HQ Player

[craighartley]

2 hours ago, Miska said:

 

Both DAC8 DSD and also Holo Spring/Cyan work fine with both 5th and 7th order. Especially Holo Audio DACs are totally fine with 7th order modulators just like DSC1/DSC2 designs. Analog FIR type DACs work perfectly fine with 7th order modulators (TI/BB chips included, like iFi).

 

Thank you. Why ’especially’ with Holo Springs? More so thanDAC8 DSD?

[craighartley]

Miska

Can you please explain a bit about what makes the AMSDM7 512+fs modulator ‘special’ (your word I think)? Or, to put it another way, how it differs from ASDM7? (Or why with t&a DAC8 and 512 DSD one might choose it?)

with thanks as ever

Craig

 

[craighartley]

13 minutes ago, Miska said:

 

It is a kind of "multi-bit" modulator, but it needs a high rate to work properly. DSD512 or even better DSD1024.

 

I’m not sure I know what you mean by kind of “multi-bit” if I’m using it to output DSD. At those high rates does it offer any advantages over ASDM7?

[craighartley]

32 minutes ago, jimdukey said:

About the 1x and Nx Filters, for DSD 128 upsampling:

Should they both be set the same, and what are they, what do they do?

Is 1X for DSD with no upsampling?

Is selection Automatic?

You set the 1 x filter as the filter you want to use for Red Book and other 44.1 or 48k recordings.

You set the N x filter as the filter you want to use for recordings with higher sampling rates.

 

It gives you the opportunity to set two different filters for different situations.

[craighartley]

46 minutes ago, Nikko1960 said:

 

Hi Nick!!

 

We really ought to find another excuse than this for meeting up!!

 

It would be good if others could contribute thoughts about how best to make use of this new split function. I'm not the best to comment, and of course there's nothing wrong with sticking to -ext2 for everything, but you could experiment with some of the non-anodising filters (closed form, etc) for hi-res (Nx) on the basis that you might stand a chance that those files have fewer of the ills that an apodising filter is trying to cure.

 

Another benefit of the two different settings is that you can set the -2s version of a favourite filter for 1x, and the non-2s version for Nx, so you don't have to wait an age while a long filter sets itself for 1x stuff.

 

All the best

 

Craig

 

46 minutes ago, Nikko1960 said:

Craig, hi, it's Nick Harmer here!

 

I decided to buy Jussi's new release and now I'm trying to make sense of it.  Fortunately, it's not too difficult getting it to work with Roon & my UltraRendu.  But I'm a bit confused as to what filters to choose for high rez vs redbook.

 

In HQP3, my go-to filter/modulator choice has been poly-since-ext2/DSD5.  I currently have HQP4 set up with this combo for both 1x and Nx.  I have an older DAC that only accepts DSD128 so I upsample everything to that over DoP.  I think you're a bit ahead of me on all things connected with HQP.  Do you have any suggestions for the Nx choice please?

 

Hope all is well.  Will look you up the next time I come to Cambs and you're welcome to do likewise if you venture near north Wilts!

 

Best

 

Nick

 

- Jussi, thanks for your continued efforts and I'm happy to be able to support you!

 

[craighartley]

6 minutes ago, Theobetley said:

My file is 24/96 flac. Settings are set to upsample to either 705 or 768 kHz but no go. Everything else plays fine.

Try sending us a screenshot of your settings?

[craighartley]

Miska,

 

This may be a stupid question, but if I am using another front end like Roon and not using Client and therefore never 'see' the main window, what does HQPlayer assume is 'set' in the main window??! 

[craighartley]

3 hours ago, Bob Stern said:

 

I use my 2017 Touchbar MacBook Pro at a scaled resolution of 1440x900, so the 915 pixel tall Settings dialog does not fit.

 

Tip for Mac users:  Option-clicking the green button in the Settings dialog scales it to fit the display, making it shorter and twice as wide.

Yes, I had to change the screen resolution on my remote Windows PC to get to see the bottom of the new settings dialogue. 

