HQ Player

[Le Concombre Masqué]

had a kernel panic. was listening for a while to dsd64 upconverted to 128 + convolution, pressed the tab to wake the screen as I intended to skip a track. Only app ( I ) launched was HQP

 

** Panic Report ***

panic(cpu 6 caller 0xffffff802b5ce5fa): Kernel trap at 0xffffff7fad7f20c5, type 14=page fault, registers:

CR0: 0x000000008001003b, CR2: 0x0000000100000217, CR3: 0x00000002602e103c, CR4: 0x00000000001626e0

RAX: 0xffffff7fad85e6f0, RBX: 0x00000000ffffffff, RCX: 0x00000000ffffffff, RDX: 0x0000000000000000

RSP: 0xffffff8138a32f60, RBP: 0xffffff8138a32f80, RSI: 0xffffff8045ebe038, RDI: 0xffffff8045ebe000

R8: 0xffffff80410d0000, R9: 0xffffff913a4f5008, R10: 0xffffff913a4e9dc0, R11: 0xffffff913a4e9df0

R12: 0xffffff8045a3f4e0, R13: 0x0000000000000008, R14: 0x00000000ffffffff, R15: 0xffffff8045ebe000

RFL: 0x0000000000010202, RIP: 0xffffff7fad7f20c5, CS: 0x0000000000000008, SS: 0x0000000000000010

Fault CR2: 0x0000000100000217, Error code: 0x0000000000000000, Fault CPU: 0x6, PL: 0

Backtrace (CPU 6), Frame : Return Address

0xffffff8138a32bf0 : 0xffffff802b4dab12

0xffffff8138a32c70 : 0xffffff802b5ce5fa

0xffffff8138a32e50 : 0xffffff802b5ec463

0xffffff8138a32e70 : 0xffffff7fad7f20c5

0xffffff8138a32f80 : 0xffffff7fad773f79

0xffffff8138a32fc0 : 0xffffff7fad7861f3

0xffffff8138a33000 : 0xffffff7fad836ca9

0xffffff8138a33750 : 0xffffff7fad83c39d

0xffffff8138a33850 : 0xffffff7fad784864

0xffffff8138a338c0 : 0xffffff7fad78449f

0xffffff8138a338e0 : 0xffffff7fad7860c5

0xffffff8138a33910 : 0xffffff7fad83b2d8

0xffffff8138a33930 : 0xffffff7fad77caeb

0xffffff8138a33970 : 0xffffff7fad77f7d5

0xffffff8138a339a0 : 0xffffff7fad81639c

0xffffff8138a33a00 : 0xffffff7fad7793ef

0xffffff8138a33a30 : 0xffffff7fad77f06e

0xffffff8138a33a70 : 0xffffff7fad8171bb

0xffffff8138a33ac0 : 0xffffff7fad7775fe

0xffffff8138a33b50 : 0xffffff802bae1d22

0xffffff8138a33b80 : 0xffffff802bae299a

0xffffff8138a33be0 : 0xffffff802badfa07

0xffffff8138a33d20 : 0xffffff802b597eb0

0xffffff8138a33e30 : 0xffffff802b4df283

0xffffff8138a33e60 : 0xffffff802b4c28b8

0xffffff8138a33ea0 : 0xffffff802b4d2665

0xffffff8138a33f10 : 0xffffff802b5b8dca

0xffffff8138a33fb0 : 0xffffff802b5ecc86

Kernel Extensions in backtrace:

com.apple.iokit.IOAcceleratorFamily2(205.10)[949D9C27-0635-3EE4-B836-373871BC6247]@0xffffff7fad773000->0xffffff7fad7defff

dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOPCIFamily(2.9)[D8216D61-5209-3B0C-866D-7D8B3C5F33FF]@0xffffff7fabd2c000

dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOGraphicsFamily(2.4.1)[172C2960-EDF5-382D-80A5-C13E97D74880]@0xffffff7fac0a9000

com.apple.GeForce(10.1)[3CE13029-AC19-3C15-BAC6-66736DBFD34D]@0xffffff7fad7ed000->0xffffff7fad889fff

dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOPCIFamily(2.9)[D8216D61-5209-3B0C-866D-7D8B3C5F33FF]@0xffffff7fabd2c000

dependency: com.apple.iokit.IONDRVSupport(2.4.1)[1114B99F-E439-329E-876D-1FEC4CF45DF6]@0xffffff7fac0f0000

dependency: com.apple.nvidia.driver.NVDAResman(10.1.0)[8649777A-3EED-3F2F-8B12-FBC5517F62E6]@0xffffff7fac107000

dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOGraphicsFamily(2.4.1)[172C2960-EDF5-382D-80A5-C13E97D74880]@0xffffff7fac0a9000

dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOAcceleratorFamily2(205.10)[949D9C27-0635-3EE4-B836-373871BC6247]@0xffffff7fad773000

BSD process name corresponding to current thread: WindowServer

Mac OS version:

15F34

Kernel version:

Darwin Kernel Version 15.5.0: Tue Apr 19 18:36:36 PDT 2016; root:xnu-3248.50.21~8/RELEASE_X86_64

Kernel UUID: 7E7B0822-D2DE-3B39-A7A5-77B40A668BC6

Kernel slide: 0x000000002b200000

Kernel text base: 0xffffff802b400000

__HIB text base: 0xffffff802b300000

System model name: MacBookPro10,1 (Mac-C3EC7CD22292981F)

System uptime in nanoseconds: 5350465559129

last loaded kext at 2617247830252: com.apple.driver.usb.cdc 5.0.0 (addr 0xffffff7fae4d1000, size 28672)

last unloaded kext at 2678235447636: com.apple.driver.usb.cdc 5.0.0 (addr 0xffffff7fae4d1000, size 28672)

loaded kexts:

