HQ Player

[EuroDriver]

Today I upgraded my Windows 10 preview to the latest version. Microsoft just released it. I turned on HQP and the difference in sound quality is dramatic. Actually mind blowing. I don't know what they did but I have never heard anything like this. I suggest windows users run for this upgrade. I was not expecting any change but you have to hear this to believe it.

 

Maybe MS exchanged some OS components for components from WS2012 ?

 

How big is Win 10 ? Min RAM size ? What size partition does it need ? Are you able to select between Win 8.1 and Win 10

 

are you using 2 PC setup with NAA ? Have you tried WS2012 with AO before ?

[EuroDriver]

This is a difficult post to write, because the results we got today goes almost completely against what I thought I understood about computer audio.

 

The set up

 

HQ Player desktop on Win 8.1 on Mac Pro > LAN > GB switch > TP Link > optical > TP Link >NAA on WS 2012 + AO in MSM > Tellurium Q Black Diamond USB > ExaSound E22 > Hypex Ncore > KEF Blade

 

16/44 to DSD256 with Polysinc and DSD7

 

It sounded great, then we install Primo RamDisk on the Mac Pro and place all of the HQ Player Desktop files in the RAM disk. What happens, the SQ takes a leap upwards. Its like a camera being brought into focus, the sonic picture is so sharp, clear and real. It's not the sort of improvement you get when you lower the noise floor.

 

What the hell is going on ? We have optical isolation of the Ethernet connection to the NAA, so it not a matter of RF signature of the MacPro being reduced by the RAM disk. The NAA is doing buffering, the E22 is doing buffering. Buffered bits are arriving on time controlled by the femto clock in the E22 !

 

Then we have PaulR's experience with a player running virtual under VMware and sounding better. Nexthardware forum members report Primo Ram Disk on the HQ Player server making a SQ difference.

 

Here is a quote from Audiodan

 

My two cents about a lot of arguments of a really complex system.

I'm now listening to my music with this set:

Server: Winserver 2012R2+ AO+Primo Ramdisk (for music files only in I/O mode)+ HQ

NAA: Winserver 2012R2 +AO+Primo Ramdisk (where stay NAD.exe)+jplay

Both PC are connected by double TPlink 210 plus fiber cable (static IP).

Although i'm still testing not only the sound quality of the system but, more important for me, his stability, I can come to some conclusion:

1) I've affirmed again and again, from my first use of HQ+NAA system (only or yet one year ago!), that is not true that server quality, PSU and so on was non influential on SQ because LAN connection was galvanically isolated. This statement is simply not true and also adding the optical fiber to the ethernet connection you'll be able to easily perceive that every change on the server has an effect on SQ.

2) Windows NAA is clearly superior to the Linux+Cubox and quality of HW, especially mobo quality, is also really important

3) Every program you want to install on PC, server or NAA, must be installed before AO install. Primo Ramdisk (server!) make is excellent job with no issue if installed in this way.

4) in my system HQ is better in RAM on W8.1 and in C: on WinServer but also in W8.1 with fiber connection. NAD is always better in ramdisk, with both OS.

5) music files sounds always better from ramdisk

The fact that I'm using a nodac (DSD direct stream from JLSounds I2S over USB interface, with only a first order lpf) allow me to listen to each change of SQ without any DAC (and his manipulations!)interference, a great advantage in my opinion.

Probably this setup is the better you can get with a pc but it's a very complex system, I'm still testing the great number of combinations in the sound signature considering the relationship derived from the sum of HQ+AO+Jplay, each one with complex settings crossing mutually.

My aim, at the end of this complicated evaluation, is to compare my previous good server setting W8.1 based (HQ+ramdisk+jplay) with the best final WinServer edition, to decide if this really hard, complex and expansive work make sense or not. Surely it's not trivial....but also very promising.

 

Contrary to Audiodan's post we found putting the music file in RamDisk made no difference we could hear. Putting HQ Player files in RamDisk made a huge difference.

 

Scratching my head till it hurts

 

Edward

[EuroDriver]

I started all this regarding Primo Ramdisk configuration on Windows computer. I originally did my own testing and discovery then contacted Bibo01 by pm and we had many private discussions on the subject. Finally he said he was going to put this on the Italian forum for testing. I found as you did that putting HQP in ramdisk made a huge difference. I also find on Windows computer that putting the music in ramdisk makes a positive difference. While it seems that any ramdisk will make a difference the one from Primo was clearly the best (I had tested several). It seems that all ramdisks are not created equal. I have been using this configuration for several months. I was pleased to see that Bibo01 and his Italian members confirmed my own findings. I cannot speak for results using NAA as I don't use one.

