sdolezalek Posted February 3, 2021 Share Posted February 3, 2021 On 2/1/2021 at 7:37 AM, Miska said: It doesn't! It makes it sound worse because it skips audio blocks every now and then. :D That's the real beauty of audiophilia: it sounds better when you don't actually hear all of it -- otherwise referred to as "selective hearing" -- sort of like tuning out your children... Sorry, couldn't help it. I do actually wonder whether a) this was just a joke on us - to see whether we would fall for it, b) falls into the euphonious distortion category -- wrong but some really like it; c) is some form of expectation bias... or d) falls into the realm of "there is more to this than we today understand, i.e. just because we aren't or cannot measure it doesn't mean there isn't a difference. 🙉 asdf1000 1 Synology NAS>i7-6700/32GB/NVIDIA QUADRO P4000 Win10>Qobuz+Tidal>Roon>HQPlayer>DSD512> Fiber Switch>Ultrarendu (NAA)>Holo Audio May KTE DAC> Bryston SP3 pre>Levinson No. 432 amps>Magnepan (MG20.1x2, CCR and MMC2x6) Link to comment
Popular Post Miska Posted February 3, 2021 Popular Post Share Posted February 3, 2021 3 minutes ago, sdolezalek said: I do actually wonder whether a) this was just a joke on us - to see whether we would fall for it, b) falls into the euphonious distortion category -- wrong but some really like it; or c) falls into the realm of "there is more to this than we today understand, i.e. just because we aren't or cannot measure it doesn't mean there isn't a difference. Well, none of above. a) I don't find bugs particularly funny, I spent four days chasing these two ghostly bugs that were not always easy to reproduce b) You will certainly hear and notice several milliseconds of worth of audio being skipped, when it happens, it is not "euphonic distortion" c) You can certainly measure effect of a bugs that skip audio or fail to start playback MemoryPlayer, asdf1000, arglebargle and 1 other 2 2 Signalyst - Developer of HQPlayer Pulse & Fidelity - Software Defined Amplifiers Link to comment
Popular Post asdf1000 Posted February 4, 2021 Popular Post Share Posted February 4, 2021 The man has made his thoughts clear multiple times now. To avoid bugging him more (pun intended) I would suggest the "a novel way to massively improve the SQ of 4.9.2" crowd maybe stop and just use 4.9.0 instead. It's not my thread of course but both sides have expessed their sides to the fullest, multiple times. Time to move on in my opinion SwissBear, ray-dude and MemoryPlayer 2 1 Link to comment
Popular Post sdolezalek Posted February 4, 2021 Popular Post Share Posted February 4, 2021 2 hours ago, Miska said: Well, none of above. Miska: Apologies, I was not trying to in any way make light of the time and effort that you put into making HQPlayer such a wonderful product. Thank you for that, as I have greatly appreciated it for years. I was merely amused at how captivated a group of serious audiophiles was with a change they all strongly believe they hear (and I have reason to doubt them) but for which there is no easy explanation. That partiular phenomenon seems to be more true of audio than it is of sight and smell, although I do know that our taste buds can similarly be fooled in inexplicable ways. It is the ezquisite intersection of the best of art and science.... asdf1000 and Solstice380 2 Synology NAS>i7-6700/32GB/NVIDIA QUADRO P4000 Win10>Qobuz+Tidal>Roon>HQPlayer>DSD512> Fiber Switch>Ultrarendu (NAA)>Holo Audio May KTE DAC> Bryston SP3 pre>Levinson No. 432 amps>Magnepan (MG20.1x2, CCR and MMC2x6) Link to comment
Popular Post ted_b Posted February 4, 2021 Popular Post Share Posted February 4, 2021 Why would you have reason to doubt us? Exocer, AudioDoctor, MemoryPlayer and 1 other 4 "We're all bozos on this bus"....F.T. My JRIver tutorial videos Actual JRIver tutorial MP4 video links My eleven yr old SACD Ripping Guide for PS3 (needs updating but still works) US Technical Advisor, NativeDSD.com Link to comment
sdolezalek Posted February 4, 2021 Share Posted February 4, 2021 4 hours ago, ted_b said: Why would you have reason to doubt us? Sorry typo, I meant to say "and I have NO reason to doubt them." In fact, most of you who have noticed the difference are people whose opinion about what sounds great/bad I really trust (you, AustinPop, Audio Doctor, K6Davis). That is precisely what makes this interesting inasmuch as I also highly respect Miska (Jussi). AudioDoctor 1 Synology NAS>i7-6700/32GB/NVIDIA QUADRO P4000 Win10>Qobuz+Tidal>Roon>HQPlayer>DSD512> Fiber Switch>Ultrarendu (NAA)>Holo Audio May KTE DAC> Bryston SP3 pre>Levinson No. 432 amps>Magnepan (MG20.1x2, CCR and MMC2x6) Link to comment
