HQ Player

[LoryWiv]

33 minutes ago, juanitox said:

Hi, Miska  great job with the CPU power rediuction ,   now with 4.2.1 i can use  Closed form fast in  x512 DSD with my I6700K processor ( no GPU)   thing i couldn't do before .. 👍

Nice, @juanitoxWhat modulator are using to achieve this result?

[LoryWiv]

6 hours ago, juanitox said:

with hte T+A DSD DAC8  my preferate are still the 5 modulators ,   DSD5EC for DSD256   and DSD5v2x256 for DSD512 , but this is purely subjective .😙

Impressive that you can run DSD256 with EC modulator with that i6700i without stuttering. What cpu utilization percent is required?

[LoryWiv]

After noting @juanitox's results decided to try to get at least DSD256 w/an EC modulator, and to my happy surprise running HQ Player 4.21 with DSD5EC and polysinc-mp-2s not only do I get stutter free playback on my i7 7700 @ 4.20 Ghz with cpu utilization under 25% (generally where I like to keep it to allow other programs to run smoothly while I listen to music), but the sound quality is excellent! @Miskaare there substantial differences between DSD5EC, ASDM5EC and ASDM7EC? The latter seem more demanding of my CPU and I can't really discern an audible advantage, so just curious. I do appreciate the 4.21 update and look forward to even better cpu efficiencies with future releases when your time permits. Thanks!

[LoryWiv]

20 hours ago, ted_b said:

Although my system is still down from the move I have documented profusely on this site (esp Holo dac review) that I, also, found going through the Singxer to be a big improvement sonically. Maybe I like distortion but I don’t think so 😀. It must be something we aren’t measuring?  Dunno. Btw this was with the Holo’s first stock USB interface, nothing upgraded at that time. 

Fully agree, adding Singxer SU-1 and connecting I2S to DAC made an improvement in "blackness" of background, detail, overall tonality. I don't think I'd ever go back to direct USB to DAC. I realize, however, improvements in and differing USB interfaces may have a bearing on results.

[LoryWiv]

50 minutes ago, Miska said:

 

Now in the just released HQPlayer 4 Desktop 4.2.2 and in HQPlayer 4 Embedded 4.13.0 there are two new environment variables to get some more control.

 

DSP_CUDA_DEVICE=n

Where "n" is number id of the GPU to use, you can use for example CUDA-Z or similar to figure out which one is which.

 

HQPLAYER_RESERVED_CORES=x

Where "x" is binary mask of cores that will be reserved for separate fairly low load tasks. You can consult to the log file to see which bits correspond to physical cores, you can also reserve logical cores or a combination. Right-most bit is LSB which is usually also Core 0. This way, on 3900X you can for example reserve all the 4 cores on the other chiplet for these tasks and thus rest of the 8 cores / 2 CCXs on the other chiplet will be nicely split to the more active tasks.

 

Sounds both fantastic / promising but potentially confusing to those of us who are less computer literate. Will the manual offer some general guidance or will there be a default setting that achieves appropriate (even if not optimal) performance across different PC hardware?

[LoryWiv]

12 minutes ago, dean70 said:

HQPlayer desktop 4.2.3 Windows 10 CUDA offload is not working. Offload was enabled on previous version, but playlist loads with offload=disabled.

CUDA offload setting is checked & have CUDA version 10.2 installed.

When I've had this issue previously solution was to upgrade to latest video card driver.

[LoryWiv]

44 minutes ago, ronnie.sengupta said:

@Hammerand @ronnie.sengupta, what cpu usage do you get on your i7 7700 outputting DSD256 using ADSM7EC?

 

 

 

[LoryWiv]

8 hours ago, ronnie.sengupta said:

90 to 95% CPU without Cuda. With Cuda it comes down to around 50 to 60% on both GPU and CPU

Thanks. I don't have a dedicated music PC and try to keep HQP's CPU utilization to <30-40% to allow other app's to run.

 

Jussi, are any other optimizations possible / planned to diminish the EC modulator's CPU needs?

[LoryWiv]

6 hours ago, ronnie.sengupta said:

 

Thank you Jussi for the results.

 

I got really impatient over the weekend and upgraded CPU to i7 9700k - that didn't help at all. So, this morning I ordered 2080 ti, just installed and ran poly-sinc-xtr-lp from 44.1k to DSD at 44.1k x512

 

Success! Its running CPU at 28% and GPU at 48% - very similar to your results.

 

I could have done without the CPU upgrade the GPU made all the difference.

