HQ Player

[2a3set]

Thanks Jussi for looking into this, actually got it working in Windows, while only for -2s, non-2s GPU went to 100%, my impression hqplayer depends on CUDA FP64 performance while seems not that much.

 

[Miska]

It relies heavily on FP64 performance, but there are many other aspects as well that are not exposed by this kind of simple artificial test.

 

For example GPU multitasking capabilities and performance have been significantly improved in recent generations. This affects latency for launching kernels on GPU. How does the pageable memory copy performance look like compared to GTX 1080?

 

 

Since the Titan V seems to have pretty good performance and is otherwhise newest generation, I'm curiously waiting if Nvidia will spoil FP64 performance on upcoming 20-series, or not.

[2a3set]

3 hours ago, Miska said:

It relies heavily on FP64 performance, but there are many other aspects as well that are not exposed by this kind of simple artificial test.

 

For example GPU multitasking capabilities and performance have been significantly improved in recent generations. This affects latency for launching kernels on GPU. How does the pageable memory copy performance look like compared to GTX 1080?

 

 

Since the Titan V seems to have pretty good performance and is otherwhise newest generation, I'm curiously waiting if Nvidia will spoil FP64 performance on upcoming 20-series, or not.

 

Both Pageable are around 3000MiB/s

[Miska]

Could be the device-to-device and host-device (pageable) memory access becoming a bottleneck. Plus the context switching / kernel launch latency, which I haven't seen documented or tested anywhere.

 

Now there are rumors out that Nvidia would be launching GTX 1180 in August.

 

[Outlaw]

If I purchase a new computer can I transfer license ?

[Miska]

1 hour ago, Outlaw said:

If I purchase a new computer can I transfer license ?

 

HQPlayer Desktop yes...

[Outlaw]

Thanks

[luisma]

8 minutes ago, Miska said:

 

HQPlayer Desktop yes...

I guess the answer is yes but HQPe as well correct? 

[Miska]

1 hour ago, luisma said:

I guess the answer is yes but HQPe as well correct? 

 

Depends on how you get the license. If you buy a personal license, it can be transferred to limited extent to a new hardware and you cannot sell it forward (personal license - named user). If you buy the license with hardware from one of the hardware vendors (hardware/firmware license), you cannot transfer it to another machine, but you can sell it forward as part of the hardware.

 

[luisma]

Thanks, I purchased the license yesterday on your website for my NUC but now I'm thinking if I'm getting a dedicated computer (no ROON in the blend) for HQP+ in the future 

and yes it is a personal license

 

Thanks

 

 

[n2it]

I've been trying out HQplayer for about 2 weeks now.   Been using mostly the (non 2s) poly-sinc-xtr-mp and converting to (44.1x) DSD512 and enjoying the sound.  So today, I played my first 48k/24 bit song (I only have 7 albums that are 48k) and it stuttered the whole song (well at least the 30 seconds I listened to it) and any other 48k song that I tried.  I guess I was a bit surprised given that I am running:

Threadripper 1950x (not overclocked) running in Creator mode

64 gb RAM running at CL14 3200 MHz

Music is stored on a pretty fast NVMe drive 

GPU is an eVGA GTX 1070ti (slightly overclocked) 

 

CPU was only showing 50% (it was around 45-50% - so that seemed weird), GPU showed 1%.  Is this expected with these specs?  Is there an HQplayer setting I need to look at?  Or should I look at something on my computer? 

[bibo01]

6 hours ago, n2it said:

I've been trying out HQplayer for about 2 weeks now.   Been using mostly the (non 2s) poly-sinc-xtr-mp and converting to (44.1x) DSD512 and enjoying the sound.  So today, I played my first 48k/24 bit song (I only have 7 albums that are 48k) and it stuttered the whole song (well at least the 30 seconds I listened to it) and any other 48k song that I tried.  I guess I was a bit surprised given that I am running:

Threadripper 1950x (not overclocked) running in Creator mode

64 gb RAM running at CL14 3200 MHz

Music is stored on a pretty fast NVMe drive 

GPU is an eVGA GTX 1070ti (slightly overclocked) 

 

CPU was only showing 50% (it was around 45-50% - so that seemed weird), GPU showed 1%.  Is this expected with these specs?  Is there an HQplayer setting I need to look at?  Or should I look at something on my computer? 

