HQ Player

[zoltan]

Hi,
I'm new to this forum and to HQPlayer, still on trial version actually. I'm planning to purchase the licence but after many years of using just the family PC for music, I decided to build a dedicated PC for music. It will take a few weeks, maybe even more, so I wondering if I buy the licence and use my current PC for a few more weeks, will I be able to install and 'transfer' the licence to my newly built one? I found no information on this and didn't get a reply from Sygnalist to my e-mail a few days ago. Somebody here might know. 

[zoltan]

I'm just about to buy a licence for HQPlayer but need to decide to which platform. I downloaded the trial version two weeks ago to my Macbook Pro (i5/8GB) and used it both on MacOS and Windows 10 (bootcamp) with a Humminboard as NAA. I'm not sure if I hear much or any difference between HQPlayer running on Mac or Windows (and in this case the hardware being identical). Has anyone experimented or is there some common agreement as to which one sounds better? I searched this forum but couldn't find related posts, maybe used wrong keywords. 

[zoltan]

On 2017. 03. 30. at 11:47 PM, Miska said:

 

OK, that case works with my DACs, but you may have less hassle if you just close HQPlayer before turning off the DAC. This way the DAC doesn't disappear while it is being used.

 

I have had similar problems with the trial version of HQPlayer and one of the things holding me back from getting the licence. I have a multipurpose DAC, so I switch inputs often. I lose NAA under HQPlayer most of the time and only rebooting the NAA helps, just as for 'dminches'. As I my HQPlayer would be either in a far away room or in a dedicated headless PC in the future, turning it off seems most inconvenient. So is repowering the NAA device every time. This happens under both Mac and Windows.  

[zoltan]

25 minutes ago, Miska said:

 

What is the DAC/driver in question?

 

It's a Devialet with its own driver.

[zoltan]

10 minutes ago, Miska said:

 

Do they also have ASIO driver these days?

 

I don't have any further information about Devialet though.

 

 

 

I don't know. I downloaded "USB driver for Windows" from their site. I was A/B testing my CD transport and streaming, and when I switched the input on the Devialet USB-AES/EBU-USB - the NAA was gone. This happened several times and only reboot helped, or at least I couldn't solve it in any other way.

[zoltan]

8 hours ago, Miska said:

 

So you didn't adjust the networkaudiod_name.bat to switch over to WASAPI backend? I thought they didn't have ASIO driver...

 

You may have less trouble if you use the WASAPI backend instead by modifying said bat (remove "rem" at the beginning on of the corresponding line there). Or at least you could try and see if it makes any difference...

 

I haven't adjusted anything. To be honest I'm not sure what you mean. Where is this file I should modify that you are referring to? I cannot find it in a Windows search. Is it in the registry?

[zoltan]

6 minutes ago, bogi said:

@zoltan, look at networkaudiod package (networkaudiod-350.zip) you downloaded from Signalyst. If you are using an older networkaudioid package than 3.50 then download the latest.

 

You copied it somewhere to your computer and run networdaudiod from here. The package contains file networkaudiod_name.bat which is intended to start the networkaudiod. Open that file in text editor and read once again what Miska wrote ...

 

Thank you. It's clear why I didn't find it. I didn't download that package, only the "HQPlayerDesktop3-setup-3160.exe"  file to run HQPlayer on my PC. The NAA is on a Hummingboard (same image as a Cubox) which I'm borrowing and was installed by the owner. Do I need to install that package on my PC, too?

[zoltan]

2 hours ago, bogi said:

 

No. The whole thing is messed up by the fact that you wrote

I downloaded "USB driver for Windows" from their site.

Therefore Miska thought you are running Windows NAA. I thought it based on Miska's answer too but then I found your older post where you mentioned Humminboard (Linux) as your NAA computer. Then I wanted to adapt my previous post but timeout expired and it has no much value as my editing was only partial, now it mixes Linux and Windows things and doesn't make sense. I hate these timeouts!

 

zoltan, always be as clear as possible when you are asking for help. The base is always to describe clearly what's your setup.

 

It makes no sense to mention USB driver for Windows when you are running Linux NAA. DAC USB driver is intended for computer where your DAC is connected. If it is Linux NAA computer then for that computer and not for your Windows or Mac. In dual computer setup (HQPlayer computer and NAA computer) you don't need to install DAC driver on HQPlayer computer - it has no effect.

