HQ Player

[mfalcon]

I have a new build.  Ubuntu Desktop.  i9-9090K, Nvidia 2080Ti.  

I have a HQPlayer demo running and can't get Cuda Offload working.  I have Cuda and Multicore with Checks and it keeps give me the offload disabled for resampling.  

So I've been double checking my install off the driver and it appears all good.  Newest driver, nvidia-driver-435.

I DO NOT have Cuda Toolkit installed because I didn't think it was necessary.

 

Am I missing something?

Thanks

Mike

[MemoryPlayer]

23 hours ago, Miska said:

 

Yes, ASDM5EC or ASDM7EC at DSD256 can perform better than something else at higher rate. You can try and compare how it is for you.

 

I'm trying Poly Sinc Linear + ASDM7EC at DSD256 with MacBook Pro core i7 late 2017 & OS X Catalina, but it demands so much CPU power than ASDM7 and ASDM7 f256+ and the music doesn't flow! What I have to do?

[craighartley]

57 minutes ago, MemoryPlayer said:

 

I'm trying Poly Sinc Linear + ASDM7EC at DSD256 with MacBook Pro core i7 late 2017 & OS X Catalina, but it demands so much CPU power than ASDM7 and ASDM7 f256+ and the music doesn't flow! What I have to do?

Are you using the 2s version of the filter?

[Miska]

1 hour ago, MemoryPlayer said:

I'm trying Poly Sinc Linear + ASDM7EC at DSD256 with MacBook Pro core i7 late 2017 & OS X Catalina, but it demands so much CPU power than ASDM7 and ASDM7 f256+ and the music doesn't flow! What I have to do?

 

ASDM7EC is about 3x heavier than ASDM7. I'm not sure if there's currently any laptop CPU model that would be able to do it. My iMac with i9-9900K CPU can do it (it's the fastest CPU available for the current iMac).

 

I think some people may also have it running on i7-9700K.

 

[Miska]

5 hours ago, mfalcon said:

So I've been double checking my install off the driver and it appears all good.  Newest driver, nvidia-driver-435.

 

The driver is just too old, you need 440 at minimum, which is also the latest at the moment (440.64).

 

Please see here:

https://www.geforce.com/drivers

 

5 hours ago, mfalcon said:

I DO NOT have Cuda Toolkit installed because I didn't think it was necessary.

 

It is not necessary, you only need latest driver.

 

5 hours ago, mfalcon said:

I have Cuda and Multicore with Checks

 

You should have multicore set to "Auto" (grayed box) and CUDA set to "All" (checked).

 

[mfalcon]

5 hours ago, Miska said:

 

The driver is just too old, you need 440 at minimum, which is also the latest at the moment (440.64).

 

Please see here:

https://www.geforce.com/drivers

 

 

It is not necessary, you only need latest driver.

 

 

You should have multicore set to "Auto" (grayed box) and CUDA set to "All" (checked).

 

Thanks, I’m going to do a reinstall of the up-to-date driver then.  Do you use the PPA repository for nvidia drivers?  It’s new to me, I’ve never used Ubuntu with anything besides the basic video from the Mobo.

[mfalcon]

12 hours ago, mfalcon said:

Thanks, I’m going to do a reinstall of the up-to-date driver then.  Do you use the PPA repository for nvidia drivers?  It’s new to me, I’ve never used Ubuntu with anything besides the basic video from the Mobo.

Got it all working.  I was having a general problem with the GPU which was not running right because nvidia driver was not signed.  Annoying but nothing to do with HQ player which started working right as soon as I disabled Secure Boot.

[vfrpoye]

Hi Jussi,

I bought a license for HQPlayer embedded last Friday 06 March but my Ryzen mobo has a failure so I decide to change for a I5 8600k ;

can I have another key or have I to buy another license ?

 

[blueninjasix]

@Miska I've been testing on a W10 machine but if I purchase a license I'd like to use it with Ubuntu Studio. Because next month Ubuntu releases a new Long Term Version, should I wait until there is a new version of HQP? I don't want to buy in March only for everything to be superseded by the latest versions in April.

