Hqplayer: best NAA with best sound quality

[lsantista]

btw, I did not get the SotM as an upgrade, it was inteded to be used on my second setup, that is without a streamer since I sold my optical rendu several months ago to help fund other stuff. since the USB and ethernet connectors orientation is opposite to the ones found in the rendu, a direct comparisson unfortunately takes quite some effort - come on, we are talking stupid audiophile cables, the kind that is stiff enough so as to take minutes to "bend" the cables to fit on different orientations without ruining anything. Funny enough, the only cable with bad contact issues, as mentioned above, is the orientationless DC cable..

so , can't yet say which streamer is better. but I tend to think they are surprisingly different (i honetly thought I wouldnt notice any difference at all).

 

 

 

[Lukasluis]

On 4/9/2023 at 9:03 AM, Miska said:

Or running Gustard A26 in DSD Direct mode at DSD512 from Holo Red (running NAA OS).

 

 

Hi @Miska I plan to boot the Holo Red using the NAA OS. Does the OS support Native 1024 DSD to a HOLO MAY using I2S?

[Miska]

20 minutes ago, Lukasluis said:

Hi @Miska I plan to boot the Holo Red using the NAA OS. Does the OS support Native 1024 DSD to a HOLO MAY using I2S?

 

No, the I2S interface in Red supports up to DSD512. With USB connection to Spring/May DSD1024 works though. I don't see a reason to use I2S either.

 

[VRS]

23 hours ago, Miska said:

 

No, the I2S interface in Red supports up to DSD512. With USB connection to Spring/May DSD1024 works though. I don't see a reason to use I2S either.

 

Hi @Miska. Thanks for this. In May’s manual, it was mentioned that it can theoretically go up to DSD2048. Can you advise how can this be achieved through HQPlayer?  

[Miska]

2 hours ago, VRS said:

Hi @Miska. Thanks for this. In May’s manual, it was mentioned that it can theoretically go up to DSD2048. Can you advise how can this be achieved through HQPlayer?  

 

HQPlayer also supports DSD2048. Just suitable output hardware is missing...

 

[creativepart]

On 8/14/2023 at 8:19 PM, lsantista said:

so , can't yet say which streamer is better. but I tend to think they are surprisingly different (i honetly thought I wouldn't notice any difference at all).

There are very few comparisons between the two company's devices on the internet. I saw one where someone replaced the SMS200 Ultra with an OptoRendu and said the latter was vastly better. But no other details. It would be great if you could detail differences in SQ with each.

 

I've had the SMS200 Ultra for 4 or 5 years and I've always been curious about the Rendu products in comparison.

[VRS]

On 9/12/2023 at 8:13 PM, Miska said:

 

No, the I2S interface in Red supports up to DSD512. With USB connection to Spring/May DSD1024 works though. I don't see a reason to use I2S either.

 

 

On 9/13/2023 at 10:04 PM, Miska said:

 

HQPlayer also supports DSD2048. Just suitable output hardware is missing...

 

Thanks @Miska. When setting up an audio core like audiolinux with HQPlayer 5, would having multiple GPUs help in the computing load of more sophisticated modulators like asdm7EC 512+fs super at DSD1024? If not, can you kindly share some hardware recommendations to cope with computing requirements pls?

[AudioDoctor]

I am still waiting to see who will be the first to buy an Ada generation Nvidia A6000 to run HQPlayer.

[Miska]

5 hours ago, VRS said:

Thanks @Miska. When setting up an audio core like audiolinux with HQPlayer 5, would having multiple GPUs help in the computing load of more sophisticated modulators like asdm7EC 512+fs super at DSD1024? If not, can you kindly share some hardware recommendations to cope with computing requirements pls?

 

Yes, if such works on audiolinux, I don't know.

 

I think most doing such have something like i9-13900K plus RTX4080 or RTX4090. Putting focus on enough cooling for the CPU is also pretty critical for the performance.

 

[lsantista]

I hear you. My 13900k + 3070Ti with an ok air cooler has been a big disappointment, performing basically the same as my 11600k + 1030 fanless card

[Mops911]

3 hours ago, lsantista said:

an ok air cooler has been a big disappointment

 

Like driving a Porsche Turbo with thin tires .... thermal throttling kicks in rather early, if you wanna feel the horsepower, get a decent AIO cooler. 

I am doing the opposite: all passive cooled for DSD256 with super modulator and poly-sinc-shrt-mp on 15w reduced i9-12900KS resp a i9-13900T and the NAA is in both system a J6412 celeron on 4.5w (all running Server2019 core with a couple of tweaks). 

