HQ Player

[Gavin1977]

9 minutes ago, LoryWiv said:

FLAC.

FLAC & wav only?

[konoyaro]

I recently picked up the Monoprice Cavalli DAC to use for my desktop listening. This is connected to my Mac (Catalina/10.15.7) via USB. Since this DAC is supposed to support DSD, I'm interested in trying playback of .dsf files in QHPlayer Desktop without converting to PCM.

 

Unfortunately I haven't been successful so far. Clearly I'm not understanding how to set up the preferences properly so I'm hoping for some guidance as to the proper settings.

 

Thanks!

 

[Luvdac]

14 hours ago, Gavin1977 said:

Still playing with my setup...

 

Steaming from Logitech Media Server to HQPlayer embedded via Linn Kazoo.  Tidal works fine, however most of my local files are in Apple Lossless .m4a and won't play.  What file formats does HQPlayer embedded work with?

 

I like embedded metadata, so wav is a no go for me.  Does AIFF work?  Or any any method of transcoding any file formal in LMS to send to HQPlayer in wav?

My entire 14 tb library is in wav with full metadata. Those days of wav files with no meta data are long gone.

[antonellocaroli]

19 hours ago, Gavin1977 said:

Still playing with my setup...

 

Steaming from Logitech Media Server to HQPlayer embedded via Linn Kazoo.  Tidal works fine, however most of my local files are in Apple Lossless .m4a and won't play.  What file formats does HQPlayer embedded work with?

 

I like embedded metadata, so wav is a no go for me.  Does AIFF work?  Or any any method of transcoding any file formal in LMS to send to HQPlayer in wav?

you could use MinimSever and apply the transcoder, so you can also listen to online radio if it makes sense....I have never tried but it should work

[Gavin1977]

3 hours ago, antonellocaroli said:

you could use MinimSever and apply the transcoder, so you can also listen to online radio if it makes sense....I have never tried but it should work

Hurrah!  That worked.  Bit of a faff / lack of step-by-step instructions, but minim sounds great with HQPlayer. 

 

Details in case anyone else wants to do this with HQPlayer:

• Synology NAS:  Install MinimServer 2.0 (manual install at present as it's not yet uploaded on the Synology package repository).  Also install ffmpeg from community installs (I'm not sure if this is installed automatically or not, but I installed it anyway).
• Mac or Windows: Install MinimWatch - this allows you to configure MinimServer 2.0.  One installed, go to Packages and install MinimStreamer.
• Once MinimStreamer is installed go to the system tab in MinimWatch and enter ALAC:WAV, MP3:WAV etc as required in the stream.transcode field.  Click apply.

Now all my music files regardless of format works with HQPlayer embedded.

 

Will run this a bit longer, but so far this is the best sounding and also most stable software combination I have tried to date.  I just switch my on music server on and it works.  That's great, and just how it should be - less faffing with software when all you want to do is listen to music.

 

I might see if I can find a robust small motherboard mounted USB SSD 'thumb drive' so HQPlayer doesn't have to hang out of the back of the PC on a cheapo USB memory stick.

[giordy60]

13 hours ago, konoyaro said:

Recentemente ho acquistato il Monoprice Cavalli DAC  da utilizzare per l'ascolto da scrivania. Questo è collegato al mio Mac (Catalina / 10.15.7) tramite USB. Poiché questo DAC dovrebbe supportare DSD, sono interessato a provare la riproduzione di file .dsf in QHPlayer Desktop senza convertirli in PCM.

 

Purtroppo finora non ho avuto successo. Chiaramente non sto capendo come impostare correttamente le preferenze, quindi spero in alcune indicazioni per le impostazioni corrette.

 

Grazie!

 

there are two parameters you should change ..... the first on top is to change dop to none ... if your dac accepts native dsd
at the bottom second, change 32x64 to 44.1 x 64.
try to change the modulator too .... asdm7ec requires a lot of resources .... use a non-EC modulator
give it a try.

