HQ Player

[eternaloptimist]

1 hour ago, Miska said:

 

Good option, but you could also check  if it would fit, ASUS has now also 2080 in STRIX-series, which could be quieter:

https://www.asus.com/uk/Graphics-Cards/ROG-STRIX-RTX2080-O8G-GAMING/

 

 

Thanks for taking the time to answer, Miska - really appreciated.

 

On reflection, I think I got a bit too enthusiastic....and have had a rethink about the best way forward.

 

I have a workstation that has an i6700K, Asus 170 AR Socket LGA1151 motherboard, 16G RAM but a relatively slow graphics card (GTX 960 4GB).... in a Fractal Design Define R5 Mid Tower which is underutilized.

The Strix 3 fan version is $AUD300 more than the 2 fan dual version....

Therefore, I think as the first step, I will replace the graphics card with the Asus Dual RTX2080.

Hopefully this will give me the performance upgrade I need to get comfortable upsampling to DSD512!

Then, if still not happy, I can keep upgrade the other components around it....

Will report back!

 

[bellhead]

Thanks Miska. I have a fairly powerful core i7 870 running at 2.93 GHz.

For some reason, the Chord driver seems to always be in WASAPI no matter what software I use.

Thanks.

[Miska]

58 minutes ago, bellhead said:

Thanks Miska. I have a fairly powerful core i7 870 running at 2.93 GHz.

For some reason, the Chord driver seems to always be in WASAPI no matter what software I use.

 

If you select ASIO backend in HQPlayer Settings, do you see anything on the Devices list?

 

[bellhead]

7 minutes ago, Miska said:

 

If you select ASIO backend in HQPlayer Settings, do you see anything on the Devices list?

 

If I select ASIO, I just see my Creative soundcard, not  the Chord. (I also see a list of Jriver versions.)

I see no other devices or anything about Chord.

[bellhead]

1 hour ago, Miska said:

 

If you select ASIO backend in HQPlayer Settings, do you see anything on the Devices list?

 

Thank you for all your help. Although I am still using WASAPI, I at least am getting 768k PCM output now, and the sound is excellent.

[Miska]

5 hours ago, eternaloptimist said:

I have a workstation that has an i6700K, Asus 170 AR Socket LGA1151 motherboard, 16G RAM but a relatively slow graphics card (GTX 960 4GB).... in a Fractal Design Define R5 Mid Tower which is underutilized.

The Strix 3 fan version is $AUD300 more than the 2 fan dual version....

Therefore, I think as the first step, I will replace the graphics card with the Asus Dual RTX2080.

Hopefully this will give me the performance upgrade I need to get comfortable upsampling to DSD512!

 

Oh yes, if you have 6700K then that is certainly a good option! It is not so different from the 7700K I have. And with the combination of 7700K and RTX2080 I can upsample RedBook to DSD512 using poly-sinc-xtr.

 

And as news, I just tried and first time I can run poly-sinc-xtr from 48k source to 44.1k x512 DSD, so single stage xtr with conversion between rate families! This is notable because number of DACs don't support 48k-base DSD rates.

 

[Miska]

46 minutes ago, bellhead said:

Thank you for all your help. Although I am still using WASAPI, I at least am getting 768k PCM output now, and the sound is excellent.

 

You can probably get also DSD256 if you select DoP as "SDM Pack" method?

 

But I thought Chord was supposed to also provide ASIO driver for Dave?

[bellhead]

6 hours ago, Miska said:

 

You can probably get also DSD256 if you select DoP as "SDM Pack" method?

 

But I thought Chord was supposed to also provide ASIO driver for Dave?

Thanks again Miska. OK, I will try the SDM Pack method.

[EDIT: I tried SDM Pack and 256k but all I got was a distortion buzz and a quick move of the playback indicator sweep. I then dropped the SDM Pack method but still tried 256k and that did work, but the playback format says it is playing at 192k.]

