HQ Player

[itguy61]

8 hours ago, Geoffrey Armstrong said:

Because on Mac the highest you can typically go is DSD128. Usually you don't use DAC drivers on the Mac. MacOS just supports most DACs straight out of the box, which is convenient; but has that ceiling of DSD128.

 

On Windows there are ASIO drivers available for the DSD DACs which allow them to reach their full potential. (DSD512 in the case of my T+A DAC8 DSD and some others).

 

The only exceptions I know of are the Exasound DACs as George wrote his own ASIO drivers which work on both Windows and MacOS that take them up to DSD256.

 

The situation is much the same on Linux as Mac, although I understand there are some (experimental??) ASIO drivers for Amanero based DACs that will take them beyond DSD128.

I run 256 all the time in Mac OS.    Some people here successfully run 512.

[Le Concombre Masqué]

4 hours ago, Miska said:

 

No, the two are similar, you could tune gains to be similar too with gain compensation in convolution setup. But matrix at the moment uses overlap-add by default. Maybe I bring the selection there too somehow at some point.

 

Thank you Miska, guess the overlap mode accounts for the difference, quite in line with my perception of said modes differences : beefier with save, more 3D/better soundstage with add. 

I have slightly modified my curves vs my sig, mimicking the Orchestra Hall  in Chicago (http://www.regonaudio.com/Records and Reality.html) in the Low End and thus adding # 1.5 dB @ 62.5 and slopping down both ways from this peak. As one of the consequences, seems that I prefer add now. Will modify in Convolution for when I listen to dsd sources. And won't I push to get the save option in Pipeline but will give it a try if you implement it.

[Paetrick]

@Em2016 I had a struggle with generating or even finding impulse responses for utilizing crossfeed within HqPlayer very recently, too.

In the end (after some research) I used a combination of a tool called Voxengo Deconvolver and Audacity with Bauer Crossfeed VST plugin.

From listening and comparing my resulting filter to other Bauer implementations I'm pretty confident with my approach:

1. Creating Mono 176 KHz 32 Bit Sine Sweep with Voxengo Deconvolver.
2. Loading it into Audacity and making it Stereo by adding channel containing silence.
3. Applying Bauer crossfeed effect to the Stereo clip using Chu Moy settings.
4. Splitting Stereo back to Mono and exporting the two files not touching sample rate or bit depth.
5. Using Voxengo Deconvolver to deconvolve each of the Mono files against Sine Sweep created in step one.
6. Trimming some silence from both resulting IRs with Audacity, of course keeping the relative time relation of both files intact.

Now the two IRs is all that is needed to put into the pipeline setup from HqPlayer.

• Channel 1 => 1 and 2 => 2 using IR originated from original sine sweep.
• Channel 1 => 2 and 2 => 1 using IR originated from silence channel.
• For all four pipes I use -6 dB gain.

I'm no professional, it was just what I thought to be logical for me right now.

I attached my filters for others to try out; they might even be more trimmed but I didn't wanted to be too aggressive with that.

The archive contains 'direct.wav' and 'cross.wav' where 'direct' has to be used for Left to Left and Right to Right and 'cross' for the channel mixing from Left to Right and Right to Left.

One more thing is that one might raise the amplitude of both IRs by the same amount as for me I have a bit lower volume output from HqPlayer now. I adjusted my headroom setting from -6 dB to 0 dB after enabling the pipeline setup; even then I have to turn the preamp volume up a few more steps than before. I'll stick with it because the crossfeed filter now does apply crossfeed and enough headroom at once.

chu_moy_ir.zip

[ABQMD]

16 hours ago, Miska said:

 

With iFi micro iDSD / iDAC2, RME ADI-2 and Holo Spring (I think it also applies to Cyan DSD) you can get DSD256 on macOS too, because they support 705.6/768k PCM rates...

 

FWIW, both the Topping D50 and DX7s easily do DSD256 on my iMacPro and in HQP NAA on an older Mac Mini (2009) in macOS. With Linux on the Mac Mini, it can nicely do DSD512 as HQP NAA pushed by the iMacPro core. Both Toppings support 705.6/768k rates.

 

[bunno77]

18 hours ago, bunno77 said:

 

Just finished getting Windows 10 on. It is still a free upgrade from 8.1. Looks like HQplayer and Audirvana now working. Roon backup isn't being recognised though. Thanks for the motivation

Spoke too soon. It opened the first time and now same problem. I give up

Maybe if I get a dedicated server one day

[asdf1000]

23 hours ago, Ales Prochazka said:

 

Hi,

 

I tried to realize it some time ago.
Level - amateur!

crossfeed.zip 74.67 kB · 5 downloads

 

Thanks! I am trying a left/right channel test file and don't hear any difference with "default" but maybe my settings are wrong ?

