HQPlayer4 EC modulator tips and techniques

[dminches]

What’s the minimum video card I should get for CUDA offload?  My processor is an i7-9700k. 

 

[dminches]

7 minutes ago, k6davis said:

 

Right, even with the NAA. I haven't quantified whether it was running through the Audiophile Optimizer again or not having Roon running on the same server, but when I went back to my normal configuration, there was an obvious improvement in the sound.

 

Is Roon doing much when you are just playing music?  I know it scans for new music periodically but that can be turned off.

 

[dminches]

1 hour ago, k6davis said:

 

 

You would think that it's not doing much, but sometimes there are significant spikes in the disk & CPU usage on my Roon server. 

 

Normally, my servers are optimized (with Windows Server + Audiophile Optimizer or HQP OS) and dedicated (only running 1 app). To perform my test (running both Roon & HQP on the same server), I temporarily lost both benefits. The music definitely sounded better when I went back to my normal configuration.

 

It may be that it was the optimization that made most of the difference, but after making the effort to minimize any unnecessary processes running in the background, I don't want to run a whole additional application to the foreground. My HQP Server is like an appliance. It has no keyboard or monitor attached. It only does one thing and I usually don't have to interact with it.

 

Like the man himself said:

 

 

Makes sense.

 

I am running Audiophile optimizer on both the room PC and the HQP PC.  I haven’t tried the HQP OS yet. Frankly, I am not sure what that is!

 

[dminches]

Now that I have gotten my new build to work with ASDM7EC -> 48k / 256DSD I now need to take a step back and understand what all these modulators and filters are/do.  Is there a guide to them or are people just doing trial and error to see what sounds best?

 

My build is:

 

ASUS PRIME Z390-A
Intel i7-9700k
Corsair 16GB Vengeance LPX DDR4 3200 MHz 
Cooler Master HAF 932 
CORSAIR AX series AX860 860W ATX12V 
Corsair Hydro Series, H100i PRO
 

No GPU yet but I may add one at some point.

[dminches]

3 hours ago, Miska said:

OK, I have a solution...

 

I have updated the image and now on my i7-8086K it works perfectly fine with Tidal source and poly-sinc-xtr + ASDM7EC to DSD256.

 

Please redownload!

 

Which poly-sinc-xtr?  LP or MP or?

 

[dminches]

For several weeks I have been able to convert everything to DSD256 using the "new" ASDM7EC.  Now I am getting stuttering.  I have gone down to DSD128 for now.  I added an RTX 2080 Super but that doesn't change things.

 

I have been running 4.1.0.1.  Maybe I should try 4.1.1.

 

 

[dminches]

2 hours ago, Miska said:

 

Would be good to try latest version...

 

Do you have CUDA becoming active? IOW, when you start playback, look at HQPlayer status bar and see if it says "Offload: resampler=enabled".

 

 

I will try the newest version.  I know a couple people had some issues with it so I was holding off.  I will start there and and check the resampler.

 

 

[dminches]

1 hour ago, asdf1000 said:

 

What CPU?

 

 i7-9700k

 

[dminches]

I upgraded to 4.1.1.  Resample = disabled.  The CUDA off-load box is filled.

 

[dminches]

16 minutes ago, Miska said:

 

It needs to be checked to offload both filters and convolution. If it's grayed, only convolution is offload.

 

If it doesn't become enabled, please check that you have latest Nvidia drivers installed:

https://www.geforce.com/drivers

 

 

Now it is working.  The GPU CPU utilization is about 65-70%.