 

I'm sorry I wasn't clear enough. This kind of forum format I find more difficult to follow than the 'audioasylum' type and therefore did not mention again some set-up features that I mentioned earlier. 
The reason why I downloaded the drivers was that I also tried connecting the computer direct first and test HQPlayer against JRiver in the same set-up. Then, I added NAA to see if there are any further improvements. 
Still, I don't know how to solve the problem of the NAA disappearing in the 'settings' menu and reappears only after rebooting the NAA. It is probably losing communication with my DAC when I change inputs on it and automatically it cannot reestablish it. 

[zoltan]

8 hours ago, jhwalker said:

 

I did some careful listening this morning and discovered (in my system, at least) poly-sinc-xtr drastically cuts treble content - which does sound more "analog" and "warm / smooth"  but not sure why I'd want to cut off all the high frequencies in my listening.

3

I totally agree with this observation. I've done tests now p/s/xtr vs. p/s/shrt vs. p/s and p/s shrt is the most detailed and realistic at hight frequencies. At the same time also more tiring as some commented. As it should be. I never understood when people say "you can listen to it all day". Listening to live music all day (I'm not talking about rock festivals but actually sitting down in a concert hall or a jazz club), you'll get very very tired, probably don't want to listen to anything after 3 hours. It's a lot of information to process, just like DSD upsampling in HQPlayer. Heavy on the CPU (our brains). I can listen to my car stereo all day. But it's crap. I can't listen to more than two albums on my main rig. Too much to process...

[zoltan]

11 hours ago, blue2 said:

 

Can you guys give us any listening notes i.e. point to any particular tracks where you experience this? Or is it just a general impression?

 

I listened to "Greatest Audiophile Vocal Recordings" 96kHz files upsampled to 192kHz. Mostly acoustic music as you can guess by the name. I switched back and forth a number of times and my findings were quite consistent. It might be different with classical music and/or DSD or a different DAC. I had been using p/s-ext for a while as I read that that is preferred by many here (and I'm very new to HQPlayer), I only tried p/s-shrt because I read that post above. I'm glad I did. I had a very similar experience a decade ago when I had an Accuphase DP-75V and an Altmann DAC. The latter sounded more analog...for a few weeks until I realised it was lacking most of the high frequency details. 

[zoltan]

I'm looking for some advice on processor load from more experienced people. I'm building a passive system and wondering what the processor load may be in the following scenario: 
upsampling to DSD256 for all other DSD and PCM formats in 2 channel stereo only with Roon also running. (and NAA further down the line). No graphics card.

 

I am asking this as the case will be one that can cool processors up to 65W TDP but it seems from tests of this case that if the processor load is constantly high temperature can go up to unwanted levels. Can anyone make educated guesses on the possible processor load?

Thank you. 

[zoltan]

12 minutes ago, tboooe said:

Are you doing any convolution?  For me, using an old i7-3770s CPU in a fanless case, my load is 30% for PCM and 40% for DSD converted to dsd256. With convolution, converting from DSD increases load to 75%.

 

This is very useful, thank you. No, I'm not planning to do convolution for now. I intend to install an i7-7700 (not the K, just standard) which will probably give me lower load figures than yours. 75% sounds too much constant load. Which case do you use? Do every have overheating problems?

[zoltan]

Just starting to build my HQ Player server that will be used with a SOtM SMS-200 ultra as NAA. I was wondering if there are any benefits of Win server 2016 instead of Win 10 Pro in this set-up? Will SQ be different? 

[zoltan]

37 minutes ago, Miska said:

 

When you are using NAA, the computer running HQPlayer doesn't matter as long as it can keep up with the work.

 

Thank you for your answer!

BTW, the SOtM SMS-200 Ultra is fantastic. I have serial no. 004, so not too many around yet, I guess. They had a few units in Munich, this is one of them...

[zoltan]

On 11/28/2017 at 6:59 PM, Miska said:

I use boring, completely standard CAT6 compliant cables. For NAA use, do NOT use STP cables or anything that has metal shield on the connector that could connect grounds of the NAA device and the switch. Generally, only use UTP cables unless you have a specific cable and careful design for using STP.

Hi Miska,
I use Vovox Texture LAN cables between the switch and the NAA player (http://www.vovox.ch/en/home-audio-hifi/products/digital-cables/textura-ic-digital-lan/ )I have no idea whether they are STP or UTP but I use one of these isolators at both end: https://www.acoustic-revive.com/english/pcaudio/lan_isolator.html 
Is this good enough isolation even if the Vovox is an STP cable?