 

The technical reasons for improvement are unknown to me. I can speculate, but I really don't know why it makes such as obvious improvement.

 

So you are the MAN !

 

Now you need to test HQ Player on Windows 10 with Primo RamDisk against HQ Player on WS2012 + AO with Primo RamDisk and tells us what you hear ;-)

 

Any special reason why you have not tried out NAA ?

[EuroDriver]

To be honest the sound with this latest version of Windows 10 is so good that I do not need to do any further testing. This is a hobby but there is a point at which you just say it is marvelous and let it go.

 

I have not tried NAA because I could never see the logic to it. I know that puts me in the minority here but so be it. I can enjoy my music as it is I don't really need any further enhancements. I have serious doubt that an NAA would do anything to improve my system. I'm too lazy to bother investing in all that to have some tiny computer play my music. I think my computer is just fine.

 

you make a very good point ! The results we got yesterday were so close to live, hey relax now and enjoy the music

 

does Windows 10 benefit from Primo RamDisk, or does it sound fine without ?

 

can you tell us your system details ?

[EuroDriver]

Yes even on the new windows there is a benefit to Primo although it is not as dramatic as it was on the previous operating system. Microsoft has really done something special in this latest 10041 version.

 

My system is a Intel 3770 with 16 gig of ram. I use a corsair power supply. I have this in a very large floor standing case so components are not crammed in together. I use the usb interface to my dac which has the Amanero setup for native dsd. Most of my music files are Redbook upsampled to dsd 256 with HQP.

 

Which settings are you liking for Redbook to DSD256 ? Which DAC do you have ?

 

My PC, which is now doing duty as NAA, only has 2GB ram, it needs an upgrade ;-)

 

Hope to have a chance to try out 10041 soon

[EuroDriver]

Thanks for alerting me that this review was out.

 

To add a little color, I was the guy at his house that set up HQPlayer.

 

Doug is a really nice guy, and his system and room sounded fantastic.

 

Clipper,

 

Looking at your posts, you are an early adopter of HQ Player running on WS2012 + AO.

 

Can you tell us about your current preferred set up ? I have have not been able to get NAA running in WS2012 + AO in Core mode

 

Re the Dagogo review, I have trouble accepting that a Mac running HQ Player was not out performed by HQ Player on WS2012 + AO, can you shed some light on this ?

 

Best

 

Ed

[EuroDriver]

Hi Ed.

 

I'm a big fan of HQPlayer and WS2012 and AO.

 

Up until the last week or so, I've been running HQPlayer and JPLAY on a Win 8.1 machine, outputting to a WS2012/AO/JPLAY machine. I love the sound and that has been my preferred method.

 

What happens to you when you try to run NAA on WS2012 in core mode? Are you getting an AVRT.DLL is missing error? If so, try to find and copy (from a different Windows installation, for instance) avrt.dll to the directory where networkaudiod resides. I copied mine from a Win 8.1 installation (C:\Windows\System32\avrt.dll).

 

Recently I built a machine for someone (as a favor), and have been listening to it as a single PC solution while it (and the Paul Pang USB card inside) burns in.

 

There's a new version of JPLAY that's in beta (version 6), and it is, in my opinion, outstanding. I've been using it since the early betas, and I think it's almost ready to be released. I use it with HQPlayer, and the the sound is magnificent. I urge people to give it a try. The sound I'm getting is the best I've ever heard (at least on my equipment).

 

I bring up JPLAY because some of the new optimizations are specifically tailored to those using a 1 PC solution (although the JPLAY guys still say that a 2-PC solution is best). I'm going to go back to my 2-PC solution late tonight, but what I've been hearing from the 1 PC with HQPlayer and the beta JPLAY is amazing. Here's a link to a thread on the beta if anyone is interested: http://jplay.eu/forum/index.php?/topic/1607-jplay-6-beta-program.

 

As for why HQPlayer on his mac mini wasn't outperformed by HQPlayer running on two machines (one of them being a WS2012/AO machine): I don't think we were really directly comparing these to each other.