For your 7 albums were you converting to 48k x512? Please test playback at 48k x256 too.

Maybe, if you were still on 44.1k x512, it was creating a problem for your PC.

[Miska]

6 hours ago, n2it said:

I've been trying out HQplayer for about 2 weeks now.   Been using mostly the (non 2s) poly-sinc-xtr-mp and converting to (44.1x) DSD512 and enjoying the sound.  So today, I played my first 48k/24 bit song (I only have 7 albums that are 48k) and it stuttered the whole song (well at least the 30 seconds I listened to it) and any other 48k song that I tried.  I guess I was a bit surprised given that I am running:

Threadripper 1950x (not overclocked) running in Creator mode

64 gb RAM running at CL14 3200 MHz

Music is stored on a pretty fast NVMe drive 

GPU is an eVGA GTX 1070ti (slightly overclocked) 

 

CPU was only showing 50% (it was around 45-50% - so that seemed weird), GPU showed 1%.  Is this expected with these specs?  Is there an HQplayer setting I need to look at?  Or should I look at something on my computer? 

 

Since Threadripper is a threaded CPU, 50% is full load, since half of the cores are virtual ones and cannot do real work, so HQPlayer doesn't try to put load on those.

 

Converting 48k-base PCM to 44.1k-base DSD512 with poly-sinc-xtr doesn't work with any current CPU, based on information I have (nobody has tried on fresh CPU in multi-socket configuration yet). So either you need to use -2s variant of the filter, or use 48k-base DSD512 if possible (Thesycon's Windows driver commonly used with XMOS USB interfaces doesn't support it even if the DAC would).

 

[n2it]

2 hours ago, Miska said:

 

Since Threadripper is a threaded CPU, 50% is full load, since half of the cores are virtual ones and cannot do real work, so HQPlayer doesn't try to put load on those.

 

Converting 48k-base PCM to 44.1k-base DSD512 with poly-sinc-xtr doesn't work with any current CPU, based on information I have (nobody has tried on fresh CPU in multi-socket configuration yet). So either you need to use -2s variant of the filter, or use 48k-base DSD512 if possible (Thesycon's Windows driver commonly used with XMOS USB interfaces doesn't support it even if the DAC would).

 

 

Thanks for the info/help!  Unfortunately, both my DACs that "support" 48k DSD512 have the Thesycon driver (and I have no plans to move to Linux).  I had figured that out yesterday searching this forum on why 48k 512 wasn't working and was frustrated that the DAC manufacturers don't put a disclaimer in their specs.

 

Is there a way to configure HQplayer so it uses -2s for just the 48k and non 2s for the rest of the sample rates?  

 

Maybe I will try some over overclocking ...

 

[n2it]

8 hours ago, Miska said:

use 48k-base DSD512 if possible (Thesycon's Windows driver commonly used with XMOS USB interfaces doesn't support it even if the DAC would).

 

 

 

I emailed Thesycon and to see if they supported it.  They were very quick with this response:

 

Hello,

The latest versions of our driver support 48kHz. You have to ask the device manufacturer for a new driver version. It is supported since version 4.41.

Kind regards
Ute Eberhardt

--
Mrs. Ute Eberhardt (CEO)
Thesycon Software Solutions GmbH & Co. KG
Werner-von-Siemens-Str. 2, 98693 Ilmenau, Germany
Phone: +49 3677 8462-12, Fax: +49 3677 8462-18
http://www.thesycon.de

I've also put a ticket in with my DAC manufacturer - so I ask anyone whose DAC or USB interface uses XMOS with Thesycon to do the same!

 

[numlog]

Is it normal for the Windows volume control to still function in W10 with both ASIO and WASAPI in HQ player?

[Miska]

2 hours ago, numlog said:

Is it normal for the Windows volume control to still function in W10 with both ASIO and WASAPI in HQ player?

 

It depends on your audio interface and driver... But it is "normal for the driver that does it".

[rayl1234]

I am cloning this question over from the MScaler thread as it is more appropriate here. I admit ahead of time that I spent a total of about 60 minutes with HQP a bit over a year ago before giving up bec I found it challenging from a UI perspective, but in light of some of the recent comments, I am curious to know:

 

"I never could figure out how to get hqp set up such that arbitrary audio via wasapi and also via windows mixer to pass through hqp and have it output 768 or 705.6 to the usb device of my choice."