[ericuco]

14 hours ago, konoyaro said:

I recently picked up the Monoprice Cavalli DAC to use for my desktop listening. This is connected to my Mac (Catalina/10.15.7) via USB. Since this DAC is supposed to support DSD, I'm interested in trying playback of .dsf files in QHPlayer Desktop without converting to PCM.

 

Unfortunately I haven't been successful so far. Clearly I'm not understanding how to set up the preferences properly so I'm hoping for some guidance as to the proper settings.

 

Thanks!

 

 

Besides what was also suggested:

 

1) Set Vol Min = -60 and Vol Max = -3 (default settings). These setting control the limits of the Volume Control knob on the main panel. ASSUMING you are using some type of volume control (preamp, DAC, etc.), then you typically want the Volume Control knob set to the max (full clockwise). Having a yellow or red Volume Control knob means something is not correct.

2) Uncheck CUDA offload unless you have a GPU installed.

3) Uncheck the 48k DSD if you are still not getting any sound. If you get sound with this checked, you can probably change Bit Limit to 48 x 128 given it appears your DAC supports DSD128.

[jimdukey]

What is the difference between setting the Volume at -3 and -3, and -60 and -3?

Or even -6 and 0?

I use an active preamp.

[jimdukey]

I just saw that I have a Community Reputation of 28.

Is that good? 

[antonellocaroli]

6 hours ago, Gavin1977 said:

 

• Mac or Windows: Install MinimWatch - this allows you to configure MinimServer 2.0.  One installed, go to Packages and install MinimStreamer

Or Linux......

 

excuse the OT

[bogi]

jimdukey: That's minimum and maximum volume dBFS level - they are applied to HQPlayer volume pot. So the min/max ranges of volume pot become reasonable values to easily make small adjustment if needed. If you use active preamp you can set min and max for example to -12 and 0 and use some safe value between. 0dB is not recommended because of risk of clipping, especially if you use upsampling. -3 dBFS or less should be safe in the case of upsampling. HQPlayer GUI has clipping indication.

[konoyaro]

@giordy60 & @ericuco, thank you very much for the suggestions.

Setting SDM to "None" seemed to cause Mode to show PCM when playing back a .dsf file. Having SDM Pack set to DoP shows Mode as SDM (DSD) and I get audio. I'm guessing this means the DAC doesn't do Direct DSD.

That said this config seems to be working - thanks again.

 

[ericuco]

28 minutes ago, konoyaro said:

@giordy60 & @ericuco, thank you very much for the suggestions.

Setting SDM to "None" seemed to cause Mode to show PCM when playing back a .dsf file. Having SDM Pack set to DoP shows Mode as SDM (DSD) and I get audio. I'm guessing this means the DAC doesn't do Direct DSD.

That said this config seems to be working - thanks again.

 

Uncheck the 48k DSD box as I don’t think your DAC doesn’t support 48 rates for DSD. Also, set SDM Pack to None and Bit Rate to 44.1k x128. Not sure this will work but worth a try.

[konoyaro]

2 hours ago, ericuco said:

Uncheck the 48k DSD box as I don’t think your DAC doesn’t support 48 rates for DSD. Also, set SDM Pack to None and Bit Rate to 44.1k x128. Not sure this will work but worth a try.

Thanks Eric - Since setting SDM Pack to None in preferences causes playback to revert to PCM, DoP seems to be the path that works for my setup to get DSD playback. 

[denseshave]

Hi. I have an issue with DSD playback - plays a certain amount of time for any track (0.x, 35, 37 seconds etc) then click and silence for the rest of the playback. I've had a similar problem in Foobar, JRiver works fine (but doesn't sound as good as HQ-Player). Dop works fine with DSD files, but in PCM->DSD plays about 2x slower.

And it works only in DirectSDM.

 

Thanks.