[craighartley]

2 hours ago, Le Concombre Masqué said:

Beyond the philosophical standpoint that if 2 things are different they are not alike, Miska claimed a new client-server architecture + under DSD settings there's a new (or did I see it when I trialed the first mansr inside A+ ?) wide vs narrow setting. Maybe you can agree that Narrow and Wide sound different? Then you could compare 4/Narrow to 3... I have done it only once and quickly and will draw conclusions only when I'll get time to redo the comparison but.... try both comparisons....

Where is the ‘Narrow’ vs ‘Wide’ setting’?!

[craighartley]

33 minutes ago, Le Concombre Masqué said:

File>DSD source settings ; see manual p20

Thanks. I’d missed that in the manual and seeing it in the dialogue I had assumed it was for DSD to PCM conversion and had ignored it as I only output DSD.

 

I’d assumed the same for the Integrator: can someone please tell me how I can inform my choice of Integrator? Does it depend on the source material? (I’m processing mainly highres files to DSD 512 into the T&A DAC8).

[craighartley]

2 hours ago, Le Concombre Masqué said:

I claimed my love of the CIC integrator in my sig for a while ; I reverted to default (IIR) these days. Please report if you try. You can also try to change the convolution engine (save vs add) : filters are not the only parameters

Thanks. I haven’t played with convolution yet. 

[craighartley]

1 hour ago, Miska said:

 

I'm sure you won't run out of gain on your amps even if you would turn down HQPlayer volume to -6 dB or more. Effectively you'll also attenuate less in the preamp, so you get less back-and-forth attenuation and amplification. If you have -26 dB attenuation in preamp and power amp has 36 dB gain, your effective gain is only 10 dB and the SNR between preamp and power amp suffers.

 

This prompts me to wonder how I might use the HQP volume setting to help match the attenuation of my preamp to the gain of my power amp?

[craighartley]

2 hours ago, Outlaw said:

Tried on Linux.Better then windows but still slow.Cant figure this out.I guess no one else has this issue.Issue is the same by controling by remote or directly by the machine the software is on

I have the same issue. Always had it I think but it may be worse on 4.0.1 than 3. 

[craighartley]

36 minutes ago, DancingSea said:

 

Haha!  I can easily afford HQP 4, that’s thankfully not the issue....  one thing I did learn from those guys is that they take every dollar seriously.  It could be called cheap, but also perhaps judicious....

I’m with @DancingSea on this. Your comment @juanitox suggesting people should get better jobs is offensive. Many people don’t live in the economic or social context that allows this. I’ve nothing against the pricing of HQP 4; I think it’s fair, and that it’s the least that Miska deserves. But to say that people who can’t afford it only have themselves to blame is toxic and has no place on this forum. 

[craighartley]

Miska,

 

Is there a point at which lowering the level of the HQPlayer volume control starts to affect quality/resolution?

 

thanks

Craig

[craighartley]

38 minutes ago, Miska said:

 

Internally, you'll really need to try hard. But other than that, it largely depends on the output format and settings. In most normal cases you won't hit the limits.

 

If you output 44.1/16, you need to pay attention. But if you output for example 20-bit noise-shaped PCM at 1.5 MHz, or DSD256, you don't need to worry unless you begin to go much beyond -60 dB or so.

 

P.S. If there's a need for a lot of attenuation, there's a generic gain matching problem in the system and some later amp stage is having too much gain. It is counterproductive to have a lot of attenuation followed by lot of gain.

It would be at least DSD256 output, and usually DSD512. 

 

in relation to your last comment, you wouldn’t use it to eliminate the need for a ‘pre-amp’ (in my case passive transformer based attenuation)?

[craighartley]

50 minutes ago, Miska said:

 

I'm asking if HQPlayer Client would be considered "good remote". I'm not gonna spend extra money doing something people still don't like and wouldn't use. It would be just plain stupid and put even more pricing pressure on HQPlayer itself.

 

HQPlayer Client would probably cost something like 25 EUR per year before taxes.