com.nvidia.CUDA 1.1.0

com.apple.filesystems.afpfs 11.0

com.apple.nke.asp-tcp 8.0.0

com.apple.driver.AppleHWSensor 1.9.5d0

com.apple.driver.AGPM 110.22.0

com.apple.driver.ApplePlatformEnabler 2.6.0d0

com.apple.driver.X86PlatformShim 1.0.0

com.apple.filesystems.autofs 3.0

com.apple.driver.AppleMikeyHIDDriver 124

com.apple.driver.AppleOSXWatchdog 1

com.apple.driver.AppleMikeyDriver 274.9

com.apple.driver.pmtelemetry 1

com.apple.iokit.IOUserEthernet 1.0.1

com.apple.driver.AppleHDA 274.9

com.apple.driver.AppleUpstreamUserClient 3.6.1

com.apple.iokit.IOBluetoothSerialManager 4.4.5f3

com.apple.Dont_Steal_Mac_OS_X 7.0.0

com.apple.GeForce 10.1.0

com.apple.driver.AppleIntelHD4000Graphics 10.1.4

com.apple.driver.AppleHV 1

com.apple.driver.AppleThunderboltIP 3.0.8

com.apple.iokit.BroadcomBluetoothHostControllerUSBTransport 4.4.5f3

com.apple.driver.AppleSMCPDRC 1.0.0

com.apple.driver.AppleLPC 3.1

com.apple.driver.AppleSMCLMU 208

com.apple.driver.AudioAUUC 1.70

com.apple.driver.AppleIntelFramebufferCapri 10.1.4

com.apple.driver.AppleIntelSlowAdaptiveClocking 4.0.0

com.apple.driver.AppleMCCSControl 1.2.13

com.apple.driver.AppleMuxControl 3.12.8

com.apple.driver.AppleUSBTCButtons 245.4

com.apple.driver.AppleUSBTCKeyboard 245.4

com.apple.AppleFSCompression.AppleFSCompressionTypeDataless 1.0.0d1

com.apple.AppleFSCompression.AppleFSCompressionTypeZlib 1.0.0

com.apple.BootCache 38

com.apple.iokit.IOAHCIBlockStorage 2.8.5

com.apple.driver.AppleSDXC 1.7.0

com.apple.driver.AirPort.Brcm4360 1040.1.1a6

com.apple.driver.AppleAHCIPort 3.1.8

com.apple.driver.usb.AppleUSBEHCIPCI 1.0.1

com.apple.driver.AppleSmartBatteryManager 161.0.0

com.apple.driver.AppleACPIButtons 4.0

com.apple.driver.AppleRTC 2.0

com.apple.driver.AppleHPET 1.8

com.apple.driver.AppleSMBIOS 2.1

com.apple.driver.AppleACPIEC 4.0

com.apple.driver.AppleAPIC 1.7

com.apple.driver.AppleIntelCPUPowerManagementClient 218.0.0

com.apple.nke.applicationfirewall 163

com.apple.security.quarantine 3

com.apple.security.TMSafetyNet 8

com.apple.driver.AppleIntelCPUPowerManagement 218.0.0

com.apple.security.SecureRemotePassword 1.0

com.apple.kext.triggers 1.0

com.apple.driver.DspFuncLib 274.9

com.apple.kext.OSvKernDSPLib 525

com.apple.iokit.IOSerialFamily 11

com.apple.nvidia.driver.NVDAGK100Hal 10.1.0

com.apple.nvidia.driver.NVDAResman 10.1.0

com.apple.iokit.IOSurface 108.2.1

com.apple.driver.CoreCaptureResponder 1

com.apple.iokit.IOBluetoothHostControllerUSBTransport 4.4.5f3

com.apple.iokit.IOBluetoothFamily 4.4.5f3

com.apple.driver.AppleHDAController 274.9

com.apple.iokit.IOHDAFamily 274.9

com.apple.driver.AppleSMBusPCI 1.0.14d1

com.apple.iokit.IOAcceleratorFamily2 205.10

com.apple.AppleGraphicsDeviceControl 3.12.8

com.apple.driver.X86PlatformPlugin 1.0.0

com.apple.driver.IOPlatformPluginFamily 6.0.0d7

com.apple.iokit.IOSlowAdaptiveClockingFamily 1.0.0

com.apple.driver.AppleSMBusController 1.0.14d1

com.apple.driver.AppleBacklightExpert 1.1.0

com.apple.driver.AppleSMC 3.1.9

com.apple.iokit.IONDRVSupport 2.4.1

com.apple.driver.AppleGraphicsControl 3.12.8

com.apple.iokit.IOGraphicsFamily 2.4.1

com.apple.iokit.IOSCSIArchitectureModelFamily 3.7.7

com.apple.driver.AppleUSBAudio 303.3.1

com.apple.iokit.IOAudioFamily 204.4

com.apple.vecLib.kext 1.2.0

com.apple.driver.usb.IOUSBHostHIDDevice 1.0.1

com.apple.driver.AppleUSBMultitouch 250.5

com.apple.iokit.IOUSBHIDDriver 900.4.1

com.apple.driver.usb.networking 5.0.0

com.apple.driver.usb.AppleUSBHostCompositeDevice 1.0.1

com.apple.driver.usb.AppleUSBHub 1.0.1

com.apple.driver.CoreStorage 517.50.1

com.apple.driver.AppleThunderboltDPInAdapter 4.1.3

com.apple.driver.AppleThunderboltDPAdapterFamily 4.1.3

com.apple.driver.AppleThunderboltPCIDownAdapter 2.0.2

com.apple.driver.AppleThunderboltNHI 4.0.4

com.apple.iokit.IOThunderboltFamily 6.0.2

com.apple.iokit.IO80211Family 1110.26

com.apple.driver.mDNSOffloadUserClient 1.0.1b8

com.apple.iokit.IONetworkingFamily 3.2

com.apple.driver.corecapture 1.0.4

com.apple.iokit.IOAHCIFamily 2.8.1

com.apple.driver.usb.AppleUSBEHCI 1.0.1

com.apple.driver.usb.AppleUSBXHCIPCI 1.0.1