 

 

 

[ericuco]

9 hours ago, denseshave said:

Hi. I have an issue with DSD playback - plays a certain amount of time for any track (0.x, 35, 37 seconds etc) then click and silence for the rest of the playback. I've had a similar problem in Foobar, JRiver works fine (but doesn't sound as good as HQ-Player). Dop works fine with DSD files, but in PCM->DSD plays about 2x slower.

And it works only in DirectSDM.

 

Thanks.

 

 

 

 

 Since no one else has chimed in, I would start by setting Vol Max to -3 (default) to avoid possible clipping.

 

It would be helpful to know the OS (Win, Mac, Linux) and the DAC you are using.

[Gavin1977]

So, HQPlayer embedded really is the very best sounding (and most expensive) ‘endpoint’ I have ever owned.
 

But what uPnP media servers are people using to send their music to HQPlayer embedded?

 

I am thinking that a dedicated network player, with its own app (to serve Tidal, local files on minimserver and all the other services etc... integrated) would be great.  So far only Melcos seem to do this and will output a upnp stream to other devices.

 

Any bits of hardware out there that could, for example take the usb audio stream from a bluesound node and send it onwards via upnp to HQPlayer?

 

I’m using Linn Kazoo at the moment and works really very well, but there is an ease to having a commercial server because of the ecosystem it can bring.

[Gavin1977]

“It can utilize both digital and analog inputs from various devices and output audio processed through the advanced DSP pipeline.”

Input hardware:

• RME HDSPe AIO
• RME ADI-2 Pro FS/Pro FS BE/Pro A

so how does that work then?

[Miska]

14 minutes ago, Gavin1977 said:

“It can utilize both digital and analog inputs from various devices and output audio processed through the advanced DSP pipeline.”

Input hardware:

• RME HDSPe AIO
• RME ADI-2 Pro FS/Pro FS BE/Pro A

so how does that work then?

 

Similar way as Desktop too. You select the applicable input device as transport instead of CD or playlist and then start playback.

 

There is some amount of info for Desktop outlined in the quickstart guide.

 

On Embedded, check out the /input page in web interface.

 

[Miska]

33 minutes ago, Gavin1977 said:

But what uPnP media servers are people using to send their music to HQPlayer embedded?

 

You have lot of options if you don't need support for DSD content. With MinimServer also DSD content works, but it can be sometimes sluggish on track changes, thanks to Java VM it runs on.

 

On the other hand, for local content I recommend using HQPlayer's library features instead of streaming from UPnP Server. It is much better and more efficient way.

 

If you just want Tidal and Qobuz, plus local content, you can do all needed control with mConnect Player (HD for tablets) and HQPDcontrol apps.

 

For desktop clients, for streaming services Roon or Audirvana work as front-end and for local content in HQPlayer library you can use HQPlayer Client.

 

39 minutes ago, Gavin1977 said:

Any bits of hardware out there that could, for example take the usb audio stream from a bluesound node and send it onwards via upnp to HQPlayer?

 

I have not tried USB audio output from Node, but I have optical output from Node 2i to HQPlayer Embedded functional through RME ADI-2 Pro and/or HDSPe AIO.

 

OTOH, in my opinion it doesn't offer much value apart from Spotify things. Amazon Music Unlimited doesn't work here with Node and I don't have Deezer or such.

 

[Miska]

12 hours ago, denseshave said:

Hi. I have an issue with DSD playback - plays a certain amount of time for any track (0.x, 35, 37 seconds etc) then click and silence for the rest of the playback. I've had a similar problem in Foobar, JRiver works fine (but doesn't sound as good as HQ-Player). Dop works fine with DSD files, but in PCM->DSD plays about 2x slower.

And it works only in DirectSDM.

 

Thanks.

 

 

 

 

At least at quick glance I don't spot anything particularly wrong. Just leave "Buffer time" set to Default and select biggest possible buffer from the driver's control panel instead.

