HQ Player

[Rune]

1 hour ago, Miska said:

Server CPUs are not very nice because they tend to have lot of cores, but not particularly high clock frequencies. With GPU, critical point is "single thread" performance in a case where all cores are loaded, which could mean that CPU drops close to base clock frequency.

will the single core performance of the Ryzen 9 3900X be high enough  for DSD512 with ASDM7EC?

It should do at least 3.8GHz on all 12 cores.

 

I am asking because I am considering getting one as soon as they are in stock in Denmark and have thought about trying HQPlayer for a long time.

I also have a GTX 1080 TI will that be of any benefit?

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12 hours ago, Miska said:

will try to get the 16-core model once it becomes available in Finland.

So the 4 extra cores is worth getting even though it will most likely run them all at a lower 3.5GHz compared to the 3950X 3.8Ghz all core.

I presume that at least base clock is what to expect when all cores are maxed out.

[Rune]

1 hour ago, LowOrbit said:

Yes, most of my testing was with SMT off. Tried Creator Mode, Game Mode and set up manual OC. Nothing got me to DSD256 with ASDM7EC without stuttering. All other Modulators - fine. All Filter variants fine (at least at redbook source rates).

 

Did you get over the critical 4Ghz with your manual overclock of the 3700X?

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1 hour ago, LowOrbit said:

The 3700X was stable at 4.5ghz

You probably only had on core at 4.5Ghz. If you had done an all core overclock to 4GHz it would most likely have worked.

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By looking at the R7 3700X screenshot is looks like even a R5 3600X should be sufficient as two cores is not doing anything.

At least with some GPU assistance.

 

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12 minutes ago, rando said:

who knows what they will actually bring to market in 4th quarter. 

According the various hardware sites it will only be mobile CPU which have a turbo boost to 4.1GHz so not interesting in a HQPlayer context. There might be a higher binned i9-9900K called i9-9900KS which will have a all core turbo bost to 5GHz.

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2 hours ago, rickca said:

Does anyone have experience with this configuration to report?

I just bought a 3600X When it was announced that X3950 would be postponed to November which probably means that it will be available next year X3900 still looks like a paper launch here Denmark.

 

X3600 can run ASDM5EC DSD256 but ASDM7EC DSD256 is not stable. 

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37 minutes ago, Yviena said:

@Miska what ethernet cable do you recommend for a NAA, i'm currently unsure if my existing cable is UTP or STP, would fibre ethernet converter also help, or is that overkill?

If you have >=5e then there is no need to "upgrade"

 

If you have problems it is most likely not your network cables.

[Rune]

2 hours ago, StreamFidelity said:

 

I have moved the topic here because my question relates to HQPlayer.

 

What are the advantages of 10 cores or 20 threads if only 5-6 cores are used with the EC modulators?

I have also been wondering why I see the recommendation to add at least a RTX 2080 GPU when a 8 core i9-9000K/KS in itself is more than enough for EC modulators.

 

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2 hours ago, Yviena said:

So ideally 3700x/3800x/3900x/3950x is capable of playing EC7 DSD256 I've managed to get it to work.

I could not get EC7 DSD256 working on 3600X even when overclocking to 4300 the 6 cores should be sufficient and it clocks as high as 3700X and I need GPU assist when doing DSD512 non EC with demanding filters.

That is why I choose to go with intel i9-9900KS for my HQplayer server build instead of originally going for 3950X.

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I got a NT-505 and  I have to choose Narrow or Wide filter. Does this mean that it cannot run DSD Direct?

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On 6/9/2020 at 8:00 AM, pdg540 said:

Regarding your comments on the sinc-L filter, are you able to say whether it would be possible to use the 7EC modulator, dsd256 output using i9-9900k with all cores clocked to 5ghz and 16gb ram? If not, would adding a GTX1080Ti with 11gb vid ram make it work?

 

I run HQPlayer Embedded on a i9-9900KS and no GPU, but my Desktop windows PC has a GTX 1080 TI and Ryzen 5 3600X, but the CPU is unfortunately not fast enough for  DSD256 EC modulator.

 

So I tried the non EC modulator instead and the result is it that it runs Sinc-L ASDM7 DSD256 and it takes 23 seconds to initialize.

The GPU uses 8.1 GB of memory and the load is about 14%  and CPU is 8%

 

 

 

[Rune]

15 hours ago, pdg540 said:

 

I can run ASDM7EC/poly sinc xtr without cuda (HQP Desktop/Windows 10). From Jussi's post, it sounds like sinc-L with EC modulators will need cuda offload for sure and it rwill take more than 8GB video ram. The 1080Ti has 11GB ram. I'm assuming the 2080Ti, which can run sinc-L/EC modulator, has better cores and faster ram than the 1080. So I guess the question is whether the 1080Ti cores and ram are adequate. I don't really know much about video cards.

 

What CPU is in your desktop and can you run ASDM7EC/poly sinc xtr on your 9900ks? This combination sounds really, really good!

 

 

Yes the 9900KS can run DSD256 ASDM7EC/poly-sind-xtr. The Ryzen 3600X in my desktop cannot only manage the non EC.

If you are going to buy a new GPU go for the 2080/2080ti or wait and see how the next gen performs.

But if you already have a 1080Ti with 11GB like me I see no reason for upgrading. I am only interested in 2 channel.

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Just tried the following on my i9-9900KS without GPU running embedded.

sinc-L, ASDM7EC, DSD256  dropouts

sinc-L, ASDM7, DSD256  dropouts

sinc-L, ASDM7EC, DSD128  works

 

Desktop with Ryzen 3600X with GTX 1080 TI

sinc-L, ASDM7EC, DSD256  dropouts

sinc-L, ASDM7, DSD256  works

 

So my conclusion for sinc-L DSD256 is that you need a GPU.

