HQplayer 4 and Mac-mini M1

[rah50]

Hi All:

 

First post to this thread. I bought an MMM1 off eBay this weekend and it's on its way. I was going to wait for the new versions this spring but not being able to run past HQP v4.14 on my old server and with Roon killing my system with it's upgrade I thought I should go ahead.

 

I've read the entire thread and have to thank everyone for the learning experience, especially MikePid. I've never used a Mac but I'm sure it will be a fun and I'll have a few questions for sure.

 

I'm also lucky to have a spare HDPlex 100 laying around, so the Teradak ps upgrade is going to happen!

 

Bob

[rah50]

3 hours ago, creativepart said:

Bob, I was a total Windows guy until Win 8 was introduced and I made the switch to Mac. In general, the switch was super easy and I found MacOS to be a better Windows than Windows.

 

I'll tell you what stymied me more than anything right out of the gate was installing programs. And, with a new computer that's what you'll be doing is installing a lot of new programs. Installing programs on a Mac is actually easier than installing them on a PC and that's what threw me. I thought, "it can't be that easy" but it is.

 

One more thing to be aware of... the M1 MacOS is an ARM64 based RiSC chip CPU so not ALL old MacOS programs work, most do, but it's just something to keep in mind.

 

 

Thank you, that's exactly what I needed. VERY helpful.

 

I'm going to run the MMM1 headless, for just Roon and HQPlayer. The only other things I will need to figure out are:

1. How to RDP/VNC into it.

2. How to stop processes/programs that aren't needed.

3. How to  setup autorun for Roon and HQP.

 

[rah50]

No iPad here, :(

 

Looks pretty easy to setup RDP or VNC and the autorun and login.

 

Mostly I'll just be lost looking for things in a very different GUI. I think I go back to Windows 3, that was a very long time ago!

 

MMM1 should arrive tomorrow, but I have cataract surgery Thursday, so maybe I'll have it up this weekend.

 

Thanks all for the help.

[rah50]

Got the MMM1 going with Roon and HQPlayer. Pretty easy actually, I was only getting lost looking for things, but the web helped out.

 

VNC, autorunning apps, everything working except auto-login, I must have made a mistake somewhere on that one.

 

With both Roon and HQP running 44.1 to DSD 256, 7ec2 and Closed Form 16, it was at about 52% cpu, although I couldn't figure out how to see what each core was doing! 

 

Only real issue is that I'm getting loud hissing between tracks or when music ends. That's new for me, so maybe Miska can tell me what's wrong there?

 

Thanks for everyone's help.

 

 

[rah50]

On 3/2/2022 at 9:23 PM, MikePid said:

If you go to Activity Monitor, there are options under the Window menu for CPU usage to see the load on each of the cores.

 

For the hissing, I have an ESS9038Pro too, and it doesn't like 48K base rate, so try 44x256 for bit rate limit rather than 48x256.

 

Mike

 

Problem solved, I had to reboot HQP after checking the 48k box. My dac does do 48k no problem.

 

Current problem is MMM1 goes into screen saver mode and I can't regain control without a reboot. I've turned Screen Saver off, so I don't know what's going on? Thoughts?

 

Also, I want to try connecting the MMM1 directly to my dac, bypassing my NAA, but I'm not sure what to select in HQP as nothing seems to work?? 

[rah50]

Got the MMM1 working directly into the dac. I forgot to go DoP!

[rah50]

I made those changes, we'll see what happens. It seems to be a common problem from a Google search, but no clear fix.

 

After trying the MMM1 directly into my dac, I didn't like it. It was a bit fatiguing. I'll try again after the Teradak ps upgrade.

 

So far the MMM1 is a pretty good purchase.

[rah50]

On 3/5/2022 at 2:56 PM, MikePid said:

Here are my settings:

 

No more screen saver problem. I used the above settings and also changed Fast User Switching which was recommended on the web. Also made a change to VNC, but that probably wasn't it.

[rah50]

21 hours ago, jamesg11 said:

What were the hoped for benefits with bypassing the naa & going direct to dac?

 

Nothing really. The MMM1 is new to me so I just wanted to see how it sounded by itself. It would have been nice to simplify my setup if it had sounded really good, but alas no.

[rah50]

Hi All:

 

My W4S dac died, so I now have a dac that can do more than DSD256, a Denafrips Pontus II with Iris DDC and a Schitt Freya + as a preamp.

 

Question: Are there any filters that the Mac Mini M1 can run at DSD512 or very high rate PCM that I can try out?

 

I can't quite run poly-sinc-gauss-xla with ASDM7ECv2 at DSD256 which everyone seems to really like. So far I'm using Closed Form 16M but would at least like to try something at a higher rate just for fun!

 

Also, is there a preferred dac bit setting other than default that is recommended for the Pontus?

 

Thanks!

 

 

[rah50]

On 4/11/2022 at 6:40 AM, Miska said:

 

 

It should work for 1x on M1 Mini, for Nx you need to select something else like gauss-long or gauss-hires.

 

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

[rah50]

Here is my screenshot of xla not working and yes, I'm on arm64 version too. Thoughts?

 

[rah50]

Good catch, I’ll try that as soon as I get home!

[rah50]

3 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.

 

Well that was it. It reduced cpu utilization down from 80% to 60% and it sounds fabulous! Big thank you.

[rah50]

@AudioDoctor I do trust you after reading many of your posts, but what will the 16GB do better than the 8GB? My 8GB will play almost every filter at DSD256 using 7ecv2. It won't do the Sinc's of course, but I didn't think 16gig would do that either? I'm also running Roon on it as well. Thoughts?

[rah50]

@AudioDoctor Makes perfect sense technically, but would I hear the difference?

 

BTW, I'm getting ready to convert my M1 to 12v DC. That should be interesting as well!

[rah50]

Just finished my Mac Mini M1 conversion to 12 volt dc using the Teradak dc module as done by @MikePid 

 

Very nice! 

 

I started with just powering it using an Astron 12 amp lps, not really audio quality and not quite as good as the standard ac supply. Then today I added LT3045 modules from ldovr.com (5 one amp in parallel), and that made a huge improvement! Terrific upgrade for not a lot of $$$. More body, more detail, more low end, cleaner all around!

 

 

[rah50]

4 hours ago, [email protected] said:

I think i need to release high current PCB for you 
or just a "motherboard" for existing modules (somthing like this)

 

Yes Alexey! That would be great! Much easier to work with I'm sure.

[rah50]

4 hours ago, Badge said:

I went to order a kit but TeraDak only accepts a bank transfer as method of payment - makes me a little nervous with no CC or PayPal protection. 

 

I got mine from kamaudio.com, try them.