 

As far as I can see there is only one single Win 10 Chord driver download available for DAVE and other Chord DACs, and that's the WASAPI one I have. I have a question into Chord about this; I'll see if I get an answer.

(There was some chatter about an ASIO driver for the Hugo, but it was said to be unstable and no longer available.)

[bellhead]

OOPS, I misunderstood, and the SDM Pack Method does indeed work! I am getting (it says during playback) 2.8224M resolution.

 

[Miska]

6 hours ago, bellhead said:

As far as I can see there is only one single Win 10 Chord driver download available for DAVE and other Chord DACs, and that's the WASAPI one I have. I have a question into Chord about this; I'll see if I get an answer.

(There was some chatter about an ASIO driver for the Hugo, but it was said to be unstable and no longer available.)

 

Yes, there's usually only one driver installer for most DACs, but the installer usually installs both WASAPI and ASIO drivers. I need to check Mojo again, it's been too long since I last tried it on Windows.

 

[craighartley]

14 hours ago, Miska said:

 

And as news, I just tried and first time I can run poly-sinc-xtr from 48k source to 44.1k x512 DSD, so single stage xtr with conversion between rate families! This is notable because number of DACs don't support 48k-base DSD rates.

 

 

Will it run poly-sinc-xtr from 44k source to 48k x 512 DSD?

[Miska]

40 minutes ago, craighartley said:

Will it run poly-sinc-xtr from 44k source to 48k x 512 DSD?

 

No, that combination doesn't work, probably runs out of memory bandwidth. That case eats over 300 MB more RAM on the GPU. Would be interesting to hear if some GPU with HBM (Titan V, etc) would work for that case.

 

But that's quite rare thing, because there are so few DACs that work properly in 48k x512...

 

[kelvinwsy]

On 10/13/2018 at 5:38 PM, eternaloptimist said:

Hi Guys,

I am looking to go back to a 2 X PC solution.... to feed my TAC 8 DSD DAC.  I just cannot get satisfactory performance out of the current system. I want to be able to upsample pretty much effortlessly....

I would appreciate any comments on the following proposed system to act as a server.

The server will just have ROON, HQPlayer on it (!) feeding my silent Windows PC with JCAT USB femto card to the DAC.

 

Fractal Design Define R6 Mid-Tower E-ATX Case - Black

ASUS ROG STRIX Z370-G GAMING WiFi LGA 1151-2 M-ATX Motherboard

Intel Core i7 8700K Hex Core LGA 1151-2 3.70GHz Unlocked CPU Processor

Noctua NH-U14S Ultra-Quiet Slim CPU Cooler with NF-A15 fan

Corsair DDR4 Vengeance PRO RGB 16GB (2x8GB) Memory   (X2  i.e. 4 X 8G, 1 for each slot)

ASUS GeForce RTX 2080 DUAL OC 8GB GDDR6 Graphics Card

Corsair RM850i 850W 80 Plus Gold Fully Modular Power Supply

Samsung 970 EVO 250GB Phoenix M.2 NVMe SSD (3400/1500)

Microsoft Windows 10 Home 64-bit

 

On paper, it looks like a beast! I can't see any obvious bottlenecks. I am not planning for it to be in the living areas, but would like it to be (reasonably) quiet.  I would also not want to have to upgrade for a few years....

Any comments much appreciated!

Cheers,

Dave

 

My suggestion is you still need to suppress low level electrical  noise from your main Upsampling PC from crossing over to your silent pc

I use a netgear gs 105 12v dc linear psu btwn by  Hqp PC and the NAA / all cat 6 cables with JSSG mod and earthed to my Fututech powerstrip earth 

I use a Hqplayer PC/NAA (SOTM ULTRA NEO)

setup

My i7 6700k PC is heavily modded..