[Rune]

Roon has the best UI and I can use it from a tablet together with HQPlayer embedded. A perfect combination. I do not buy into the premise that player X can sound better than player Y when using a NNA.

[Rune]

55 minutes ago, Miska said:

In addition, the hardware used to run HQPlayer OS usually doesn't have Nvidia GPU. HQPlayer OS is primarily for cases where you connect DAC directly to HQPlayer server without a NAA. That's reason why it is so slim, cut down and optimized OS built specifically for running HQPlayer and nothing else.

 

When big machine with Nvidia card is used to run HQPlayer, it is more flexible to use Ubuntu Server and then possibly use NAA.

That is a shame, I would prefer not having to install Linux on my main desktop machine that runs Windows. It is much easier to update HQPlayer just flashing the HQPlayer OS to a USB drive and boot from it.

That requires no Linux knowledge🙂

But what if you do not need the flexibility of running Ubuntu server and only use Linux to run HQPlayer?

I got embedded for the web UI that I can run from a tablet do not want a computer in my living room where my HIfi sytem is.

[Rune]

On 11/9/2020 at 10:58 PM, Gavin1977 said:

So, HQPlayer embedded really is the very best sounding (and most expensive) ‘endpoint’ I have ever owned.
 

But what uPnP media servers are people using to send their music to HQPlayer embedded?

 

I am thinking that a dedicated network player, with its own app (to serve Tidal, local files on minimserver and all the other services etc... integrated) would be great.  So far only Melcos seem to do this and will output a upnp stream to other devices.

 

Any bits of hardware out there that could, for example take the usb audio stream from a bluesound node and send it onwards via upnp to HQPlayer?

 

I’m using Linn Kazoo at the moment and works really very well, but there is an ease to having a commercial server because of the ecosystem it can bring.

Have you looked at Roon it is by far the best and it can send the stream to HQPlayer.

[Rune]

1 hour ago, Yviena said:

I thought 5900x actually boosts higher

That is also my understanding and 5950X boost the highest, but 5800X can most likely sustain a higher all core frequency because fever cores to use the power budget even thought the 5900X/5950X is better binned.

We are not getting anything better than DSD256EC so does the peak all core frequency really matter.

According to this on AnandTech even when utilizing 12 cores on the 5950 the clock is 4175MHz. I would expect the 5900X to be close.

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7 hours ago, Outlaw said:

My PC has a 8086K CPU.Has drop outs with Sinc-L filters.Have a chance to buy a asus strix 1080 ti at a very good price,Would this solve issue of drop outs ?

I am pretty sure my Ryzen 6 5600X/1989 Ti can do Sinc-L with DSD256/ASDM7 (no EC)

I tested this after finding that my i9-9900KS could not do Sinc-L with DSD256/ASDM7EC but only DSD128/ASDM7EC.

The 1080 TI can do Sinc-L DSD256 because it has 11GB memory. Think >8GB is required, so rules out many of the newer faster GPU

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38 minutes ago, Outlaw said:

Probably be better off to get the new 3070 when available ?

Or a 3060 if the rumor is true that there will also be a 12GB version. It should be faster and cooler than the 1080 Ti which is also a physically big card.

So the 1080 Ti has to be really cheap else you should wait.

The 3060 TI and 3070 both have 8GB so not sure if the extra compute of the 3070 make any notable difference?

[Rune]

2 hours ago, toddrhodes said:

You're probably right. I should at least know the answer to that in a few days. I can say that as good as this sounds, I'm determined to find a fix. So if the PC upgrades and fresh OS install don't do the trick, I think next I'll try an RPi 4, for its separate USB/Network unlike the Pi3 which, I think, I'm asking a LOT of right now to output DSD256 or 512. Maybe not, but it seems reasonable that could be a bottleneck as well.

If I'm being honest, just sitting here listening to Shostakovich in DSD128 with fairly benign HPQ settings sounds fabulous.

You should not get pops and clicks at DSD256 what OS are you running on the PI?

You shold try Ropieee XL.

[Rune]

or just try Ropiee XL which I did when the HQP NAA image did not work for me.

[Rune]

14 hours ago, Luca72c said:

Nobody had the chance to try HQPlayer on a Zen3 cpu still?

Has AMD released ghost processors? 🤔

I also have a 5950X in my Desktop and had mixed success with HQPlayer Desktop for Windows. I was not able to do DSd256 ASDM7EC stable the dropout was less frequent than on my previous 3600X. This was done with no OC.

I still have to try with embedded. 

[Rune]

I have now also done some testing on my Ryzen 5950X on the embedded hqplayer USB version.

It works better than with windows. I can do ASDM7EC DSD256 and can do the most filters except Sinc-L and closed-form-16M (only a few drop outs).

I tried poly-sinc-ext2, poly-sinc-mp and poly-sinc-mql-mp all without OC.

Windows seems only to be able to do ASDM5EC DSD256. Windows could probably do ASDM7EC DSD256 - poly-sinc-ext2 if it is a bare windows because at one point I could play more than one track without dropouts.

If anyone is thinkin about getting a Ryzen 5000 series CPU the 5800X is probably the better choice.

[Rune]

9 hours ago, k6davis said:

A modestly powered PC running Roon Core on Windows 10 or Windows Server, with Audiophile Optimizer if you like

if dedication a PC for Roon then why not run ROCK on a NUC? No need for windows or Audiophile Optimizer. That is just adding more overhead.