HQPlayer settings for specific DACs

[Mark Labbett]

Bump

what bit depth settings and other applicable settings for Ares II DAC i will be up sampling all to DSD 256 or DSD512 if pc allows

 

[giordy60]

denafrips ares II
bit 16
asdm7 modulator
poly-sinc-gauss-hires-ip
48X512
in my system it is the one I like best
... we always talk about personal tastes

 

[Mark Labbett]

3 hours ago, giordy60 said:

denafrips ares II
bit 16
asdm7 modulator
poly-sinc-gauss-hires-ip
48X512
in my system it is the one I like best
... we always talk about personal tastes

 

Thanks for the reply, why 16bits when the DAC is 24bits, 6bits DSD

Maybe Miska could give some advice as this DAC is one that is recommended by signalyst.com

[stefano_mbp]

5 hours ago, Mark Labbett said:

what bit depth settings and other applicable settings for Ares II DAC i will be up sampling all to DSD 256 or DSD512 if pc allows

Same question was answered few months ago …

 

[TJHUB]

3 hours ago, Mark Labbett said:

Thanks for the reply, why 16bits when the DAC is 24bits, 6bits DSD

Maybe Miska could give some advice as this DAC is one that is recommended by signalyst.com

 

As a relatively new user of HQPlayer, I know it's daunting to search anything HQPlayer because the threads everywhere are so long.  That said, there's lots of great info to be found while searching.

 

I've used 4 DACs with HQPlayer so far (2 R2R with one being an Ares II, and 2 Sabre) and none of them sound good at 24 bit if you use PCM.  The R2R DACs sounded best at 20 bit or even lower, and the Sabre DACs sound best at 32 bit.  Don't know exactly why, but this is where you should start if you try PCM.

 

For DSD output, I'd try the 7ECv2 modulator if your PC can handle it.  You will need to experiment with the best settings your PC can handle and what filters you prefer.

[Richh84]

im using the holo may kte with McIntosh c1100/mc275/jbl 4367s 

 

settings ive been going back to 

 

pcm , sinc m/mx , lns15 , 748k , dac bits 20

 

listening to Grateful dead cornell 5/8/77 in roon/qobuz right now , sounds great.

[creativepart]

I'm pretty sure I saw Miska say to leave "Dac Bits" blank.

 

I'm not exactly sure where I saw that - but that's my memory.

[Miska]

54 minutes ago, creativepart said:

I'm pretty sure I saw Miska say to leave "Dac Bits" blank.

 

I'm not exactly sure where I saw that - but that's my memory.

 

Depends on a DAC and how you interface to the DAC.

 

For Holo Audio DACs, 20 bit is correct setting.

 

[FooFighter]

Miska, any recommendations for filter and eq settings withing HQPlayer to make Susvaras more full bodied and have some mid bass thump on Spring 3 KTE attached to Ferrum OOR for Rock and Pop genre?

 

 

[Miska]

5 minutes ago, FooFighter said:

Miska, any recommendations for filter and eq settings withing HQPlayer to make Susvaras more full bodied and have some mid bass thump on Spring 3 KTE attached to Ferrum OOR for Rock and Pop genre?

 

Have you tried the Oratory EQ settings from here?

https://www.dropbox.com/s/77xp4wrohjgwqzq/Hifiman Susvara.pdf?dl=0

 

You can use REW to create EQ .txt file from those. Or alternatively just enter those values straight to HQPlayer. You can use the Plot function to check that the response matches with the one on on PDF so you know you there are no errors in the settings.

 

Sounds like poly-sinc-short-mp(-2s) could be a suitable filter for your case.

 

[FooFighter]

30 minutes ago, Miska said:

 

Have you tried the Oratory EQ settings from here?

https://www.dropbox.com/s/77xp4wrohjgwqzq/Hifiman Susvara.pdf?dl=0

 

You can use REW to create EQ .txt file from those. Or alternatively just enter those values straight to HQPlayer. You can use the Plot function to check that the response matches with the one on on PDF so you know you there are no errors in the settings.

 

Sounds like poly-sinc-short-mp(-2s) could be a suitable filter for your case.

 

Thx Miska, I will try that.

Have tried these settings in Roon plus applying HQPlayer but wanted to try the HQPlayer approach instead as I assume it's not ideal to stream the equed flac to HQPlayer 

[FooFighter]

Miska, thx for the hints -  the described way of applying the OVATORY-PEQ using the Pipeline is working fine.

