HQ Player

[glitchesbrew]

6 hours ago, Nikko1960 said:

 

Hey Glitches - how much memory in your M1 Mini?  I have a basic spec model (8gig/256gig) and it can't run Sinn-L at DSD256x44.1 without drop outs when upsampling redbook.

 

Mine is 16GB/512GB. But I'm not sure if the extra RAM matters. I want to point out that I'm using ASDM5EC modulator to be able to use sinc-L. With ASDM7EC I got dropouts every few seconds. 

 

These are my settings, for reference. The DAC is not connected directly to the mini, but to a Nuc running Audiolinux/HQPlayer NAA.

 

[Miska]

38 minutes ago, Andrey Boldakov said:

It's nothing. I have 64Gb of DDR4 and easily can manage hardware with tons of memory...

Here in St.Petersburg we have lots of oldschool servers like dual E5-2680v4 with 256Gb of memory from Finland

 

Yeah, but some people are still running things on computers with 4 or 8 GB of RAM. And especially for HQPlayer Embedded.

 

Of course since HQPlayer is not available anymore as 32-bit version, this is less of a problem. Because 32-bit apps naturally have typical 2 GB memory allocation limit.

 

[Geoffrey Armstrong]

On 2/13/2021 at 8:11 PM, Miska said:

 

Yes, that means "kernel boots up enough that you can run console shell".

 

For example graphics support is completely missing still.

 

It is looong way for such to become officially supported Linux platform. And I'm not going to touch it until it is officially supported platform.

 

Understood! Thanks.

[Luca72c]

Hello Jussi, just giving a try to HQP Embedded booting from a HQPOS USB drive.

There's something i actually can't understand well: how network shares are managed/played. I see in Embedded configuration that a "NetworkMounts" page is available, but i can't figure how it works. I insert complete share address in the "share" field (the share is on my NAS), then username and password; i get a "success" page, i wait 10 seconds, and... now?

The share is not available in the "Library" page, should i enter a path? What path?

I also tried manually mounting the share in a "/media/music" mountpoint dir, with success (dir is ok and populated in terminal window); but when i try to scan that dir in Embedded as library path i get "failed".

So please could you explain how should i correctly mount a network share and scan it in HQP library, so to be able to play it using a second PC HQPlayer client?

More, is there some Embedded documentation available to refer to?

Thanks

[Miska]

12 minutes ago, Luca72c said:

There's something i actually can't understand well: how network shares are managed/played. I see in Embedded configuration that a "NetworkMounts" page is available, but i can't figure how it works. I insert complete share address in the "share" field (the share is on my NAS), then username and password; i get a "success" page, i wait 10 seconds, and... now?

 

You enter the share address like "//192.168.1.10/music" and then username and password for it. It will end up mounted under "/smb" path.

 

13 minutes ago, Luca72c said:

The share is not available in the "Library" page, should i enter a path? What path?

 

In the drop-down menu on the entry there is "/smb". This is the one to use for a network mount.

 

14 minutes ago, Luca72c said:

More, is there some Embedded documentation available to refer to?

 

Yes, some help pages in top right corner of the web interface under "Help" link. Not on all pages, but for the more complex ones.

 

In addition there's a readme.txt file, but it is more like raw technical details of the configuration file and such.

 

[Luca72c]

3 hours ago, Miska said:

 

You enter the share address like "//192.168.1.10/music" and then username and password for it. It will end up mounted under "/smb" path.

In the drop-down menu on the entry there is "/smb". This is the one to use for a network mount.

Yes, some help pages in top right corner of the web interface under "Help" link. Not on all pages, but for the more complex ones.

In addition there's a readme.txt file, but it is more like raw technical details of the configuration file and such.

 

 

I tried as you suggest, but it doesn't work. When i go to Library page i select /smb to scan, i get "success" but after the 10 seconds wait i find an empty library.

Accessing embedded via HQPlayer client i find an empty library just the same.

All the music files in my NAS are flac, with some wav, and all are normally readable and playable by HQPlayer Desktop on windows.

So what am i doing wrong?

