HQ Player

[Geardaddy]

Question to all you HQ geeks: what is the minimum Geekbench score to safely allow PCM>DSD 256 or even 512 without hiccups? I need to score a new Mac to run HQ....

[zaumator]

It would be a great little feature to have an option in preferences to disable PCM output (and or disable SDM).

[orgel]

Question to all you HQ geeks: what is the minimum Geekbench score to safely allow PCM>DSD 256 or even 512 without hiccups? I need to score a new Mac to run HQ....

 

Before you figure out what Mac to get, you need to figure out how you're going to do DSD256 or DSD512 from a Mac. See what @ted_b says in Post #4475. Right now, the only way I know to do DSD rates higher than 128 is to use an ExaSound DAC with Exa's Mac ASIO driver.

 

Once you've got that sorted, I'm thinking a loaded mini (3.0GHz dual-core i7, 16GB RAM) or better should be good for what you want, although you might be able to squeak by with a little less. Maybe @Miska can be more definitive about hardware requirements.

 

--David

[tboooe]

I assume the CAPS Pipeline with the Xeon 3.5ghz quad core will be able to handle HQP and Roon with ease?

[firedog]

I assume the CAPS Pipeline with the Xeon 3.5ghz quad core will be able to handle HQP and Roon with ease?

 

Yes, that's what I have and it works great. Miska usually recommends just that kind of setup for taking full advantage of HQP.

[tboooe]

In my Jplay 2 pc setup the control PC has 2 network ports. The first port is used to connect to my router so it can access the NAS where all my music is stored. The second port is used to directly connect the control PC and audio PC. The audio PC does not connect to my network or internet at all.

 

If I was to use the NAA, would this setup be correct?

 

On a related note, I would be interested to hear if outputting from HQP to Jplay ASIO sounds better/different than directly to the DAC via the NAA.

[Samuel T Cogley]

Before you figure out what Mac to get, you need to figure out how you're going to do DSD256 or DSD512 from a Mac. See what @ted_b says in Post #4475. Right now, the only way I know to do DSD rates higher than 128 is to use an ExaSound DAC with Exa's Mac ASIO driver.

 

Once you've got that sorted, I'm thinking a loaded mini (3.0GHz dual-core i7, 16GB RAM) or better should be good for what you want, although you might be able to squeak by with a little less. Maybe @Miska can be more definitive about hardware requirements

 

DSD256 with HQPlayer on a Mac is pretty straight forward. The least expensive route I know is an iFi iDSD Nano (~US$200). To get to DSD256 via DoP, a firmware update is needed.

 

Setting aside the poly-sinc vs. poly-sinc-2s debate, a Mac Mini 6,2 (for example) can easily feed an iDSD Nano at DSD256 using poly-sinc-2s.

[Samuel T Cogley]

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.

 

Thanks for this. Tried 20 bits on my Yggy. Still liking the unadulterated bit stream sound better.

[Ipoci]

....

 

If you are planning to HQPlayer, you could try Ubuntu Studio 15.10 Wily Werewolf:

Download Ubuntu Studio « Ubuntu Studio

 

It is very light weight GUI (XFCE) and you shouldn't need to install extra packages in order to run HQPlayer non-DoP (new enough kernel and libasound2). But I'm not 100% sure if the kernel is new enough to have JLsounds support.

 

On Trusty you need to install my patched linux-image, linux-headers and libasound2.

 

I did a short test with OPTION-A Ubuntu Studio 15.10 and JLSounds I2S/DAC pair works and I was able to read DSD256 on LCD panel.

 

In general the sound doesn't convince me and CPU usage was higher than expected, so I ended up with your OPTION-B:

 

- Linux Mint 17.3 cinnamon

- LowLatency 4.4 Wily Kernel patch

- Your alsa, lib* patches for Trusty

 

non-DoP perfectly works, CPU% usage is lower than Ubuntu Studio and sound is very good (better than my super expensive MacBookPro Retina 11,4 just bought)

 

Thanks Miska as always

 

Have a nice day, Massimiliano

 

PS. I have an issue with mute behavior when JLsounds is set to direct DSD but I need to further investigate

[Geardaddy]

Before you figure out what Mac to get, you need to figure out how you're going to do DSD256 or DSD512 from a Mac. See what @ted_b says in Post #4475. Right now, the only way I know to do DSD rates higher than 128 is to use an ExaSound DAC with Exa's Mac ASIO driver.

