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20 hours ago, Miska said:

 

I use 50 kHz setting, it gives spec compliant behavior. But it doesn't really make a huge difference which of the settings is used.

 

Hmm I see so 50 or 70khz wouldn't really matter then?

 

On another note how does HQplayer know which GPU to use if for example I have 2 Nvidia GPU installed, is it possible to select which one to use?

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4 hours ago, Yviena said:

Hmm I see so 50 or 70khz wouldn't really matter then?

 

Not so much, I've kept it at 50 kHz to have as little ultrasonic noise as possible. Note that IIRC, the filter scales as function of sampling rate. So 50 kHz at DSD64, 100 kHz at DSD128, etc. But the effect is rather small compared to different AFIRs on TI/BB or the 50/150 kHz selection in AKM.

 

4 hours ago, Yviena said:

On another note how does HQplayer know which GPU to use if for example I have 2 Nvidia GPU installed, is it possible to select which one to use?

 

It asks CUDA framework that  "give me a GPU that matches these requirements". Then the CUDA framework decides which GPU it gives.

 

Technically it would be possible to also select one explicitly, but given that is quite unusual case, I have not seen worth the effort to create some GUI for such or similar. I could put some environment variable for that too though, then you would need to use CUDA-Z or similar to figure out the card ID.

 

If you have SLI / NVlink setup, then it could be that CUDA represents the combo as single entity (I don't know, it is not documented, and having two RTX2080's in one machine gets a bit expensive).

 

Signalyst - Developer of HQPlayer

Pulse & Fidelity - Software Defined Amplifiers

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Dear @Miska, I'm using iFi iDSD Pro that is capable of "remastering" to DSD1024, without any subjective measurement, I hope you could shed some light (make a guess) on the follow use cases:

 

(1) Tidal red book -> poly-sinc-ext2 -> ASDM7EC -> DSD256 -> iDSD Pro bit-perfect playback

(2) Tidal red book -> poly-sinc-ext2 -> NS5 -> PCM 768 kHz-> iDSD Pro -> "remaster" to DSD1024 -> playback

 

The dilemma are I like the new ASDM7EC but it could only do DSD256 at the moment while my iDSD Pro could upsample to DSD1024, just wondering what would be the better setting in this case. Appreciate your comment or suggestion!

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51 minutes ago, Jerry said:

Dear @Miska, I'm using iFi iDSD Pro that is capable of "remastering" to DSD1024, without any subjective measurement, I hope you could shed some light (make a guess) on the follow use cases:

 

(1) Tidal red book -> poly-sinc-ext2 -> ASDM7EC -> DSD256 -> iDSD Pro bit-perfect playback

(2) Tidal red book -> poly-sinc-ext2 -> NS5 -> PCM 768 kHz-> iDSD Pro -> "remaster" to DSD1024 -> playback

 

The dilemma are I like the new ASDM7EC but it could only do DSD256 at the moment while my iDSD Pro could upsample to DSD1024, just wondering what would be the better setting in this case. Appreciate your comment or suggestion!

 

Case (1) is certainly better...

 

Signalyst - Developer of HQPlayer

Pulse & Fidelity - Software Defined Amplifiers

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On 12/4/2019 at 7:08 PM, Miska said:

 

It is by no means mandatory to support the slave clocked feature of ASIO. The specification merely supports it and documents how it is ought to be used. But whether some hardware and driver actually support it is entirely different matter.

 

 

I would say likelihood that any non-pro hardware would support it is fairly low. I don't have information how many pro-audio hardware and drivers support it. My guesstimate is something like 10% of the hardware on market. Reason is that studios rarely need such, since they are typically running everything at single rate and not really switching it ever. Or at least very rarely. If the hardware supports clock slaving and possibly thus has also WordClock input option, it is more likely that it would be supported.

 

 

So I bought and tested SoundBlaster Z (optical input, optical output, ASIO) for ASIO HW loopback.

I use only the input (optical) from SB Z. The optical output is another HW, to exclude possible access conflict.

Unfortunately exactly same behavior as Realtek ASIO:

1 - "0" rate doesn't play, although accepts "Enter" to get into playlist.

2 - Accepts any sample rate, so resampling is being done somewhere. It behaves like wasapi even though it is ASIO.

3 - The pulldown list only contains the statements I ENTERed during the HQP session, but as soon as HQP is restarted the list is cleared to contain only cd:, so I have to retype the full line again each time I start HQP. The text on URI field is kept from last session, but if I play some local file (BROWSE), it is naturally lost.


So I concede defeat. I will not buy further HW. I will have to live with manual rate selection.