com.apple.driver.usb.AppleUSBXHCI 1.0.1

com.apple.iokit.IOUSBFamily 900.4.1

com.apple.iokit.IOUSBHostFamily 1.0.1

com.apple.driver.AppleUSBHostMergeProperties 1.0.1

com.apple.driver.AppleEFINVRAM 2.0

com.apple.driver.AppleEFIRuntime 2.0

com.apple.iokit.IOHIDFamily 2.0.0

com.apple.iokit.IOSMBusFamily 1.1

com.apple.security.sandbox 300.0

com.apple.kext.AppleMatch 1.0.0d1

com.apple.driver.AppleKeyStore 2

com.apple.driver.AppleMobileFileIntegrity 1.0.5

com.apple.driver.AppleCredentialManager 1.0

com.apple.driver.DiskImages 417.4

com.apple.iokit.IOStorageFamily 2.1

com.apple.iokit.IOReportFamily 31

com.apple.driver.AppleFDEKeyStore 28.30

com.apple.driver.AppleACPIPlatform 4.0

com.apple.iokit.IOPCIFamily 2.9

com.apple.iokit.IOACPIFamily 1.4

com.apple.kec.Libm 1

com.apple.kec.pthread 1

com.apple.kec.corecrypto 1.0

Model: MacBookPro10,1, BootROM MBP101.00EE.B0A, 4 processors, Intel Core i7, 2,3 GHz, 8 GB, SMC 2.3f36

Graphics: Intel HD Graphics 4000, Intel HD Graphics 4000, Built-In

Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M, NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M, PCIe, 1024 MB

Memory Module: BANK 0/DIMM0, 4 GB, DDR3, 1600 MHz, 0x80AD, 0x484D54333531533642465238432D50422020

Memory Module: BANK 1/DIMM0, 4 GB, DDR3, 1600 MHz, 0x80AD, 0x484D54333531533642465238432D50422020

AirPort: spairport_wireless_card_type_airport_extreme (0x14E4, 0xEF), Broadcom BCM43xx 1.0 (7.21.95.175.1a6)

Bluetooth: Version 4.4.5f3 17904, 3 services, 18 devices, 1 incoming serial ports

Network Service: Wi-Fi, AirPort, en0

Serial ATA Device: APPLE SSD SM256E, 251 GB

USB Device: USB 2.0 Bus

USB Device: Hub

USB Device: FaceTime HD Camera (Built-in)

USB Device: USB 2.0 Bus

USB Device: Hub

USB Device: Hub

USB Device: Apple Internal Keyboard / Trackpad

USB Device: BRCM20702 Hub

USB Device: Bluetooth USB Host Controller

USB Device: USB 3.0 Bus

USB Device: Hub

USB Device: V1.1

USB Device: Hub

USB Device: TEAC UD-501

Thunderbolt Bus: MacBook Pro, Apple Inc., 23.4

[wisnon]

Here is a theoretical idea being discussed a bit over on the T+A thread. These are my takes on what I am calling a proposed option called "HQP Offline".

 

Since DSD512 realtime upsampling is so cpu intensive and requires some major hardware commitment, and since many have asked for other GUI front ends for HQPlayer, what about this crazy idea: Jussi develops an offline capability to upsample (using same choices of filters, modulators, etc) to, say, DSD512 (or whatever). Yes, the storage requirements are massive, but it's not like we all listen to ALL of our library anyway. Offline upsampling cold be done on a need to hear basis, of course.

 

My stupid brain says this might free up the cpu needs somewhat (i.e batch process the upsampling overnight and let lower powered cpus take their time doing the work since this is not required realtime) and maybe free up playback to most any player or control point/renderer (assuming the final playback stage of HQP is not anything required....I do not know cuz I've never played HQPlayer in "passthrough" mode). Just spit-balling here.

 

My $.02

 

Me likey!

[wisnon]

Idea is good

Someone with low powered pcs can enjoy dsd upsampling

 

But then how can you choose one day before what you want to listen?

Personally choice of music depends on how the day went, how is the weather, etc

 

Also if you see someone who can afford a dsd 512 capable dac can obviously afford an i5 based pc

In recent times we are getting pocket rockets like ifi micro idsd, but not sure how good they are as have not heard them

 

Recent times? I have owned that Dac for over a year now!

 

I though to avoid stutter in real time 512 upsampling you need i6700k SKYLake, not an i5.

[rikhav]

Recent times? I have owned that Dac for over a year now!

 

I though to avoid stutter in real time 512 upsampling you need i6700k SKYLake, not an i5.

 

 

Yes agree to that, DSD 512 upsampling will need 6700k and above to do the processing without taxing the cpu. Anything above 70 percent CPU load is taxing

 

But then it depends upon individual.

