HQ Player

[jimdukey]

Hate ext 2 in HQ4?

Its My Fav in HQ 4.

Guess we're all different.

 

[lucretius]

What does the "-5" in the lower right hand corner mean?

 

 

 

[jimdukey]

It means you're Docked 5 points for listening to ABBA...

Insert Smiley Face here.

[sdmarquart]

2 minutes ago, jimdukey said:

It means you're Docked 5 points for listening to ABBA...

Insert Smiley Face here.

Points in my book for listening to ABBA. Guess we are all different! 😉

[jimdukey]

Well...

It should have said +5 then!

[elan120]

11 hours ago, LoryWiv said:

Can you do DSD 512 with high res pcm source files? I find that cpu load goes up considerably when FLAC source is 24 / 96 or 24 / 192 versus Redbook 16 / 44.1 kHz. Is that inevitable or is there a way to mitigate it with settings?

In my setup, I find running hi-res PCM source file (24/96 or 24/192) upsample to DSD512, my CPU load seem to stay around 33~36%, same as redbook, but I do have to uncheck the "Adaptive output rate".

 

 

[DancingSea]

21 hours ago, Miska said:

 

DirectStream Junior is quite a bit more expensive than my software. And I can bet PS Audio has not spent 20+ man years developing it...

 

You can calculate yourself what you would say if someone asks you to work 20 years on something. I don't think I will ever get the upfront investment back, but at least the price should cover the running costs. You know, this kind of playback software is not mass-market stuff...

 

Of course one can keep using 3 as long as they wish.

 

 

I do appreciate HQP and the effort you’ve put into it.  The price change is dramatic and its understandable that a segment of your customer base would find it off putting.  It’s a reasonable reaction. To me, requiring that to continue in your universe that we buy all versions of HQP (desktop, client, etc) for all OS’s after being ala carte all these years, doesn’t feel like a business decision made with the customer in mind. The only option provided is to buy lots of things I don’t need. 

 

The price of my DAC, car or house really has no bearing on what it is a fair price of HQPlayer *to me*.  Of course, everyone is free to reach their own conclusion. There is no universal correct answer here, to each their own. 

 

My my hope is you will consider offering a desktop, one OS version of HQP 4 at a more reasonable price with upgrade discounts that make more sense.   

 

Thats is my Feedback!  Much appreciation for HQPlayer!

[LoryWiv]

59 minutes ago, elan120 said:

In my setup, I find running hi-res PCM source file (24/96 or 24/192) upsample to DSD512, my CPU load seem to stay around 33~36%, same as redbook, but I do have to uncheck the "Adaptive output rate".

 

 

Thanks, that is helpful and Jussi also noted 44.1 --> 48k based multiples adds load. You have addressed that in your Bitrate setting of 48 x512. 2 brief add'l. questions:

1. With this setting any (-) impact on 44.1-based source material?

2. What is your GPU utilization in the setting / scenario above?

Thanks!

[elan120]

9 minutes ago, LoryWiv said:

1. With this setting any (-) impact on 44.1-based source material?

Other than I have re-check the "Adaptive output rate", no other negative impact on redbook source materials.  Meanwhile, since hi-res material has independent filter selections, making it very flexible.

 

14 minutes ago, LoryWiv said:

2. What is your GPU utilization in the setting / scenario above?

Utilization rate is about 3~6% when it is turned on.

[Miska]

11 hours ago, fred_com said:

But I thought volume didn't work for the case of converting PCM to DSD? It doesn't work for me anyway  

 

Update: Nevermind that - I've had the DirectSDM checked in DSD Source settings. Now volume works correctly.

 

Direct SDM locks PCM-to-DSD volume control to about -2.5 dBFS setting.

 

[Miska]

10 hours ago, Bob Stern said:

Your screenshot shows 88.2 in the playlist, which is the only part that matters.  You must have selected 88.2 in the dropdown at some point, which caused it to appear in the playlist.  Apparently, you subsequently selected 44.1 in the dropdown, but HQP ignored the second selection.  Sometimes HQP ignores the dropdown selection unless you subsequently press the Return key.

