HQ Player

[AudioDoctor]

I've been listening to this album and one other while playing round with upsampling settings in HQP on my M1 mini and when upsampling to DSD128, because that's as high as my NAA will go, these are the settings I was able to get to and play smoothly.

 

Poly-sinc-ext2

ASDM7

 

 

 

[StreamFidelity]

Another topic because I'm just noticing:

 

24 minutes ago, AudioDoctor said:

What does the display in the HQP desktop mean in the bar below:

"Offload: resampler = disabled convolution = disabled"

 

For me it appears very briefly and then it is gone. Convolution is definitely activated audibly in my case.

[AudioDoctor]

5 minutes ago, StreamFidelity said:

Another topic because I'm just noticing:

 

What does the display in the HQP desktop mean in the bar below:

"Offload: resampler = disabled convolution = disabled"

 

For me it appears very briefly and then it is gone. Convolution is definitely activated audibly in my case.

 

I think it means that I am not offloading anything to an Nvidia GPU because the M1 mini does not have one, and I do not have convolution enabled either.

[Dexavator]

Hi Miska, I'm a big fan of HQP and I'd like to suggest one minor change. When converting from PCM to SDM I dont' have any problems with redbook or high res as I choose a lighter filter fot nx but, since my dac (as most dacs) can't reproduce 48k dsd, my 48khz files start skipping as 48-44 is much more demanding on the processor than same family conversions. My suggestion is: When you don't tick the 48k DSD box, the player could render 48khz files with the same filter as nx as oposed to the redbook one, if that makes sense.
Best Regards and keep the good work

Victor

[LoryWiv]

42 minutes ago, Dexavator said:

Hi Miska, I'm a big fan of HQP and I'd like to suggest one minor change. When converting from PCM to SDM I dont' have any problems with redbook or high res as I choose a lighter filter fot nx but, since my dac (as most dacs) can't reproduce 48k dsd, my 48khz files start skipping as 48-44 is much more demanding on the processor than same family conversions. My suggestion is: When you don't tick the 48k DSD box, the player could render 48khz files with the same filter as nx as oposed to the redbook one, if that makes sense.
Best Regards and keep the good work

Victor

In that scenario I just manually adjust DSD rate in client to a multiple of 48, and all runs smoothly...

[Dexavator]

31 minutes ago, LoryWiv said:

In that scenario I just manually adjust DSD rate in client to a multiple of 48, and all runs smoothly...

Thank you but its not an option if your dac doesn't support 48k rate DSD, and most dacs don't, only options are multiples of 44.1 (2.8224 or 5.6448) in my case.

[Miska]

19 hours ago, StreamFidelity said:

Another topic because I'm just noticing:

 

What does the display in the HQP desktop mean in the bar below:

"Offload: resampler = disabled convolution = disabled"

 

For me it appears very briefly and then it is gone. Convolution is definitely activated audibly in my case.

 

It means neither filters nor convolution is being offloaded to GPU.

 

In settings, you can choose to offload either both, or just convolution.

 

[DomiJi]

Can maybe someone give me a short advice if i should enable or disable the MQA Core Decoder in Roon for the best performance of the HQPlayer?

 

[StreamFidelity]

4 hours ago, DomiJi said:

Can maybe someone give me a short advice if i should enable or disable the MQA Core Decoder in Roon for the best performance of the HQPlayer?

 

In my opinion, anyone who uses Roon with the HQPlayer should deactivate the Roon DSP. This also applies to MQA. Otherwise Roon will decode the first level to 88.2 / 96kHz from a 44.1 / 48kHz file despite the deactivated DSP.

 

The HQPlayer algorithms are so much better.

[Dexavator]

4 hours ago, DomiJi said:

Can maybe someone give me a short advice if i should enable or disable the MQA Core Decoder in Roon for the best performance of the HQPlayer?

 

 

I'm not fond of MQA but MQA files are made to "sound best" when decoded so I would say yes, leave it on. AFAIK HQP can kinda process MQA but only files, not streams from Roon. If you listen to a lot of mqa files you can use the mqa filter in hqp also, that works after the decoding process.

[Miska]

4 hours ago, DomiJi said:

Can maybe someone give me a short advice if i should enable or disable the MQA Core Decoder in Roon for the best performance of the HQPlayer?