Are you OK listening at say DSD256 but do it on the fly or rather do offline upsampling before hand but then get restricted to listening whatever you have upsampled

 

Ok by "recent times" I meant a year or so around

[wisnon]

I hear what you say, but the ifi existed before there was any practical means to deliver DSD512 to it. Recent times for me is the last few months since SGM and Skylake CPU based computer have been available to do the job.

 

I want it all. Offline and on the fly upsampling capabilities. suppose I want to take my ifi to a pal with an i5 computer and show him/her what DSD512 sounds like. I could capure a few demo tracks at 512 and take them along to their place with the idsd micro and impress the hell outta them. No way would I be lugging a beastly 'Puter. LoL

[rikhav]

I hear what you say, but the ifi existed before there was any practical means to deliver DSD512 to it. Recent times for me is the last few months since SGM and Skylake CPU based computer have been available to do the job.

 

I want it all. Offline and on the fly upsampling capabilities. suppose I want to take my ifi to a pal with an i5 computer and show him/her what DSD512 sounds like. I could capure a few demo tracks at 512 and take them along to their place with the idsd micro and impress the hell outta them. No way would I be lugging a beastly 'Puter. LoL

 

 

I agree with what you say and reasons for it

 

But I am not sure if Miska will be so keen to develop offline upsampling.

[wisnon]

I agree with what you say and reasons for it

 

But I am not sure if Miska will be so keen to develop offline upsampling.

 

Unfortunately, I think you are correct! Jussi may be concerned about his IP.

I think similarly Rob Watts of Chord does a trick to shield filter data from being captured in his Watts Transient Aligned (WTA) filter module in the FPGA of his Chord Dacs. HQP is software, so perhaps is more easily reverse engineered?

[Miska]

had a kernel panic. was listening for a while to dsd64 upconverted to 128 + convolution, pressed the tab to wake the screen as I intended to skip a track. Only app ( I ) launched was HQP

 

Looks like crash in the nVidia driver. Did you have CUDA offload enabled? Do you have latest CUDA driver installed? Apple frequently breaks third party components whenever they update OS X, so you need to keep eye on driver updates.

 

OS X also has pretty flaky USB drivers, almost certain way to get OS X to lock-up on my iMac is to keep Schiit Loki DAC connected. And the crash happens in the Apple's own USB driver.

[Miska]

I hear what you say, but the ifi existed before there was any practical means to deliver DSD512 to it. Recent times for me is the last few months since SGM and Skylake CPU based computer have been available to do the job.

 

I want it all. Offline and on the fly upsampling capabilities. suppose I want to take my ifi to a pal with an i5 computer and show him/her what DSD512 sounds like. I could capure a few demo tracks at 512 and take them along to their place with the idsd micro and impress the hell outta them. No way would I be lugging a beastly 'Puter. LoL

 

Hey, c'mon, you don't need Skylake to do DSD512. I've been doing it for ages on my Haswell-EP Xeon E5 workstation, not sure which one I got first, the workstation or iFi iDSD Micro, but the combination works. (now there are also the new Broadwell-E CPUs with quad-channel memory and more cores for those with X99 chipset mobos and who want to multichannel)

 

With -2s filters I believe Skylake i5-6600K should do. Beefed up with NVidia GPU, should be even better.

[Miska]

Well, that's my point though, given that the DAC takes over the oversampling (before generating the analog signal) from some frequency point, is there a benefit in having one type of upsampling (in software) to take it to that point and then allow hardware to take over from there in a different way?

 

You should feed the DAC with DSD input instead of PCM. Then it'll do much less messing around with the data it is given...

[Miska]

Miska, I need your help, when I try to play PCM or DSD files using Roon+HQPlayer my Mac Mini crash after a few second of playing the file other time it play one song, two and then crash again.. This only happen under Roon+HQplayer.

Roon directly to my Dac: no problem

HQplayer alone no problem

 

the above behavior happen with all filters and upsampling choices.. I have the later Roon and HQPlayer(registered copy)

 

What do you mean by crash? What crashes, some application, the OS, or what exactly happens? Overall, the combination of Roon and HQPlayer has the highest resource demands from the computer. Roon is pretty heavy in I/O a graphical way and HQPlayer is heavy in raw computational way.