 

Drop-down pre-fills the selected item, but hitting enter will actually perform the action.

 

On Client, just selection is sufficient.

 

But the URI on "server" can be thought a bit like address entry in web browser. It tells what to load, when you hit enter it is actually loaded. I thought pre-fill with selection is good because it still gives possibility to edit the entry manually.

 

[Miska]

7 hours ago, lucretius said:

Also, regardless of the audio default (URI ?) chosen -- I tried both audio:default/44100/2 and audio:default/96000/2 (see below) -- when 44100/2 was set as default, the display above indicated Format: 44.1k/32/2 --> 11.2896M, regardless of the source stream sent to HQPlayer (I tried 44.1k, 96k, and 192k).  The result was similar when I set 96000/2 as the default: the display above indicated Format: 96k/32/2 --> 11.289M, regardless of the source stream sent.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Looks correct. In Shared mode, Windows audio engine does rate conversion and other conversions as necessary. So if you want to avoid rate conversion, you need to match the HQPlayer request with the source format...

 

[Miska]

3 hours ago, DancingSea said:

I do appreciate HQP and the effort you’ve put into it.  The price change is dramatic and its understandable that a segment of your customer base would find it off putting.  It’s a reasonable reaction. To me, requiring that to continue in your universe that we buy all versions of HQP (desktop, client, etc) for all OS’s after being ala carte all these years, doesn’t feel like a business decision made with the customer in mind. The only option provided is to buy lots of things I don’t need. 

 

On many other sectors too, prices have changed somewhat since 2013...

 

I think you have hard time finding other software that has given free updates for 6 years...

 

Equally, in this same thread have been complaints why one has to buy separately Windows and macOS/Linux versions...

 

I guess giving everything out for free would be only solution nobody would complain about.

 

3 hours ago, DancingSea said:

The price of my DAC, car or house really has no bearing on what it is a fair price of HQPlayer *to me*.  Of course, everyone is free to reach their own conclusion. There is no universal correct answer here, to each their own.

 

Exactly, don't buy it if you feel it is too expensive for you. Or make your own player if you think you can do it better and sell it cheaper, good luck with that.

 

Quote

My my hope is you will consider offering a desktop, one OS version of HQP 4 at a more reasonable price with upgrade discounts that make more sense.

 

From my perspective, the price is still extremely cheap. It should really have one extra zero at the end.

 

[Miska]

4 hours ago, elan120 said:

In my setup, I find running hi-res PCM source file (24/96 or 24/192) upsample to DSD512, my CPU load seem to stay around 33~36%, same as redbook, but I do have to uncheck the "Adaptive output rate".

 

 

 

Just curious, can you run RedBook sources without changing those settings?

 

[elan120]

6 minutes ago, Miska said:

 

Just curious, can you run RedBook sources without changing those settings?

 

Unfortunately, if "Adaptive output rate" is left un-checked, it won't run DSD512 from RedBook sources.

[Miska]

11 minutes ago, elan120 said:

Unfortunately, if "Adaptive output rate" is left un-checked, it won't run DSD512 from RedBook sources.

 

Yes, that's what I kind of expected...

 

[lucretius]

32 minutes ago, Miska said:

7 hours ago, lucretius said:

Also, regardless of the audio default (URI ?) chosen -- I tried both audio:default/44100/2 and audio:default/96000/2 (see below) -- when 44100/2 was set as default, the display above indicated Format: 44.1k/32/2 --> 11.2896M, regardless of the source stream sent to HQPlayer (I tried 44.1k, 96k, and 192k).  The result was similar when I set 96000/2 as the default: the display above indicated Format: 96k/32/2 --> 11.289M, regardless of the source stream sent.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Read more  

 

Looks correct. In Shared mode, Windows audio engine does rate conversion and other conversions as necessary. So if you want to avoid rate conversion, you need to match the HQPlayer request with the source format...

 

Is there no way to make it work in Exclusive mode?