 

We first listened to his system, including his normal method of file playback on his mac mini. The 2-PC system was definitely much better, but I personally attribute much of that to the great HQPlayer software rather than to the hardware. Then we went back to his method of file playback on his mac mini and compared it to HQPlayer running on his mac mini. Again, the improvement was dramatic.

 

If we had had more time, I would have loved to really A/B the 2 PCs and the mac mini...

 

 

I was trying to run the 64 bit version of NAA, and I copied the avrt.dll from the WOWSYS64 directory into the HQ Player directory. I will have a go with avrt.dll from Win 8.1

 

Have you run both machines, HQ Player desktop and NAA, on WS2012 ? I have not tried this yet

 

One thing you might like to try is running Primo Ramdisk on both the desktop PC and the NAA PC and have the relevant HQ Player directory files on Ramdisk

 

Unfortunately my DAC is pretty much ASIO only so JPlay is not an option at this time

[EuroDriver]

At the end, after a month of efforts, yesterday I succeeded to listen to music with this windows setup:

Server: HQ (Beta4) on winserver 2012 r2 + AO +ramdisk

NAA: Networkaudiod 301 + winserver 2012 r2+AO+Jplay 6 (beta5)+ramdisk

Both PC are connected by two TP link MC210cs and optical fiber cable.

A more detailed description will follow but it's important to underline that core mode is possible to use on both PC and above all this setup has produced the best sound quality I've ever listen to from a digital front end in my listening room. It's worth it, sound is simply astounding.

 

Very happy to hear ! Which A-Optimizer settings do you have for each OS ?

 

Looking forward to your following posts and descriptions

 

note to others, audiodan has a DAC Chipless setup ! Sound card passing the DSD bit stream to an analog low pass filter. No DSP what so ever, audiodan can hear every nuance that the software player and the OS are influencing in both the digital and analog domains. audiodan is literally listening to the bits ;-)

[EuroDriver]

Hi all I have followed the experience of chodi on the windows 10. My previous configuration with single pc windows 2012 server with AO jplay 6 and hqplayer played divinely, with Hqplayer and Jplay in RAM disk with primo Ramdisk. The music however was loaded in another virtual drive always in RAM. I decided to put then on the same system with windows 10 latest build with the same indentiche settings, with various disabling unnecessary services, since in any case I could not use that AO is not compatible. I made the comparison again and again and Windows 10 came out much better with a stage and an even larger instrument air better, in short, the previous system was found to be more dark and narrow. If someone wants to try and strengthen my hypothesis would be grateful.

 

p.s .

I mean that win10 and already very stable and compatible with the latest build. The only advice I can give is that the first RAM disk for some problem, I suggest instead use SoftPerfect RAMDISK.

 

Hi ciccio112,

 

Can you give some details about your PC's, DAC and playback system

 

I hope to be able to try out Win10 this coming week

 

Regards

 

Ed

[EuroDriver]

Might be a dumb question: Tidal, can I play Tidal files on HQPlayer converted to DSD 128?

 

Yes and very nicely !

 

check out this blog

Lossless Streaming Services - Blogs - Computer Audiophile

 

then contact Geoff for further questions

[EuroDriver]

Follow up question: Does playing Tidal files (CD quality) sound as good as CD rips from an HD using HQPlayer converting to DSD 128?

 

With a 2 PC setup and optical isolation of the HQ Player NAA's Ethernet connection, we have had results with TIDAL and QOBUZ that are very hard to distinguish from playing the same content off the onboard SSD of the HQ Player Desktop machine

[EuroDriver]

ted_b

1) I have found that I often enjoy 352k or 384k PCM upsampling of redbook and other PCM, rather than DSD upconverting. Any other exaSound users agree? and is exact multiple upsampling important in HQP (i.e 352k for 44k) or is it better to send 48k-based-upsamples across USB anyway (Miska says earlier that USB likes 48k math)?

 

 

From time to time I listen to 352 PCM on my E20 when my laptop PC can not handle PCM to DSD256. It sounds very good, but IME never as good as PCM to DSD 256

[EuroDriver]

Well, after listening for a week from HQP on ram disk I returned back to no ram disk setting. In my system ram disk usage degrades sound quality similarly to what Ted described.

 

Which Ram Disk program and what settings were you using ?

 

which kind of RAM do you have in your PC (s) ?

 

running single PC or two PC ?

[EuroDriver]

Mac OS, RAMDiskCreator

 

tks is for the info. I did not know that MAC Ram Disk could result in changes that are not liked.

[EuroDriver]

(–) ram disk when I want more dynamic heavy full-spectre sound from amplified instruments, as in rock music;

(+) ram disk when I want more natural, clean, transparent, airy sound from acoustic, specifically small scale jazz or chamber music.

 

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 ;-)

[EuroDriver]

Posted this on Server channel, but perhaps it belongs here:

 

Optimal Server for HQPLayer?

 

 

Amazed by the outstanding musicality of CD rips (have 2,500) converted to DSD128 with HQPlayer...unable to play DSD256 with Mytek DSD192 and 2010 Mac Mini 2Core, which also chokes on some of the filter options at DSD128.

 

Understanding that I'd need to upgrade DAC to a Manhattan, exasound... to get to DSD256 or above, I'd also need more computational power, RAM (say 16GB), L3 cache, the power supply to keep it running quietly...

 

Anybody have and idea?

 

Was thinking about a 2012 i7 Mac Mini with an outboard power supply, because at least I know how to use a Mac. Well, sort of.

 

On my i7 3770 machine I am only running with 2GB RAM. I would suggest 4GB is more than enough for Ramdisk and HQ Player

[EuroDriver]

EuroDriver,

 

Just curious, are you not using the latest 3.7.x HQ Player or have you not bothered to update your signature?

 

 

Sig updated. It's hard to keep up with Miska's releases ;-)

[EuroDriver]

Miska,

 

I just want to let you know that the low level clicking is still there in version 2.71 for Windows. It is very very low level and random only in the right channel. I only discovered this using sensitive iem's. Using full size headphones it is not noticeable. I am not complaining just informing you so that you can look into it. It is extremely low level so put on your iem's if you are looking for it and crank up the volume on soft passages. That way you will hear it. It is very random so it may play for one or two minutes before you hear it again.

 

Miska,

 

on 3.7.0 for Windows, I did a demonstration for two 30 year olds with very good ears, and they heard low level clicks about every one to two minutes. When they pointed this out to me, I could hear this too

[EuroDriver]

On 3.7.0 it appeared due to CPU load peak causing drop-outs. Now it certainly shouldn't happen. If you still get clicks, something else is causing drop-outs or you get clipping (IOW, have volume set higher than -2 dBFS). On Windows or Linux, try increasing buffer time or lowering volume. On Mac OS X you can only adjust volume, buffer time is decided by CoreAudio.

 

I know from measurements that I'm not getting any clicks...

 

Miska,

 

Thanks for this, I will upgrade to 3.7.1 soonest

[EuroDriver]

FWIW my 3770 and 4930 sound indistinguishable from one another. 3770 has enough processing power to handle Polysinc filter for PCM to DSD256. The 4930 did not have enough horses to do Polysinc to DSD512

 

I have yet to try a Xeon. The Xeon's have a different memory controller and I am wondering if it makes a sonic difference, especial if one is using a RamDisk program like Primo which writes its data sequentially

 

changing the subject, I find OS tuning makes an incredible difference, and the reports on battery powered SSD fit with my observations too

[EuroDriver]

Not sure why I am posting this, but thought some might get some info from it:

 

As I took on the reveiw (front page) for the new inexpensive exaSound e12 DAC I decided to revisit HQPlayer (tried it years ago and gave up). I describe all this in the review.

 

But...what I don't describe are two things: my using HQPlayer in conjunction with convolution, and what that does to a pc that I assumed had plenty of horsepower.

 

Convolution: while playing Jared Sacks' DSD music for him it became obvious that I have gotten very used to a 72hz bump at my listening position. I have a music room that has significant (25 bass traps, 400 lb floating wall behind video screen acting as helmholtz resonator, acoustic cloud above listening area, har slat side wall and ceiling diffraction, etc etc) room treatments applied.

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]18607[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=CONFIG]18608[/ATTACH]

 

The sound is magnificent....except for a 72 hz large bump at the lp. Jared heard it and it reminded me I had gotten so used to it that I was oblivious to its harm. Argh! Well..when Jared headed back to Holland I was on the warpath to have it ameliorated. It was then that Jussi's convolution capability hit home. Holy sh&t, I could do room correction in DSD! I contacted the wonderful Jeff Hedback, my acoustician, and he was more than ready to take one of my recent test sweeps and create some experimental IR filter files for use in HQPlayer. Nothing too complex, just generally a notch filter at 72hz with a few trial and error q sizes. I was less than optimistic; I'd been so anti-DSP that I couldn't see passed it, but then again I had been anti-upsampling too, and now that I discovered HQplayer that territory had become more friendly...so why not DSP.

