PS's and audiophiles

[Bushikai]

Hello,

 

I have a question. What is more important to play the audiophiles, Processor or RAM? 

GHz vs. GB?

 

Bushikai.

 

[crenca]

9 minutes ago, Bushikai said:

Hello,

 

I have a question. What is more important to play the audiophiles, Processor or RAM? 

GHz vs. GB?

 

Bushikai.

 

 

Well it's both - and will vary depending on how exactly your playing your audio-files.  If your simply using a player software such as JRiver to output digitally (e.g. USB) to an external DAC, then not really that much of either - almost any computer that is not a complete $bottom feeder$ will do (or even a smart phone a few generations behind works well).  If you are using your computer to process the audio-files with DSP (such as HQPlayer, running a room correction package, etc.) then it will take a bit more but even here I suspect for most use-case scenario's most folks are going to have more than enough computer (both processor, RAM, storage, etc.)... 

[Solstice380]

2 hours ago, Bushikai said:

Hello,

 

I have a question. What is more important to play the audiophiles, Processor or RAM? 

GHz vs. GB?

 

Bushikai.

 

If you are not doing sample rate conversion almost any computer that will run your player software is OK.  If you are upsampling GHz matters more.  Just make sure you have enough RAM to hold your playlist if your player loads the files to memory for playing.  

[Bushikai]

Thank you guys for the Info.

 

[Allan F]

On 4/10/2017 at 9:06 AM, crenca said:

 

If you are using your computer to process the audio-files with DSP (such as HQPlayer, running a room correction package, etc.) then it will take a bit more but even here I suspect for most use-case scenario's most folks are going to have more than enough computer (both processor, RAM, storage, etc.)... 

Not according to most people who have reported using HQPlayer, particularly if upsampling to DSD256 or DSD512. Most indicate that at least an intel i5 processor, if not an i7 is required, especially if combined with DSP.

[crenca]

1 hour ago, Allan F said:

Not according to most people who have reported using HQPlayer, particularly if upsampling to DSD256 or DSD512. Most indicate that at least an intel i5 processor, if not an i7 is required, especially if combined with DSP.

 

Right now I am typing on an all-in-one (basically a laptop architecture) with an I7 6700T 2.8 Ghz.  Using Windows built in processor management, I limit the frequency to 80%, which means the processor tops out at 2.19 Ghz (this so that the fan stays in a slow and quite state).  Now it is a 4 core processor, but HQPlayer upsampling 16/44 and higher PCM to DSD256 still only uses about 20% of the cycles, leaving me plenty to surf web, etc.

 

Still, you may be right in that many folks are saddled with decade old processors...

[Allan F]

2 hours ago, crenca said:

 

Right now I am typing on an all-in-one (basically a laptop architecture) with an I7 6700T 2.8 Ghz.  Using Windows built in processor management, I limit the frequency to 80%, which means the processor tops out at 2.19 Ghz (this so that the fan stays in a slow and quite state).  Now it is a 4 core processor, but HQPlayer upsampling 16/44 and higher PCM to DSD256 still only uses about 20% of the cycles, leaving me plenty to surf web, etc.

 

Still, you may be right in that many folks are saddled with decade old processors...

It seems like we are talking at cross purposes. If you read what I posted, I don't get your point given that you have an intel i7. Most folks are running JRiver or similar music players and don't have an i7 based music server or an i5 for that matter. HQPlayer requires considerably more computing power, not to mention DSP.

[mansr]

8 hours ago, Allan F said:

It seems like we are talking at cross purposes. If you read what I posted, I don't get your point given that you have an intel i7. Most folks are running JRiver or similar music players and don't have an i7 based music server or an i5 for that matter. HQPlayer requires considerably more computing power, not to mention DSP.

There's a huge difference in performance between early and current i7 CPUs and also between the variants within a generation. You have to be more specific when discussing requirements and capabilities.