Corsair Rmx 550 (very low ripple ) 

all using Type 4 cables with in line ripple reducing capacitors

-- your RM850 is very good 

Go ebay and check out Elfidelity Pc mods

- fan filter

- DDR 4 RAM filter

- SSD Power filter

- mobo PCie filter

I use all of these

 

All pc dc cables I install ferrite cores 

OS and Music SSD 12 v dc input from LPSU

SATA cables which I use high current type Japanese type (thick gauge) and i do the JSSG mod (double layer shield with common earthed ends).. search on CA forum

plus i have Earth wires linked back to earth terminal of my Furutech power strip

 

Clones Audio Shaar OXCO usb card with 5v dc linear  psu supply

Unitek or Startech USB3.0 dual ethernet convertor to bridge your PC to your NAA 

 

 

 

You need to inject 5v dc linear power to this usb/ethernet bridge 

I use this

 

 

 

You may or may not want a USB decrappifier like SOTM txbultra.. I use Isoregen(5v)/ultra cap (7.5v)with a 6v LT3045 (1 amp) ultra low noise regulator board in between.

 

my dac is th iFi idsd micro bl

next upgrade is this  dac

 

My system has very very low noise .. i hear all ambient concert hall noises in live albums.. A very good test.. Voices and instrument imaging is papable and depth, separation very good

 

Just my two cents worth

Happy listening

 

 

 

[craighartley]

11 hours ago, Miska said:

 

No, that combination doesn't work, probably runs out of memory bandwidth. That case eats over 300 MB more RAM on the GPU. Would be interesting to hear if some GPU with HBM (Titan V, etc) would work for that case.

 

But that's quite rare thing, because there are so few DACs that work properly in 48k x512...

 

Could you pls expand slightly on your last comment? Is the T&A 8 one of the few?

[Miska]

Just now, craighartley said:

Could you pls expand slightly on your last comment? Is the T&A 8 one of the few?

 

It may or may not work, but you may get periodic ticking with it at 48k x512 rate.

 

Then there's iFi micro iDSD and Pro-Ject PreBox S2 Digital, both only under Linux. YMMV, etc...

 

[Miska]

20 hours ago, bellhead said:

As far as I can see there is only one single Win 10 Chord driver download available for DAVE and other Chord DACs, and that's the WASAPI one I have. I have a question into Chord about this; I'll see if I get an answer.

(There was some chatter about an ASIO driver for the Hugo, but it was said to be unstable and no longer available.)

 

I just checked again, and with Mojo at least I get also ASIO driver installed. The single installer package launches first WASAPI driver installer and then right after the ASIO driver installer. And then I get the ASIO driver visible:

[craighartley]

1 hour ago, Miska said:

 

It may or may not work, but you may get periodic ticking with it at 48k x512 rate.

 

Then there's iFi micro iDSD and Pro-Ject PreBox S2 Digital, both only under Linux. YMMV, etc...

 

I’ve never had problems with ticking at 48k  x 512 on the T&A8 with family rate upsampling; I’ve never tried 44.1to 48k x 512 as I’ve never had powerful enough processors to achieve it. 

[Miska]

9 hours ago, craighartley said:

I’ve never had problems with ticking at 48k  x 512 on the T&A8 with family rate upsampling; I’ve never tried 44.1to 48k x 512 as I’ve never had powerful enough processors to achieve it. 

 

Yeah, there was long discussion on this topic in the past, I was able to reproduce it with mine. It is apparent in long quiet passages. I think in the end I used 440 Hz low level sine to test it. It sounds like very small dust particles on vinyl.

[craighartley]

41 minutes ago, Miska said:

 

Yeah, there was long discussion on this topic in the past, I was able to reproduce it with mine. It is apparent in long quiet passages. I think in the end I used 440 Hz low level sine to test it. It sounds like very small dust particles on vinyl.

I do remember now hearing that some time ago (when I thought it was the processor struggling to upsample) but not recently. Do you have the latest firmware, and if so, have you tested it since updating?

[Miska]

26 minutes ago, craighartley said:

Do you have the latest firmware, and if so, have you tested it since updating?

 

No, not yet, I got the update cable on Friday, will be doing the update this week...