[chrille]

9 hours ago, rayl1234 said:

I am cloning this question over from the MScaler thread as it is more appropriate here. I admit ahead of time that I spent a total of about 60 minutes with HQP a bit over a year ago before giving up bec I found it challenging from a UI perspective, but in light of some of the recent comments, I am curious to know:

 

"I never could figure out how to get hqp set up such that arbitrary audio via wasapi and also via windows mixer to pass through hqp and have it output 768 or 705.6 to the usb device of my choice."

I haven't even downloaded HQ player yet.

But the impression I get of it is that one needs to be very "computer techy" to make it work  obviously?

I can handle the  settings in Pure Music and Audirvana.

But all these posts on this thread asking questions like yours has made me stay away from HQplayer.

And when I or others  ask questions of how it competes with DAVE/Mscaler and such,it seems Miska is recommending a Nvidiva  PC or something similar at basically the same price as an M-scaler. 

For a music lover without the tech interest and or knowedge how to set up comlicated players like his optimally Chord's alternative is very tempting indeed.

Give me,sell me a "click play", player pc upsampling way that is MUCH cheaper then the Chord very expensive alternative and sounds as superb and realistic with acoustic music  real instruments at a  much more competetive price!.

And does Miska's  much discussed,beat them all, DAC even exsist in real life????

If it is so fantastic as he claims it is,why doesn't he build them ?Why isn't for sale?

 

 

[AnotherSpin]

1 hour ago, chrille said:

I haven't even downloaded HQ player yet.

But the impression I get of it is that one needs to be very "computer techy" to make it work  obviously?

I can handle the  settings in Pure Music and Audirvana.

But all these posts on this thread asking questions like yours has made me stay away from HQplayer.

And when I or others  ask questions of how it competes with DAVE/Mscaler and such,it seems Miska is recommending a Nvidiva  PC or something similar at basically the same price as an M-scaler. 

For a music lover without the tech interest and or knowedge how to set up comlicated players like his optimally Chord's alternative is very tempting indeed.

Give me,sell me a "click play", player pc upsampling way that is MUCH cheaper then the Chord very expensive alternative and sounds as superb and realistic with acoustic music  real instruments at a  much more competetive price!.

And does Miska's  much discussed,beat them all, DAC even exsist in real life????

If it is so fantastic as he claims it is,why doesn't he build them ?Why isn't for sale?

 

 

 

If you handle A+ you can handle HQ Player desktop version easily. I've been using both for years, and I do not use A+ anymore. Settings are different, but those in HQ Player they are simpler than in A+, imho. Nothing prevents anyone to download it for free and try everything during multiple 30-minutes cuts. 

[louisxiawei]

1 hour ago, chrille said:

I haven't even downloaded HQ player yet.

But the impression I get of it is that one needs to be very "computer techy" to make it work  obviously?

I can handle the  settings in Pure Music and Audirvana.

But all these posts on this thread asking questions like yours has made me stay away from HQplayer.

And when I or others  ask questions of how it competes with DAVE/Mscaler and such,it seems Miska is recommending a Nvidiva  PC or something similar at basically the same price as an M-scaler. 

For a music lover without the tech interest and or knowedge how to set up comlicated players like his optimally Chord's alternative is very tempting indeed.

Give me,sell me a "click play", player pc upsampling way that is MUCH cheaper then the Chord very expensive alternative and sounds as superb and realistic with acoustic music  real instruments at a  much more competetive price!.

And does Miska's  much discussed,beat them all, DAC even exsist in real life????

If it is so fantastic as he claims it is,why doesn't he build them ?Why isn't for sale?

 

 

Maybe here is “computer”audiophile forum? If you are not into computer techy stuff, wrong place to have fun I’m afraid.

 

DACs that match HQPlayer well do exist on the market, check the list on HQplayer website. 

 

I remember last time a Chord fan also had similar comment and argued a lot of nonsense for DAVE against HQplayer on T+A DAC8 DSD thread. Maybe search there for a few hints?

