders. Personally I find the library feature hopelessly inconvenient and don't use it. I much prefer to drag and drop files into the player. Maybe if you have a small collection of well-tagged files it's okay but I have a huge mess of shared and downloaded stuff organized in a way that I know where to find it. :-) I keep a copy of JRiver handy to locate something I can't put my finger on.

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  • 2 weeks later...
I am curious about this application. On my Mac Mini , I find Amarra to sound best of all the apps I have tried. on my laptop with windows 7 optimized , I use as headphone station, i like JRMC 20.

 

Can some kind souls please post their experiences using HQ player on both mac and windows compared to other apps like Amarra , A+, JRMC, etc?

 

 

Thanks in advance

 

I have a 2014 Mac Mini and I prefer HQ Player to all of the above, but tastes vary. To my ears, Amarra embeds the music in a "halo" that I don't care for, JRMC is handy for cataloguing but sounds a little "generalized" for my tastes, and A+ is very good but doesn't convey quite as much detail. HQ Player reveals more of the depth, placement, and original recording space. This applies to both Yosemite and Windows 8.1 on the Mac Mini.

 

Are you currently using the upsampling engines in your playback software? If you are NOT upsampling, try HQ Player with the filter and dither set to "none."

 

If you ARE upsampling, set the filter and dither to "poly-sinc" and "TPDF," which are sort of the default settings, and use the highest rate your DAC will allow. Then play with the filters and dither settings as you like.

 

Don't bother with the library function in HQP for the trial, just drag and drop albums into the main window to test it out.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...
Mac OS X Yosemite, HQP 3.9.0.1, PCM192 FLAC file.

 

I just noticed poly-sinc-ext filter doesn't work. I mean playout doesn't even start. Not sure if it's a bug or not.

 

Have a nice day, Massimiliano

 

Poly-sinc-ext only does 2x or 4x upsampling, I believe. When I use it I notice the upsampling rate changes from 192 to 176, and my DAC does not do 176 so no sound. You can set upsampling to 88 and it should work.

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Warning - Tech Challenged CA member seeking advice, again

 

New Mac Mini 2.6 GHz, SSD and 16GB RAM just arrived.

 

Not sure what to do...Want to install HQ Player on the new one ("A") and possibly use old 2011 Mini as NAA ("B"), as I understand from the stuff I have read on this thread (probably have a 30% capture rate on what gets discussed on CA...being generous to myself), feeding my Mytek from an NAA computer B not doing the up conversion to DSD will sound better/cleaner as processor noise in left behind on the computer A doing the conversion.

 

Steps are:

 

1) Install HQ Player on A

2) Install NAA Daemon on B (not sure what a daemon is, guessing it is software that facilitates incoming data and sends it to DAC)

3) Hook A to B with an ethernet cable

 

So, how best to do this?

 

Copy stuff on B to A or download using license info on B?

 

Should I erase or uninstall stuff on B? Have PM and A+ on B, as well.

 

Appreciate your assistance and patience...

 

I'm about 10 years too old to qualify as having grown up with this tech stuff. At B school, our computer class used punch cards, and one of my classmates (who eventually started a company called mail.com) was all pumped in entrepreneurship class about this new deal called digital discs..."you could have a copy of the Bible on one of these skinny shiny things".

 

First of all, whichever Mini you use for the NAA will need to have at least OSX 10.9 installed. I assume the 2011 will handle 10.9. If that's the case, then:

 

I would use the newest and most powerful Mini to run HQ Player. That's the software that needs a license. The NAA is free. Download it to your older Mini, connect your DAC, double click NAA and it will open in the Terminal app. Connect both computers to your network via ethernet cable, and you should be good to go. Please note thatit may take some time for the two computers to "see" each other over the network. Usually if you give them five minutes or so after startup, they will both be recognized. Make sure File Sharing is enabled on both.

 

I do not think you can connect the two Macs directly to each other with an ethernet cable and have the NAA work--at least it didn't used to wortk that way. It's also complicated to get the two Macs to see each other with a direct connection and requires a little fiddling in Network Preferences. Just connect them both to your home network and it should work fine.

 

You do not need to remove the other playback apps, so you can compare them with HQ Player if you want.

 

You might also try connecting DAC directly to the HQ Player Mini, and see how it sounds. I actually prefer it to using the NAA on a fully-loaded computer or PC. I have not tried a minimal box like CuBox for the NAA, but would like to soon.

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Thanks zackthedog.

 

Thought the Minis could be connected with ethernet cable and have the higher CPU one do the heavy lifting and the other serve as NAA?

 

Also, already have licenses for HQ Player, along with A+ and PM. Not sure what the deal is with installing them on the new Mini? Only going to use the software on one computer as only have one audio system in my house.

 

I've forgotten how you re-install a license. You'll need to remove it from the old Mini and iinstall it on the new one. I think you get a little file in your email when you register--or is that JRiver? ;-)

 

You can connect two Minis with an ethernet cable but I *don't think* HQ Player will recogniize the NAA that way. I believe the NAA computer has to have a network IP address, but I could be wrong. I tried it this way and got it to wwork a few times but not consistently. But you can try it and see.

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  • 1 month later...
The easiest way to try HQPlayer/NAA, is connecting directly the computer that runs HQPlayer to the mac mini with the NAA, just configure with static IPs on the same subnet, like 10.10.10.1 and 10.10.10.2, mask 255.255.255.0. Just run the NAA on the Mac Mini (you just see it running on the terminal window) with the DAC connected and working. Then run the HQPlayer, in settings select NAA, choose the DAC and play some música.