 

 

Let Roon decode MQA before passing it to HQPlayer. This gives technically best results.

 

[StreamFidelity]

1 hour ago, Miska said:

Let Roon decode MQA before passing it to HQPlayer. This gives technically best results.

 

MQA can only be decoded by software up to a maximum of 88.2 / 96kHz. With MQA 352.8kHz, for example, a large part is not decoded. Is that the best technical solution or is it better to play 44.1kHz lossless instead?

 

[The Computer Audiophile]

1 hour ago, StreamFidelity said:

 

MQA can only be decoded by software up to a maximum of 88.2 / 96kHz. With MQA 352.8kHz, for example, a large part is not decoded. Is that the best technical solution or is it better to play 44.1kHz lossless instead?

 

Everything mQa can decode is decoded there. All other stuff is just upsampling. If you sent this to an mQa renderer, it would upsample using one of the poor mQa filters. There is nothing left to decode. 
 

I stick with lossless rather than lossy mQa. 

[DomiJi]

Is it really posible to turn off every MQA related stuff in Roon?

 

When i deactivate the MQA core decoder and deactivate "Master Quality" Roon is still showing me "MQA Certified" in the Music Stream?

[LoryWiv]

20 hours ago, Dexavator said:

Thank you but its not an option if your dac doesn't support 48k rate DSD, and most dacs don't, only options are multiples of 44.1 (2.8224 or 5.6448) in my case.

Also select adaptive output rate,

[Miska]

3 hours ago, StreamFidelity said:

MQA can only be decoded by software up to a maximum of 88.2 / 96kHz. With MQA 352.8kHz, for example, a large part is not decoded. Is that the best technical solution or is it better to play 44.1kHz lossless instead?

 

MQA never contains anything more than 2x the base rate, thus at most 88.2 / 96 kHz worth. 352.8 kHz MQA has been converted to 88.2k and then folded into 44.1k container throwing away enough many bits to make the ultrasonic content fit in the LSBs. When it is decoded, it is unfolded back to 88.2k and then if DAC supports it, upsampled with one of MQA's 16 (poor) upsampling filters back to 352.8k.

 

MQA is never lossless, after the unfold it has less loss than in folded base rate form.

 

 

[semente]

What is an adequate or perhaps maximum advisable processing activity?

My Mac mini is at 78-80% when doing DSD256>ext3>ASDM5EC and a little EQ.

The DAC is connected over USB to a NAA.

[AudioDoctor]

2 hours ago, semente said:

What is an adequate or perhaps maximum advisable processing activity?

My Mac mini is at 78-80% when doing DSD256>ext3>ASDM5EC and a little EQ.

The DAC is connected over USB to a NAA.

 

Is it an M1 mini?

[semente]

8 minutes ago, AudioDoctor said:

 

Is it an M1 mini?

 

It's a 2018 i3.

[AudioDoctor]

18 minutes ago, semente said:

 

It's a 2018 i3.

 

In that case I have no idea, but it seems right.

[christoph]

15 hours ago, DomiJi said:

Is it really posible to turn off every MQA related stuff in Roon?

 

When i deactivate the MQA core decoder and deactivate "Master Quality" Roon is still showing me "MQA Certified" in the Music Stream?

I completely switched to Qobuz to avoid that MQA dreck from Tidal altogether 😉

[DomiJi]

8 minutes ago, christoph said:

I completely switched to Qobuz to avoid that MQA dreck from Tidal altogether 😉

I use both 😅👌🏻

[christoph]

4 hours ago, DomiJi said:

I use both 😅👌🏻

I did as well but roon almost always preferring Tidal made me sign out of Tidal for good

[GMG]

Would appreciate advice on preferred Linux settings when using Roon+HQPlayer embedded on same computer

What would be the preferred settings:

1. Dual core with multi thread enabled/disabled?

Or:

2. CPU c-state set to “no sleep”

 

as I understand both can’t be enabled together. 

would also appreciate understanding if core isolation/dedication is recommended or not. 
 

many thanks. 

[DomiJi]

4 hours ago, christoph said:

I did as well but roon almost always preferring Tidal made me sign out of Tidal for good

Did Roon simply switch to Qobuz Songs and are the Music recommendations as good as with Tidal (or Tidal+Qobuz)?

 

I have sometimes the feeling that the Roon recommendations are better with Roon and Tidal?!