 

Thanks for sharing your results. I am a bit confused, though, as I thought the CPU was key in upsampling to high rate DSD and to running modulators whereas GPU is more relevant to running the filters...is that conceptually correct?

[LoryWiv]

18 minutes ago, Miska said:

 

With ESS it is better to go for higher rate, so I'd rather go with ASDM7 at DSD512.

 

 

Hmmm. I didn't know that and have a Matrix DAC per signature below. Just by trial and error comparing ASDM7EC --> DSD128 versus non EC modulators --> DSD256 I found the former better overall.

 

I have an i7 7700 at 4.2, I can run ASDM7EC --> DSD256 without stutter but cpu load gets quite high and I haven't really been able to detect a huge sonic improvement.

 

Thanks, @Miska 

 

[LoryWiv]

47 minutes ago, Miska said:

 

If you prefer that way instead, it is not a bad choice either. Background is that ESS has fairly gentle DSD filter, so using higher rate reduces amount of leftover (random) ultrasonic noise. For audio band, the difference is small though.

 

EC vs non-EC modulator differences are primarily in the audio band though.

 

So it is not easy to give a generic advice which way is best even under somewhat known conditions.

 

Thanks, @Miska that makes sense. BTW any recommended settings for the Matrix X-sabre pro for best use with HQ Player 4.x Desktop?

[LoryWiv]

8 hours ago, Miska said:

 

I don't have anything else than what I said above regarding ESS chips. Analog filter implementations in different DACs vary somewhat, but most resort to fairly simple 2nd order filter.

 

Upsampling filter choice in HQPlayer is driven mostly by combination of personal preferences and source material. Modulator choice is maybe more technical, but still it has the sonic and overall system dependent aspect.

 

But it is also straightforward to test for example ASDM7 at DSD512 vs ASDM7EC at DSD256 while keeping other settings the same. It gives fairly good picture of the differences in a particular system.

 

Yes, that's what I've done and quite happy with my current settings. I do think the EC filters sound generally better, and stick with closed-form-16M for 2x up, either poly-sinc.xtr-mp-2s or poly-sinc-ext2 for 1x.

 

Poly-sinc.xtr-mp-2s sounds generally more to my preference but takes longer to initialize for some reason, and both filters give great results. 

 

I'm also doing some tube rolling on my amp recently and it's helpful to have stable, reliable settings on HQ Player to remove that variable when I evaluate tubes.

 

Thanks @Miska!

[LoryWiv]

@MiskaI am experiencring some strange behaviour with HQ Player 4.31 that I did not experience on 4.30. Specifically, when I launch client and player, there is ~15% cpu activity taken by HQ Player idle, with no playback initiated. This seems like excessive overhead for the program at idle. The only way I can reduce it to <1% is to close client and restart HQPlayer without client. I am hopeful you have a solution. If not, please direct me to a link and I will roll back to 4.30 until this is fixed. Many thanks.

[LoryWiv]

35 minutes ago, LoryWiv said:

@MiskaI am experiencring some strange behaviour with HQ Player 4.31 that I did not experience on 4.30. Specifically, when I launch client and player, there is ~15% cpu activity taken by HQ Player idle, with no playback initiated. This seems like excessive overhead for the program at idle. The only way I can reduce it to <1% is to close client and restart HQPlayer without client. I am hopeful you have a solution. If not, please direct me to a link and I will roll back to 4.30 until this is fixed. Many thanks.

I located my copy of 4.30, uninstalled 4.31 and reinstalled the prior release -->  Problem resolved. In my  admittedly layman's terms, appears to be an issue with how client and server communicate in 4.31, consuming  substantial cpu cycles even when no playback occuring. I look forward to a resolution in future releases.

Thanks, Jussi!

[LoryWiv]

18 hours ago, Miska said:

 

That may remain mystery unless I manage to reproduce it here...

 

Noted, Jussi.. Hopefully next update will return to prior version's behaviour in this regard for me. For now if you don't have any thoughts as to what I can try to correct the excessive cpu cycles at idle,I'll stick to 4.30.

[LoryWiv]

19 hours ago, Miska said:

 

Just make sure you are running plain Win10 (no "OS optimizers") and that you have High Performance or Ultimate Performance power profile selected.

Good suggestion, Jussi.I have changed from balanced to high performance and cpu utilization during playback is a few percent less, This is still using HQP Desktop 4.30 as I'm reluctant reluctant to go back to 4.31 due to the cpu consumption at idle issue. I will report back it it makes any additional difference.