Popular Post AudioDoctor Posted February 4, 2021 Popular Post Share Posted February 4, 2021 In my opinion, what makes the change in 4.9.0 real is none of us were expecting it, but we sure heard it. There was no doubt at all what I was hearing immediately upon my first listen with 4.9.0. In other words, there was zero expectation bias because I wasn't expecting anything. blueninjasix, ted_b, ray-dude and 3 others 6 No electron left behind. Link to comment
Popular Post Geoffrey Armstrong Posted February 4, 2021 Popular Post Share Posted February 4, 2021 15 hours ago, Miska said: I've said earlier that I don't want any rate tables, because there's no limited set of rates. And it adds a lot of configuration and testing complexity. Many people already complain that the settings are complex. I want to be very careful introducing new settings. Solution is to buy a faster computer, or GPU to help... ;) This is a problem that will get fixed by time (Moore's law). Thanks. I can certainly understand not wanting to add more settings to an already complex preferences window. Have you considered splitting off some of those settings into separate windows? For example not all of us use the input settings, and it adds a lot to an already long main prefs window. If those could be split out into a separate window as you do for "DSD source settings…" It might help. What I was suggesting was a simple repetition of the "Bit rate (/Limit)" menu for Nx as you have for 1x. Perhaps even to extend this to a 1x and separate Nx for the modulator or ditherer. No matter how fast your computer gets you may always find there are filter/modulator combinations that will only work at lower output bit rate limits with 1x original files and others that are better suited to Nx originating files. If I'm the only one asking for this though, I understand that's not enough incentive for you to add it. Geoff k6davis, MemoryPlayer and chipvn 3 Owner of: Sound Galleries, High-End Audio Dealer, Monaco Link to comment
Miska Posted February 4, 2021 Share Posted February 4, 2021 1 hour ago, Geoffrey Armstrong said: If I'm the only one asking for this though, I understand that's not enough incentive for you to add it. Geoff, I know you could do this the way you want through the control API... ;) (hint, hint) Signalyst - Developer of HQPlayer Pulse & Fidelity - Software Defined Amplifiers Link to comment
Popular Post fredg_31 Posted February 4, 2021 Popular Post Share Posted February 4, 2021 8 hours ago, asdf1000 said: The man has made his thoughts clear multiple times now. To avoid bugging him more (pun intended) I would suggest the "a novel way to massively improve the SQ of 4.9.2" crowd maybe stop and just use 4.9.0 instead. It's not my thread of course but both sides have expessed their sides to the fullest, multiple times. Time to move on in my opinion Hi, It's exactly what I'm going to do, forgetting updates and focusing on music and the new interface from Roon, hoping sound will remains the same! Thanks Miska for your time and investment in this software, we are just big childs after all ;). I'm a founder of a software company in France, I know what it does when you do the right things and consumers want more. For me, 4.9.0 is revealing something in my system, I can't say what, but it's immediate. Have a good day and stay safe! asdf1000 and MemoryPlayer 1 1 Fred (Toulouse, France) Link to comment
Zauurx Posted February 4, 2021 Share Posted February 4, 2021 I have a question about handling an input DSD with volume management. The "direct DSD" does not touch anything and does not allow volume management (eg with an ADI RME). If we configure HQP in SDM (DSD256, ASDM7EC), a DSD 64 (for example) switches to PCM to switch back to DSD256 with volume management (with heavy cost CPU and incompatible EC. It is not possible to have the volume management in DSD output without going through a DSD> PCM> DSD step (therefore usable without management on dac or preamp) ? 1 / DSD direct 2 / DSD with volume attenuation (if SDM chosen at output) so not direct but without resampling. 3 / DSD> PCM (if PCM chosen at output). ROON + HQP / Hdplex H3-i5 + 400ATX >Gustard A26 (NAA twk) > SQM > Benchmark AHB2 / Recital Audio Illumine HEFA Link to comment
Miska Posted February 4, 2021 Share Posted February 4, 2021 15 minutes ago, fredg_31 said: I'm a founder of a software company in France, I know what it does when you do the right things and consumers want more. I don't doubt what people hear. But when request goes beyond logic of computer science, it is very hard to do something about something that is not in the code... Then feature X is requested, there needs to be objective way to verify that feature X is implemented and works. People, and largely same people, were also complaining about the bugs I was fixing, in this very same thread. Such as NAAs crashing. asdf1000 1 Signalyst - Developer of HQPlayer Pulse & Fidelity - Software Defined Amplifiers Link to comment