 

 

 

[Miska]

Just now, lucretius said:

Is there no way to make it work in Exclusive mode?

 

Possibly yes, by fixing the loopback driver to be a proper kernel device driver. But I think most of their assumed client applications are using shared mode with mixing format anyway, so they didn't consider it worth extra effort (which probably makes it at least 3x).

 

[Miska]

6 hours ago, lucretius said:

What does the "-5" in the lower right hand corner mean?

 

 

 

 

That is volume setting, it's a "tumbler" scroll you can use to adjust volume. With mouse you can go over it, keep left mouse button down and darg up or down, or alternatively use mouse wheel over it to adjust. Or with touch you can hold finger down on it and drag up or down (it has kinetic scrolling, so you can spin it up to speed like touch screen scroll on mobile devices). You can also use multimedia keys to adjust it.

[elan120]

8 minutes ago, Miska said:

 

Yes, that's what I kind of expected...

 

Could this be a future improvement project to make single setting work for both RedBook and Hi-Res?

[Miska]

2 minutes ago, elan120 said:

Could this be a future improvement project to make single setting work for both RedBook and Hi-Res?

 

It works if you make the adaptive output rate checked (instead of grayed) -> follow the rate family.

 

It may also work if you put limit to 44.1k x512 and make it grayed.

 

[elan120]

5 minutes ago, Miska said:

 

It works if you make the adaptive output rate checked (instead of grayed) -> follow the rate family.

 

It may also work if you put limit to 44.1k x512 and make it grayed.

 

I did try with adaptive out rate checked, but in that setting, hi-res source won't work.  I also tried both 44.1Kx512 and 48x512 with same result, but have not try 44.1x512 with grayed adaptive output rate...will try this later.

[elan120]

50 minutes ago, Miska said:

 

It works if you make the adaptive output rate checked (instead of grayed) -> follow the rate family.

 

It may also work if you put limit to 44.1k x512 and make it grayed.

 

Thank you for the suggestion.  This setting with 44.1k x 512 limit and adaptive output rate grayed is working great.  One setting for both RedBook and Hi-Res source material upsample to DSD512.

[lucretius]

When Roon is the source, I cannot get HQPlayer to upsample to DSD256.  You can see from my settings below that DSD is the Default Output Mode:

 

 

Instead, HQPlayer upsamples to 384k:

 

 

Am I doing something wrong?  How do I get HQPlayer to upsample to DSD256 (when Roon is the source)?

[DancingSea]

2 hours ago, Miska said:

 

On many other sectors too, prices have changed somewhat since 2013...

 

I think you have hard time finding other software that has given free updates for 6 years...

 

Equally, in this same thread have been complaints why one has to buy separately Windows and macOS/Linux versions...

 

I guess giving everything out for free would be only solution nobody would complain about.

 

 

Exactly, don't buy it if you feel it is too expensive for you. Or make your own player if you think you can do it better and sell it cheaper, good luck with that.

 

 

From my perspective, the price is still extremely cheap. It should really have one extra zero at the end.

 

 

Goodness, what an odd response!  I’m far from the only one who feels the price hike is extreme.  And of course, there are plenty who find it fair.  There is room for a variety of opinions.   If you think HQP is worth $2500, then a level of delusion has crept into the frozen tundra!

 

In my opinion, and you are welcome to disagree, in this consumer market we have, for instance,  Audirvana at $74 with $40 upgrades - sounds good and has a functional library with Tidal & Quboz.  HQP at $240 with 200% major upgrade fees has an excellent sound engine, but is otherwise undeveloped.  The GUI and library system is antiquated at best.  You’ve been receiving feedback on this for years yet totally ignore it.  For me, its difficult to reconcile your pricing given the undeveloped state of your entire package. 

 

I’m not sure the pricing is a wise business move for you.  You are clearly very talented. If you were either willing or able to create a modern interface and a well thought through and functional library management system, including Tidal and Quboz, and price it at $100 or so, you’d possibly dominate this entire market rather than be a niche product.   

 

It can be short sighted to think that raising your price is going to make you more money. The exact opposite could be true.