 

I compare with Roon Bauer crossfeed (also default) and with Roon  it is better / more noticeable.

 

I must be doing something wrong when I import. 

 

Can anyone see anything wrong here @Miska

 

[asdf1000]

My mistake, I forgot to swap the mix channels, as per instructions.

 

 

Now it's working! Thanks @Ales Prochazka

 

And thanks @Paetrick ! It sounds like your Chu Moy sounds like Ales's Chu Moy. 

 

 

 

[JohnDonaldson]

I am having a problem getting DSD files to consistently play as DSD. If I start HQPlayer right after booting Windows, DSD files play as DSD.

 

 

 

 

If I wait a while to start HQPlayer, DSD files are converted to PCM for playback.

 

 

 

Both HQPlayer and the driver for my DAC are current, I have had the same problem with previous versions of both pieces of software. I also see this unwanted conversion to PCM if switch to DSD playback after playing PCM files. My backup computer is setup just like my primary computer and I have never seen this unwanted conversion of DSD to PCM on my backup computer.

 

Any suggestions on how can I fix playback on my primary computer?

[Miska]

3 hours ago, JohnDonaldson said:

I am having a problem getting DSD files to consistently play as DSD. If I start HQPlayer right after booting Windows, DSD files play as DSD.

 

If I wait a while to start HQPlayer, DSD files are converted to PCM for playback.

 

Any suggestions on how can I fix playback on my primary computer?

 

Could be that Windows decides to revert to it's own UAC2 driver instead of manufacturers driver, which will mess up the ASIO driver too. This has been recently seen with some other drivers as well. Does the DSD capability disappear from the main window output mode list?

 

Sounds like this is reproducible. If you could also enable HQPlayer's log file, reboot the computer and play first one successful session and then later one where this fails. And the email me the log file (please don't put log files here).

 

You could also observe first when things are working what Windows says about the driver manufacturer/version in Device Manager / Sound and device properties (right-click the audio device and select properties and then check the driver tab). And then same thing later when it begins to misbehave.

 

[lucretius]

6 hours ago, Miska said:

Could be that Windows decides to revert to it's own UAC2 driver instead of manufacturers driver, which will mess up the ASIO driver too. This has been recently seen with some other drivers as well. <snip>

 

I worry about this with every Windows update

[clang]

It's funny that, despite what Jussi and others have said, the upsampling to DSD128 occurred only when SDM Pack was set to DoP and not to  None.

The Mytek has firmware version 2.35 and so is up-to-date(though not  2.36). 

 

[Jigafur]

Hello,  i use mobile app HQPDcontrol to management.

But, when i click "Syncing the HQPlayer Library - i dont see new tracks.

 

Every time after adding new tracks and for new tracks to appear in HQPDcontrol, i need to click the "Scan tree" button in Hqplayer in desktop version.

 

How to add the function of automatic updating of the library when the HQPlayer starts on desktop?

[Ipoci]

On 4/8/2019 at 3:34 PM, Em2016 said:

Now it's working!

What's the library manager in your picture? Roon?

Have a nice day. Massimiliano

[asdf1000]

26 minutes ago, Ipoci said:

What's the library manager in your picture? Roon?

Have a nice day. Massimiliano

 

Hi, yes that's Roon in the background.

 

That's the Tidal main screen within Roon showing.

 

[Miska]

1 hour ago, Jigafur said:

Every time after adding new tracks and for new tracks to appear in HQPDcontrol, i need to click the "Scan tree" button in Hqplayer in desktop version.

 

How to add the function of automatic updating of the library when the HQPlayer starts on desktop?

 

That's one of the things different with HQPlayer. I don't like automatically running background tasks because those potentially affect playback too. Another different thing is that HQPlayer Desktop doesn't have any stored content paths, you can locate content anywhere you like, but it also means it is not possible to automatically scan for new content, because HQPlayer doesn't know where to look at.

 

Another aspect is that scanning new content is notably fast since you can point it at correct part of the subtree, so HQPlayer doesn't need to walk as large directory tree.

 

[Miska]

8 hours ago, clang said:

It's funny that, despite what Jussi and others have said, the upsampling to DSD128 occurred only when SDM Pack was set to DoP and not to  None.

The Mytek has firmware version 2.35 and so is up-to-date(though not  2.36). 

 

I'm missing a bit of context here. Are you using ASIO backend in HQPlayer?

[Jigafur]

 

2 hours ago, Miska said:

 

That's one of the things different with HQPlayer. I don't like automatically running background tasks because those potentially affect playback too. Another different thing is that HQPlayer Desktop doesn't have any stored content paths, you can locate content anywhere you like, but it also means it is not possible to automatically scan for new content, because HQPlayer doesn't know where to look at.

