HQ Player

[Miska]

On 3/30/2018 at 7:38 AM, truemusic1969 said:

@Miska

Sparky SBC dietpi version 6.5 supports Amanero's new firmware nativeDSD on Linux, I use Sparky SBC for NAA, and hqplayer plays DSD512 with DSC1 DAC. Overall performance is good. However, there is noise when playing stops or after switching albums. I see 2003be firmware description "DMA clean", is it necessary to play software with? A clear signal is given when playback is stopped or the album is switched.

Thank you for providing us with excellent player software.

 

That is some glitch in the Amanero board/firmware. Probably clock/data phase is not always in sync same way.

[nick77]

48 minutes ago, Miska said:

 

The GPU is not useful for HQPlayer. But probably the machine would work fine to DSD512 using -2s filters.

 

With those small fan-cooled computers the problem is usually fan noise at higher CPU loads. This would need to be checked if it becomes problem in practice. That's why I rather opt either for passive cooled computer, or one with fans in a bigger, sound proofed case (for example Fractal Design silent ones). Those big silent cases have big slowly rotating fans that don't make much sound (area is larger, so air velocity is slower for same amount of air, and thus less noise).

 

Thank you! I didn't realize the new coffee lake i7 was affordable, leaning that way. Wasn't aware of silent cases, thank you. Would the 8700 do just fine w/o a graphics card??

[truemusic1969]

2 hours ago, Miska said:

 

That is some glitch in the Amanero board/firmware. Probably clock/data phase is not always in sync same way.

Thanks Reply!

[Jamesroy]

3 hours ago, Miska said:

 

Yes...

Ant tips for setting it up?

[Jamesroy]

2 hours ago, nick77 said:

Thank you! I didn't realize the new coffee lake i7 was affordable, leaning that way. Wasn't aware of silent cases, thank you. Would the 8700 do just fine w/o a graphics card??

How about a 2013 MacBook Pro?

[leftside]

Is there a way to stream YouTube output to HQPlayer?

 

The reason I'm asking is because I have a Lampizator Euforia DSD DAC. I can play music files no problem with JRiver or Roon when upsampling and outputting a DSD signal, but haven't yet been able to find a way to get output from YouTube to play through this DAC.

[Jamesroy]

Sorry I don't have HQ Player yet. I have the Micro Rendu connected to the Stellar DAC Music player A+. If I changed to HQP and not invested into ROON would I still hear a better SQ?

[jimdukey]

 Software Players not that expensive. I have several to fool around with.

HQ is my Go-To, however!

[Miska]

37 minutes ago, leftside said:

Is there a way to stream YouTube output to HQPlayer?

 

The reason I'm asking is because I have a Lampizator Euforia DSD DAC. I can play music files no problem with JRiver or Roon when upsampling and outputting a DSD signal, but haven't yet been able to find a way to get output from YouTube to play through this DAC.

 

With HQPlayer Embedded it is possible. However, it is not useful for watching videos, because lip-sync would be horribly off... So only music playback where you don't need to synchronize video and audio.

 

[Miska]

On 4/3/2018 at 3:53 PM, Jamesroy said:

Ant tips for setting it up?

 

You set microRendu to HQPlayer NAA streaming mode. And then in HQPlayer settings, you select Network Audio backend and your microRendu and the DAC behind it should appear on the device list.

 

[Solstice380]

38 minutes ago, Jamesroy said:

Sorry I don't have HQ Player yet. I have the Micro Rendu connected to the Stellar DAC Music player A+. If I changed to HQP and not invested into ROON would I still hear a better SQ?

 

Yes, because HQPlayer is a better upsampling player.  Roon is a great front end, but not necessary.   HQP has a simple, purposeful interface that some call too simplistic.   The two go together well, but the better SQ is through HQP for me too. 

[Jamesroy]

Thanks, does HQP have a tutorial?

[Miska]

14 minutes ago, Jamesroy said:

Thanks, does HQP have a tutorial?

 

There's a really short quickstart guide here:

https://www.signalyst.com/quickstart.html

 

And then more comprehensive manual PDF included in the installation package. On Windows and Linux the manual can be found from the Start-menu while on Mac you can just copy the manual PDF from the DMG to a suitable place.

 

[Jamesroy]

Thanks is it for Mac?

[Miska]

1 hour ago, Jamesroy said:

Thanks is it for Mac?

 

HQPlayer works the same way on all platforms, apart from minor audio backend related details/settings.

 

[Jamesroy]

I just looked over the pdf manual and looks interestingly difficult but also looks like a PC engineer designed it, definitely not Mac GUI friendly. Also to use it, is it like setting up the micro Rendu via thru a web area? And what is "audio backend related details/settings."?

[Miska]

22 minutes ago, Jamesroy said:

I just looked over the pdf manual and looks interestingly difficult but also looks like a PC engineer designed it, definitely not Mac GUI friendly.

 

Screenshots are from Windows 8.1, and have somewhat different look on different versions of Windows and on different platforms. But functionally they are equivalent.

 

Have you used the software on Mac? Something being "difficult" is of course relative to everyone's own reference point.

 

23 minutes ago, Jamesroy said:

Also to use it, is it like setting up the micro Rendu via thru a web area?

 

You need to switch microRendu's audio service through it's web GUI.

 

23 minutes ago, Jamesroy said:

And what is "audio backend related details/settings."?

