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

[Zaphod Beeblebrox]

17 minutes ago, 3ggerhappy said:

 

For the vivaldi I believe it is, since the upsampler is separate. For the Rossini it still goes through the filter even at 24/8fs since it is built in. https://www.manualslib.com/manual/1540339/Dcs-Rossini.html?page=40#manual

I will suggest Filter 4 based on the manual with noise shaping set at 24bits.

 

[3ggerhappy]

1 hour ago, Zaphod Beeblebrox said:

I will suggest Filter 4 based on the manual with noise shaping set at 24bits.

 

Not really sure w/c one to use, Thanks for the suggestion.

[Miska]

5 hours ago, austinpop said:

I was under the impression that the Rossini would bypass the internal filters when presented 24/8FS. Isn’t this effectively what happens if preceded by the dCS Upsampler?

 

It is very unfortunate if such expensive devices cannot run digital filters higher than 8fs, because they anyway need much higher sample rate for the modulator. Which would likely mean they do same as most DAC chips, meaning ~16x - 32x oversampling using sample-and-hold (IOW, just repeating the same sample N times).

 

I know Chord runs simple IIR and then linear interpolation after WTA1 stage. They still don't have enough processing power...

 

With HQPlayer I of course run full proper digital filters up to the final modulator rate, typically 256fs - 1024fs these days.

 

[Progisus]

What are people’s thoughts about wavpack. I don’t hear any change in the sound other than expectation bias. The space gain is appreciable and they play on my equipment. But as there may be hidden negatives I am still doing any remasters in wav. Thoughts?

[Zaphod Beeblebrox]

3 minutes ago, mancolh said:

What are people’s thoughts about wavpack. I don’t hear any change in the sound other than expectation bias. The space gain is appreciable and they play on my equipment. But as there may be hidden negatives I am still doing any remasters in wav. Thoughts?

If you do not hear a difference or if it is subtle, I think the space saving is worth it. There are no hidden negatives, they will match the source wav file bit for bit as the compression is lossless. 

[Progisus]

Does HQPDCONTROL play back wavpack files? It says they are queued but they do not queue in the HQPlayer gui. I am able to get them to play using HQPlayer client. 

[Zaphod Beeblebrox]

8 minutes ago, mancolh said:

Does HQPDCONTROL play back wavpack files? It says they are queued but they do not queue in the HQPlayer gui. I am able to get them to play using HQPlayer client. 

Please see here: 

 

[kelvinwsy]

Natural Transparent Minimal

vs 

Front Row Dense Moderate

I find the default setting Natural Transparent Minimal to be soft on JRiver MC26 on full Memory playback

I prefer Front Row, Dense , Moderate 

 

But on Hqplayer 4.10.3 The choice is the opposite as I find that with the greater transparency of Hqplayer mass strings sound harsh on Front/Dense/Moderate...

 

Strange 

Trying the other combos progressiveky

[Zaphod Beeblebrox]

9 minutes ago, kelvinwsy said:

Natural Transparent Minimal

vs 

Front Row Dense Moderate

I find the default setting Natural Transparent Minimal to be soft on JRiver MC26 on full Memory playback

I prefer Front Row, Dense , Moderate 

 

But on Hqplayer 4.10.3 The choice is the opposite as I find that with the greater transparency of Hqplayer mass strings sound harsh on Front/Dense/Moderate...

 

Strange 

Trying the other combos progressiveky

One place that can make a difference is bit depth and volume control. Are both Jriver and HQP set to ply in bit perfect/pass through mode?

[Zaphod Beeblebrox]

For those with space constraints, version 1.1.10 is now available that supports FLAC and Wavpack lossless compressed output formats but improves tagging of .wv format and long tracks will no longer be split if Wavpack/FLAC compression is enabled. 

[semente]

On 4/18/2021 at 12:49 AM, romaz said:

Rob showed with the Chord DAVE that the human ear can hear noise to a level of -350dB.

 

Where was this research published?

[ambre]

On 5/21/2021 at 6:27 AM, Zaphod Beeblebrox said:

One place that can make a difference is bit depth and volume control. Are both Jriver and HQP set to ply in bit perfect/pass through mode?

Dear Zaphod,

 

Can you please clearify / help which setting to choose within HQ player and for a Chord Qutest ? I cannot find the right answer in our thread.