[Jud]

RAM is also nice to have if you are using a "memory player" like Audirvana Plus or XXHighEnd.  And it's usually pretty inexpensive (relatively speaking for computer components) these days.

[GUTB]

12 hours ago, crenca said:

 

Right now I am typing on an all-in-one (basically a laptop architecture) with an I7 6700T 2.8 Ghz.  Using Windows built in processor management, I limit the frequency to 80%, which means the processor tops out at 2.19 Ghz (this so that the fan stays in a slow and quite state).  Now it is a 4 core processor, but HQPlayer upsampling 16/44 and higher PCM to DSD256 still only uses about 20% of the cycles, leaving me plenty to surf web, etc.

 

Still, you may be right in that many folks are saddled with decade old processors...

 

You should be honest and say that you aren't using poly-since.

[crenca]

4 hours ago, GUTB said:

 

You should be honest and say that you aren't using poly-since.

 

 

Not sure I follow.  I normally (when not experimenting) use:  poly-sinc-short-mp, ASDM7, 11289600, SDM(DSD)

 

Is this the "easy" load?

[crenca]

6 hours ago, mansr said:

There's a huge difference in performance between early and current i7 CPUs and also between the variants within a generation. You have to be more specific when discussing requirements and capabilities.

 

If I am not mistaken, the I7 6700T in my machine is Gen 6 (Intel is up to Gen 7 now I believe).  It is certainly a higher performance model.  With my background in IT, I do build/purchase machines with an emphasis on processor/RAM and skimp on other features - and I did this before I ever got into "computer audiophile" because these two things extend the usefulness and useful life of the machine more than anything else.  

 

When I was shopping for an all-in-one (for other reasons outside of audio) I chose this particular HP model because it was the only one I found with a CPU that was not hamstrung.  IIRC, I spent about $1600 on it which is not really that much given the specs and the premium you pay for the large touch screen/form factor.

 

Perhaps I have assumed too much - are folks regularly trying to build/purchase machines for HQPlayer using budget CPU's, etc.?

 

[GUTB]

15 minutes ago, crenca said:

 

 

Not sure I follow.  I normally (when not experimenting) use:  poly-sinc-short-mp, ASDM7, 11289600, SDM(DSD)

 

Is this the "easy" load?

 

Sorry, for some reason I thought you said you could get DSD512 with that CPU.

[crenca]

Just now, GUTB said:

 

Sorry, for some reason I thought you said you could get DSD512 with that CPU.

 

I don't have a DAC that can do DSD512.  I will say, that the difference on my CPU load between DSD128 & DSD256 is hard to detect (or perhaps I have not tried hard enough).  Is there a nonlinear increase/jump when going from DSD 256 to DSD512?

 

[GUTB]

5 minutes ago, crenca said:

 

I don't have a DAC that can do DSD512.  I will say, that the difference on my CPU load between DSD128 & DSD256 is hard to detect (or perhaps I have not tried hard enough).  Is there a nonlinear increase/jump when going from DSD 256 to DSD512?

 

 

There is a huge jump. On my I7-7700K, the load jumps from 20% to 33%, and frequency goes from under 3Ghz to 4Ghz. That's close to the max before HQPlayer starts stuttering / slowing down (around 40%, 4.2GHz).

 

Actually I'm looking at poly-sinc-short-mp going into 512 right now...CPU usage jumps around a lot...28-45%, 3.4 - 4.1Ghz.

[crenca]

4 minutes ago, GUTB said:

 

There is a huge jump. On my I7-7700K, the load jumps from 20% to 33%, and frequency goes from under 3Ghz to 4Ghz. That's close to the max before HQPlayer starts stuttering / slowing down (around 40%, 4.2GHz).

 

Actually I'm looking at poly-sinc-short-mp going into 512 right now...CPU usage jumps around a lot...28-45%, 3.4 - 4.1Ghz.

 

Thanks, tis very interesting.  Not sure about your software setup/tweaking - is it the HQPlayer.exe process itself that is "jumping"?