Jussi, you said "There's already software for that available, so I didn't want to start duplicate work of making yet another loopback driver".
However there is no loopback software that supports rate auto-detection. And even worse, it seems that there isn't even HW loopback solution for that, unless we get very expensive cards and even so it is not guaranteed.

I thought it could be simpler than traditional loopback that use both output and input devices. As only virtual output device (wasapi exclusive) would be required which would then connect directly (internally) to HQP without the need of any input device or any ASIO implementation. The virtual output device knows the sample rate it is being fed with. Is it not possible that internal connection between virtual output device and HQP?

 

At least it would be great if the pulldown list could keep its contents between sessions (as it happens already with URI content), so that no manual typing is required, only selecting from the list.

 

Regarding a Linux solution, is it possible a SW loopback that supports auto rate detection, therefore dismissing HW input on Linux? How would I connect the output from a video player app to HQP in order to support auto rate detection? I don't know how sound devices work in Linux.

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Dear Miska,

 

I have now problems on a new machine to enable real time audio.

You stated that " 

 

Note! On macOS, in order to enable audio input to HQPlayer, permission to access “Microphone” needs to be granted to HQPlayer in System Preferences → Security & Privacy.

 

Please see attached picture. 

 

But on a new install resp new computer the HQPlayer4desktop isn't detected  or in the listed as  on my older Mac mini.

 

Do I have to a new install of HQPlayer ? Also giving access by open the padlock doesn't have any effect. 

Can you please advise how to detect 566169001_Schermafbeelding2019-12-12om20_18_09.thumb.jpg.6b5b72c6b72112a4ed6ec527893418bb.jpg

Quote

Ethernet::4x Bonn Silent Angel 8P, Afterdark Emperor Doublr  Crown Masterclock and Cybershaft 75 Ohm,Mini Circuits convertor,Uptone EtherRegen with 75Ohm. SOTM Cat CAT 7.

Audio: Auralic Vega G2.1, Cambridge Edge W, Kef Reference 3 speakers.  
Power: Farad super 3 (2x) , Keces P8 ( 2 Uptone LPS1.2 ) Afterdark 5V: 

Cables:Meicord Opal, SOTM Cat7 with filtering, Ghent Audio DC , Farad Level 2, Sharkwire speaker cable

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2 minutes ago, pcmchild said:

I thought it could be simpler than traditional loopback that use both output and input devices. As only virtual output device (wasapi exclusive) would be required which would then connect directly (internally) to HQP without the need of any input device or any ASIO implementation. The virtual output device knows the sample rate it is being fed with. Is it not possible that internal connection between virtual output device and HQP?

 

Yes, it is possible to have such internal connection by defining my own kernel driver API. On Linux again this would be much easier than on other platforms. Doing three loopback drivers for the three different platforms is not a small project, plus all the maintenance needed whenever Microsoft and Apple decide to break the drivers on OS update.

 

12 minutes ago, pcmchild said:

Regarding a Linux solution, is it possible a SW loopback that supports auto rate detection, therefore dismissing HW input on Linux?

 

No, it has the same problem as WASAPI. The audio API is not really designed to cope with clock slaving well.

 

Signalyst - Developer of HQPlayer

Pulse & Fidelity - Software Defined Amplifiers

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9 minutes ago, ambre said:

I have now problems on a new machine to enable real time audio.

You stated that " 

 

Note! On macOS, in order to enable audio input to HQPlayer, permission to access “Microphone” needs to be granted to HQPlayer in System Preferences → Security & Privacy.

 

Please see attached picture. 

 

But on a new install resp new computer the HQPlayer4desktop isn't detected  or in the listed as  on my older Mac mini.

 

Do I have to a new install of HQPlayer ? Also giving access by open the padlock doesn't have any effect. 

Can you please advise how to detect 566169001_Schermafbeelding2019-12-12om20_18_09.thumb.jpg.6b5b72c6b72112a4ed6ec527893418bb.jpg

 

This is a bit funny behavior by macOS. You first need to select the built-in audio input, such as microphone as input device on HQPlayer, and then attempt to access it, by playing from it. This will trigger macOS to ask you whether you want to grant this permission. Now this makes it appear on the list. You can then change the input device in HQPlayer to something else.

 

I spent a loong time wondering why I get only silence from the RME ADI-2 Pro and no questions asked, until I realized that the audio is muted by macOS, but they don't consider it worth asking about it unless one of the internal devices is used... :)

 

P.S. These things tend to vary a bit from OS release to another, this applies at least to High Sierra and Mojave.

 

Signalyst - Developer of HQPlayer

Pulse & Fidelity - Software Defined Amplifiers

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Hi Miska

4 minutes ago, Miska said:

You first need to select the built-in audio input, such as microphone as input device o

From the Os Catalina or from the Hqplayer setting by means of Core and selecting input as output?