[luisma]

On 2/14/2021 at 8:30 AM, Nikko1960 said:

The Lampi I have on order costs a fair bit more than a standard unit, so I am asking myself whether having control of volume in the analog domain will offer superior sound compared to the current setup using HQP volume control in the digital domain.

Hi Nikko, it is my understanding that HQPlayer's DSP volume is preferred over analog, at least if you are using 352 khz plus rate conversion with good noise shapers like LNS and such if doing PCM or good modulators if using DSD 128 plus, these will provide enough margin to keep the noise floor and distortion low, you are already processing so might as well do the attenuation there.

 

If you are planning to bypass HQPlayer at some point let's say go directly to the Dac from another application then it would be nice to have an analog attenuator.

 

The analog attenuator you could keep it at max (usually this means bypassed) and use hqplayer unless you have a reason to believe this analog control might compromise the signal integrity

 

I don't know about Lampi but keep in mind dacs using volume controls in many cases these are actually DSP digital volume not really analog.

 

As a rule of thumb analog attenuators with not great quality will introduce noise and distortion over hqplayer volume, your case might be different.

 

[Miska]

34 minutes ago, Luca72c said:

I tried as you suggest, but it doesn't work. When i go to Library page i select /smb to scan, i get "success" but after the 10 seconds wait i find an empty library.

Accessing embedded via HQPlayer client i find an empty library just the same.

All the music files in my NAS are flac, with some wav, and all are normally readable and playable by HQPlayer Desktop on windows.

So what am i doing wrong?

 

Either the NAS address is wrong, or the username + password is wrong.

 

After setting those you can try to login as "root" on console and do first "umount /smb" and then "mount /smb" and see if you get any error message that would help.

 

[Holzohr]

1 hour ago, Luca72c said:

 

I tried as you suggest, but it doesn't work. When i go to Library page i select /smb to scan, i get "success" but after the 10 seconds wait i find an empty library.

Accessing embedded via HQPlayer client i find an empty library just the same.

All the music files in my NAS are flac, with some wav, and all are normally readable and playable by HQPlayer Desktop on windows.

So what am i doing wrong?

 

This site hast helped me to add my NAS folder music to library. I guess it is the samba version thing and probably you must add vers=1.0

[Reg19]

I need some advice.

 

Currently, my old i7-6700HQ - based laptop can run HQP fine using ASDM7 upto DSD256. It can also run DSD128 using ASDM7EC. I prefer the fuller sound of ASDM7 / DSD256 to ASDM7EC / DSD128.

 

Question: I am contemplating buying a new rig so I can run ASDM7EC / DSD256. But, before I do, I’d like to know if there is a tangible SQ difference between ASDM7 / DSD256 and ASDM7EC / DSD256.

 

I’d love to hear from fellow members on the SQ difference between these two configurations. I use HQP as an input to the RME ADI-2 DAC FS and from there, to preamp / power amp combo to floorstanders (Focal Electra 1038Be).

 

TIA.

 

 

[ted_b]

Reg19, I have a PM into you to maybe help.  Of course one way is to trial HQPlayer Pro and do ASDM7EC offline, but those saved samples are only 1 minute each.

[Zauurx]

@Miska You know MinorityClean. I use it on my audio server with Roon and HQP.
Oryaa released a video oriented version (audio-video edition) for processors supporting AVX2 instructions.
This is the case with my i5-8400. I find the set DSD256 ASDM7EC ext2 - RME ADi2 + MC 114S, excellent.
A simple hallucination ??

 

https://cdorya.hatenablog.jp/entry/2021/02/14/195509

[Miska]

6 minutes ago, Zauurx said:

@Miska You know MinorityClean. I use it on my audio server with Roon and HQP.
Oryaa released a video oriented version (audio-video edition) for processors supporting AVX2 instructions.
This is the case with my i5-8400. I find the set DSD256 ASDM7EC ext2 - RME ADi2 + MC 114S, excellent.
A simple hallucination ??

 

https://cdorya.hatenablog.jp/entry/2021/02/14/195509

 

No, never heard of before. What does it do?

