HQ Player

[tboooe]

3 minutes ago, Miska said:

 

My passive cooled i5-7600T (35W TDP) can also do poly-sinc-xtr-2s to DSD512. CPU load averages around 60%.

 

Since we are comparing...my i7-6700 converts redbook to poly-sinc-xtr-2s @ DSD512 with 2 channel convolution with a CPU load of around 45%.

[Allan F]

32 minutes ago, tboooe said:

Since we are comparing...my i7-6700 converts redbook to poly-sinc-xtr-2s @ DSD512 with 2 channel convolution with a CPU load of around 45%.

 

The TDP spec for the i7-6700 is the same as that of the i7-7700 at 65W.

[tboooe]

11 minutes ago, Allan F said:

 

The TDP spec for the i7-6700 is the same as that of the i7-7700 at 65W.

Exactly.  I didn't feel the modest performance boost of the 7700 was worth it so I was able to get a used 6700 cpu for cheap.

[Allan F]

38 minutes ago, tboooe said:

Exactly.  I didn't feel the modest performance boost of the 7700 was worth it so I was able to get a used 6700 cpu for cheap.

 

Makes sense. I probably would have done the same thing if I was into building my own server. However, I bought a turnkey server that came equipped with an i7-7700.

[zorntel]

If anyone is interested in trying DSD512 upsampling for cheap I'm selling an extra IFI micro iDSD Black Label here:

 

http://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/711-53200-19255-0/1?icep_ff3=2&pub=5575378759&campid=5338273189&customid=&icep_item=153058533677&ipn=psmain&icep_vectorid=229466&kwid=902099&mtid=824&kw=lg&toolid=11111

 

Robert

[ChrisVH]

Does anyone have experience with optimal settings for HQP feeding a Mytek Manhattan II via an UltraRendu? 

[Le Concombre Masqué]

On 6/10/2018 at 10:54 PM, Miska said:

 

Usually not, if HQPlayer does limiting (counter increases), it is smooth and safe action. But the danger is if you try to fill in nulls by boosting those frequencies in room eq. So the danger is more in the design rather than use. So generally you cannot fill in dips with eq, only smooth out peaks. If there's a null, you can put endless amount of power trying to fill the void, but it will just increase power consumption and speaker excursion on those frequencies.

 

So in your case you essentially output 10x more power at certain frequencies than at others, so the overall level may not sound that loud, but those certain frequencies will still ask significantly more.

 

As I said before be careful and moderate with any boosts. The estimate HQPlayer calculates is only an estimate, depending on your filter design tool you can see the actual boosts straight from the tool (Room Eq Wizard for example).

 

Thank you here are my actual values. I think I identify the nulls on my measurements and do not try to fill, ie, the nasty 26 dB dip at 46 on my Right channel. But my understanding is that you can boost in minimum phase zones ; I do, up to 9 dB on top of a general Low Shelf.

RIGHT.txt

LEFT.txt

 

btw, sound is gorgeous and operation has been problem free, except full screen freezing, refusing to close (last update, Windows server 2012)

[Miska]

4 hours ago, Le Concombre Masqué said:

Thank you here are my actual values. I think I identify the nulls on my measurements and do not try to fill, ie, the nasty 26 dB dip at 46 on my Right channel. But my understanding is that you can boost in minimum phase zones ; I do, up to 9 dB on top of a general Low Shelf.

RIGHT.txt

LEFT.txt

 

btw, sound is gorgeous and operation has been problem free, except full screen freezing, refusing to close (last update, Windows server 2012)

 

With 9 dB boost you need 9 dB compensation and use max -3 dB volume, or you use max -12 dB volume...

 

4 hours ago, Le Concombre Masqué said:

btw, sound is gorgeous and operation has been problem free, except full screen freezing, refusing to close (last update, Windows server 2012)

 

Could have something to do with OpenGL drivers or something else. I don't support or test Windows Server versions, so cannot comment. What I've tested, has been working OK for me on Windows 10 Pro but if someone has problems with that on Win 10 Pro I'd like to hear about used GPU and driver version. Full screen mode in Windows is typically used for games and Windows Server is certainly not targeted to that market, so Microsoft and driver vendors may not test that much. But you can disable full screen mode from HQPlayer settings and use the same GUI in windowed mode instead and just maximize the window, you'll then have window frames and task bar though, but otherwise the same GUI.

