HQplayer 4 and Mac-mini M1

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Jussi,  Quick question: When I start-up HQP on my Mini M1, I get a message that network QoS if unavailable. It disappears after 3 or 4 seconds. Is this normal behavior or is something amiss? I don't seem to be having any playback issues but I just wanted to be sure.

 

Thanks in advance.

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7 minutes ago, THX said:

Hi,

today my m1 Mac mini M1 arrived but.....don t work with ROON + HQPLAYER 4140 arm64!!!!

No sound!

I have monterey 12.0.1 installed on it...is it the problem???

My Mini M1 works with Monterey 12.0.1 so there must be a configuration problem.

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8 minutes ago, MikePid said:

@miska

does output buffer time have any effect on Mac to HQP NAA?  If so, is there a recommended value, and is there a downside to a value higher than needed?

I am using the 250ms setting on My Mini M1. I would get an occasional drop-out when using the 100ms setting when HQP was processing hi-res (nx) streaming from Qobuz. Using 250ms I no have this problem. On the M1 buffer setting is more likely to be a problem on the low end whereas on Windows it is the opposite.

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1 hour ago, AudioDoctor said:

 

yes

 

 

yes, it has to remain there...

 

ahhh... no...

 

 

Yes, the N in NAA literally is NETWORK. it HAS to be connected to the same network your HQP is on.

Doc, Are you still aviating or are you back to medicating or just hanging around here agitating and sometimes agrivating? 😀

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10 minutes ago, AudioDoctor said:

 

ha. still (barely) aviating. Covid has really put a damper on traveling for business and pleasure.

Being a corporate pilot is a fickle undertaking. I was one once for some years before I gave it up when the large oil company that owned a large store chain (neither of which exist anymore) that I flew for laid me off. I went into the insurance side of aviation and had your area as my stomping grounds for many years. Long story and if we ever met we would have a lot to talk about.

 

Have a very happy holiday season and stay safe.

 

Bob

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1 hour ago, musicjunkie917 said:

 

So a $699 Mac mini (256GB storage, 8GB RAM) can run the Roon Core and HQplayer Desktop all while upsampling PCM 44.1 and DSD to DSD256/ASDMEC7v2/poly-sinc-gaus-xla? Have you tried upsampling 24/192 to DSD256/ASDMEC7v2/poly-sinc-gaus-xla?

I cannot get PS Gauss XLA on my MMM1, but I can get PS Gauss Long with all formats going to DSD256/ASDM7EC.

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3 minutes ago, creativepart said:

I'm new to HQP and installed an evaluation copy to my M1 iMac this past week and then bought a license on day two. When I downloaded HQP is saw an ARM64 version in the download list, but I was unsure about which download was right for my iMac. Now, I'm starting to think I downloaded the wrong version.

 

Should I uninstall my current MacOS 64bit version and then download and install the ARM64 version? And will I be able to just reapply the license from the other version to the ARM version?

The ARM64 version is the correct one for the M1 chip Mac. You should be able to move the the MacOS 64 version (which is for the Intel chip versions of the Mac) to Trash and re-load the correct one. You may not even need to re-apply the license. I made the same mistake and I don't remember that I had to re-apply the license but I can't remember for certain. As a precaution, put a copy of the license file into your iCloud account so that it is not just on your computer and store it on your computer in a place where you won't accidentally delete it. Also, always keep a copy of the most recent HQP version on both your computer and in your iCloud account so that you can revert if a new new version gives you problems.

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3 minutes ago, creativepart said:

Thanks Bob, I have made the change and you're correct, I didn't have to do anything but trash the App and install the new ARM64 version of the app. The license carried over and so did all of my settings. So, everything was playing again in a matter of minutes.

 

I noticed the download page said "ARM64 MacOS" and I swear it just said "ARM64" just last week when I downloaded it. If it didn't them I'm pretty daft.

 

Thanks again.

Glad to hear that you are up and running.

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39 minutes ago, MikePid said:

Here are my settings:

It could be the hard disk sleep setting. That is the only difference from my settings.

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7 hours ago, musicjunkie917 said:

 

That's what I use on my current hardware. I was just curious if the M1 supported poly-sinc-gaus-xl when upsampling 24/192 to DSD256 using the ASDM7ECv2 modulator. Does it?

That works for me but class doesn’t.

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Just now, bobflood said:

That works for me but class doesn’t.

Sorry meant to say that PS Gauss xla doesn’t work. 

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1 hour ago, itguy61 said:

I know it is subject, does anyone have any suggestions as to which DSD filters are smooth and warm sounding?

Try ext2.

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Just now, AudioDoctor said:

 

What software are you using to display the stats of the Mac Studio?

I was wondering the same thing.

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Just now, rah50 said:

Still can't get poly-sinc-gauss-xla with ASDM7ECv2 to run at DSD256. I had an mds_stores issue that was taking a lot of cpu power but got that fixed. HQP is using 79-80%, system 3 or 4% more so I have about 15% left, but still get a regular stutter every 10 seconds or so. 

 

Is there any else I can try? Also, I'm on v4.18.1

I can't get it on my M1 either.

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40 minutes ago, Miska said:

 

 

Are you sure you have the native arm64 version installed? And not the x64 one?