Actually I am now newly enjoying my Susvaras with that lifted body and bass, that's really a big relief which I can only suggest to any Susvara owner missing what I've been missing!

 

I am now wondering if I can reach the same thing by using an exported WAV-file out of the REW application and apply that one to the HQ Player convolution engine.

As far as I read that seems to allow me creating different PEQs-convolution profiles for different headphones and I can seamlessly switch between these settings whereas entering a pipeline setup will interrupt the playback.

Correct?

 

First questions I have are about settings I should select for exporting as WAV if I don't know the bit rates and sample rates I am playing in advance?

Or should I just select 24bit and check all boxes?

Do you happen to know if I am supposed to select Manual or Auto as Control-type as I don't understand what the REW-app is supposed to do automatically for a manually specified PEQ

 

 

Next question I have is about the parallel usage of the pipeline and the convolution engine.

If I just want to apply the PEQ settings I don't need to set both - as for the described better comfort of changing saved convolution profiles I can leave the pipeline settings completely disabled, correct?

 

Thx and sorry for the noob questions, I couldn't really find the right anwswers in the manual and forum search.

[Miska]

3 hours ago, FooFighter said:

I am now wondering if I can reach the same thing by using an exported WAV-file out of the REW application and apply that one to the HQ Player convolution engine.

 

It is better to stick with the parametric EQ, either straight or through .txt export from REW instead of convolution. You save the unnecessary step of converting those parametric EQs to convolution filter and also CPU time processing the correction at HQPlayer side.

 

3 hours ago, FooFighter said:

As far as I read that seems to allow me creating different PEQs-convolution profiles for different headphones and I can seamlessly switch between these settings whereas entering a pipeline setup will interrupt the playback.

Correct?

 

Yes, you can create various different matrix profiles and switch those on the fly for example using HQPlayer Client. No need to even stop the playback.

 

I have various, for different headphones plus the loudspeaker system plus multichannel mix-down for loudspeakers and headphones.

 

3 hours ago, FooFighter said:

First questions I have are about settings I should select for exporting as WAV if I don't know the bit rates and sample rates I am playing in advance?

Or should I just select 24bit and check all boxes?

Do you happen to know if I am supposed to select Manual or Auto as Control-type as I don't understand what the REW-app is supposed to do automatically for a manually specified PEQ

 

 

If you enter it this way, just export is as generic EQ .txt file instead of convolution filter.

 

3 hours ago, FooFighter said:

Next question I have is about the parallel usage of the pipeline and the convolution engine.

If I just want to apply the PEQ settings I don't need to set both - as for the described better comfort of changing saved convolution profiles I can leave the pipeline settings completely disabled, correct?

 

If you use matrix pipeline, you need to disable convolution engine. These two are mutually exclusive. Matrix can do everything convolution engine can do and more. You can load parametric EQ .txt files or convolution filter WAVs there, in addition to the specs you can enter straight as text there.

 

 

[askat1988]

@Miska Can't we just use the .txt files from Github?  Here is an example: https://github.com/jaakkopasanen/AutoEq/tree/master/results/oratory1990/harman_over-ear_2018/RAAL-requisite SR1a

 

Which one is the correct one, fixed, graphic, parametric?

[FooFighter]

13 hours ago, askat1988 said:

@Miska Can't we just use the .txt files from Github?  Here is an example: https://github.com/jaakkopasanen/AutoEq/tree/master/results/oratory1990/harman_over-ear_2018/RAAL-requisite SR1a

 

Which one is the correct one, fixed, graphic, parametric?

Don't know if the others work but the parametric one should work.

I am also using a parametric eq for my Susvaras.

 

[Miska]

16 hours ago, askat1988 said:

@Miska Can't we just use the .txt files from Github?  Here is an example: https://github.com/jaakkopasanen/AutoEq/tree/master/results/oratory1990/harman_over-ear_2018/RAAL-requisite SR1a

 

Which one is the correct one, fixed, graphic, parametric?

 

Parametric .txt files.

 

But note that these are auto-generated from external data. So for example compare the settings to the ones listed by Oratory if the correction you are looking for is sourced from there. If your headphones have more than one setting available in AutoEq, it makes also sense to try different ones to find one that best suits you personally.

 

[ccc888]

On 4/9/2022 at 7:10 PM, Miska said:

 

Depends on a DAC and how you interface to the DAC.

Hi Miska,

How many bits should I set for my Singxer SDA6, which has a AK4499 Chip?

I upsample everything to 768/705.6KHz PCM under NOS mode.

And what should I set if I upsample to DSD in the future?

 

Also Could you provide more detail on why Saber DAC bits setting is different? What is the principle of choosing DAC bits for different DACs? Feeling bad for asking the same question for each single DAC.

[Miska]

9 hours ago, ccc888 said:

How many bits should I set for my Singxer SDA6, which has a AK4499 Chip?

I upsample everything to 768/705.6KHz PCM under NOS mode.

 

32 bits.

 

9 hours ago, ccc888 said:

And what should I set if I upsample to DSD in the future?

 

AK4499 performs best at DSD512.

 

9 hours ago, ccc888 said:

Also Could you provide more detail on why Saber DAC bits setting is different?

 

Different compared to...?

 

9 hours ago, ccc888 said:

What is the principle of choosing DAC bits for different DACs?

 

When DAC performs DSP for the PCM input data (any delta-sigma DAC such as AK4499), it should be set to maximum resolution the DSP can utilize. Taking into account any word length limitations on the way there. Such as S/PDIF or AES/EBU which are limited to 24-bit.

 

When it is R2R DAC, you should be utilizing linear region of the DAC based on linearity sweep measurement. If the sweep indicates the linearity is somewhere between two word lengths, pick the lower value. It is better to use one bit less than the linear region, rather than one bit too much.

 

 

[Mark Labbett]

On 4/20/2022 at 8:35 AM, Miska said:

 

 

 

When it is R2R DAC, you should be utilizing linear region of the DAC based on linearity sweep measurement. If the sweep indicates the linearity is somewhere between two word lengths, pick the lower value. It is better to use one bit less than the linear region, rather than one bit too much.

 

 

what would this be for the Ares II?

[Miska]

8 hours ago, Mark Labbett said:

what would this be for the Ares II?

 

16-bit is the correct setting for Ares II.

 

[Mark Labbett]

2 hours ago, Miska said:

 

16-bit is the correct setting for Ares II.

 

Thank you

[Mark Labbett]

@Miska

i have a problem specific with HQPlayer in that it will only allow me to select DoP and as such i am unable to do DSD1024 (DSD512 is fine with DoP), i had this problem once before and i fixed it by uninstalling HQPlayer and re-installing it, then a few weeks later my computer crashed and i loaded a system image but the problem has returned and nothing i do has fixed it.

As i stated earlier it is only on HQPlayer that i cannot do native DSD, if i try HQPlayer just shuts down 

Foobar and Jriver all do it without issue so i believe this is a bug in HQPlayer, is there a log that i can send to you to see if you can identfy the problem. Thanks in advance.

[Miska]

4 hours ago, Mark Labbett said:

@Miska

i have a problem specific with HQPlayer in that it will only allow me to select DoP and as such i am unable to do DSD1024 (DSD512 is fine with DoP), i had this problem once before and i fixed it by uninstalling HQPlayer and re-installing it, then a few weeks later my computer crashed and i loaded a system image but the problem has returned and nothing i do has fixed it.

As i stated earlier it is only on HQPlayer that i cannot do native DSD, if i try HQPlayer just shuts down 

Foobar and Jriver all do it without issue so i believe this is a bug in HQPlayer, is there a log that i can send to you to see if you can identfy the problem. Thanks in advance.

 

This sounds like you are on Windows? Usually this problem appears with certain drivers (Thesycon) when there's more than one application using the audio device at the same time. For example if Roon is running simultaneously and has the driver enabled as output zone (Roon Settings -> Audio).

 

[Mark Labbett]

1 hour ago, Miska said:

 

This sounds like you are on Windows? Usually this problem appears with certain drivers (Thesycon) when there's more than one application using the audio device at the same time. For example if Roon is running simultaneously and has the driver enabled as output zone (Roon Settings -> Audio).

 

Thanks for the reply but this was one of the first things i checked, as i said previously native DSD works with Foobar and Jriver it is only HQPlayer that will only allow playing via DoP, is there a crash log generated when HQPlayer crashes? because that may hold the answer

[Miska]

5 hours ago, Mark Labbett said:

Thanks for the reply but this was one of the first things i checked, as i said previously native DSD works with Foobar and Jriver it is only HQPlayer that will only allow playing via DoP, is there a crash log generated when HQPlayer crashes? because that may hold the answer

 

If HQPlayer crashes, then it is likely the ASIO driver that crashes for some reason.

 

You can enable HQPlayer log file and try to catch the last items that got written before the crash.

 

I cannot comment about Foobar or Jriver, I have never used such.