[Miska]

You can find the most up-to-date user manual in your HQPlayer installation directory.

 

On Windows and Linux, start-menu entry for the manual is created in the HQPlayer start-menu group. On either, just open the start menu and type "HQPlayer" and you'll see it. On Mac, manual PDF is included in the DMG file and can be copied to some preferred place while performing the installation.

[Miska]

I tried running this command but always get "Connection refused" error

 

& ("C:\Program Files (x86)\Signalyst\HQPlayer Desktop 3/hqp-control.exe") localhost 'G:\LossLessMusic\HQP-Playlist.m3u8'

hqp-control.exe : error: Connection refused

At line:1 char:1

+ & ("C:\Program Files (x86)\Signalyst\HQPlayer Desktop 3/hqp-control.exe") localh ...

+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

+ CategoryInfo : NotSpecified: (error: Connection refused:String) [], RemoteException

+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : NativeCommandError

 

Did you have HQPlayer running on the same machine? And sure that firewall is not blocking the communication between the hqp-control and HQPlayer processes?

[Miska]

Since DSD512 realtime upsampling is so cpu intensive and requires some major hardware commitment, and since many have asked for other GUI front ends for HQPlayer, what about this crazy idea: Jussi develops an offline capability to upsample (using same choices of filters, modulators, etc) to, say, DSD512 (or whatever). Yes, the storage requirements are massive, but it's not like we all listen to ALL of our library anyway. Offline upsampling cold be done on a need to hear basis, of course.

 

That would be another application, requiring a new GUI and aimed for studio/production use. License price estimate for such would be somewhere around 2500€ due to lower sales volumes.

[RRSR]

Hi there!

 

i am enjoying from several months playing music thought Hqplayer to my lampi Dac, my favorite settings are asymFIR filter + shaped dither for all kind of music (yes, i know, for pop and electronic music too, not only for jazz...) but i would like to share my experience about setting volume level to -3db; i know about clipping risk when upsampling but turning down volume to -3db make a lose in "live like" sense of the music, less sense of power and dynamic, you can't feel the transients as they are...even if you increase volume level +3db at the amp, why is that?

[Miska]

Please, don't draw the assumption that I'm a fan of Archimago, far from it, but here, Archimago's Musings: MEASUREMENTS: TEAC UD-501 DSD Performance (Part 3), his tests show a difference between 64 and 128, 128 being pretty neat ; is there any such comparison up to 512 ? I have no personal experience of 512 but the experience that high cpu usage takes a toll on SQ and I do wonder if 512 is so much neater than the neat 128 so it offsets the cpu toll...

 

I've posted some here on my blog, for the iDSD Micro. I'm all the time doing measurements for various DACs, including T+A DAC8 DSD, but haven't got time to post anything online.

[Miska]

UPDATE: One more difference I can see, there is a dark band in HQP around 2.8 kHz that is missing on A+. Also, there is definitely more energy between 16 and 20 kHz in A+ with quite a few bright dots and stripes.

 

What kind of upsampling settings do you run on A+? If nothing, there you are comparing Ayre's filters to HQPlayer's. If you have Ayre's filter set to "listen", then it is very leaky one and you likely get some aliasing visible in the top octave.

[Miska]

Oh - and I think it would be great to have Small Green Computer or someone sell two versions of the DSC-1 (or DSC-2 as it evolves)

 

They could, if they wanted to, as long as they follow the license terms...

 

There are some things that could be fixed and improved in the DSC-1 design, but I haven't got time to update the design files to reflect those changes.

 

Since we are HQPlayer folks here, it could be DSD 512-only. That would constrain the hardware design and maybe make it easier to have it at lower cost. That would kind of be funny - a DSD 512-only DAC. Not even 256 or anything else. Certainly gives the hardware side focus.

 

DSC-1 works just fine from DSD128 upwards, so there is not really anything to be saved by restricting rates. Hardware-wise supporting DSD128, DSD256 and DSD512 doesn't need anything extra compared to supporting just DSD512.