PUF

Andreas

Quote

Ethernet::4x Bonn Silent Angel 8P, Afterdark Emperor Doublr  Crown Masterclock and Cybershaft 75 Ohm,Mini Circuits convertor,Uptone EtherRegen with 75Ohm. SOTM Cat CAT 7.

Audio: Auralic Vega G2.1, Cambridge Edge W, Kef Reference 3 speakers.  
Power: Farad super 3 (2x) , Keces P8 ( 2 Uptone LPS1.2 ) Afterdark 5V: 

Cables:Meicord Opal, SOTM Cat7 with filtering, Ghent Audio DC , Farad Level 2, Sharkwire speaker cable

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2 minutes ago, ambre said:

From the Os Catalina or from the Hqplayer setting by means of Core and selecting input as output?

 

From HQPlayer settings. The OS settings only affect what the OS reports being the "default device" to applications. But usually with HQPlayer you would select the actual device, not the "default device".

 

Although now that you said it, it could very well be that OS asks for permission and adds to the list only when HQPlayer is using the device flagged as default input device for the OS!

 

I usually don't have any of the devices used by HQPlayer set as default devices for the OS, so that the OS doesn't come and try to mess with the devices while playback is ongoing... Anyway, once the permission is granted, it doesn't matter anymore whether the same or different device is used.

 

Signalyst - Developer of HQPlayer

Pulse & Fidelity - Software Defined Amplifiers

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Miska,

NOPE

 

Hqplayer is running no problem but stays mutes and what all tried I cannot grant HQPlayer to the Microphone at all. Stays blanc.

 

 

Quote

Ethernet::4x Bonn Silent Angel 8P, Afterdark Emperor Doublr  Crown Masterclock and Cybershaft 75 Ohm,Mini Circuits convertor,Uptone EtherRegen with 75Ohm. SOTM Cat CAT 7.

Audio: Auralic Vega G2.1, Cambridge Edge W, Kef Reference 3 speakers.  
Power: Farad super 3 (2x) , Keces P8 ( 2 Uptone LPS1.2 ) Afterdark 5V: 

Cables:Meicord Opal, SOTM Cat7 with filtering, Ghent Audio DC , Farad Level 2, Sharkwire speaker cable

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Schermafbeelding 2019-12-12 om 22.15.13.jpg

Quote

Ethernet::4x Bonn Silent Angel 8P, Afterdark Emperor Doublr  Crown Masterclock and Cybershaft 75 Ohm,Mini Circuits convertor,Uptone EtherRegen with 75Ohm. SOTM Cat CAT 7.

Audio: Auralic Vega G2.1, Cambridge Edge W, Kef Reference 3 speakers.  
Power: Farad super 3 (2x) , Keces P8 ( 2 Uptone LPS1.2 ) Afterdark 5V: 

Cables:Meicord Opal, SOTM Cat7 with filtering, Ghent Audio DC , Farad Level 2, Sharkwire speaker cable

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1 hour ago, ambre said:

Miska,

NOPE

 

Hqplayer is running no problem but stays mutes and what all tried I cannot grant HQPlayer to the Microphone at all. Stays blanc.

 

What is your default for macOS audio input in the settings? Is the same device selected as input device in HQPlayer? You could also try selecting just the "Default" at HQPlayer side and see if it makes difference. You could also try restarting HQPlayer between setting changes. Apple doesn't have much documentation about this...

 

 

P.S. Windows has the same thing, but it is more straightforward and it just plain fails to start if the permission is missing.

Signalyst - Developer of HQPlayer

Pulse & Fidelity - Software Defined Amplifiers

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Schermafbeelding 2019-12-12 om 23.41.39.jpg

Schermafbeelding 2019-12-12 om 23.38.50.jpg

Schermafbeelding 2019-12-12 om 23.38.33.jpg

Schermafbeelding 2019-12-12 om 23.37.48.jpg

Quote

Ethernet::4x Bonn Silent Angel 8P, Afterdark Emperor Doublr  Crown Masterclock and Cybershaft 75 Ohm,Mini Circuits convertor,Uptone EtherRegen with 75Ohm. SOTM Cat CAT 7.

Audio: Auralic Vega G2.1, Cambridge Edge W, Kef Reference 3 speakers.  
Power: Farad super 3 (2x) , Keces P8 ( 2 Uptone LPS1.2 ) Afterdark 5V: 

Cables:Meicord Opal, SOTM Cat7 with filtering, Ghent Audio DC , Farad Level 2, Sharkwire speaker cable

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1 hour ago, ambre said:

Schermafbeelding 2019-12-12 om 23.41.39.jpg

Schermafbeelding 2019-12-12 om 23.38.50.jpg

Schermafbeelding 2019-12-12 om 23.38.33.jpg

Schermafbeelding 2019-12-12 om 23.37.48.jpg

 

Did you try restarting HQPlayer after setting the built-in input as the input device? It could even require logging out and back in. How does it look like in Audio MIDI Setup?