[vfrpoye]

5 hours ago, vfrpoye said:

Hi Jussi,

I bought a license for HQPlayer embedded last Friday 06 March but my Ryzen mobo has a failure so I decide to change for a I5 8600k ;

can I have another key or have I to buy another license ?

 

new key received, many thanks Jussi !

[Miska]

38 minutes ago, blueninjasix said:

@Miska I've been testing on a W10 machine but if I purchase a license I'd like to use it with Ubuntu Studio. Because next month Ubuntu releases a new Long Term Version, should I wait until there is a new version of HQP? I don't want to buy in March only for everything to be superseded by the latest versions in April.

 

HQPlayer will transition to the new LTS version when it becomes upgradable from the previous LTS. Which has been traditionally when the first .1 release comes out. I would estimate this happen some time in late May or early June. This is also because development tools like CUDA toolkit will also need update for the new OS.

 

The current package probably works on the new LTS as well though. So you could at least try to go straight to 20.04 and see if that is the case. When the package itself is transitioned to 20.04, it likely stops working on 18.04.

 

[blueninjasix]

11 minutes ago, Miska said:

 

HQPlayer will transition to the new LTS version when it becomes upgradable from the previous LTS. Which has been traditionally when the first .1 release comes out. I would estimate this happen some time in late May or early June. This is also because development tools like CUDA toolkit will also need update for the new OS.

 

The current package probably works on the new LTS as well though. So you could at least try to go straight to 20.04 and see if that is the case. When the package itself is transitioned to 20.04, it likely stops working on 18.04.

 

Does that mean if I purchase HQP for Ubuntu it will only remain working for 2 years unless I stick with 20.04? If I update to 22.04 then I would have to re-purchase HQP?

[Miska]

43 minutes ago, blueninjasix said:

Does that mean if I purchase HQP for Ubuntu it will only remain working for 2 years unless I stick with 20.04? If I update to 22.04 then I would have to re-purchase HQP?

 

No, Ubuntu releases are not connected to HQPlayer licenses.

 

[saintkrusher]

Hi,

I have just bought a Audio-gd R-28 r2r Dac. Anyone of you guys has it? What settings with Room player + HQPlayer are you suggest? Miska, maybe you help me :-)?

[ambre]

On 2/22/2020 at 12:28 AM, Yviena said:

 

Yeah I sold my matrix sabre pro for the a TOPPING D90 as a review site soundnews compared the D90 to the matrix element X, and said the sound was very close but that the D90 had better soundstage/layering when run via USB, and I wanted the Direct DSD path functionality for HQplayer, it's kind of nice that now a DAC that costs around 600$ is actually beating something for over 2000$, and the reviewer guy is correct that this DAC does soundstage/layering better with detail being comparable as I can clearly hear kind of more ambience/deeper into the recording

 

It doesn't have any indicator that it's in DSDD mode but I've been told by their customer service/engineers that it's automatically in that mode when DAC is set to DAC MODE, and DSD is sent.

 

HQplayer also works perfectly with this dac no glitches etc that I can hear.

I like to Topping D90 for abovementioned reasons. Indeed a noticeable upgrade from Pro Ject Pre Box S2. Indeed much better soundstage and layering and ambiance.

 

Plays native DSD 256/512 via Allo UsBridge Signature by means of HQ Player 4 in DAC direct mode with no Volume control. 
Ps. Also disabled Blue Tooth which might gives a further improvent(?) 

 

Regards, Andreas

 

 

[bipet]

4 hours ago, ambre said:

I like to Topping D90 for abovementioned reasons. Indeed a noticeable upgrade from Pro Ject Pre Box S2. Indeed much better soundstage and layering and ambiance.

 

Plays native DSD 256/512 via Allo UsBridge Signature by means of HQ Player 4 in DAC direct mode with no Volume control. 
Ps. Also disabled Blue Tooth which might gives a further improvent(?) 

 

Regards, Andreas

 

 

I have the same DAC, and it sounds excellent set in DAC mode and sending DSD 256 (I have read 512 is noisier on the DAC) with ASDM7EC on a 9700 intel i7. I connect via XLR to my Musical Fidelity M6si. Very pleased with it. I currently use polysincext2, but might try a few others as I havent experimented much recently.

