HQ Player

[Luca72c]

32 minutes ago, woshifeng3627 said:

 

Mmm, if I don't turn on DSD direct mode, my A26 can still work at DSD512 speed and support 48K DSD upscaling. However, this won't bypass the built-in modulator, and the sound is not as clean as the DSD256 in DSD direct mode, which is a noticeable difference. It seems that there is no need to consider changing the DAC for now, just continue listening. Besides, my computer is now upscaling DSD256 easily, so I will wait for AKM to release a new chip before making a decision, I personally really like the sound characteristics of AKM chips, especially in terms of vocal performance, which is much better than ESS chips. My previous DAC was X26PRO, which used two ES9038PROs. However, if I mainly listen to classical music, ES chips are a good choice, but unfortunately I don't listen to classical music! I have also heard of R26, and after listening for a day, I returned it and replaced it with A26. Now A26 has been listening to it for over a year, and it's not bad!

 

Please consider that there are many factors playing an important role in sound/timbre/frequencies rendition in a dac, i found that dac chip has a not so relevant role compared to - say - output stage, analog reconstruction/bass pass filters and even power suppliy. So you can't compare two dac chips only by listening to a pair of implementations. 

I had 2 diy dacs with similar psus and very similar output stage but different dacs chips, one akm 4493 and one ess 9038pro.

Believe me, the difference was very difficult to hear, even with the akm running dsd direct mode. And with correctly implemented analog reconstruction filter in ess dac, the latter was surely not worse than the other

[Luca72c]

1 hour ago, woshifeng3627 said:

Everyone has different preferences, some people like AKM, while others like ESS. There is no absolute thing.

 

Yes, of course. What i wanted to say is that in the sound you hear from a dac, in my experience you are hearing much more the effect of output stage and other implementation characteristics (master clock, fifo/reclock, analog filters, psu, input signal management, etc...) than the dac chip itself: i heard ess 9038 dac implementations sounding totally different, you wouldn't say it was the same dac chip. The same for akm chips, maybe in some slightly minor extent. 

But i think that if you are looking for good dsd direct dacs, there is much more than ess and akm sigma delta chips. T&A, Holo, DSC and others all offer very good dsd reproduction, better than akm and ess chips imho, as they use specialized hardware for that

[Luca72c]

3 hours ago, woshifeng3627 said:

 

The only R2R DAC I listened to was R26, but I didn't like the sound of R2R. At that time, I didn't use HQplayer, but only used Foobar to play DSD. After only listening for a day, I withdrew it and switched to the current A26. I don't know how the R2R DAC sounds from other companies, so far I still prefer AKM more. Perhaps in the future, I will have the opportunity to buy a HOLO Spring 3-L3, but I need to save money, haha! There are not many HOLO decoders to choose from in the second-hand market, which is a bit unusual.

 

Usually R2R dacs have a separate converter for dsd, so the dsd sound signature of those dacs has nothing to do with "R2R sound'" (that cannot be judged by listening to a single, cheap  R2R dac, of course) and obviously can be very different from a R2R dac to another

[Luca72c]

4 minutes ago, dericchan1 said:

I know it sounds crazy, but I have a feeling using ALSA actually sounds better than using Wasapi driver.

That may also explain partially why when I run Windows HQP desktop USB directly to a DAC without NAA, it sounded worse compared to when Windows HQP desktop lan to NAA USB to a dac... (in this case, no windows driver is involved)

 

Not sure if anyone share my observation as well?

 

Cheers

 

Is your windows dac driver asio or wasapi? 

There is more than simple driver reasons why naa output should sound better than direct usb connection... 

[Luca72c]

43 minutes ago, woshifeng3627 said:

 

Even if I reset to 1V42 and restart HQP, I still cannot find A26

 

If you have a spare ethernet switch, you could try to connect both hqp and A26 to that same switch (connected to the dhcp server device) 

[Luca72c]

3 hours ago, woshifeng3627 said:

I moved A26 to the side of the optical modem and directly plugged the A26 network cable into the output network port of the optical modem. The other output network port of the optical modem is my room computer, and there is no extra connection, but HQP still cannot find A26. The WIFI router next to it can be ignored because I plugged the network cable connecting it into A26.

 

And I can see the A26 bridge device in my computer network.

 

Ok, that's not what i suggested to do. I once had a similar experience: HQP PC and NAA both directly connected to my modem/router (DHCP server), the HQP PC was unable to see the NAA, no matter what i tried. A friend suggested to directly connect ONLY a switch to the router, than to connect both HQP PC and NAA ONLY to the switch. I did that and it worked perfectly.

I don't know if yours can be the same case (i actually don't understand clearly where your DHCP server is), but if you have a spare ethernet switch (or you can borrow one), why not try this free trick? If it works, you can purchase a better gigabit switch with flow control and good reliability... If it doesn't work, it's just another failed attempt

[Luca72c]

4 hours ago, dericchan1 said:

Again that’s just that a few of you’s preferences  on some of the features from other apps over the client app. I am not disagreeing but I can totally see other ppl may actually prefer the client app’s simplicity, rock solid and snappy…

 

To be honest, i agree with Miska and Dericchan: i tried using Roon and many others players and frequently i was disturbed by a confusing interface that is including too much infos and graphics elements i'm not interested in, using a logic too different from my own. 

I like very much hqp client simplicity and focus on versatility, without too many frills, going straight to let me play what i need, keeping sorces and infos under complete control. Obviously it can't grant full access to all Qobuz functionalities (being a third party player), but that's not a problem as i can do my more complicated searches on Qobuz app and then move to hqp clent for max quality reproduction.

I like it much more than Roon gui, but i can understand that others may have different needs so we are here to help Miska make his products always better - of course he needs some more clear indication of what's needed. 

Loopback possibilities are very welcome and i have no problem in using it even without automatic frequency change, not a great problem for me