HQ Player

[CheapSplurge]

14 hours ago, Miska said:

 

Yes, it is available through pipeline matrix.

 

Do you u mean here? 

 

 

It seems complicated, I don't understand it. Anywhere there are some virtual knobs or soemthing just need basic tone control just 4 knobs would be enough. 

[Miska]

13 minutes ago, CheapSplurge said:

Do you u mean here? 

 

 

It seems complicated, I don't understand it. Anywhere there are some virtual knobs or soemthing just need basic tone control just 4 knobs would be enough. 

 

That's an old version, so it doesn't have the feature. But the place is correct, you enter the parameters in "Process" cell. Please see the manual about syntax. There's also Plot-button to see the response of all entered things.

 

No knobs, because you could have hundreds or thousands of parametric eq's per channel and that wouldn't fit on any screen. In addition, fiddling with knobs is inaccurate.

 

[CheapSplurge]

8 hours ago, Miska said:

 

That's an old version, so it doesn't have the feature. But the place is correct, you enter the parameters in "Process" cell. Please see the manual about syntax. There's also Plot-button to see the response of all entered things.

 

No knobs, because you could have hundreds or thousands of parametric eq's per channel and that wouldn't fit on any screen. In addition, fiddling with knobs is inaccurate.

 

Where do I get new version, I can't find to update

[SwissBear]

23 hours ago, Miska said:

 

I mean the ESS Sabre has PLL and ASRC built-in on-chip, and can run from asynchronous clocking like it is usually used, with 100 MHz master clock.

 

While the AKM converter chip doesn't, so it doesn't have PLL unless there's an external out-of-chip one.

 

It is likely more related to the I2S interface...

 

Thank you for your explanations :-)

 

I'm still puzzled by the fact that this interface, my 10MHz clock and the D90, work perfectly together when the source is Roon, and are disturbed when the source is HQPlayer.

 

As you have pointed out, we can also look at things the other way around and notice that your software is working well at DSD512 when feeding the DAC through its USB input and not though the I2S interface...

 

I very much appreciate your software and my intent is in no way to criticise the way it is implemented. I am just interested to understand the constraints it imposes on hardware to cope with it.

 

I have ordered a Singxer SDA-6 DAC, which has been designed with the goal of working well with HQPlayer. Apart from the excellent galvanic isolation I am already enjoying on the interfaces I have, it also offers a 10MHz master clock input, at the DAC itself, so cannot be closer to the reproduction process. It also has a NOS mode for DSD and a seemingly well designed discrete output stage. I hope that this unit will work as well in practice as it is designed to.

 

Will let you know :-)

[Miska]

3 hours ago, SwissBear said:

I'm still puzzled by the fact that this interface, my 10MHz clock and the D90, work perfectly together when the source is Roon, and are disturbed when the source is HQPlayer.

 

As you have pointed out, we can also look at things the other way around and notice that your software is working well at DSD512 when feeding the DAC through its USB input and not though the I2S interface...

 

It also worked at DSD512 and HQPlayer with another DAC? This makes me believe it has to do with the clock tolerance I mentioned. You had some NAA on the path? It may also be related to the NAA somehow.

 

3 hours ago, SwissBear said:

I have ordered a Singxer SDA-6 DAC, which has been designed with the goal of working well with HQPlayer. Apart from the excellent galvanic isolation I am already enjoying on the interfaces I have, it also offers a 10MHz master clock input, at the DAC itself, so cannot be closer to the reproduction process.

 

It already has the same Crystek CCHD-957 clocks I also use (and referred to earlier), built in, so it should be perfectly fine without external clock:

https://shenzhenaudio.com/products/singxer-sda-6-primary-direct-solution-cchd-957-femtosecond-clock-of-usb-nos-model-dsd512-ak4499-dac-decoder

 

[Miska]

5 hours ago, CheapSplurge said:

Where do I get new version, I can't find to update

 

At the usual place:

https://www.signalyst.com/consumer.html

 

If necessary, hit the refresh button in browser.

 

[jiminlogansquare]

Question: Does HQ Player upsampling require more, about equal, or less computing power than the same degree of upsampling using Roon DSP? 
 

Why do I ask?

 

I currently use Roon DSP to upsample streaming and local files to DSD 512, which is on top of a 66K taps Audiolense convolution filter. This works great about 95% of the time, with processing speeds around 2.7X, but occasionally I get dropouts (gaps in playback).