 

Say, thank you for this little tip. I had tried running the NAA on a little Dell notebook through my network but wasn't really impressed. However, directly connected in this fashion it is a tremendous improvement over my Mac Mini alone. I'm now convinced of the NAA approach and will investigate one of the little custom headless units made for this purpose.

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  • 1 month later...

I have a small issue and thought I'd ask if there's a solution. I have my NAA running on a littlle Dell netbook, which is directly connect to my Mac Mini running Yosemite via a closed ethernet network. In order for HQ Player to see the NAA, I have to make sure the Ethernet connection is ordered first in Network Preferences. If I add a WiFi connection next and open my web browser, the browser keeps trying to access the closed Ethernet connection and I get "Resolving host" errors. Conversly, if I order WiFi first and Ethernet second, my browser works but HQ Player cannot find the NAA. Currently I have two network "locations" and have to switch back and forth depending on whether I want to browse or listen to music. So my question is, is there some way to "point" HQ Player toward the Ethernet connection, or can I somehow "point" my browser to the WiFi connection, regardless of their order? It's not a big deal but sometimes I like to do both. :-)

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I use setup similar to (2), because the house is wired with CAT6 and I have NAAs in different rooms while I can run HQPlayer on my powerful desktop. It makes sense to pay attention to the ethernet switch in the middle, I'm using a gigabit smart switch. Apple AirPort Extreme is also suitable since it has gigabit ports and pretty good dual-band WiFi AP.

 

There shouldn't be any notable sound quality difference between (1) and (2), as long as the switch in the (2) is not becoming a bottleneck.

 

Well, I guess this answers my previous question about a closed network. I'll try using my LAN and see if that degrades the sound at all.

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  • 4 weeks later...
  • 4 weeks later...
Just came across this topic and was thus far not aware of HQ Player. This looks very interesting and I am eager to try. But after reading through this thread (lots of it anyway), and looking at the user manual, I am left "confused" and intimidated because most of the time I feel like it is written in another language. ☺ I don't understand most of the terminology, etc. I am guessing that there is not an "HQ Player for Dummies" out there. I am guessing that best thing will be to just to download the trial and play with it.

 

Currently using Audirvana with a relatively lower end desktop setup, but planning to expand on the hardware end of things, and I am guessing that HQ Player would serve my needs for the indefinite future - if I can only figure out how to use it. The vast majority of my music files are hires flac...

 

Once you have figured out what settings are best for particular types/resolutions of music, is there the ability to save "sets" so that you can quickly access them on different listening sessions?

 

Don't be daunted. :-). An easy way to test HQ Player is to download the demo. Go to Preferences and select your DAC. Don't bother with the Library function for now, it eats up your demo time (at least on a Mac). Just drag and drop compatible files to the player window and click on the first file to start playback. Start with setting filter to "none" and dither to "none". This lets you hear the music at the original sampling rates. Then try "poly-sinc" and "TPDF" and set the upsampling rate to the highest your DAC will handle. This gives you an idea of the basic upsampling performance. This is for PCM only but it will give you an idea of the sound.

 

There is a simplified "beginner's manual" someone contributed but I have lost the link. Perhaps someone else has it. Also, Jussi has a post way back in this thread giving some basic info on settings, perhaps someone can repost that.

 

I use it as a simple drag-and-drop player and couldn't be happier.

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Nope, that didn't work...

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Computer Audiophile mobile app

 

Make sure the DAC is your default device on the NAA computer. You might want to temporarily disable other output devices. And that you have the the ASIO driver for your DAC installed. If you still don't get results, try hardwiring the NAA computer to your network and see if that helps.

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Thank you very much Zack, that did the trick!

Ok, I know I'm late at the party, but I have to say: HQPlayer+NAA is a GAME CHANGER!!! All one needs is a good server and then something like the microRendu with the NAA/Roon output and it's game on!!!! This is exciting!!!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Computer Audiophile mobile app

 

Oh, good! I was using an old laptop for the NAA, with a lot of tweaks to Windows 8.1. Switching to a Cubox and Miska's SD image made things a lot cleaner and quieter. Is the microRendu available yet? I'd like to try that.

 

It's very exciting and I'm glad it's working for you.

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  • 2 weeks later...
There's button with square sign in the toolbar in main window, the hint popup you get when you mouse over tells function of each of the buttons. That switches the GUI to full screen mode, and you can return from there by clicking the [X] button in the top-right corner of the full screen mode GUI.

 

FS mode works similar way as iOS/Android touch GUIs. It has three views, the middle one which is default about current playback. If you swipe (hold mouse button and drag right) to right you get cover flow visible from the left side. If you swipe to left, then you get the playlist editor view visible from the right side.

 

I learn something new every day. :-)

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  • 4 weeks later...
Resurrecting this to ask, what NAAs are available that can be connected directly to the Mac Mini? This is exactly what I would like to do, then use HQPlayer to upsample everything to DSD and go to a DSD DAC.

 

I don't think you can connect the NAA device directly to the Mac--at least I've never been able to get this to work reliably. Somewhere in the forum there's an explanation why. Since I don't have ethernet wiring in my music room, I pulled an old Airport router out of the closet and use that to link my Mac Mini to my Cubox NAA, and it works very well. If you don't have a good wired connection, or you just want to create a dedicated network for the exchange, any decent router will do.

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