A toast to PGGB, a heady brew of math and magic

[chelseafc]

I have tested PGGB samples with the DAVE and they compared favorably to both the M Scaler and HQPlayer, so I am considering purchasing a license.

 

Few newbie questions (forgive me if they've been asked many times before)

 

1. Any reason to buy PGGB-IT! vs. the original distribution from Remastero?

I tried both and found only one annoying limitation with Remastero (would refuse to generate FLACs on 16Fs and x256)

 

2. Any consideration for the OS (Mac OS vs Windows)?

 

3. How much I need to spend for a Mac/PC that would do PGGB256 album in under 30 min?

[chelseafc]

1 hour ago, Zaphod Beeblebrox said:

Thanks for your interest and feedback.

 

It is really up to you to see what fits your needs best. Audiowise licenses PGGB and the processing is the same whether you get it from remastero or Audiowise, as you found the difference are really in how the interface and output formats differ. PGGB-IT! has some additional bells and whistles such as multi-channel processing, allowing multiple tracks to be processed (if there is enough RAM and CPU cores).

You can move from PGGB-IT! to PGGB from remastero at no cost anytime at the same level of license. Moving from PGGB from remastero to PGGB-IT! will incur a small fee. That may make the decision easier for you.

 

PGGB-IT! is Windows only, so if you plan to use Mac, the choice is remastero. But if you are open to both Mac and Windows, I strongly suggest Windows as Windows is more flexible (compared to Mac) when it comes to memory allocation. Windows will let you get the most out of your Hardware in terms of processing speed. If you were to go with Mac, PGGB does not run natively on Apple Silicon, so will require Rosetta and is less efficient running on emulation. 

From performance: Windows > Mac (Intel) > Mac (M1/M2/M3)

 

It is better to think in terms of 'per minute of track' because albums can be of varying lengths. Then there are additional factors:

1. What precision do you plan to use?
2. What is the typical sample rate of the albums (CD/Hires/DSD)?
3. What is the typical length of tracks?

Windows will work cheaper most of the time, a used Mac Pro running Intel may also work.

Thanks for clarifications.

 

1. I plan on using 256 precision

2. No DSD, only PCM

3. New conversions will be mostly from Hires

4. Typical length is 5 min, which I would like to convert in 2 minutes

 

Thinking of spending around $1.5K on a PC

[chelseafc]

22 minutes ago, austinpop said:

You have always been shown respect here, yet you take every opportunity to disparage PGGB. That’s not classy, and I’m puzzled why you do it.

 

So true!

 

I've always wanted to dump HQPlayer if for nothing else but shear arrogance and disregard to paying customers from the owner, but happy to report that I stopped using it purely on the basis of its inferiority when compared to the M Scaler and even more so PGGB.