[der_yeti]

13 hours ago, rossco said:

I have the same DAC, and it sounds excellent set in DAC mode and sending DSD 256 (I have read 512 is noisier on the DAC) with ASDM7EC on a 9700 intel i7. I connect via XLR to my Musical Fidelity M6si. Very pleased with it. I currently use polysincext2, but might try a few others as I havent experimented much recently.

rossco, are you able to run the EC modulators @ DSD512 with your i7?

[bipet]

Hi @der_yeti, no I havent, I think Jussi has mentioned before you would need an uber chip to run the EC modulators at DSD 512 and a chip powerful enough is not available on the consumer market yet. My chip is water cooled and overclocked to 5ghz and I still get skipping when I have tried.

[der_yeti]

Hi @rossco, okay, thanks. I read the comments from Jussi and just wondered.

[ambre]

On 3/15/2020 at 8:27 PM, rossco said:

I have the same DAC, and it sounds excellent set in DAC mode and sending DSD 256 (I have read 512 is noisier on the DAC) with ASDM7EC on a 9700 intel i7. I connect via XLR to my Musical Fidelity M6si. Very pleased with it. I currently use polysincext2, but might try a few others as I havent experimented much recently.

 

Hi Rossco, wherry did you read these comment?

 

 When i run Dsd 512 with ext2 with fs filters it sounds very good and low power consumption on my Mac Mini 6 cores I7. The Ec filters sound different ( sometimes better not always) but my fanspeed increases to 60-70 % and makes accordingly more noise. 

Regards, Andreas

 

 

 

 

[bipet]

Hi @ambre

 

The DAC datasheet was referenced here

https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/topping-d90-balanced-usb-dac-review.10519/page-29#post-337069

 

and then later on in the thread "that the performance of the chip degrades with DSD 512 input, vs DSD 256, so I advise those folks, like me, who like to oversample in software to high rate DSD, to use dSD 256 as their input rate, rather than 512 (at which rate the chip's specified performance degrades)"

https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/topping-d90-balanced-usb-dac-review.10519/page-30#post-337846

[F208Frank]

Does anyone here have experience with combining Roon with HQplayer (without using upsampling)?

 

Do you find that HQplayer along with Roon sounds better than just Roon by itself?

 

Thank you in advance!

[der_yeti]

Hi Frank, yes, I tried that before using no upsampling. That already makes sense, but upsampling is a must!

[Energy]

I use Roon as a front end to pass Tidal streams over to HQPlayer for DSD upsampling. It works well for both methods, upsampling or not. When listening to PCM files as PCM, I find HQPlayer to sound better but not by much. I would say it's more leaning on a smoother sound, perhaps from the filters. As @der_yeti has said, DSD upsampling is a must. In some cases, it's comparable in sound improvements as Hugo M-Scaler.

 

Aside from that, Roon is nice although expensive. I like using their iOS app to play music from my iPhone. It let's me play Tidal or even music stored on my computer through my phone. Given the portability, you could have a long optical fiber or Ethernet cable going from the music server all the way to the living room loudspeaker setup and connect it to an endpoint. This way both setups can share the processing power of a single server. Although one drawback with this is that you'd still have to have a DAC and AMP out in the living room. To solve this problem I have all my audio gear on a 5-Tier rack with mini silicone wheels so whenever I want to listen in the living room I just pull the whole setup out. This includes the isolation transformer, linear power supplies, music server, DAC, and headphone amp all sitting on the rack. As for the speaker amp/power amp/monoblocks, you can just have them sitting outside always connected. Just ideas. 😗

[ambre]

On 3/17/2020 at 4:26 PM, rossco said:

Hi @ambre

 

The DAC datasheet was referenced here

https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/topping-d90-balanced-usb-dac-review.10519/page-29#post-337069

 

and then later on in the thread "that the performance of the chip degrades with DSD 512 input, vs DSD 256, so I advise those folks, like me, who like to oversample in software to high rate DSD, to use dSD 256 as their input rate, rather than 512 (at which rate the chip's specified performance degrades)"

https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/topping-d90-balanced-usb-dac-review.10519/page-30#post-337846

Thanks will read it . Also saw that comments were made by Barrow. Ps. Noted that this AS-forum is often only measuring technically and that listening whether something audibly better or worse is not part of their behavior. 🥴