 

Yes I have the arm64 version. I can get Gauss long no problem but not Gauss xla. I don't care though as Gauss long is just fine on 1x material and I use Gauss hi-res for nx material.

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4 hours ago, El Guapo said:

44.1 -> DSD256x48 will cost extra computing power. It looks like you forced both families (44.1 and 48) upsampling to DSD256x48...

My M1 mini works quite well.

Thanks, That was it for me as well. On the M1 it is either xla or rate family conversion but not both at the same time. Rate family conversion works fine with all the other Gauss filters just not xla.

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7 hours ago, Sebastian T. said:

 

What do you mean by "devices like rendu"? What is it about it/them that requires an U/UTP cable? I am really interested in learning about this. Thank you!

Using a cable with metal ends and having the ground wire connected at both ends (some only connect at one end) will allow ground plane noise to pass from the network devices to the input of the computer. Using a cable with plastic ends prevents this from happening. If you want a cable with metal ends just make sure that the ground wire is only connected at one end. A simple multimeter test is sufficient. AudioQuest network cables only connect the ground at one end.

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11 hours ago, Miska said:

 

Note that there's no such standard compliant cable. So such cables are subject to potential problems. I usually advise to stick to standard cables such as CAT6a U/UTP.

 

I agree, but I do own some with metal ends where the ground wire is only connected at one end (AQ cables purchased in my sillier days). I did verify with a meter that there was no continuity from end to end of the outer shells. And, in my network at least, they perform just fine. No better than all the Cat 6 cables that I have that have  plastic connectors but no worse.

 

A quick question. Under what circumstances are the Cat 7 cables with the grounded metal ends used and is there a difference in the design of the input at the board to prevent ground plane noise? 

 

Thanks

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6 hours ago, Schafheide said:

My amp volume control is very close to max.  I run M1 - ethernet - NAS - ethernet - ultraRendu - SingXer SU-6 - Holo May KTE - Mjolnir Carbon CC.  As I see it, the only possibility is to somehow increase the volume from the M1 ?  Ideas?

I doubt that the problem is in that chain. If you can beg or borrow a more powerful amp then you could test to see if your current amp is underpowered for the volume you desire. The most likely issue is that the May output is -6db from Its PCM level when doing DSD/SDM. I would not worry about the position of the volume control.

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23 minutes ago, Schafheide said:

I only just noticed.  (I normally playback to DSD512.  I am just trying PCM playback.)

The cores only get used for DSD playback - make sense?

Core loading in PCM is much lighter than in DSD/SDM. In PCM the filter used and the rate are the most important for core loading. The dither won't matter much. At 352/384 it might be difficult to see much activity as it is pretty light. At 1.536Mhz PCM you would see a much higher core loading. The filters will usually go to the efficiency cores. Sinc L would show high activity even in PCM but any 2s filter would show much less. I would stick with LNS 15 and a DAC bits setting of no more than 20 and use the highest rate you can make work, I would consider 768 PCM the minimum for decent performance. I tried every combo I could think of but nothing beat DSD 256 for me on my Spring 2 DAC.

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51 minutes ago, Schafheide said:

My reason to try PCM was due to you alerting me to the 6dB loss when playing DSD.

Playing DSD, with HQP set to -6dBM and EQ requiring -6.4dB, my poor amp volume control was (for some classical files) was at the max!

So now, playing PCM, it is several clicks back!

For me (without EQ enabled) my May KTE @ DSD512 is fab.

Unfortunately my DDC is limited to 384/DSD512.

What amp do you use? Is it single-ended or balanced. If you are using the single-ended output of the May it makes the problem worse because you are only getting signal from one of the two boards in the May. There are some very good in-line combining transformers from Lundahl that I have in use that will take the balanced output from the May and convert it to single-ended. If this is the case let me know and I will give you the link.

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12 minutes ago, Schafheide said:

Out of curiosity, does anyone know the typical output signal level of an Intel PC vs that of our Mac Mini M1 ??

It would be the same USB standard for either one. The final link in the chain in your case the DDC is the one that matters. Try bypassing it and going USB direct and see if it is better.

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10 minutes ago, Schafheide said:

Worth a try except I do like i2s more than usb (hence the ddc).

I do I2s as well with a Sonore Ultra Digital. Worth a try though. Try using HQP to control the volume. Just put your amp volume at max and use the digital volume of HQP. Just be careful to start low enough.

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18 minutes ago, Schafheide said:

Can’t do that because some Dsd files overload HQP if the HQP volume is not limited to -6dBFS.  So I leave it set at that level.

Just use -6 as your maximum and work down from there with your amp volume control set at max. Still start at -20 and see how close you can get to -6. You might be surprised how much more your amp can do. We are all used to thinking that the higher volume control settings on an amp are off limits but with the much reduced input voltage due to HQP processing and the lower DSD output of the May this is not necessarily true.

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7 hours ago, Schafheide said:

I have checked with the amp designer, and as you say. it is ok to have the amp volume control at max.  My unease with this, comes from years of analogue hifi - where increasing the volume control gave increased the amp "noise". hum etc - so you never went much past 2 o'clock with the knob.  So, just because of convenience on my part, I will continue to use the amp volume control, and not worry if it reaches max!!!  I must remember that this is now a digital world!

But your suggestions were enlightening, to say the least.

Enjoy!