 

[Miska]

1 hour ago, Holzohr said:

This site hast helped me to add my NAS folder music to library. I guess it is the samba version thing and probably you must add vers=1.0

 

For security reasons SMB support in Linux defaults to vers=3

 

If needed, one can login and do "nano /etc/fstab" and edit/fix the corresponding mount line with needed options etc.

 

[Zauurx]

9 minutes ago, Miska said:

 

No, never heard of before. What does it do?

 

 

It's a program written in purebasic that runs like a service.
Here is the explanation given by the developer (in the package).
It is also he who produces the BugHead player software.

 

Quote

Translated text by DeepL
By repeatedly writing the internal state of the memory chip in an inversion process, the averaged memory state is This is made by copying this state to the CPU register. By copying this state to the CPU register to adjust the reference, the digital jitter of the The result is a CPU state that is less likely to occur. The result is high image quality on display, high print quality and high sound quality.

 

[Holzohr]

12 minutes ago, Miska said:

 

For security reasons SMB support in Linux defaults to vers=3

 

If needed, one can login and do "nano /etc/fstab" and edit/fix the corresponding mount line with needed options etc.

 

 

Yes, that's what I did after I found the solution via G****e. It seems my Synology NAS doesn't support version 3.

[Luca72c]

1 hour ago, Holzohr said:

 

This site hast helped me to add my NAS folder music to library. I guess it is the samba version thing and probably you must add vers=1.0

I think you're right: in facts, i got to some error message in terminal windows about SMB version. It seems my NAS still sticks to SMB v. 1.

Now, Jussi, there's a way to specify the need to use SMB v. 1 in HQP Embedded NetworkMount page?

Isn't it possible in Linux to permenently enable SMB v. 1 too, as we can do in Windows?

[Miska]

1 hour ago, Luca72c said:

Now, Jussi, there's a way to specify the need to use SMB v. 1 in HQP Embedded NetworkMount page?

 

Nope... You need to edit the file in question to add that version option.

 

1 hour ago, Luca72c said:

Isn't it possible in Linux to permenently enable SMB v. 1 too, as we can do in Windows?

 

It will stick in the configuration file once you put it there...

 

[Miska]

1 hour ago, Holzohr said:

Yes, that's what I did after I found the solution via G****e. It seems my Synology NAS doesn't support version 3.

 

Usually NAS devices run some form of Linux and thus Samba as SMB server on it. But it needs to be some really old version of Samba if it doesn't support v3. Due to the security reasons Samba defaults to v3 these days.

 

[Luca72c]

Ok, i now moved my music collection to a w10 PC in my lan, faster and more recent than my NAS. It supports SMBv3. 

When i mount the share in Embedded NetworkMount page, i get succes (terminal reports a warning about sSMBv1 the same, as in Embedded mount command no SMB version is specified). When i launch a scan on /smb, the page doesn't proceed to the 10 second wait, the library remains empty and browser circles start spinning as when updating. This "update" state is now at 1 hour and a half, so i think it doesn't work either. 

BUT: if i go to /smb in terminal, i can find all my network shared music directories. If i try to access them, i get something about autodisabling the use of server inode numbers, so hardlinks will not be recognized on this mount. Mounting with "noserverino" option suggested. 

I can go ahead anyway, but if i go deep inside directories at a certain level directories are listed but not accessible. 

Then, i clearly remember why I ABSOLUTELY HATE LINUX. Complications, ridicolous commands, incompatibilities, rigidity and inability to adapt to user's needs, problems at every corner... Why should someone loose this much time for a (maybe) 1% quality gain?

I connected my w10 hqpdesktop to a network mount and performed a full scan in maybe 5 minutes, now up and running without a single problem like all my windows software... Relax... 

I'm sure Embedded is a wonderful piece of software, but as long as it only runs on linux, it's a total no-go for me (and for many others, i guess). Listening to music is not my job, it's my hobby and it has to be a relaxing activity... 

[Miska]

26 minutes ago, Luca72c said:

When i launch a scan on /smb, the page doesn't proceed to the 10 second wait, the library remains empty and browser circles start spinning as when updating. This "update" state is now at 1 hour and a half, so i think it doesn't work either.