 

[rayl1234]

32 minutes ago, louisxiawei said:

Maybe here is “computer”audiophile forum? If you are not into computer techy stuff, wrong place to have fun I’m afraid.

 

DACs that match HQPlayer well do exist on the market, check the list on HQplayer website. 

 

I remember last time a Chord fan also had similar comment and argued a lot of nonsense for DAVE against HQplayer on T+A DAC8 DSD thread. Maybe search there for a few hints?

 

 

Not arguing for one over other. Just want to try hqp. Does it have an api for custom filters too? If so I can also play with eliminating my somewhat clumsy bass management soln to nuke an annoying room mode. A platform that works for wasapi and windows mixer has other uses for me regardless of upscalng.  

 

Dirac was the only software I’ve seen do it, but it is a closed and unconfigurable platform that I could not hijack. And its design plus my limited windows development skills meant sesveral quarters before I can build something similar. Not being retired, that didn’t fly but my quest hasn’t stopped. 

[n2it]

2 hours ago, chrille said:

I haven't even downloaded HQ player yet.

 But the impression I get of it is that one needs to be very "computer techy" to make it work  obviously?

I can handle the  settings in Pure Music and Audirvana.

But all these posts on this thread asking questions like yours has made me stay away from HQplayer.

And when I or others  ask questions of how it competes with DAVE/Mscaler and such,it seems Miska is recommending a Nvidiva  PC or something similar at basically the same price as an M-scaler. 

For a music lover without the tech interest and or knowedge how to set up comlicated players like his optimally Chord's alternative is very tempting indeed.

Give me,sell me a "click play", player pc upsampling way that is MUCH cheaper then the Chord very expensive alternative and sounds as superb and realistic with acoustic music  real instruments at a  much more competetive price!.

And does Miska's  much discussed,beat them all, DAC even exsist in real life????

If it is so fantastic as he claims it is,why doesn't he build them ?Why isn't for sale?

 

 

 

Echoing what AnotherSpin said - just try it - that's what the 30 day period is for.  I am about 3 weeks into the trial period and I really like the sound quality.  I am also trying A+ at the same time.

 

If you want to upconvert to DSD 512 especially, there may be some limitations on some of the filters (especially the non 2s ones) if you don't have the best hardware.   So just know that may happen and listen to the different filters, features and upconverting (if you want) and see what you think and what your computer can do.  I am currently trying out the most cpu intensive ones to see if my computer can do it.  In reality, I haven't even decided what filters I like and why and which/what kind of upconverting (if any) I want to do.  

[n2it]

@Miska, One of my DAC manufacturers gave me their latest, so I can confirm that the Thesycon USB Windows 10 64 bit ASIO driver version 4.43 works with 48x DSD.  I am also now able to convert 48Khz to 48x DSD512 with the poly-sinc-xtr-mp.    Still waiting on the other.

 

[chrille]

52 minutes ago, n2it said:

 

Echoing what AnotherSpin said - just try it - that's what the 30 day period is for.  I am about 3 weeks into the trial period and I really like the sound quality.  I am also trying A+ at the same time.

 

If you want to upconvert to DSD 512 especially, there may be some limitations on some of the filters (especially the non 2s ones) if you don't have the best hardware.   So just know that may happen and listen to the different filters, features and upconverting (if you want) and see what you think and what your computer can do.  I am currently trying out the most cpu intensive ones to see if my computer can do it.  In reality, I haven't even decided what filters I like and why and which/what kind of upconverting (if any) I want to do.  

Thanks for your input.

I will try the 30 days version.

Do let me /us know which one you prefer Audirvana or HQPlayer?

I listen exclusively to acoustic music and mainly  large scale  classical, and I prefer Pure Music over Audirvana with all three of my DACs Benchmark DAC2 ,Hugo1 and Chord Qutest.

Pure music player sounds warmer and more natural to my ears both via headphones Sennheiser HD800 and HEKV2 and most importantly via my big electrostatic speakers powered with 900 watts per channel.

With Audirvana I can't play as loud as via Pure Music without a hardening of tone and congestion at loud climaxes in classical music.

What I want and need is MAXIMUM TRANSPARENCY without having to fiddle with lots of different filter

settings.

I understand little of digital filtering  theory and just want the best possible SQ at the cheapest possible price.