Thanks in advance,Andreas

 

 

[Zaphod Beeblebrox]

2 hours ago, ambre said:

Dear Zaphod,

 

Can you please clearify / help which setting to choose within HQ player and for a Chord Qutest ? I cannot find the right answer in our thread.

Thanks in advance,Andreas

 

 

Set 1x and Nx PCM filter to 'None', dither to 'None' and Max and Min volume to 0dB, output to PCM, auto-rate family with highest sample rate to 768kHz. Bits and buffer to default. The idea is to have HQP in pass through mode when playing PGGB files. 

[ambre]

2 minutes ago, Zaphod Beeblebrox said:

Set 1x and Nx PCM filter to 'None', dither to 'None' and Max and Min volume to 0dB, output to PCM, auto-rate family with highest sample rate to 768kHz. Bits and buffer to default. The idea is to have HQP in pass through mode when playing PGGB files. 

Thanks

 

[Zaphod Beeblebrox]

3 hours ago, semente said:

 

Where was this research published?

It was not a scientific publication. It was in one of Rob's posts where he mentioned listeners preferred a lower noise floor in the audible range even though it was below -300db and counter to  general expectation that we should not be able to hear a difference at such low levels.

[ambre]

11 minutes ago, Zaphod Beeblebrox said:

Set 1x and Nx PCM filter to 'None', dither to 'None' and Max and Min volume to 0dB, output to PCM, auto-rate family with highest sample rate to 768kHz. Bits and buffer to default. The idea is to have HQP in pass through mode when playing PGGB files. 

Dear Zaphod,

And shaper LNS15 or ? 

 

Just started with Chord Qutest as additional DAC on my analog input on my Vega G2.1

The Auralic DAC  isn't reacting  properly on the NAA and HQplayer software in MacOS environment. 

 

But the Chord responds very well.  Have to upsample first to 768 instead 352.😃

Regards, Andreas

 

[Fourlegs]

2 minutes ago, ambre said:

And shaper LNS15 or ? 

 

 set it to 'none'

[ambre]

2 minutes ago, Fourlegs said:

 

 set it to 'none'

👍

[Zaphod Beeblebrox]

3 minutes ago, ambre said:

And shaper LNS15 or ? 

No dither or noise shaping, set it to none as PGGB already does the noise shaping for you. In HQP both dither and noise shaping options are under the 'dither' drop down and this needs to be set to none.

 

What are you using for volume control?

 

[ambre]

43 minutes ago, Zaphod Beeblebrox said:

 

What are you using for volume control?

 

By means  of the steering wheel in HOplayer=> standard volume

And main volume b means op Lighting app for Auralic

 

[austinpop]

@ambre

 

Please take a look at ZB's PGGB Guide here: https://www.remastero.com/guide.html. The section "A note about software volume control:" covers the pitfalls you could encounter!

[Zaphod Beeblebrox]

1 hour ago, ambre said:

By means  of the steering wheel in HOplayer=> standard volume

And main volume b means op Lighting app for Auralic

 

Edit - Updated link related to volume control: PGGB - Volume Control

 

It is best to do the digital volume control in just one place. In your setup, you have a few choices

1. Do not use the volume control on your Auralic app, turn off Noise shaping in PGGB, use volume control in HQP with dither set to LNS15

2. If you do not typically adjust volume and leave it at a fixed level (like -4dB in your screen shot), use gain slider in PGGB to set gain to -4dB, set Noise shaping to Auto/on in PGGB, then set gain on HQP to 0 and dither to none.

 

With 1) using 64bit output in PGGB is ideal, but 32 bit will be ok too.

With 2) Be careful, set the gain in HQP to what you normally set and gradually bring it to 0.

 

On Auralic  app you need to set your volume to max, or if there is an option for fixed volume.

[davide256]

17 hours ago, Zaphod Beeblebrox said:

For those with space constraints, version 1.1.10 is now available that supports FLAC and Wavpack lossless compressed output formats but improves tagging of .wv format and long tracks will no longer be split if Wavpack/FLAC compression is enabled. 

Dropbox says file was deleted?

[ambre]

57 minutes ago, austinpop said:

@ambre

 

Please take a look at ZB's PGGB Guide here: https://www.remastero.com/guide.html. The section "A note about software volume control:" covers the pitfalls you could encounter!

Thanks 

[Zaphod Beeblebrox]

18 minutes ago, davide256 said:

Dropbox says file was deleted?

Sorry about that and thanks for bringing it to my attention. Should be up now, just refresh the page.