 

 

[Miska]

7 hours ago, lsantista said:

I hear you. My 13900k + 3070Ti with an ok air cooler has been a big disappointment, performing basically the same as my 11600k + 1030 fanless card

 

With CUDA offload active, there is pretty big difference between those cards though...

 

What have you been trying to do with these?

 

I have 12900K with Noctua NH-D15 air cooler and it is not performance limited by that cooler. But it will need such a big cooler, otherwise it will easily get into thermal throttling.

 

[Miska]

3 hours ago, Mops911 said:

I am doing the opposite: all passive cooled for DSD256 with super modulator and poly-sinc-shrt-mp on 15w reduced i9-12900KS resp a i9-13900T and the NAA is in both system a J6412 celeron on 4.5w (all running Server2019 core with a couple of tweaks). 

 

I have i9-13900T with active air cooler plus RTX2080, doing DSD512. The CPU can do DSD512 also without the GPU just fine. With GPU it is very close to being able to do DSD1024 (with EC-light). Using very fast G.Skill Trident Z5 DDR5-6400 CL32 RAM.

 

Machine is built into Fractal Design Ridge case.

[Rovo]

BeQuiet Dark Rock Pro 4 is also enough to keep an i9-10900K under control

[Miska]

56 minutes ago, Rovo said:

BeQuiet Dark Rock Pro 4 is also enough to keep an i9-10900K under control

 

Yes, that's a good one too. I have such on my 5800X AMD machine.

 

[blueninjasix]

Raspberry Pi 5 announced today with new OS from mid-October, requiring 5v / 5amp power supply. Any advantage in this over a Pi4?

[stefano_mbp]

23 minutes ago, blueninjasix said:

Any advantage in this over a Pi4?

… as it has been announced just now I don’t think anyone can say something about it … just check the specs and see what is different from pi4

[Miska]

3 hours ago, blueninjasix said:

Raspberry Pi 5 announced today with new OS from mid-October, requiring 5v / 5amp power supply. Any advantage in this over a Pi4?

 

Looking at the specs, it seems like it could become much more feasible for running full HQPlayer Embedded. Both increased CPU performance and almost double memory bandwidth. If it manages to squeeze DSD256 with ASDM7EC-light, it would be perfect. But I'm not sure if it can reach that far.

 

Certainly needs even more focus on cooling than RPi4.

 

[Zauurx]

1 hour ago, Miska said:

 

... If it manages to squeeze DSD256 with ASDM7EC-light, it would be perfect. But I'm not sure if it can reach that far...

 

 

We can dream of the perfect HQP server... with a big radiator and a 5v PSU 🙃

[Miska]

31 minutes ago, Zauurx said:

We can dream of the perfect HQP server... with a big radiator and a 5v PSU 🙃

 

This is maybe getting close, but 12V PSU:

https://up-board.org/up-squared-pro-7000/?ADLNSystem

 

First series of those low power SoC's with AVX2 support.

 

[Zauurx]

Interesting indeed. Do you plan to test it ?...

I already have the PSU. 😉

[Mops911]

5 hours ago, Miska said:

low power SoC's with AVX2 support.

Interesting, the N97 and X7425E have 4 cores @3.4 and 3.6GHz. Seems tight from a armchair quarterback perspective to do DSD256 with EC7. But the 8 core i3-N305 with 3.8GHz and 15w seems promising ;-) 
As said I run my i9-12KS and i9-13T at 15w with EC7-super and shrt-mp.

 

The issue, at least for me is, that the i226-IT does not support Server2019 well. And the heatsink might be to optimistic ;-)

  

[skipspence]

On 9/15/2023 at 9:28 AM, Miska said:

have i9-13900T with active air cooler plus RTX2080, doing DSD512. The CPU can do DSD512 also without the GPU just fine.

Can you please specify filters and modulators which can go flawless with your 13900T doing DSD512 w/o GPU? 

[skipspence]

Has anyone tried the so called i9-13900T ES QOPV which is not official version and sells pretty cheap on eBay like platforms now? 

I wonder if it makes any sence or is it just a fake ware and doesn't hold up with specification of real CPU? 

[Miska]

1 hour ago, skipspence said:

Can you please specify filters and modulators which can go flawless with your 13900T doing DSD512 w/o GPU? 

 

I mostly use the default values:

1x = poly-sinc-gauss-long

Nx = poly-sinc-gauss-hires-lp

Modulator = ASDM7EC-super 512+fs

 

I believe the RAM choice also helped the results.

 

Assuming linear scaling, it is very close to be able to do DSD1024 as well (with GPU help).