 

Once you've got that sorted, I'm thinking a loaded mini (3.0GHz dual-core i7, 16GB RAM) or better should be good for what you want, although you might be able to squeak by with a little less. Maybe @Miska can be more definitive about hardware requirements.

 

--David

 

I see. Thank you. I completely forgot about that bottleneck.....I emailed Miska as well so I'll see what he says....

[orgel]

DSD256 with HQPlayer on a Mac is pretty straight forward. The least expensive route I know is an iFi iDSD Nano (~US$200). To get to DSD256 via DoP, a firmware update is needed.

 

Yes, I stand corrected. I was able to do this after the 5.0A firmware upgrade and some futzing around on my iDSD nano hooked up to my Mac Pro.

 

So @Geardaddy, please take note. DSD256 is do-able on a Mac; DSD512 is a problem. I apologize for the bad info. (I can only do DSD128 on my Mytek DAC, so I think that's what confused me.)

 

--David

[ted_b]

I did not say DSD256 is impossible on OSX, I said that the poster with the Moon dac has no custom driver solution so must use DoP, which doesn't look to be supported to DSD256 on the Moon. Yes, us exaSound and iFi, Mytek, etc users can all do it fine....(note: I prefer Windows anyway ).

[Miska]

non-DoP perfectly works, CPU% usage is lower than Ubuntu Studio and sound is very good (better than my super expensive MacBookPro Retina 11,4 just bought)

 

OK, great!

 

PS. I have an issue with mute behavior when JLsounds is set to direct DSD but I need to further investigate

 

What kind of issue? Many DACs get the DSD muting wrong. Especially with DoP, since with DoP the data needs to be flowing in order for DAC to know whether to be in PCM or DSD mode. DSD spec says that output should be muted/ramped for the first ~50 ms after DSD playback is started and for the last ~50 ms before DSD playback stops. This requires some amount of lookahead buffer in the USB receiver so that it can hold 50 ms worth of DSD data.

 

Without that, there can easily be snap'crackle'n'pop when starting and stopping playback.

[Geardaddy]

Yes, I stand corrected. I was able to do this after the 5.0A firmware upgrade and some futzing around on my iDSD nano hooked up to my Mac Pro.

 

So @Geardaddy, please take note. DSD256 is do-able on a Mac; DSD512 is a problem. I apologize for the bad info. (I can only do DSD128 on my Mytek DAC, so I think that's what confused me.)

 

--David

 

No worries. My Lampizator will soon be able to process 512, so I hope to find a Mac solution for that and upsample everything to the hilt.....time will tell....

[Superdad]

No worries. My Lampizator will soon be able to process 512, so I hope to find a Mac solution for that and upsample everything to the hilt.....time will tell....

 

Just to be more clear, the restriction isn't so much the Mac or OS X--except for the fact that Coreaudio requires DoP to send DSD (unless you have a custom ASIO driven DAC like exaSound). It is the DoP 50% overhead required for framing. So a DoP capable USB input board/DAC (such as your Lampi when updated) that can accept the rate for 512 can be driven by a Mac/DoP setup to DSD256.

If your DAC can only go non-DoP to 256, then DoP will only take you to 128.

[bibo01]

Just to be more clear, the restriction isn't so much the Mac or OS X--except for the fact that Coreaudio requires DoP to send DSD (unless you have a custom ASIO driven DAC like exaSound). It is the DoP 50% overhead required for framing. So a DoP capable USB input board/DAC (such as your Lampi when updated) that can accept the rate for 512 can be driven by a Mac/DoP setup to DSD256.

If your DAC can only go non-DoP to 256, then DoP will only take you to 128.

 

Yes, for this reason probably Lampizator has taken the Linux route for their PC offering.

