HQ Player

[LoryWiv]

16 hours ago, Miska said:

 

I'd recommend to stick with the Mx version instead, since it scales to different lengths depending on conversion ratio.

 

Sinc-Mx seems to utilize and tie up much more memory more than Sinc-M, not sure why but I tend to stay with Sinc-M for that reason.

[semente]

21 hours ago, Miska said:

Please note that selecting more files for the same pipeline appends those to the process, so if you make changes, pay attention to what is on the "Process" line.

 

Is there a way to clear the pipeline?

 

I accidentaly summed two different EQ files and then had to do a complete "Clear data" reset.

[Miska]

16 minutes ago, semente said:

Is there a way to clear the pipeline?

 

You just double-click the cell and edit the text. It works just like regular spreadsheet.

 

[pis99]

8 hours ago, Ozan Bolat said:

your M1 runs smoothly 256 7EC Sinc L ? mine doesn't

No, only 256 5EC/Sinc L is possible on M1. 

[Carlos269]

On 10/1/2021 at 7:51 AM, Miska said:

I also like these, but depending on music genre I tend to go for different filters. Like multi-track mixed studio production vs live recording in a real acoustic space with minimal mics. So far, ext2 and gauss-long have been best all-rounders.

 

Jussi,

I have been so satisfied with the 7EC modulator + EXT2 filter combo that I had not done any experimentation with any of the other filters or modulators recently. Then last night I saw your above statement and I decided to give the Sinc-Gauss-Long filter a listen and WOW!!!! I now have a new filter. Beautiful space and presence without loss of details. I did find one song where the female singer’s voice sounded wider than natural but that was the only exception during a 4 hour listening session. There is no going back. Thank you, for again pointing me in the right direction. I’m transcoding all files to DSD256 x 48 with the 7EC modulator now with the Sinc-Gauss-Long filter. Simply awesome!

 

Can you provide any insight on the upcoming ASDM7ECv2 modulator and what we can expect from it, sonically, compared to the current ASDM7EC modulator?

[xllms]

I have read much positive feedbacks on HQplayer and I am curious to try this software on my system. However, I am using a late-2012 MacMini on MacOS 10.15.7 which the latest HQplayer 4.13.1 cannot be used. Could someone kindly advise which version of HQplayer should I use and where can I find it as I have searched in google and have yet to find anything? 

In addition, is the late MacMini (2.3GHz Quad-Core i7 + 16GB Ram) sufficient to run HQplayer adequately? 

 

[Miska]

4 hours ago, Carlos269 said:

Can you provide any insight on the upcoming ASDM7ECv2 modulator and what we can expect from it, sonically, compared to the current ASDM7EC modulator?

 

Objectively, in my opinion it is just minor tuning. But subjectively there's maybe slightly (even) more clarity and detail. But I'm happy to hear what people think.

 

[Miska]

50 minutes ago, xllms said:

I have read much positive feedbacks on HQplayer and I am curious to try this software on my system. However, I am using a late-2012 MacMini on MacOS 10.15.7 which the latest HQplayer 4.13.1 cannot be used.

 

Why it cannot be used? At the moment I'm setting compatibility level to 10.14. Although oldest version I've tested it on is Catalina, as my old i5 iMac is on 10.15. Did you download the x64 binary? As there's also arm64 binary for the M1 hardware.

 

50 minutes ago, xllms said:

In addition, is the late MacMini (2.3GHz Quad-Core i7 + 16GB Ram) sufficient to run HQplayer adequately? 

 

It depends a lot on what you'd like to do with HQPlayer.

 

[xllms]

1 hour ago, Miska said:

 

Why it cannot be used? At the moment I'm setting compatibility level to 10.14. Although oldest version I've tested it on is Catalina, as my old i5 iMac is on 10.15. Did you download the x64 binary? As there's also arm64 binary for the M1 hardware.

 

 

It depends a lot on what you'd like to do with HQPlayer.

 

When I click onto the downloaded file, macOS states the following “You can’t use this version of the application “HQPlayer4Desktop” with this version of macOS. You have macOS 10.15.7. The application requires macOS 11.0 or later.”

 

I would like to test out the sound quality difference of HQPlayer in my current system.

[GMG]

4 hours ago, Miska said:

 

Objectively, in my opinion it is just minor tuning. But subjectively there's maybe slightly (even) more clarity and detail. But I'm happy to hear what people think.

 

Is there any source material that can help in understanding the principals of the various filters and help understanding their effect on the sound? 
the short explanation of each filter in the user manual is a brief detail of the filters method but to me it doesn’t explain what I should expect from the filter. For example I understand that a Sinc filter applies a Sinc function and that a poly gauss applies a gauss type poly function but how each one changes the sound is not implied from this. Is it only explained by listening or is there also some verbal justification (pros/cons, effects) that can be described somehow?

[Ozan Bolat]

51 minutes ago, GMG said:

Is there any source material that can help in understanding the principals of the various filters and help understanding their effect on the sound? 
the short explanation of each filter in the user manual is a brief detail of the filters method but to me it doesn’t explain what I should expect from the filter. For example I understand that a Sinc filter applies a Sinc function and that a poly gauss applies a gauss type poly function but how each one changes the sound is not implied from this. Is it only explained by listening or is there also some verbal justification (pros/cons, effects) that can be described somehow?

here is a pretty interesting effort : https://audiobacon.net/2021/03/17/hqplayer-better-than-a-5000-upscaler/4/ but maybe the rule is that there's no rule. I reassessed PCM @ 1536 recently, loved it while I dismissed it, had in mind that maybe DSD would keep an edge for clarity for classical recordings with many space cues. But last night I went to bed leaving the computer playing overnight the difficult 24/96 The National's Humiliation track I had been evaluating with PCM vs SDM. Woke up, recognised SDM immediately : weight and authority apply very well to describe why SDM is better with that track (and my whole body feels the bass impact much more) but for all the other tracks I evaluated yesterday evening PCM was a better match. Now going into filters, it's even more case by case...