 

For example for ASIO there are couple of extra menu items that are specific to ASIO drivers. And for ASIO there's also one extra check box that is needed by few special cases. Things like that.

 

[Jamesroy]

No I haven loaded HQP yet still on A+ but I had a difficult time with getting the MR set up. The guys from Sonore tech support had to do a screen share with me to get it right. I do agree with you, whats easy for one is difficult for another. I guess I just need some convienceing on how much better SQ will be over A+? What is ASIO? 

[Allan F]

8 hours ago, Solstice380 said:

 

Yes, because HQPlayer is a better upsampling player.  Roon is a great front end, but not necessary.   HQP has a simple, purposeful interface that some call too simplistic.   The two go together well, but the better SQ is through HQP for me too. 

 

If you add the HQPDcontrol app to an Android tablet, the interface to HQP is simple and far more user friendly, i.e. it is no longer "too simplistic" and Roon remains unnecessary.

[christoph]

10 hours ago, Jamesroy said:

No I haven loaded HQP yet still on A+ but I had a difficult time with getting the MR set up. The guys from Sonore tech support had to do a screen share with me to get it right. I do agree with you, whats easy for one is difficult for another. I guess I just need some convienceing on how much better SQ will be over A+? What is ASIO? 

Maybe you better stay within your beloved apple ecosystem ?

[ambre]

Dear Jussi,

 

I have two questions for upgrading my HQ-player system to handle DSD256 at least and preferably DSD512. 

 

I am using now a stand-alone headless Mac Mini I5 (2,6 GHz; late 2014) with 8GB memory for HQ-Player. I also have a Mac Mini I7 (2.3 GHz; late 2012)  with 16 GB memory. At this moment I use an Allo UsBridge as NAA (based on DietPi 6.6) as input for my Teac UD 501 (Max. DSD 128).  

 

Do have the Mac Mini’s sufficient horsepower to use HQ-player with a new DSD DAC like Project ProJect Pre-Box S2 Digital? And if I decide to spent “some” more money the Chord QUTEST or the new TEAC UD 505?

 

Is it possible to use on iMac (OS High Sierra) the DOP upscaling possibility to handle DSD 512 or is this limited nowadays to DSD 256?Ps. I am not sure if Native DSD is possible at all? 

And which SDM-filters can than be used for such an Apple config?

 

If present Mac Mini don’t give the needed horsepower what are the minimum requirements within the Apple IMac IMac <=> Mini range? 

 

Please your advice.

Very best regards Andreas  

 

[Miska]

1 hour ago, ambre said:

I am using now a stand-alone headless Mac Mini I5 (2,6 GHz; late 2014) with 8GB memory for HQ-Player. I also have a Mac Mini I7 (2.3 GHz; late 2012)  with 16 GB memory. At this moment I use an Allo UsBridge as NAA (based on DietPi 6.6) as input for my Teac UD 501 (Max. DSD 128).  

 

Do have the Mac Mini’s sufficient horsepower to use HQ-player with a new DSD DAC like Project ProJect Pre-Box S2 Digital? And if I decide to spent “some” more money the Chord QUTEST or the new TEAC UD 505?

 

If it's dual-core, then most likely it won't go much above DSD128. At least my dual-core i5 Mac Mini cannot.

 

1 hour ago, ambre said:

Is it possible to use on iMac (OS High Sierra) the DOP upscaling possibility to handle DSD 512 or is this limited nowadays to DSD 256?Ps. I am not sure if Native DSD is possible at all? 

And which SDM-filters can than be used for such an Apple config?

 

Since macOS' CoreAudio doesn't support native DSD you need to use DoP which means maximum DSD rate you can output is 16x the maximum PCM rate the device supports. Since so far DACs have been limited to 768k PCM rate, that imposes the limit of DSD256 over DoP. (this doesn't apply to exaSound DACs with ASIO drivers)

 

If you use NAA running some other operating system (assuming it has compatible native-DSD drivers), then that removes the limitation because CoreAudio is not anymore involved in the playback.

 

1 hour ago, ambre said:

If present Mac Mini don’t give the needed horsepower what are the minimum requirements within the Apple IMac IMac <=> Mini range? 

 

My old quad-core i5 iMac can do DSD256. Probably some quad-core (or more) iMac / iMac Pro from current range is suitable. But since I don't have any of those, it is really hard to say which one.

 

With modern CPUs and -2s filter variants the requirements for DSD512 are not excessive, since my i5-7600T machine running Linux and HQPlayer Embedded can do it just fine. But you can sort of consider that CPU as representative of minimum baseline requirement.

 

[Miska]

19 hours ago, Jamesroy said:

What is ASIO? 

 

ASIO is Steinberg's proprietary driver interface to bypass entire OS audio stack and allow applications to talk directly to the low level hardware driver. Practically all professional audio software and hardware on Windows support ASIO.

 

It was also widely used on MacOS (OS9, etc, the one before OS X, that was used on Macs based on Motorola's 68k and PowerPC processors).

 

[richard kimber]

Ubuntu 18.04 LTS will be out soon (26 April), will there be an 18.04 version of HQPlayer around then also?

[RamUwe]

I upgraded my DAC from iFi Micro DSD BL to T&A DAC 8 DSD Any recommendations on the settings of HQPlayer? I would appreciate.