Geoffrey Armstrong Posted February 4, 2021 Share Posted February 4, 2021 18 minutes ago, Miska said: Geoff, I know you could do this the way you want through the control API... ;) (hint, hint) Ah, ok good point! Thanks. Owner of: Sound Galleries, High-End Audio Dealer, Monaco Link to comment
Miska Posted February 4, 2021 Share Posted February 4, 2021 19 minutes ago, Zauurx said: If we configure HQP in SDM (DSD256, ASDM7EC), a DSD 64 (for example) switches to PCM to switch back to DSD256 with volume management (with heavy cost CPU and incompatible EC. It is not possible to have the volume management in DSD output without going through a DSD> PCM> DSD step (therefore usable without management on dac or preamp) ? 1 / DSD direct 2 / DSD with volume attenuation (if SDM chosen at output) so not direct but without resampling. 3 / DSD> PCM (if PCM chosen at output). No, it doesn't switch to PCM. For (2) it is better to upsample to DSD256 at the same time since it gives you increased headroom. Same way as if you perform volume control for PCM it is better to upsample PCM to higher rate to gain more headroom / precision. Only disadvantage of upsampling in case (2) is that it burns more CPU time. But you win in quality. Signalyst - Developer of HQPlayer Pulse & Fidelity - Software Defined Amplifiers Link to comment
Zauurx Posted February 4, 2021 Share Posted February 4, 2021 1 hour ago, Miska said: No, it doesn't switch to PCM. For (2) it is better to upsample to DSD256 at the same time since it gives you increased headroom. Same way as if you perform volume control for PCM it is better to upsample PCM to higher rate to gain more headroom / precision. Only disadvantage of upsampling in case (2) is that it burns more CPU time. But you win in quality. Thank you for the clarification. But that sends me back to a possible option: lower the choice of modulator (ASDM7EC to ASDM7) for an input DSD .. otherwise the processor no longer follows. A double option for the choice of modulator is possible? For SDM: 1 / If PCM (or PCM <192)> Modulator 1 2 / If DSD> Modulator 2 ROON + HQP / Hdplex H3-i5 + 400ATX >Gustard A26 (NAA twk) > SQM > Benchmark AHB2 / Recital Audio Illumine HEFA Link to comment
Miska Posted February 4, 2021 Share Posted February 4, 2021 30 minutes ago, Zauurx said: Thank you for the clarification. But that sends me back to a possible option: lower the choice of modulator (ASDM7EC to ASDM7) for an input DSD .. otherwise the processor no longer follows. A double option for the choice of modulator is possible? For SDM: 1 / If PCM (or PCM <192)> Modulator 1 2 / If DSD> Modulator 2 What kind of CPU do you have? It should work fine with ASDM7EC too. This kind of work is split to separate cores. You can also try with matrix enabled/disabled, it changes the work distribution a bit. Even with IIR3 + narrow combination my development machine plays fine DSD64 -> DSD256 using ASDM7EC. (matrix disabled) Also changing modulator from HQPlayer Client or HQPDcontrol when changing the album to play is pretty quick to do. luisma 1 Signalyst - Developer of HQPlayer Pulse & Fidelity - Software Defined Amplifiers Link to comment
Zauurx Posted February 4, 2021 Share Posted February 4, 2021 50 minutes ago, Miska said: What kind of CPU do you have? It should work fine with ASDM7EC too. This kind of work is split to separate cores. You can also try with matrix enabled/disabled, it changes the work distribution a bit. Even with IIR3 + narrow combination my development machine plays fine DSD64 -> DSD256 using ASDM7EC. (matrix disabled) Also changing modulator from HQPlayer Client or HQPDcontrol when changing the album to play is pretty quick to do. I use an i5-8400 as described here : And I use Roon Radio .. and when there is a blank or a dropout .. a DSD is playing. Too late to change modulator ! 🤪 I also have an HAF convolution via matrix, which consumes a little but with an input as useful as HQP! ROON + HQP / Hdplex H3-i5 + 400ATX >Gustard A26 (NAA twk) > SQM > Benchmark AHB2 / Recital Audio Illumine HEFA Link to comment
fredg_31 Posted February 4, 2021 Share Posted February 4, 2021 3 hours ago, Miska said: I don't doubt what people hear. But when request goes beyond logic of computer science, it is very hard to do something about something that is not in the code... Then feature X is requested, there needs to be objective way to verify that feature X is implemented and works. People, and largely same people, were also complaining about the bugs I was fixing, in this very same thread. Such as NAAs crashing. I totally understand Miska, I tried a few tests on my own to understand the differences between versions 4.9.0 and 4.9.2 and didn't notice something big or visible (CPU/RAM consumption, volume from listening spot, etc.). I don't know if it would help, but on my system, I have noticed for a long time ago, even with other software, that if I play a song and wait a few seconds, stop it and restart the playing of beginning, the second attempt is better, less aggressive, more air, etc. I think this behaviour is due to my system (MacBook or network) or due to Qobuz streaming. With 4.9.0 the differences between first and second playing of the same song are less audible, like if 4.9.0 took extra time to start the playing and simulate my observation on the second playing. Have a nice day! Fred (Toulouse, France) Link to comment