 

On our second try at eq filters Jeff got it nailed! The new smoother frequency response, especially with PCM-based pop, jazz and rock music, was eye opening. It wasn't just less-boomy bass notes but it was an overall smoothness and clarity to all aspects of the soundstage. And at least in PCM I could hear no downsides, zero (easy at a/b by turning off convolver). Then I tried to upsample eq'd PCM to DSD (convolver works in PCM first, then upconverts to DSD256). Nice!

 

So, now that I became very happy with the new eq'd sound I tried eq'd DSD64 and eq'd DSD128 to DSD256 (convolver working in DSD now). Ouch. Both 64 and 128 source files hiccuped, 128 barely played. The exaSound had sounded good in 128 but great in 256, so I was initially disappointed I couldn't get to 256 with the convolver baggage.

 

My pc is the Caps 3 Zuma (Asus P8H-77i, i7 3770S, 16GB RAM), running AO and WS2012. PCM-to-PCM384 eq'd upsampling was a measly 4% cpu load. Nothing! But introduce DSD into the equation and the numbers began to pile up.

 

Here are my measurements (% overall cpu with eq on):

Sample rate 5.6Mhz 11.2Mhz

16/44 18 34

24/96 21 36

24/192 25 38

DSD64 43 60 **

DSD128 58 67 **

 

** causes unlistenable hiccups

 

Furthermore, after Jussi reminded me to check the four cpu cores it was shown that both hiccup scenarios had some cores max'ing out near or at 100%. In HQPlayer's defense, room correction in DSD is no small matter.

 

Moreover, even when I backed off to upsampling eq'd DSD to DSD128 (playable) i noticed a small veil over the music that was not worth the effort (compared to Direct SDM)..

 

Enter Pipeline SDM! Now, the first hiccup scenario (eq'd DSD64 to DSD256) played without a hitch, and sounded much better, with no veil whatsoever..and of course the added smoother frequency response benefits. The second scenario (eq'd DSD128 to DSD256) played with fewer dropouts, but any dropouts is a no-go..so for DSD128 I back off to eq'd DSD128. Again, no sign of any noticeable veil. Voila!!

 

My next frontier is eq'd multichannel DSD as I go forward with my own exaSound e28 and multichannel playback. I will report back but I may simply stay at eq'd DSD64 5.1 (not the worst thing in the world ).

 

Question: does anyone know if I can upgrade my i7 3770S to something with more horsepower and yet keep everything else working (no new WS2012 license, etc etc)?

 

Wow great post on convolution with HQ Player. I wish you had posted this two weeks earlier ! We could have used this at Munich High End this week ! Kick my self for not considering this. We have been using HQP doing PCM to DSD all week and we have calibrated measuring mics and REW with us still in the box !

 

for doing DSD convolution I would suggest going to a Hexcore CPU, but it probably means an new mobo

 

I left my Hexcore at home because their was no room left in the mini-van !

 

I ditto Chodi on Win 10 which we have been using all week with stellar results which I will be posting tomorrow

[EuroDriver]

This just got me thinking (which is always dangerous). Has anyone tried the top of the line AMD cpu with 8 cores FX9590? I know that Intel is considered superior but for the HQP application possibly the AMD would get better results because of its architecture. Having 8 real cores might be interesting. Anybody try this yet?

 

I seem to recall Miska saying that with the AMD architecture and instruction set you get faster filter setup but slower computation for the realtime processing

 

I was toying with the idea of an octocore with 2 cores assigned to NAA with realtime priority and 5 cores assigned to HQP with High Priority, leaving one core for household duties.

 

However, I am now thinking HQP player needs the highest priority ie Realtime to get the SD Modulation timing right. I think we need to treat, nurture and respect the SD modulation like a Digital to Analog conversion step / process.

 

After my chat with some guys from Meridian in the Hotel Lobby here in Munich last night about realtime PCM to DSD conversion, I am starting to think there is mileage to be had from a more stable clock on the motherboard . . .