 

If HQP's upsampling is significantly more efficient than that built into Roon - meaning enough so that it would eliminate these occasional dropouts/gaps in playback - than I would like to try it. 
 

I realize HQP has a free 30-minute free test mode, but my current opticalRendu is the "Lite" model and is only compatible with Roon. As a result, it cannot serve as an NAA for HQP. In order to integrate HQP, I would have to buy a fully configured opticalRendu or some other compatible NAA. So it's important I have some confidence things won't get worse with respect to these dropouts/gaps in playback before making such an investment.

 

Make sense? Thanks in advance, all. I very much value the hive mind of AS.

[Miska]

18 minutes ago, jiminlogansquare said:

Question: Does HQ Player upsampling require more, about equal, or less computing power than the same degree of upsampling using Roon DSP?

 

Depending on selected algorithm combination, but for most time quite a bit more.

 

18 minutes ago, jiminlogansquare said:

If HQP's upsampling is significantly more efficient than that built into Roon - meaning enough so that it would eliminate these occasional dropouts/gaps in playback - than I would like to try it. 

 

Depends on algorithm you select. Trading some quality for speed you may get good results, maybe better than Roon, with less CPU load. But best quality options certainly will have more load than Roon.

 

18 minutes ago, jiminlogansquare said:

I realize HQP has a free 30-minute free test mode, but my current opticalRendu is the "Lite" model and is only compatible with Roon. As a result, it cannot serve as an NAA for HQP. In order to integrate HQP, I would have to buy a fully configured opticalRendu or some other compatible NAA.

 

Or you just connect DAC directly without a NAA. Using a NAA is by no means mandatory.

 

[AudioDoctor]

15 minutes ago, jiminlogansquare said:

Question: Does HQ Player upsampling require more, about equal, or less computing power than the same degree of upsampling using Roon DSP? 
 

Why do I ask?

 

I currently use Roon DSP to upsample streaming and local files to DSD 512, which is on top of a 66K taps Audiolense convolution filter. This works great about 95% of the time, with processing speeds around 2.7X, but occasionally I get dropouts (gaps in playback).

 

If HQP's upsampling is significantly more efficient than that built into Roon - meaning enough so that it would eliminate these occasional dropouts/gaps in playback - than I would like to try it. 
 

I realize HQP has a free 30-minute free test mode, but my current opticalRendu is the "Lite" model and is only compatible with Roon. As a result, it cannot serve as an NAA for HQP. In order to integrate HQP, I would have to buy a fully configured opticalRendu or some other compatible NAA. So it's important I have some confidence things won't get worse with respect to these dropouts/gaps in playback before making such an investment.

 

Make sense? Thanks in advance, all. I very much value the hive mind of AS.

 

Jim, If you have a Raspberry Pi 4 and a spare SD card, you can transform that into an NAA for testing purposes.

 

Second, way back in the early days of my journey with Roon and then HQPlayer I noticed that Roon struggled to upsample to even 24/192 on my 2011 i5 mac mini that I used at the time as my server while HQPlayer, on that same machine had zero troubles upsampling on the exact same hardware. In fact, HQPlayer barely has to work hard on that machine upsampling PCM to  higher rate PCM. Roon set the fans going at full speed and maxed out the processor trying to do the same thing. It's an anecdote, but it's applicable here.

[jiminlogansquare]

Thanks, guys. I might try the Raspberry Pi 4 idea, or maybe I will have to shop around for a server with more processing power than the SonicTransporter i9. I just dropped almost $3,000 on it last fall, however, so for the near-term future I might have to learn to live with the occasional dropouts and gaps in playback.
 

BTW, the sound of Qobuz upsampled to DSD 512 and played through the T+A DAC 8 DSD is phenomenal, and to me it is worth the occasional glitches.

[bibo01]

Can anyone please tell me how to open the log on NAA with HQP OS?

[The Computer Audiophile]

50 minutes ago, jiminlogansquare said:

Thanks, guys. I might try the Raspberry Pi 4 idea, or maybe I will have to shop around for a server with more processing power than the SonicTransporter i9. I just dropped almost $3,000 on it last fall, however, so for the near-term future I might have to learn to live with the occasional dropouts and gaps in playback.
 

BTW, the sound of Qobuz upsampled to DSD 512 and played through the T+A DAC 8 DSD is phenomenal, and to me it is worth the occasional glitches.

It’s hard for me to believe an i9 system has trouble with Roon DSD512 and convolution. I can do this on an i5 QNAP NAS. 
 