[StreamFidelity]

1 hour ago, Ozan Bolat said:

here is a pretty interesting effort : https://audiobacon.net/2021/03/17/hqplayer-better-than-a-5000-upscaler/4/ but maybe the rule is that there's no rule.

 

Thank you for the interesting link. Unfortunately, the reviewer did not get DSD to work with ASDM7EC with a "5,000 $ PC". 😂

 

He could have got the necessary knowledge (for example a minimum CPU clock frequency of 4GHz, activated hyperthreading, etc.) from here, for example.

 

Perhaps then his opinion would have been different. 😉

[Ozan Bolat]

1 minute ago, StreamFidelity said:

 

Thank you for the interesting link. Unfortunately, the reviewer did not get DSD to work with ASDM7EC with a "5,000 $ PC". 😂

 

He could have got the necessary knowledge (for example a minimum CPU clock frequency of 4GHz, activated hyperthreading, etc.) from here, for example.

 

Perhaps then his opinion would have been different. 😉

correct, and if I recall correctly there was at least another caveat such as the embedding of HQP in Roon. However, his effort to describe what filters do is not bad at all. since then, Jussi offered gauss-long which should be on any short list of filters to try

[Ozan Bolat]

for help or added confusion, here are my settings and my intent for the time being is to give a quick try to PCM and SDM for each album before I actually listen.

I have apodizing filters for 1x and non apodizing for Nx, and they are "best of breed" for PCM and SDM options but different for disappointingly the Mini M1 can NOT do Mx or L @256 7EC + convo

the snappier NS9 is more to my taste than LNS15 at the moment, coming from 100% SDM (DSD) listening sessions

[Ozan Bolat]

@Miska BTW it would be very handy to have a -6 dB option to check for the PCM defaults : just imagine a list of tracks mixing DSD and PCM sources and the output mode being "source"...

[Confused]

In the Convolution GUI, what does an IR gain of "nan dB" mean?

 

 

I am hoping this is a easy one and not an error of some kind!

[fas42]

"nan" means Not A Number - somewhere, a value was entered, or a calculation performed which produced a non-numerical result - which the display can't format, expecting a number here. So, yes, an error ...

 

Does restarting the software make the problem go away?

[Miska]

8 hours ago, xllms said:

When I click onto the downloaded file, macOS states the following “You can’t use this version of the application “HQPlayer4Desktop” with this version of macOS. You have macOS 10.15.7. The application requires macOS 11.0 or later.”

 

I would like to test out the sound quality difference of HQPlayer in my current system.

 

Is it the one that has "x64" in the name, not "arm64"? As the code for M1 requires macOS 11, but the Intel CPU one doesn't.

 

[Miska]

6 hours ago, GMG said:

Is it only explained by listening or is there also some verbal justification (pros/cons, effects) that can be described somehow?

 

I've been trying to not load a lot of subjective pre-expectations on how each filter sounds. I have my very technical design goals and I also have my personal view on how each filter sounds. I'll think about what I could add there to help...

 

[Miska]

2 hours ago, Ozan Bolat said:

@Miska BTW it would be very handy to have a -6 dB option to check for the PCM defaults : just imagine a list of tracks mixing DSD and PCM sources and the output mode being "source"...

 

It is just not universal, but instead depends on a DAC. Holo Audio has the 6 dB difference due to being very direct implementation. But for example ESS DAC chips apply 6 dB gain to DSD so both formats are level matched. While AKM chips have DSD level -3.5 dB compared to PCM. For TI/BB chips the level difference depends on the selected DSD conversion configuration (4 options).

 

[Miska]

2 hours ago, Confused said:

In the Convolution GUI, what does an IR gain of "nan dB" mean?

 

 

I am hoping this is a easy one and not an error of some kind!

 

It is just failure in estimating the filter gain. For example if it is close to 0 dB you may get "nan" as result if the result is denormal.

 

[Ozan Bolat]

11 minutes ago, Miska said:

 

It is just not universal, but instead depends on a DAC. Holo Audio has the 6 dB difference due to being very direct implementation. But for example ESS DAC chips apply 6 dB gain to DSD so both formats are level matched. While AKM chips have DSD level -3.5 dB compared to PCM. For TI/BB chips the level difference depends on the selected DSD conversion configuration (4 options).

 

then it could be less specific : check box + enter a variable value

[Miska]

12 minutes ago, Ozan Bolat said:

then it could be less specific : check box + enter a variable value

 

I'll think about it, I try to keep number of settings low because many people tell that HQPlayer already has very complex settings.

 

[Ozan Bolat]

9 hours ago, Miska said:

 

I'll think about it, I try to keep number of settings low because many people tell that HQPlayer already has very complex settings.

 

thank you. But if nobody else vouches the idea I can live as is

[xllms]

12 hours ago, Miska said:

 

Is it the one that has "x64" in the name, not "arm64"? As the code for M1 requires macOS 11, but the Intel CPU one doesn't.

 

thank you @Miska I have clicked onto the incorrect file to download.