 

[westside]

Hi,

@Miska

@all members 

 

According to you in term of sound quality when we use NAA the most impotant is the optimization of the server or only the quality of device that we use for NAA ?

 Thank you for your answer.

[jimdukey]

Uh, what is NAA?

I know NAS.

Behind The Times in Oakland.

[simonklp]

12 minutes ago, jimdukey said:

Uh, what is NAA?

I know NAS.

Behind The Times in Oakland.

NAA stands for Network Audio Adapter. For details, please refer to below screen capture from following website:

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

 

[simonklp]

21 hours ago, westside said:

Hi,

@Miska

@all members 

 

According to you in term of sound quality when we use NAA the most impotant is the optimization of the server or only the quality of device that we use for NAA ?

 Thank you for your answer.

I would say both are important if you are care about the final SQ. It would not be very meaningful to distinguish which is the most important.

[jimdukey]

Thanks, I appreciate that!!

[simonklp]

11 hours ago, jimdukey said:

Thanks, I appreciate that!!

You are welcome.

[Miska]

On 6/15/2018 at 8:09 PM, westside said:

According to you in term of sound quality when we use NAA the most impotant is the optimization of the server or only the quality of device that we use for NAA ?

 

NAA is the one that does the actual audio output. HQPlayer could be running on a noisy server in your basement, or on something far away across the globe.

 

With NAA you need to worry as much about HQPlayer machine as you need to worry about Tidal's servers.

[westside]

1 hour ago, Miska said:

 

NAA is the one that does the actual audio output. HQPlayer could be running on a noisy server in your basement, or on something far away across the globe.

 

With NAA you need to worry as much about HQPlayer machine as you need to worry about Tidal's servers.

@Miska

Thank you for your answer but i dont understand the joke.

Do you mean Tidal’s servers are very bad ?

[AnotherSpin]

58 minutes ago, westside said:

@Miska

Thank you for your answer but i dont understand the joke.

Do you mean Tidal’s servers are very bad ?

 

Do not worry, that joke is a puzzle for many.

 

 

[westside]

So the NAA device is the most important by far in term of SQ ?

[Miska]

2 hours ago, westside said:

@Miska

Thank you for your answer but i dont understand the joke.

Do you mean Tidal’s servers are very bad ?

 

There's no joke. People usually don't worry about what kind of servers Tidal uses to provide their content (at least I've never seen any discussion on forums about the subject). Same way you don't need to worry what kind of server provides content to a NAA, because it doesn't matter from sound quality perspective as long as it has enough oomph to run the processing. Technically, it could be a server in some datacenter somewhere around the globe.

 

Whole point of NAA is to make HQPlayer server not matter.

 

Quote

So the NAA device is the most important by far in term of SQ ?

 

Yes...

[sgr]

I’ve not found that to be true. I have Ultrarendu as NAA and use two PCs one as file server and the other running HQPlayer. 

 

Every improvement I’ve made in the chain before the NAA just makes the overall sound much better. Things like lps-1, FMC and fiber, WSY2K12 and 16, the AudiophileOptimizer, Fidelizer, linear power supplies to power the pc and SSD drives, Elfidelity tweaks, Aurios under the PCs, Ethernet cables all contribute to making a System sound awesome. 

[louisxiawei]

52 minutes ago, sgr said:

I’ve not found that to be true. I have Ultrarendu as NAA and use two PCs one as file server and the other running HQPlayer. 

 

Every improvement I’ve made in the chain before the NAA just makes the overall sound much better. Things like lps-1, FMC and fiber, WSY2K12 and 16, the AudiophileOptimizer, Fidelizer, linear power supplies to power the pc and SSD drives, Elfidelity tweaks, Aurios under the PCs, Ethernet cables all contribute to making a System sound awesome. 

Then you might be also able to tell us when does Tidal stream the best SQ during a day? IOW, can you tell any SQ difference if any changes on the Tidal server side?

 

NAA is the key device before the DAC. Optical Ethernet route before NAA is good approach for preventing EMI/RFI. 

 

My HQ pc is located in a different place from NAA with quite a long distance, and I can detect no difference whatsoever changing any things on HQ PC side.

 

BTW, I was also a fidelizer user and now I quit using it on HQ PC.