[simonklp]

21 hours ago, kelvinwsy said:

My suggestion is you still need to suppress low level electrical  noise from your main Upsampling PC from crossing over to your silent pc

I use a netgear gs 105 12v dc linear psu btwn by  Hqp PC and the NAA / all cat 6 cables with JSSG mod and earthed to my Fututech powerstrip earth 

I use a Hqplayer PC/NAA (SOTM ULTRA NEO)

setup

My i7 6700k PC is heavily modded..

Corsair Rmx 550 (very low ripple ) 

all using Type 4 cables with in line ripple reducing capacitors

-- your RM850 is very good 

Go ebay and check out Elfidelity Pc mods

- fan filter

- DDR 4 RAM filter

- SSD Power filter

- mobo PCie filter

I use all of these

 

All pc dc cables I install ferrite cores 

OS and Music SSD 12 v dc input from LPSU

SATA cables which I use high current type Japanese type (thick gauge) and i do the JSSG mod (double layer shield with common earthed ends).. search on CA forum

plus i have Earth wires linked back to earth terminal of my Furutech power strip

 

Clones Audio Shaar OXCO usb card with 5v dc linear  psu supply

Unitek or Startech USB3.0 dual ethernet convertor to bridge your PC to your NAA 

 

 

 

You need to inject 5v dc linear power to this usb/ethernet bridge 

I use this

 

 

 

You may or may not want a USB decrappifier like SOTM txbultra.. I use Isoregen(5v)/ultra cap (7.5v)with a 6v LT3045 (1 amp) ultra low noise regulator board in between.

 

my dac is th iFi idsd micro bl

next upgrade is this  dac

 

My system has very very low noise .. i hear all ambient concert hall noises in live albums.. A very good test.. Voices and instrument imaging is papable and depth, separation very good

 

Just my two cents worth

Happy listening

 

 

 

 

Hi Kelvin, have you tried to use fibre NICs with fibre network to achieve the galvanic isolation of electrical noise between the HQP PC and the quiet NAA? If not, I would recommend you to try it. The results should be extremely good.

[kelvinwsy]

Yes maybe that is another way but if u read thru my post , i like to have the output from my Shaar. oxco usb sound card .. to go into my SOTM ULTRA NEO NAA --- i got to research the fibre optic switch. I think i wait for the uptone switch which had fiber and copper ethernet connections!!!???

happy listening

[diecaster]

4 hours ago, simonklp said:

 

Hi Kelvin, have you tried to use fibre NICs with fibre network to achieve the galvanic isolation of electrical noise between the HQP PC and the quiet NAA? If not, I would recommend you to try it. The results should be extremely good.

 

Using fiber still has issues. The fiber Ethernet media converters need power. How do you know that the power supply is not adding electrical noise to the copper connection to Kelvin's SoTM Ultra? What he is doing using a NetGear GS105 with the 12v negative line grounded is likely just as good as using the fiber Ethernet media converter. I use a NetGear GS108 and ground the 12v negative line.

 

I have zero desire to add the cost or complexity of fiber to my setup. I too will look at the UpTone Audio switch when it is released. But I am not sure that is even necessary. I'll wait to see what test results they post first.

[kelvinwsy]

Exactly !! uptone audio switch on my shopping list for Xmas as well as a Cybershaft word clock for my Sotm ultra!!

For the Dac upgrade idea i tested the iFi idsd Pro.. the Hp amp section is uhmh ... only so so.!!

Well more pain for the wallet if it has to be a DAVE!!

 

[kelvinwsy]

Oh forgot to post JSSG this little bugger

photo of work in progrss

Sata cabke Much much better then the usual flat ribbon type.. well a pachanko Audiophile Sata cable is what 300+ usd for 40 cm .. this Jap brand high current/gauge is 25usd for 50cm

The SQ Jump after the JSSG AND double Earthed the shield gives better finer details and more PRAT ; much lower ambient noise levels