 

I'd be willing to pay that not to have to go through the rigmarole necessary at present, BUT as I only use HQPlayer through Roon I'd much rather the level of control Client provides was available from within Roon - or at least the possibility to change filter and modulator.

 

I'd put both of these as less of a priority than wanting you to go further than the 1x and Nx distinction within filter settings; for me there are other compromises that would be excluded if I could distinguish between 1x, 2x, 4x and 8x. I'd be willing to pay 25 EUR extra for this!

[craighartley]

Miska,

When will we get the new EC modulators in HQP Desktop 4?

[craighartley]

 

1 hour ago, tboooe said:

 

What CPU do you have?  I have an i7-6700 and converting PCM to DSD512 using your same settings my CPU is at 60%.

Are you upsampling Red Book or hi-res files? My 6700k and GTX1080 will only go up to DSD with the EC modulators using hi-res material. I haven’t tried with Red Book yet. And I haven’t tried without the GPU. 

[craighartley]

13 minutes ago, tboooe said:

Sorry for not being clear, I was not referring to EC modulators.  I was responding to the settings that OP had listed (PolysyncEXt2 DSD5.V2  DSD512).  The 6700K cpu speed is faster than my 6700 (4 vs 3.6 ghz) which explains why the cpu usage is so much lower than mine using the same settings converting Red Book.

Oh I see! Thanks. Sorry I didn’t pay enough attention to which part of the post you were quoting. 

[craighartley]

Miska,

i think you have a Windows server with 6700k and GTX 2080? Could you please tell me what’s the highest DSD rate you can go to with the EC modulators, both with 44.1 and hi res files (up to DXD)?

I’m thinking of upgrading my GTX 1080 to 2080 (possibly ti version) and want to get to at least DSD256 for my T&A DAC 8 DSD. 

Thanks

Craig

[craighartley]

2 hours ago, Miska said:

 

It never does anything to the DSD data, it is only a direct bit-perfect D/A converter...

It doesn’t upsample, but there is still filtering isn’t there? To quote

@OE333: ‘All this does not mean that there is no DSD processing done in the DAC. With the T+A True 1 Bit Converter each incoming DSD bit is converted by 16 balanced converter stages resulting in up to 3.1 billion conversions per second. This converter structure performs a filtering function and reduces high frequency noise  just likeadditional oversampling would do.’

 

And am I wrong in remembering that there is a difference  between 512 and 256 because of clocking in the DAC 8? 

[craighartley]

2 hours ago, Miska said:

 

I'm not so sure about that between DSD256 and DSD512... I personally prefer DSD256 with the EC modulators rather than DSD512 with the earlier ones.

 

If you want to try how EC modulators sound like at higher rates, you can use HQPlayer4Pro trial to convert some test files and play those with Direct SDM enabled. You get only one minute of sound, but for simple comparison that could be enough.

 

P.S. Did you try DSD256 with "Multicore DSP" enabled/auto? You could also try with little simpler ASDM5EC modulator.

 

 I found I could do 256 most of the time with the ASDM7EC modulator on my 6700k and GTX1080 with the following settings (only the occasional stutter but good enough to judge the sound quality):

 

The stuttering gets MUCH worse if I grey out the CUDA offload checkbox.

 

I prefer these settings to 512 DSD and older modulators (through T&A DAC8 DSD). I haven't tried ASDM5EC.

 

 

[craighartley]

3 minutes ago, Le Concombre Masqué said:

yes and I confirm @Miska:

initial 4.1 works perfectly here, hotfix does not

 

Hotfix is fine here except that I have to press play at least twice (when using HQPlayer alone or with Roon): the first press loads the filter but I have to press play again (sometimes twice) to play the track. 

[craighartley]

16 hours ago, Miska said:

 

This runs filters on the GPU and only modulators on CPU. Since the CPU is just quad-core, it is fully busy with the modulators and such. If it stutters occasionally, ASDM5EC is probably just about lighter enough that it may work fine.

 

 

Thank you, you’re right: no stutters with ASDM5EC with these settings. Problem is that I prefer 7th order modulator! Still, it’s lovely for now.