That software could improve the performance when you just want to use your PC solely for audio since it shut down lots of background services, but other features like “core-isolation” totally messed up with HQplayer and other software, games either causing HQPlayer stutter or frame stutter during gaming... and I will not encourage one to use fidelizer on HQ pc if the performance of your PC is not at the edge.

 

[Sevenfeet]

1 hour ago, sgr said:

I’ve not found that to be true. I have Ultrarendu as NAA and use two PCs one as file server and the other running HQPlayer. 

 

Every improvement I’ve made in the chain before the NAA just makes the overall sound much better. Things like lps-1, FMC and fiber, WSY2K12 and 16, the AudiophileOptimizer, Fidelizer, linear power supplies to power the pc and SSD drives, Elfidelity tweaks, Aurios under the PCs, Ethernet cables all contribute to making a System sound awesome. 

 

I'm sure it sounds great but much of this is hocus pocus.  Different power supplies for your PC won't change a thing...it can either support the electrical load or it cannot.  Isolation bearings won't do a lick of good unless they keep the PC chassis and its fans from vibrating against the ground where you can actually hear it.  Installing "audiophile grade" Ethernet cables, or USB cables or switching to fiber won't make a damn bit of difference either.  Data transmission over any distance, LAN or around the world isn't the same as the analog world.  The world of technology you depend on for your data every day will also transport your audio data around the world, into your house and to your DAC precisely every time.

[Sevenfeet]

3 hours ago, Miska said:

 

There's no joke. People usually don't worry about what kind of servers Tidal uses to provide their content (at least I've never seen any discussion on forums about the subject). Same way you don't need to worry what kind of server provides content to a NAA, because it doesn't matter from sound quality perspective as long as it has enough oomph to run the processing. Technically, it could be a server in some datacenter somewhere around the globe.

 

Whole point of NAA is to make HQPlayer server not matter.

 

 

Yes...

 

What he said.

[Sevenfeet]

28 minutes ago, louisxiawei said:

Then you might be also able to tell us when does Tidal stream the best SQ during a day? IOW, can you tell any SQ difference if any changes on the Tidal server side?

 

NAA is the key device before the DAC. Optical Ethernet route before NAA is good approach for preventing EMI/RFI. 

 

My HQ pc is located in a different place from NAA with quite a long distance, and I can detect no difference whatsoever changing any things on HQ PC side.

 

BTW, I was also a fidelizer user and now I quit using it on HQ PC.

That software could improve the performance when you just want to use your PC solely for audio since it shut down lots of background services, but other features like “core-isolation” totally messed up with HQplayer and other software, games either causing HQPlayer stutter or frame stutter during gaming... and I will not encourage one to use fidelizer on HQ pc if the performance of your PC is not at the edge.

 

 

Who knows where Tidal keeps their data and frankly, who cares?  On premise?  Amazon?  Microsoft Azure? IBM Cloud?  Oracle Cloud?  Someone else?  Are the servers Windows based?  AIX?  Sparc?  Dell, HP, white box?

 

Again, who cares?  It doesn't matter.  As long as it's up and delivers your songs with sufficient bandwidth for customers and low latency on the networks between you and them, it just doesn't matter.  Tidal could change their data partner next week and you'd never know.

 

And optical Ethernet isn't necessary (and expensive).  If you're getting a lot of EMI interference that affecting your data on your LAN, you have much bigger problems.

[louisxiawei]

26 minutes ago, Sevenfeet said:

 

Who knows where Tidal keeps their data and frankly, who cares?  On premise?  Amazon?  Microsoft Azure? IBM Cloud?  Oracle Cloud?  Someone else?  Are the servers Windows based?  AIX?  Sparc?  Dell, HP, white box?

 

Again, who cares?  It doesn't matter.  As long as it's up and delivers your songs with sufficient bandwidth for customers and low latency on the networks between you and them, it just doesn't matter.  Tidal could change their data partner next week and you'd never know.

 

And optical Ethernet isn't necessary (and expensive).  If you're getting a lot of EMI interference that affecting your data on your LAN, you have much bigger problems.

I suggest you keep calm and read my tone carefully. 

 

Regarding optical ethernet, yes, it is necessary. Please use the search engine on CA and you will find it is quite relevant to NAA. Sufficient information has been repeated again and again on the forum and I have no interest arguing.