ted_b Posted February 4, 2021 Share Posted February 4, 2021 5 hours ago, Miska said: Geoff, I know you could do this the way you want through the control API... ;) (hint, hint) Jussi, wasn't there even a remote app that had already done this (rate tables) a couple years ago when you first published the control API? I can't remember the name, but I remember a rudimentary Windows-based GUI that had the capability to create rates and filters based on per file/track. "We're all bozos on this bus"....F.T. My JRIver tutorial videos Actual JRIver tutorial MP4 video links My eleven yr old SACD Ripping Guide for PS3 (needs updating but still works) US Technical Advisor, NativeDSD.com Link to comment
ted_b Posted February 4, 2021 Share Posted February 4, 2021 Edit (too late to edit above): Alchemy is the name of the control app. It looks from the change log that it hasn't been worked on in a year or so. http://www.origen.net.au/Alchemy/ "We're all bozos on this bus"....F.T. My JRIver tutorial videos Actual JRIver tutorial MP4 video links My eleven yr old SACD Ripping Guide for PS3 (needs updating but still works) US Technical Advisor, NativeDSD.com Link to comment
brother love Posted February 4, 2021 Share Posted February 4, 2021 15 hours ago, asdf1000 said: The man has made his thoughts clear multiple times now. To avoid bugging him more (pun intended) I would suggest the "a novel way to massively improve the SQ of 4.9.2" crowd maybe stop and just use 4.9.0 instead. It's not my thread of course but both sides have expessed their sides to the fullest, multiple times. Time to move on in my opinion Fair enough. That should apply to you as well since you have made several derogatory jabs towards "a novel way to massively improve SQ" crowd. Your feelings are clear on the matter. No need to prattle on about it. My audio rig Link to comment
asdf1000 Posted February 4, 2021 Share Posted February 4, 2021 12 minutes ago, brother love said: you have made several derogatory jabs towards "a novel way to massively improve SQ" crowd. Your feelings are clear on the matter. No need to prattle on about it. That was harmless joking around... sincere apologies if it offended you or anyone else. This is a computer audio forum... And I am a notorious CA tinkerer myself... As @The Computer Audiophile says, "This is a fun hobby. Nobody is saving babies or killing puppies [here]." Let's please move on and get back to discussing other things HQPlayer related... Link to comment
juanitox Posted February 4, 2021 Share Posted February 4, 2021 Still in love with multibits dac sounds , i wonder what HQP PCM filter will be near with my HOLO as the old Good sounding Digimaster filter of the first generation of Wadia ( 2000/ 9/x64). non apodizing perhaps? PC audio /Roon + HQPLAYER / HOLO Spring 2 / / DIY AD1 SET tube amp / DIY Altec 2 way horn Speaker Link to comment
sledwards Posted February 4, 2021 Share Posted February 4, 2021 Quick question on configuration. I am going to move Roon off my HQPlayer Embedded server machine and put it on its own machine. Right now, my music resides on the HQPlayer machine (4 TB SSD). For efficiency, should I leave my music on the HQPlayer machine, or move it to the Roon machine where the Roon library resides? My intuition says to leave it on the HQPlayer machine to avoid another trip over the network thru the switch before HQPlayer processes the music file. Or maybe it really doesn't matter. Thanks, Steve Link to comment
StreamFidelity Posted February 4, 2021 Share Posted February 4, 2021 22 minutes ago, sledwards said: My intuition says to leave it on the HQPlayer machine to avoid another trip over the network thru the switch before HQPlayer processes the music file. Exactly for the reasons mentioned I do it like this, see picture. 👍 Grigg Audio Solutions Owner StreamFidelitys Setup: Sonus Faber Amati Futura | T+A M10 | T+A SDV 3100 HV | fis Audio PC & Server | GigaWatt PC4-EVO+ | JCAT OPTIMO S ATX | FARAD Super10 & Super3 | Keces P8 | Afterdark Buffalo Switch | fis Audio Cables | Solidsteel HJ-3 / HY-A Link to comment
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