[Miska]

I never said I used any up- or cross-format conversion in A+ though--I never do that for PCM either. In fact, given that my DAC over-samples by 16x internally in hardware, my theory goes that whatever the up-sampling on the software side, (a) the DAC will over-sample further internally and the two methods may clash in some way and (b) the way the DAC was designed, I'm sure they never fed anything but native non-upsampled tracks. So, yes, the less _may be_ more.

 

With the HQPlayer settings you posted you are doing upsampling in HQPlayer. And there's no point in using HQPlayer if you don't. And no, the oversampling doesn't clash. But to ensure best performance with HQPlayer and your Ayre, I suggest trying out HQPlayer upsampling to DSD. Although you are limited to DSD64 only (so you get just a faint idea).

[Miska]

i am enjoying from several months playing music thought Hqplayer to my lampi Dac, my favorite settings are asymFIR filter + shaped dither for all kind of music (yes, i know, for pop and electronic music too, not only for jazz...) but i would like to share my experience about setting volume level to -3db; i know about clipping risk when upsampling but turning down volume to -3db make a lose in "live like" sense of the music, less sense of power and dynamic, you can't feel the transients as they are...even if you increase volume level +3db at the amp, why is that?

 

Because it is not clipping anymore, or not at least as badly. So you get less distortion, sound is cleaner, less loudness-wars effect...

 

Most modern pop/rock/electronic music available in RedBook format has horrible production, everything pushed to clipping.

 

If you turn volume higher on HQPlayer, you risk hitting the internal soft-knee limiter. So keep eye on the "Limited" counter in HQPlayer main window. It should always stay zero. It is better to not hit the limiter... Depending on content you may be fine with other settings less than -3 dBFS, but that is what I've found to be safe in all cases I've tested so far. Even with one of the worst examples, RHCP - Californication.

[RRSR]

Because it is not clipping anymore, or not at least as badly. So you get less distortion, sound is cleaner, less loudness-wars effect...

 

Most modern pop/rock/electronic music available in RedBook format has horrible production, everything pushed to clipping.

 

If you turn volume higher on HQPlayer, you risk hitting the internal soft-knee limiter. So keep eye on the "Limited" counter in HQPlayer main window. It should always stay zero. It is better to not hit the limiter... Depending on content you may be fine with other settings less than -3 dBFS, but that is what I've found to be safe in all cases I've tested so far. Even with one of the worst examples, RHCP - Californication.

 

yeah, maybe Californication is the winner of loudnees- wars!.

Thank you Miska.

[Larryng]

Just reported that I can do DSD512 on DELL XPS notebook running Itel i7-3687 2.1Ghz , max 2.6Ghz (supposed 2 cores 4 treads) with HQP setting : poly-sinc-mp-2s (ASDM5) ONLY with Pipeline SDM disable ! It runs smoothly without stuttering . Maybe the first 2 cores 4 treads CPU successfully doing DSD512.

[Le Concombre Masqué]

thank you ; yes CUDA offload was enabled. Think the nVidia driver is current while I'm lagging an update in os X

Looks like crash in the nVidia driver. Did you have CUDA offload enabled? Do you have latest CUDA driver installed? Apple frequently breaks third party components whenever they update OS X, so you need to keep eye on driver updates.

 

OS X also has pretty flaky USB drivers, almost certain way to get OS X to lock-up on my iMac is to keep Schiit Loki DAC connected. And the crash happens in the Apple's own USB driver.

[Le Concombre Masqué]

I feel stupid ! in case I have a dumb brother here, may I suggest you put a link to your blog in your sig ?

Most interesting reading.

256 appears to be the sweetspot. Hum... now I want it ! but would not change os and raise the toll on cpu to get 512

 

I've posted some here on my blog, for the iDSD Micro. I'm all the time doing measurements for various DACs, including T+A DAC8 DSD, but haven't got time to post anything online.

[bibo01]

I feel stupid ! in case I have a dumb brother here, may I suggest you put a link to your blog in your sig ?

Most interesting reading.

256 appears to be the sweetspot. Hum... now I want it ! but would not change os and raise the toll on cpu to get 512

 

It's under his nick on the left - "Blog entries".