 

What kind of CPU do you have? If it's anything more than a dual-core, please set "Multicore DSP" to grayed (auto) setting. Otherwise the few used CPU cores likely run out of steam.

 

[denseshave]

8 hours ago, ericuco said:

Since no one else has chimed in, I would start by setting Vol Max to -3 (default) to avoid possible clipping.

 

It would be helpful to know the OS (Win, Mac, Linux) and the DAC you are using.

 

5 hours ago, Miska said:

At least at quick glance I don't spot anything particularly wrong. Just leave "Buffer time" set to Default and select biggest possible buffer from the driver's control panel instead.

 

What kind of CPU do you have? If it's anything more than a dual-core, please set "Multicore DSP" to grayed (auto) setting. Otherwise the few used CPU cores likely run out of steam.

 

Thanks for the replies.

 

Windows 10 64, Quad Core AMD FX4130, xDuoo Link dongle DAC.

I tried multicore and different buffer sizes with no result, CPU load is far from 100%.

[Miska]

On 11/8/2020 at 2:33 AM, konoyaro said:

I recently picked up the Monoprice Cavalli DAC to use for my desktop listening. This is connected to my Mac (Catalina/10.15.7) via USB. Since this DAC is supposed to support DSD, I'm interested in trying playback of .dsf files in QHPlayer Desktop without converting to PCM.

 

Unfortunately I haven't been successful so far. Clearly I'm not understanding how to set up the preferences properly so I'm hoping for some guidance as to the proper settings.

 

Thanks!

 

 

Your screenshot shows playback to DSD output, but at least one problem I see that you have set maximum SDM output sampling rate to 32k x64 = 2.048 MHz, which is lower than DSD64 and likely not supported by your DAC. Instead set it to 44.1k x128. Set PCM rate limit to 192k.

 

Also do not enable 48k DSD unless you are 100% sure it works correctly with your DAC (with most it won't). And do not check the "Adaptive output rate" either.

 

Otherwise the settings look fine.

 

[Gavin1977]

13 hours ago, Miska said:

 

You have lot of options if you don't need support for DSD content. With MinimServer also DSD content works, but it can be sometimes sluggish on track changes, thanks to Java VM it runs on.

 

On the other hand, for local content I recommend using HQPlayer's library features instead of streaming from UPnP Server. It is much better and more efficient way.

 

If you just want Tidal and Qobuz, plus local content, you can do all needed control with mConnect Player (HD for tablets) and HQPDcontrol apps.

 

For desktop clients, for streaming services Roon or Audirvana work as front-end and for local content in HQPlayer library you can use HQPlayer Client.

 

 

I have not tried USB audio output from Node, but I have optical output from Node 2i to HQPlayer Embedded functional through RME ADI-2 Pro and/or HDSPe AIO.

 

OTOH, in my opinion it doesn't offer much value apart from Spotify things. Amazon Music Unlimited doesn't work here with Node and I don't have Deezer or such.

 

Features:

• USB Audio Class 2 inputs

So could any USB streamer (my example here was based a BlueSound Node) be used as an input, with HQPLAYER embedded then acting as an ‘mscaler’ in the chain?

I have never tried connecting a usb streamer in this way.  My JCat USB XE has dual USB ports.

 

Chain would look like this

USB streamer -> USB in -> HQPLAYER embedded-> USB out -> DAC

[Miska]

2 hours ago, Gavin1977 said:

Features:

• USB Audio Class 2 inputs

So could any USB streamer (my example here was based a BlueSound Node) be used as an input, with HQPLAYER embedded then acting as an ‘mscaler’ in the chain?

Chain would look like this

USB streamer -> USB in -> HQPLAYER embedded-> USB out -> DAC

 

Yes, exactly...

 

2 hours ago, Gavin1977 said:

I have never tried connecting a usb streamer in this way.  My JCat USB XE has dual USB ports.

 

Note, you need hardware that has device side type-B USB ports. Host side type-A USB ports cannot be used for input.