[nautibuoy]

In my Jplay 2 pc setup the control PC has 2 network ports. The first port is used to connect to my router so it can access the NAS where all my music is stored. The second port is used to directly connect the control PC and audio PC. The audio PC does not connect to my network or internet at all.

 

If I was to use the NAA, would this setup be correct?

 

That's essentially what I have; it works well.

 

http://www.computeraudiophile.com/f11-software/hq-player-20293/index178.html#post500496

 

Ray

[ChrisG]

I've been playing around with the evaluation version of HQPlayer and can't get it to work with Roon. I get a message that "Transport:couldn't connect to HQPlayer".

 

The HQPlayer logo is showing as the endpoint on the main screen and under setup, I have HQPlayer pointed at "localhost" since both programs are on the same Win10 PC. I've tried changing the name of localhost to "officepc" which is the name of the PC and have the same result.

 

I can't figure out what else to try to get this working. Any advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

Chris

[Miska]

I've been playing around with the evaluation version of HQPlayer and can't get it to work with Roon. I get a message that "Transport:couldn't connect to HQPlayer".

 

First make sure HQPlayer works alone, without Roon, so you can play content. Then leave HQPlayer running and start Roon, use "localhost" for HQPlayer and when you click Play to play something it should talk to HQPlayer just fine.

 

Windows security software firewalls usually leave "localhost" alone, but there may be exceptions. But at least it should ask for such cases whether you want to allow connections for applications.

[One and a half]

First make sure HQPlayer works alone, without Roon, so you can play content. Then leave HQPlayer running and start Roon, use "localhost" for HQPlayer and when you click Play to play something it should talk to HQPlayer just fine.

 

Windows security software firewalls usually leave "localhost" alone, but there may be exceptions. But at least it should ask for such cases whether you want to allow connections for applications.

 

With version 3.12.0 what does the "control by network" icon do?

[bibo01]

With version 3.12.0 what does the "control by network" icon do?

 

Miska on FB:

"When not selected (button up), control connections (Muso, Roon, hqp-control) are allowed only from the same computer (localhost). When selected (button down), control connections are accepted from other devices, such as other computer or tablet on the local network. Setting is remembered over restarts. This for security and convenience of laptop users who frequently use their computers at home and while traveling."

[Zen101]

Does anyone one know the release cycle time period of HQ Player between versions?

I'm asking because I am waiting for functionality that will be presented in the upcoming 3.13.0 and would like to know how long this may take.

 

I'm referring specifically to the the DSD to PCM conversion [ Roon NAA to HQplayer 3.12.0 ] scenario.

 

Thanks in advance

/Z

[firedog]

Does anyone one know the release cycle time period of HQ Player between versions?

I'm asking because I am waiting for functionality that will be presented in the upcoming 3.13.0 and would like to know how long this may take.

 

I'm referring specifically to the the DSD to PCM conversion [ Roon NAA to HQplayer 3.12.0 ] scenario.

 

Thanks in advance

/Z

 

The "release cycle time" is "whenever Jussi gets to it" and debugged, and is happy with the sound.

 

The real answer is that only Jussi can tell you. If he has concrete information, maybe he will chime in.

[ted_b]

Now that hqp-control specs have been out for some time, has anyone tried to get a remote like JRemote (obviously involving JRIver somehow) or Linn Kazoo (OpenHome control point) to talk to HQPlayer desktop (I am not a candidate for the Linux expertise involved in HQPlayer embedded). Yes, I have Roon enabled but miss the simplicity of my Kazoo or JRemote.

[orgel]

With my antique Mytek DAC, it appears I can upsample to DSD128 with HQP if I use a FireWire connection to the DAC (and it sounds darn good this way). As far as I can tell, I'm limited to DSD64 if I go via USB.

 

I'm aware that getting a new DAC gets me out of this quandary, but short of that, what's the better choice? Stick with the FireWire or go with USB? Bear in mind that with a USB connection I could pretty easily incorporate an inexpensive NAA and/or a USB "conditioner" like the UpTone Regen or the iFi iUSB 3.0.

 

I'm curious to see if there's any kind of consensus on this, but perhaps the FW connection is just too much of an oddball situation for most people to grapple with.

 

--David