I think something else is afoot. I’m willing to bet you’ve maxed out the oR Lite. 

[jiminlogansquare]

1 minute ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

It’s hard for me to believe an i9 system has trouble with Roon DSD512 and convolution. I can do this on an i5 QNAP NAS. 
 

I think something else is afoot. I’m willing to bet you’ve maxed out the oR Lite. 

Thanks, Chris. Do you think I could fix this with a full opticalRendu (not just the "Lite" Roon-only version)? Or should I be looking at other options? 

[The Computer Audiophile]

1 minute ago, jiminlogansquare said:

Thanks, Chris. Do you think I could fix this with a full opticalRendu (not just the "Lite" Roon-only version)? Or should I be looking at other options? 

Hang on, I’ll test it. 

[jiminlogansquare]

1 minute ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

Hang on, I’ll test it. 

Thanks. FYI, the dropouts are pretty infrequent. Sometimes I listen for an hour or two between glitches.

[The Computer Audiophile]

5 minutes ago, jiminlogansquare said:

Thanks. FYI, the dropouts are pretty infrequent. Sometimes I listen for an hour or two between glitches.

 

I'm streaming now without any issues using Roon to resample to DSD512 and using a convolution filter with 66k taps from Audiolense.  From a QNAP to an opticalRendu. no glitches. 

 

Perhaps, you want to discuss this issue in another thread, so we don't go too off topic in the HQP thread. 

 

[jiminlogansquare]

I have started a thread in the Q&A section. Thanks, all.

[Miska]

9 hours ago, bibo01 said:

Can anyone please tell me how to open the log on NAA with HQP OS?

 

See "systemctl status networkaudiod" and journalctl command

 

You can also edit /etc/default/networkaudiod to have something like

NETWORKAUDIOD_LOGFILE=/tmp/networkaudiod.log

and then do "systemctl restart networkaudiod" and then you can see log in that file

 

[blueninjasix]

@MiskaI don't know what you've done to HQPlayer desktop but the latest version 4.9.0 is marvelous! I'm using RopieeXL on Usbridge Sig as NAA and the sound seems to have become more detailed and delicate. Thank you.

[StreamFidelity]

Jan 23 2021

HQPlayer 4 Desktop 4.9.0 released! Add two new SDM integrators and one new DSD noise filter. Split magnitude and phase responses to separate plots in matrix. Improved performance when streaming to a NAA. Component updates and bug fixes.

 

I also use NAA (via the T + A SDV 3100 HV). As I can see from the release notes, NAA has been improved. Is that the key to increasing the SQ? I hear better instrument separation and a very diversified sound stage. Absolutely great! Many Thanks

 

[blueninjasix]

11 minutes ago, StreamFidelity said:

Jan 23 2021

HQPlayer 4 Desktop 4.9.0 released! Add two new SDM integrators and one new DSD noise filter. Split magnitude and phase responses to separate plots in matrix. Improved performance when streaming to a NAA. Component updates and bug fixes.

 

I also use NAA (via the T + A SDV 3100 HV). As I can see from the release notes, NAA has been improved. Is that the key to increasing the SQ? I hear better instrument separation and a very diversified sound stage. Absolutely great! Many Thanks

 

Yes. Better instrument separation and better texture. I only use PCM to Chord Qutest. No DSD.

[ray-dude]

A very material upgrade for NAA users! (PCM guy as well, in case that makes a difference) @Miska any hints on what types of NAA optimizations could have this kind of impact?  If there is any more that can be done in this same direction, yes please!

 

[Account Closed]

I am hearing the same improvement.

 

Thanks Jussi

[AudioDoctor]

Ok, so now I have to try this. Considering this is my first upgrade with Ubuntu, what are the best practices to follow when upgrading HQPlayer desktop?

[Miska]

9 minutes ago, ray-dude said:

A very material upgrade for NAA users! (PCM guy as well, in case that makes a difference) @Miska any hints on what types of NAA optimizations could have this kind of impact?  If there is any more that can be done in this same direction, yes please!

 

It has now one more (very thin) layer of buffer and one extra thread for dealing with sending the data over network, this allows CPU staying a bit more busy doing DSP work (less likely to have drop-outs). One could say that the NAA output case is now one more step "pipelined" and asynchronous.

 

There seems to be an occasional timeout problem when stopping playback, that sometimes makes Roon stop between trakcs. I will make a new build tomorrow to fix this.