 

If you search the web with something like "macos audio input permissions" you can find a lot about this issue which seems to be quite common and affects also Skype and Apple's own Logic software etc.

 

As last resort, something like this have helped some people:

https://www.mnott.de/fix-audio-problems-on-macos-mojave/

(note that you probably need to put "sudo" in front of that command)

 

https://www.reddit.com/r/MacOS/comments/9lwyz0/mojave_not_privacy_settings_blocking_all_mic/

 

 

P.S. I may have an improvement that hopefully helps with this problem in upcoming release.

 

Signalyst - Developer of HQPlayer

Pulse & Fidelity - Software Defined Amplifiers

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To check if the potential upcoming change works around the problem, you could try the new release of HQPlayer4Pro and see if you get the input permission prompt with it. From download you should get package called HQPlayer4Pro-4401.dmg

As usual, the free trial works for 30 minutes with some limitations for the output, but just for a quick check it should do fine.

 

Signalyst - Developer of HQPlayer

Pulse & Fidelity - Software Defined Amplifiers

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7 hours ago, Miska said:

 

Yes, it is possible to have such internal connection by defining my own kernel driver API. On Linux again this would be much easier than on other platforms. Doing three loopback drivers for the three different platforms is not a small project, plus all the maintenance needed whenever Microsoft and Apple decide to break the drivers on OS update.

 

I would much prefer to pay for a new HQP version (HQP 5?) with that feature than pay for a HW card that is not even the clean way of doing it. Money better spent on HQP support. But I understand that your time is limited and can't be multiplied. Thank you for the explanations.  

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3 hours ago, pcmchild said:

I would much prefer to pay for a new HQP version (HQP 5?) with that feature than pay for a HW card that is not even the clean way of doing it. Money better spent on HQP support. But I understand that your time is limited and can't be multiplied. Thank you for the explanations.  

 

I consider HW card cleaner way. Primary use cases for the input feature are to allow input from external devices like streamers (Bluesound Node2i, etc), old CD transports (always 44.1k) and from analog sources like vinyl rigs. That could also include another computer. Loopback possibility within same computer is nice add-on extra and for most such cases automatic rate switching is not needed, since for example Spotify, Apple Music, Google Music, Amazon musicUnlimited, etc are always at a fixed rate and anyway 99% of the music out there is 44.1/16.

 

Tidal/Qobuz have varying rate, but to HQPlayer Desktop, better source for those services is Roon that directly talks to HQPlayer. Or with HQPlayer Embedded there are more source options for those services through UPnP functionality (mConnect Player, BubbleUPnP, Audirvana, etc).

 

Apart from those services, most asked streaming source is Spotify, which works through existing loopback solutions or the cheap miniDSP USBStreamer since it is fixed rate.

 

The most used configuration for this feature is HQPlayer Embedded device, where it is firmware of a "black box" that is streamer/upsampler device, since that is where it first appeared.

Signalyst - Developer of HQPlayer

Pulse & Fidelity - Software Defined Amplifiers

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1 hour ago, Yviena said:

The new topping D90 seems interesting I asked their customer support if the modulator bypass mode is implemented, and they said yes in DAC only mode, idk how it will sound though as their products has always been a little mediocre.

 

Yes, the new AKM chip seems interesting as they have moved over to SR DAC (switched resistor) from earlier SC DAC (switched capacitor). So now it is more like the DSC1 for example.

 

Signalyst - Developer of HQPlayer

Pulse & Fidelity - Software Defined Amplifiers

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5 hours ago, Miska said:

 

Yes, the new AKM chip seems interesting as they have moved over to SR DAC (switched resistor) from earlier SC DAC (switched capacitor). So now it is more like the DSC1 for example.

 

Hmm seems that the D90 DAC has been measured on ASR, the measurements doesn't look bad excluding the clock management and less than 20 bit linearity, any thoughts about acquiring one to measure yourself?

 

BTW i been looking at your DSC1 DAC, is the boards on diyaudio/ebay the latest ones, or do you have a newer design, i been thinking about maybe buying the pre soldered versions of the DSC1 found on ebay https://www.ebay.com/itm/Mshow-Differential-DSC1-DAC-decoder-DSD-Assembled-Compatible-w-Amanero-or-XU208/133000000965?hash=item1ef76af5c5:g:ysQAAOSwB-1Yrk2u is it any good?

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