Another question is where to connect the ground on the switch?? It has a small screw at the back saying "switch gnd". It is a Dlink DSG-108 modified by SOtM for a better clock and powered by and external linear power supply (Uptone JS-2).

SOtM suggested I could connect ground to mains earth but I'm not sure why that would be good. Any advice? Thanks! 

[zoltan]

3 minutes ago, Solstice380 said:

 

Search and find the thread on improving the SOtM SMS-200 and the one on AC mains isolation for a lot of info on leakage currents through SMPS and linear supplies for switches.  Read the stuff written by @JohnSwenson about it.  All good!

Thanks, I will. But if you remember what he said about where to connect the metal box of the switch (if anywhere) you could tell me.

[zoltan]

33 minutes ago, Miska said:

This one looks floating and no such screw visible and by default is floating because it has wallwart PSU:

http://www.dlink.com/uk/en/products/dgs-108-8-port-gigabit-ethernet-switch

Thank you for your answer Miska! It's actually this one:

http://us.dlink.com/products/business-solutions/8-port-unmanaged-gigabit-switch/ with ground screw at the back.

I know how to connect to protective earth safely, I will give it a try. 
Sorry for the off-topic in HQPlayer thread.

[zoltan]

8 minutes ago, Yviena said:

@Miska Just wondering but is the Hqplayer license for 1 unique computer or can i like also install in a USB drive as i was thinking about maybe getting a laptop. Will it still work if i for example change my CPU or motherboard etc on my desktop.

I'm not Miska, he will answer more specifically but I used HQPlayer on my laptop for several months while building my desktop server. Then just installed HQPlayer on the server with the password and it works just fine. 

[zoltan]

I do apologize if this has been asked before, couldn't find it in 'search'

1. Can I install HQPlayer 4 trial version and still keep HQPlayer 3.xx parallel? I would like to try version 4 before I commit to an upgrade. If the answer is 'yes', how do I do it? Install to a separate location? 
2. I use HQPlayer under Roon, so functionality and interface improvements are not important to me. Also, from my SOtM SMS-200 ultra (NAA), the signal goes through a Mutec MC-3 USB which converts everything to 192kHz so going overboard with higher resolution DSD or PCM may not be much improvement in my system. So my second question is, if I use, let's say the same up-sampling settings in version 4 as in version 3, would there be any improvement in sound quality?   

[zoltan]

5 minutes ago, bibo01 said:

1) Yes. v4 installs in a different directory by default.

2) Most probably not, but v4 has some interesting new filter/modulator.

Thanks for your response. Regarding the new filters/modulators, which one(s) would you recommend to try that perhaps would give an edge over the ones found in v.3. (I usually use the -xtr and NS9 setting)

[zoltan]

19 hours ago, gancanjam said:

New to HQPlayer and upsampling techniques, planning to use it with Holo May DAC. Have few questions, please advice

 

1) Do I purchase HQPlayer Desktop product for my personal use ?

2) Will it upsample any song played by browser from various music web sites from the laptop ?

3) Can I use my Intel i7-8650U CPU @ 1.90GHz windows laptop to upsample to PCM 768KHz or do I need more powerful machine? Can I upsample to DSD24 with the above machine config?

4) What is the expiry duration for trial version?

1) Yes
2) It will not do that if you use a browser. To my knowledge, you cannot integrate a streaming service into HQP or integrate HQP into a browser as plug-in. I think the only way is to use Roon + HQPlayer + Tidal or Qobuz. Will not work with anything else, like Youtube, etc. I may be wrong though. 
3) Depends on the filter you use but I doubt that you can. DSD24 you said does not exist, it's either DSD64/128/256/512/1024. I have a more powerful machine than yours (3.6Ghz i7 desktop, 16GB ram, etc) and DSD256 only works with -2 filters. PCM768 may work for you. You just try. If it doesn't, it will stutter. It will not destroy your laptop. 
4) It used to be 30 days when I tried years ago, probably still is. 

[zoltan]

I'm trying to upgrade from HQ Player 3.xx to 4.xx and use my txt file with the previous version for the discount coupon. 
I get : " std:exception " message. I sent an e-mail to support at Signalyst but no response. Perhaps @Miska help me out here or anyone else?