[EuroDriver]

Over the last 4 days I estimate that over 1,200 people have heard HQ player doing mostly Redbook to DSD 128 conversion using Polysinc short mp (chosen to match the Avantgarde Duos), ASDM7 with HQP.exe running with normal priority .

 

Music files were mostly from the onboard Samsung EVO 850 SSD, but also from QOBUZ and TIDAL streaming using Kodi media server to fetch the URL for the FLAC stream. There was almost no SQ difference between streaming and playing of the SSD !

 

I tried to interview as many people as possible for their honest opinions. About one in 15 persons did not like the sound, they were vinyl lovers and anything that did not sound like vinyl sounded bad in their book. People liked the presence, detail and realism of the sound coming out of HQP.

 

We did AB comparisons of HQ Player running with normal priority, and with real time priority for about 40 people including Michael Lavorgna of Audiostream, Lucas of Lampizator and some press people who all had very good ears. The sound is strikingly different, comments were fuller sound, even better sound stage, more detail. I had only one audiophile who said he preffered normal priority over realtime, but he comes from a long and illustrious vinyl background.

 

During my preparation for Munich I did a lot of work with lmitche on the Win 10 (10041) OS. We were careful to create restore points along the way as we went from one category of changes to the next.

 

- First we deleted a lot of programs in the Windows folder which we would never use on an Audio PC, almost half the programs were gone by the time we completed this step. Reboot and the sound was noticeably better

 

- Second we disabled or put into manual start up mode many processes and services, many of which were related to indexing and caching. Reboot and the sound was noticeably better again

 

- Third we put a copy the Signalyst folder on to a Ramdisk with FAT 32 format created with Primo RamDisk, launch HQP from Ramdisk, and another very noticeable improvement

 

- Fourth, through Task manager, we right click on HQ Player exe and change priority to realtime, the sound quality improvement is jaw dropping

 

- Fifth, I connect a smartphone 5v USB battery to power the OS SSD and the music SSD, the sound quality improvement is again jaw dropping

 

When HQP is running with realtime priority, the user interface is very sluggish or even frozen, but the sound quality is gorgeous

 

So the big questions are :

 

1. Why does the HQP exe and associated dlls, written sequentially in memory result in a better sound

 

2. Why does HQ P executing with Realtime sound better ? Note there are audible differences even between high priority and realtime priority !

 

I can detect no SQ difference between HQ Player running on quad core 3770 and hexcore 4930 so it is not a matter of processing speed

 

Jussi, for many audiophiles you were the Euro 130 champion of Munich High End 2015

;-)

[EuroDriver]

Thanks Edward you are sharing your experience with us! Miska will probably not agree with more things (he already expressed his opinion to realtime priority), for me only the following doesn't look as possible:

 

 

 

Deleting files and affecting, what for services are started and running, are two things ... You are telling that disc with more files sounds worse than disc with less files, even if files were not used. By deleting some files you probably didn't change allocation and fragmentation of remaining files. Some change may be related to directory lookup. Otherwise it looks as if "weight" of the deleted data could influence SQ and that is the funny part. Thanks, your post IMO contains interesting tips to try and discuss.

 

By deleteing these files Win 10 can no longer load them at startup. After doing this first step and rebooting we dropped the process count quite a bit, I don' remember how much.

 

when we were final done, we had Win 10 running about 38 to 40 processes, down from over 70

[EuroDriver]

Only the GUI in HQPlayer is running at normal priority, everything else runs at different carefully tuned priority levels.

 

 

 

At which point of time did you do this? This will mess up the priority setup in HQPlayer and for example elevate the graphical stuff to run at high priority which makes the audio stuff latencies suffer. But what is the exact end result depends on when you do this operation.

 

 

 

This happens because relative priorities get mixed up and the OS itself also begins to suffer.

 

 

 

Note that HQPlayer already runs different parts of itself at different priorities, so you cannot properly adjust priority from outside. It is not one big monolithic block running at single priority, but instead number of different modules running at different priority levels so that everything works as designed.

 

Miska, many thanks for the above info. Once when I put HQ Player.exe in to Realtime priority too early, all kinds of weird stuff happened, such as same track playing over and over every 5 seconds.,

 

What I do now is to start HQ Player.exe with Normal Priority, then loaded the tracks into the lower window and then use Task Manager / Details to change the Priority of HQ Payer.exe from Normal to Realtime

 

Question, when the software is carrying out the SD modulation, which / what sort of random () functions are you using in your code ?