[LoryWiv]

2 hours ago, LoryWiv said:

Good suggestion, Jussi.I have changed from balanced to high performance and cpu utilization during playback is a few percent less, This is still using HQP Desktop 4.30 as I'm reluctant reluctant to go back to 4.31 due to the cpu consumption at idle issue. I will report back it it makes any additional difference.

At Jussi's suggestion I changed Win 10 to "High Performance" power setting and tried HQ Player Desktop 4.31 (latest) again. Unfortunately, the problem persists whereby having client and server open together consumes ~15% cpu cycles even when idle with no playback. Went back to prior version 4.30 and all is well. I'll stay with 4.30 for now and hopefully whatever gremlin is causing this issue will resolve with next update. 😬 4.30 is thankfully still working and sounding great! 😁

[LoryWiv]

10 hours ago, Outlaw said:

Desktop Windows 4.3.2 constant drop outs.CPU percentage is way higher.

Miska : The version posted at Signalyst.com still appears to be 4.3.1. Where can I d/l 4.3.2?

[LoryWiv]

15 minutes ago, StreamFidelity said:

 

just clear the browser cache 😉

Ah, of course. Thank you, @StreamFidelity

[LoryWiv]

Well @Miska I installed HQP Desktop 4.32 with high hopes, but unfortunately having exactly the same issue that prevented me from using 4.31. Specifically, as shown in the screenshots below, anytime I have client / server both running there is consumption of 14-16% of my cpu cycles with no music files loaded, both client and server inactive. This obviously limits my ability to use EC modulators at higher rates. When I roll back to 4.301 with no other changes to my system configuration, this behaviour is not evident. Please address this with an update ASAP as one of the major value aspects of purchasing HQ Player is the ability to update as you release new versions, but something clearly was "broken" after 4.30 as my system is completely unchanged, but the newer versions "hog" cpu resources even when idyl. Thank you very much!

 

With HQP Desktop 4.32:

With HQP Desktop 4.30

 

[LoryWiv]

8 hours ago, Miska said:

 

I just have no idea why that happens, and I'm unable to reproduce it, so it is very hard to do anything about it...

 

Are there HQP or Win10 OS or bios settings I should adjust to (hopefully) solve this.?Would an HQP log file be helpful to you? If so, please instruct me how and I will send. This is very frustrating.

[LoryWiv]

36 minutes ago, Miska said:

 

This is all software stack through "localhost", except graphics and audio output. Audio output is not active there, graphics is, but the load should then be more on the Client rather than on the server side.

 

Is it the same if you connect through real network instead of "localhost"? You have two choices on the drop-list.

 

You could email me HQPlayer4Desktop.log from %LOCALAPPDATA%\HQPlayer folder, if you have it enabled already. If not, first enable it from settings and then restart HQPlayer so that it is gathered right from the beginning.

I'll do as you instruct this evening when home, and thanks for sticking with me to try to solve this problem, Jussi. 

[LoryWiv]

On 3/5/2020 at 1:27 PM, Miska said:

 

This is all software stack through "localhost", except graphics and audio output. Audio output is not active there, graphics is, but the load should then be more on the Client rather than on the server side.

 

Is it the same if you connect through real network instead of "localhost"? You have two choices on the drop-list.

 

You could email me HQPlayer4Desktop.log from %LOCALAPPDATA%\HQPlayer folder, if you have it enabled already. If not, first enable it from settings and then restart HQPlayer so that it is gathered right from the beginning.

Just a quick shout out to appreciate Jussi for helping me troubleshoot my issue with HQP Desktop using cpu cycles even when idle. This level of support and engagement with customers is a part of why HQ Player's substantial purchase price is still a good value, in addition to it being great software.

 

In case anyone else encounters this behaviour, for me solution was to assure the "Allow control from network" option was selected. 

[LoryWiv]

31 minutes ago, Solstice380 said:

 

On Win10 I have not had the drop-down menus in HQP 4 Desktop, Hi DPI or No style.  Now on Win10 Build 1909.

 

 

The drop downs are on the client side, I use them often and they work well.

 

[LoryWiv]

8 hours ago, mikel said:

So there was the remark above regarding the drop-down menus to change filters etc from the player menu.

I agree, they were there in version 3 but version 4 they are gone (Desktop version).

I tried the pro version some time back and the drop down menus were included there.

Since I do not use Client Version (or should I?), I lost some functionality there.

Thanks, Mike

The Desktop version of HQ Player does include the client. Although client has to be launched separately from the server component the 2 work seamlessly together and using drop down menus in client is very functional and convenient. To quote an old TV commercial "Try it, you'll like it" or so i hope.