 

Sounds normal and proceeding, depending on amount of content it may take an hour or so.

 

29 minutes ago, Luca72c said:

Then, i clearly remember why I ABSOLUTELY HATE LINUX. Complications, ridicolous commands, incompatibilities, rigidity and inability to adapt to user's needs, problems at every corner...

 

I have exactly the same feeling about Windows... :D

 

[ted_b]

3 hours ago, Reg19 said:

Question: I am contemplating buying a new rig so I can run ASDM7EC / DSD256. But, before I do, I’d like to know if there is a tangible SQ difference between ASDM7 / DSD256 and ASDM7EC / DSD256.

Reg19, I presume the issues you are having is with PCM->DSD256.  That is heavy lifting (especially if redbook) so one way to compare is to grab a DSD64 source (cuz DSD64->DSD256 is not nearly as heavy lifting) and remodulate to DSD256 with ASDM7 vs ASDM7EC.  The differences will tell you something.  Or I can dropbox you a 24/352.8k PCM track and one that has been offline remodulated to DSD256 using ASDM7EC. 

[Holzohr]

1 hour ago, Miska said:

 

Usually NAS devices run some form of Linux and thus Samba as SMB server on it. But it needs to be some really old version of Samba if it doesn't support v3. Due to the security reasons Samba defaults to v3 these days.

 

 

I checked the Samba settings of my NAS and indeed I could change the Maximum SMB-Protocol from SMB2 to SMB3. Minimum SMB-Protocol is SMB1. So probably, I could remove vers=1.0 from fstab now but better I won't touch the running system. 🙂

[Luca72c]

55 minutes ago, Miska said:

 

I have exactly the same feeling about Windows... :D

 

 

It may be, but I started trying to make Embedded on linux access my files in any way this morning, now at late evening i'm still stuck...Did you have so much problems just connecting HQPlayer Desktop to a network share in windows?

I'm not a windows nerd, just a normal user, but it was a breeze... No need to mount, no input parameters, no complex syntax... Everything is visual, fast and easy. No incompatibilities with my NAS. Credentials are simply asked when needed. If functions succeed, they work.

But ok, we have to be reciprocally patient with different minds/points of view as they are with us.

Last try. Now i managed to move my music files in a hdd inside my Embedded machine, so no connections problems and ultra-slow scans anymore. But it's a NTFS drive.

There's a way to mount a NTFS drive at boot in HQPOS? The ntfs/ntfs-3g parameter is not recognized by mount command, as OS is at start...

[Miska]

27 minutes ago, Luca72c said:

Did you have so much problems just connecting HQPlayer Desktop to a network share in windows?

I'm not a windows nerd, just a normal user, but it was a breeze... No need to mount, no input parameters, no complex syntax...

 

Yes, because regularly Windows fails to recognize hostnames in the share path, like for example "\\porkkala\music" it says it cannot find "porkkala" and when I try to browse the network, it doesn't show any hosts. But sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. And since it doesn't give proper error or other information it remains mystery what the problem is.

 

Meanwhile on Linux (and on macOS) I never had such problems, and if there is problem there's usually a verbose error message too. And if nothing else, I can bore right into the source code of the component that is acting up and even fix it myself. Same applies for any other part of the OS as well, kernel and all.

 

By the way you can do the stuff through command line also on Windows through the "net" command. But it is not any clearer in syntax than equivalent Linux utilities. If you have graphical stuff, you don't have a headless system like HQPlayer Embedded, which on purpose doesn't have any graphical desktop. Of course you could also run HQPlayer Desktop on graphical Linux desktop and then you have graphical way of accessing the network shares too.

 

27 minutes ago, Luca72c said:

There's a way to mount a NTFS drive at boot in HQPOS? The ntfs/ntfs-3g parameter is not recognized by mount command, as OS is at start...

 

No, NTFS is Microsoft's proprietary filesystem and not supported. exFAT and FAT32 are and of course ext4 which is what most Linux systems use.