 

Another aspect is that scanning new content is notably fast since you can point it at correct part of the subtree, so HQPlayer doesn't need to walk as large directory tree.

 

 

Maybe you misunderstood me.

 

New tracks not visible in HQPDcontrol app on android.

 

So that they appear i always need to click manually in the HQplayer desktop - "Scan tree" button.

 

I just want the button "Scan tree" function to work every time when HQPlayer srtating after system boot - so i can see the new tracks in the HQPDcontrol app.

 

Because music tracks fall into the folder with music from the cloud service.

 

I do not have access to the monitor. To manage music from the HQPDcontrol app, I do not want to go to the computer every time!

 

Thanks for the understanding!

 

 

 

[Miska]

1 hour ago, Jigafur said:

I just want the button "Scan tree" function to work every time when HQPlayer srtating after system boot - so i can see the new tracks in the HQPDcontrol app.

 

I was just explaining why I don't want that to happen why it cannot happen as things currently are in HQPlayer Desktop.

 

1 hour ago, Jigafur said:

I do not have access to the monitor. To manage music from the HQPDcontrol app, I do not want to go to the computer every time!

 

HQPlayer Desktop is not intended for headless servers, for that there is HQPlayer Embedded which can be managed over web interface. So on Embedded you can trigger that remotely using browser. But already now you can use for example VNC to do that remotely.

 

I can look into adding such functionality into the control API though, in some future version, if @Ales Prochazka would then add some menu option for it into HQPDcontrol.

 

[itguy61]

So I just pulled the plug on purchasing a Mac Mini with the i7-8700 six core processor.  My main goal is to be able to run the non s XTR filter at 256 dsd.    I am also thinking about installing windows using bootcamp to test the capabilities of this machine withe DSD 512 since I don't have an Exasound DAC (Expensive!).

 

Does anyone here run windows in bootcamp on a mini?  I am assuming running windows on this will allow Ifi ASIO interface to be used and allow DSD 512.   Am I correct here?   

 

I will probably end up using Mac OS because I am do used to it and don't want to deal with the hassle of windows updates breaking things but I want to test out the processor on this box with DSD 512. I will know when I hear what XTR sounds like on DSD 256.   My i7-4770 processor I have now will not run this.   

 

 I work in IS at work and support 1500 windows servers and usually try to avoid dealing with Microsoft's forced Windows 10 updates breaking things like our client team is seeing now that we have gone to Windows 10.

[EdmontonCanuck]

42 minutes ago, itguy61 said:

 

Does anyone here run windows in bootcamp on a mini?  I am assuming running windows on this will allow Ifi ASIO interface to be used and allow DSD 512.   Am I correct here?   

 

 

I've had no problem running a bootcamped Win10 install on my late 2012 mini with Roon and ASIO drivers for my T+A DAC8DSD at DSD512.

[Miska]

1 hour ago, itguy61 said:

Does anyone here run windows in bootcamp on a mini?  I am assuming running windows on this will allow Ifi ASIO interface to be used and allow DSD 512.   Am I correct here?   

 

I have BootCamp and older Windows 8.1 on my old Mini. Works perfectly fine. I have number of ASIO drivers there, as I use that for doing room correction measurements etc using Room Eq Wizard and Acourate. Windows is good for that purpose at least if not for something else. Acourate is Windows-only, but only needs to be run to make correction filters which you can then run in HQPlayer under macOS for example.

 

[Jigafur]

6 hours ago, Miska said:

I can look into adding such functionality into the control API though, in some future version, if @Ales Prochazka would then add some menu option for it into HQPDcontrol.

 

 

I think it's a great idea to add a function to the app and i will wait for this important update for me!

Thank you very much for your contribution to high-quality music playback!

 

[Jigafur]

1 hour ago, Miska said:

 

I have BootCamp and older Windows 8.1 on my old Mini. Works perfectly fine. I have number of ASIO drivers there, as I use that for doing room correction measurements etc using Room Eq Wizard and Acourate. Windows is good for that purpose at least if not for something else. Acourate is Windows-only, but only needs to be run to make correction filters which you can then run in HQPlayer under macOS for example.

 

 

 

Could you tell me which microphone you are using and the sound card?

 

[clang]

I'm running HQPlayer Desktop 3.25.2 under Ubuntu 18.04 LTS in a NUC8i5. Music files are in an internal SSD.

From the first 2 pictures, you can see that SDM Pack = DoP and upsampling is to DSD128. I then change the setting to None. See the next pictures.

 

[saintkrusher]

Hi guys,

I have a  MacBook Pro 2014 MojaveOS, Rme Adi-2 Dac FS and HQ Player. What the best configurations are you suggest for PCM and DSD. And one more question, any users this DAC and HQ Player with Roon? My current settings: