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HQplayer 4 and Mac-mini M1


Bushikai

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21 hours ago, Reg19 said:

I meant HQPlayer Desktop.

 

Yes, Miska finally helped me successfully setup HQP Desktop on my M1 Max Mac Studio. Fantastic! I can run a lot more desired filters that I could not on my M1 Mac Mini.

Are you able to run Sinc-L (EC7V2 @ DSD256) or higher with the Studio? I have never been able to explore the sinc-x filters, total non starter on my machine.  

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I’ve been running HQPlayer and Roon on my Mac Mini M1 8GB, with DSD256 and EC modulators, plus the recommended poly-sinc-guass-long for 1x and poly-sinc-gauss-hires-lp for Nx.  It does it effortlessly.  Just get one MMM1.  That way you don’t have to worry about another cable between them.  Spend the money you save on a TeraDak LPS to power it, and and Orange fuse, and still have money left over.

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Thanks for your comments. Yes, I am using a Beaglebone Black running NAA attached to a Twisted Pear Buffalo Dac. Currently running Roon on an old Linux box. I’ve got HQPlayer running on my wife’s Mac Mini M1 and it works quite well converting PCM to DSD256. She doesn’t like me glomming on to her computer so I need to get my own. 
Would like to get rid of the old Linux box. I run both Roon and HQPlayer and don’t think the Mac Mini can handle both. The Mac studio would surely do it but so expensive. Micro center is selling the Mac Minis now for $550. So maybe two of them?
 


 

 

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46 minutes ago, proulxarts said:

I run both Roon and HQPlayer and don’t think the Mac Mini can handle both.

 

Yes, an M1 Mac mini can handle both Roon and HQPlayer Desktop. I use these settings with an ultraRendu NAA and my May KTE DAC:

 

I like these settings:

 

SDM Integrator: FIR2
SDM Conversion: XFi
48K DSD: Checked
DAC Bits: 20
Default Output Mode: SDM (DSD)
SDM Defaults:
1x = poly-sinc-gauss-xla
Nx = poly-sinc-gauss-hires-lp
Modulator: ASDM7ECv2
Bit rate: 48K x 256
Multicore DSP: Greyed
Adaptive output rate: Checked

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I'm running Roon on an old Intel NUC that is running Debian Linux. Nothing else on that box, sitting on top of my office switch.

 

HQPlayer is then on various devices, also on my M1 Mini. The M1 can do most necessary things, but some functionality is a bit limited, like running headphone corrections for DSD sources together with DSD-DSD upsampling. My MacBook Pro with M1Max is more capable in that respect.

 

Signalyst - Developer of HQPlayer

Pulse & Fidelity - Software Defined Amplifiers

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14 hours ago, musicjunkie917 said:

 

Yes, an M1 Mac mini can handle both Roon and HQPlayer Desktop. I use these settings with an ultraRendu NAA and my May KTE DAC:

 

I like these settings:

 

SDM Integrator: FIR2
SDM Conversion: XFi
48K DSD: Checked
DAC Bits: 20
Default Output Mode: SDM (DSD)
SDM Defaults:
1x = poly-sinc-gauss-xla
Nx = poly-sinc-gauss-hires-lp
Modulator: ASDM7ECv2
Bit rate: 48K x 256
Multicore DSP: Greyed
Adaptive output rate: Checked

I have same Mini, same NAA and same DAC. I also use same setttings except I use AMSDM7 512+fs and 48k x512

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@proulxarts below is an htop capture of MM M1 running roon + HQP, upsampling to poly-sync-gauss-hires, ASDM7ECv2 DSD256x48 ... Roon uses a fraction of the cpu that HQP does.

 

Also, MM M2 might very well drop at Apple's October event ... so you might want to hold off a few weeks? I am hoping that a MM M2 (pro?) will be able to do DSD512 but we'll see ...

 

 

image.thumb.png.5cdefefcbe7f32680f7835b90bb9b672.png

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3 hours ago, camott said:

@proulxarts below is an htop capture of MM M1 running roon + HQP, upsampling to poly-sync-gauss-hires, ASDM7ECv2 DSD256x48 ... Roon uses a fraction of the cpu that HQP does.

 

Also, MM M2 might very well drop at Apple's October event ... so you might want to hold off a few weeks? I am hoping that a MM M2 (pro?) will be able to do DSD512 but we'll see ...

 

 

image.thumb.png.5cdefefcbe7f32680f7835b90bb9b672.png

 

How did you get htop on the Mac?

No electron left behind.

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On 9/20/2022 at 7:42 AM, musicjunkie917 said:

 I tried that but found that the ASDM7ECv2 modulator sounds better with DSD256 than the AMSDM7 512+fs modulator with DSD512.

But I have a DDC (i2s output), and most likely a different amp and I use estat headphones and a different set of ears and brain - so I prefer DSD512.

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On 9/18/2022 at 11:16 PM, musicjunkie917 said:

If you are using an NAA don’t waste money on an LPS setup for the mini…

YMMV, however I noticed a very significant improvement when I upgraded the built-in MMM1 power supply with an inexpensive Chinese LPS module and 12V LPS.  So much so that I replaced the stock fuse in the LPS with an Orange fuse (yeah I put in a fuse that costs about as much as the LPS 😆), which bumped up the sound quality further.  I verified by (non-blind) A/B/A/B testing with each (including figuring out which direction was better for the fuse.  The switch back to the built-in power supply (or back to the stock fuse) was very noticeable, with reduction of sound stage and dynamics.  I have no idea why, because aren't bits just bits, especially so far upstream?  😉  I guess as others have said "everything matters".  And yes, I have an ultraRendu NAA (powered by a Paul Hynes SR4T LPS with Blue fuse), and also an EtherRegen (powered by a Sonore LPS with Blue fuse).  With the old mac mini, Uptone sold a lot of LPS upgrade kits for that.

 

Some people recommend not to run Roon on the same machine as HQPlayer, but when CPU usage of HQP dropped a few releases ago, I tried moving Roon over to the MMM1 and found a small uptick in sound quality (probably due to not needing to run across an Ethernet connection and/or powering the Roon core with an LPS) so I left Roon on the MMM1.

 

Of course, a lot of things are system dependent.  I was a power cord skeptic too, but now a convert.

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16 minutes ago, MikePid said:

YMMV, however I noticed a very significant improvement when I upgraded the built-in MMM1 power supply with an inexpensive Chinese LPS module and 12V LPS.  So much so that I replaced the stock fuse in the LPS with an Orange fuse (yeah I put in a fuse that costs about as much as the LPS 😆), which bumped up the sound quality further.  I verified by (non-blind) A/B/A/B testing with each (including figuring out which direction was better for the fuse.  The switch back to the built-in power supply (or back to the stock fuse) was very noticeable, with reduction of sound stage and dynamics.  I have no idea why, because aren't bits just bits, especially so far upstream?  😉  I guess as others have said "everything matters".  And yes, I have an ultraRendu NAA (powered by a Paul Hynes SR4T LPS with Blue fuse), and also an EtherRegen (powered by a Sonore LPS with Blue fuse).  With the old mac mini, Uptone sold a lot of LPS upgrade kits for that.

 

Okay. If you have an ultraRendu and an EtherREGEN, the EtherREGEN is not doing its job if making a change to the power supply and fuse of the M1 Mac mini affects the sound quality. Somebody is selling snake oil somewhere in this scenario.....

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3 hours ago, MikePid said:

YMMV, however I noticed a very significant improvement when I upgraded the built-in MMM1 power supply with an inexpensive Chinese LPS module and 12V LPS.  So much so that I replaced the stock fuse in the LPS with an Orange fuse (yeah I put in a fuse that costs about as much as the LPS 😆), which bumped up the sound quality further.  I verified by (non-blind) A/B/A/B testing with each (including figuring out which direction was better for the fuse.  The switch back to the built-in power supply (or back to the stock fuse) was very noticeable, with reduction of sound stage and dynamics.  I have no idea why, because aren't bits just bits, especially so far upstream?  😉  I guess as others have said "everything matters".  And yes, I have an ultraRendu NAA (powered by a Paul Hynes SR4T LPS with Blue fuse), and also an EtherRegen (powered by a Sonore LPS with Blue fuse).  With the old mac mini, Uptone sold a lot of LPS upgrade kits for that.

 

Some people recommend not to run Roon on the same machine as HQPlayer, but when CPU usage of HQP dropped a few releases ago, I tried moving Roon over to the MMM1 and found a small uptick in sound quality (probably due to not needing to run across an Ethernet connection and/or powering the Roon core with an LPS) so I left Roon on the MMM1.

 

Of course, a lot of things are system dependent.  I was a power cord skeptic too, but now a convert.

Against my better judgment, I can’t help responding to this. I’ve been around the block with this, admitting to have paid thousands on cables and other such. I’ve conducted multiple blind, double blinds. What I have realized is that the ear and brain work as one. What you believe is what you hear. Do not underestimate the power of the mind.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi there,

 

since a couple of days I have dropouts every 10 to 20 seconds running

 

48K DSD: Checked
DAC Bits: 20
Default Output Mode: SDM (DSD)
SDM Defaults:
1x = poly-sinc-gauss-xla
Modulator: ASDM7ECv2
Bit rate: 48K x 256
Multicore DSP: Greyed
Adaptive output rate: Checked

(thx musicjunkie917 - great sounding combination)

 

That is new. Any ideas, what could have happened or or anybody who has similar problems?

Note: CPU load now is >95% whereas before it showed 80%.

 

Change to poly since gauss long solves the problem with the dropouts, but sounds a little less dynamic and precise...

 

System: MM1, QNAP NAS or Qobuz, Optical Rendu, DDC: Singxer SU1, DAC: LKS 4 

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3 hours ago, AnHa said:

That is new. Any ideas, what could have happened or or anybody who has similar problems?

Note: CPU load now is >95% whereas before it showed 80%.

 

What else is running on the same system? What does Activity Monitor show if you configure it to display all processes, including system ones?

 

Signalyst - Developer of HQPlayer

Pulse & Fidelity - Software Defined Amplifiers

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Hi musicjunkie917 and Miska, thanks for your fast reactions. 

 

My system is dedicated to HQPlayer only. I made a screenshot, showing the tasks and the cpu usage. All performance cores seems to be busy. CPU usage overall 80%. For the screenshots HQPlayer-Client is playing as well. Usually I use a different notebook with the Client software as a "remote control". I send my HQPlayer desktop preferences in addition.Mac OS is Monterey 12.6.

 

Thank you both very much for caring!

 

Bildschirmfoto 2022-10-06 um 12.42.25.png

Bildschirmfoto 2022-10-06 um 12.50.47.png

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2 hours ago, AnHa said:

Bildschirmfoto 2022-10-06 um 12.50.47.png

 

Since you have 48k DSD checked and 48k x256 as rate limit, you may also want to make the "Adaptive output rate" checked. Otherwise you are converting also 44.1k-base content to 48k x256 rate. Which is heavier than doing 48k-base conversion to 44.1k x256 rate which is many times necessary for various DACs.

 

Signalyst - Developer of HQPlayer

Pulse & Fidelity - Software Defined Amplifiers

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