HQPlayer settings for specific DACs

[Miska]

4 hours ago, Mark Labbett said:

is this also true for the Denafrips Ares II?

 

Not sure about this. I just recently spent a lot of time measuring Ares II again.

 

For PCM, it works best at >= 705.6k rate and DAC Bits set to 20 or less with noise-shaping. For DSD, it works best at DSD512 or DSD1024 if possible. But I still don't know how their DSD conversion works.

 

[Miska]

On 4/21/2023 at 6:53 PM, ted_b said:

?? You took my quote out of context.  I said, in this post and many many others, that empirical things like dac bit depth is something that is worth cataloging, and that I (and others) have helped countless folks with HQPlayer settings for their particular dac (Holo May at 20 bits, etc etc). 

 

To figure out the correct bit depth, you need to measure the DAC output. 20-bits for Holo comes from my measurements.

 

[Miska]

On 4/21/2023 at 9:55 PM, juanitox said:

Hi Miska , i'm using a SMSL D300 with the Rohm Chip what filter would you use with this dac  , it can accept DSD512 ..

 

Run it at DSD256, with it's DSD filter frequency set to the lowest corner. And you can use ASDM7ECv2 as modulator. Filter is up to your choice.

 

Too bad my D300 got bricked as result of firmware update, so I cannot do testing with it anymore.

 

[Miska]

3 minutes ago, bogi said:

Are you sure your DAC supports 48k DSD? If not, uncheck it. If yes, check [x] Auto rate family for first tries.

 

Please note that this is conflicting request that will make 48k family content unplayable. If you don't have 48k DSD capable DAC, Auto rate family / Adaptive rate must be unchecked.

 

[Miska]

5 hours ago, Escarbille said:

Hello, With a Topping DX7 Pro+ DAC with an es9038Pro chip, which DSD parameter should be used in HQPlayer? THANKS

 

I recommend DSD512 output from ASDM5EC-super 512+fs or ASDM5EC-light 512+fs.

 

[Miska]

On 5/12/2023 at 5:21 PM, Escarbille said:

Thank you, so if I understood correctly, modulator 5 is for ES chips and 7 is for AK chips, is that correct?

 

Yes, it depends on how the DAC is implemented. For ESS, the 5th order modulators work better due to how DSD support is implemented there.

 

[Miska]

On 5/12/2023 at 7:38 PM, sumitc said:

Just reposting this.

 

Just run fixed 192k output rate with TPDF or Gauss1 dither.

[Miska]

19 hours ago, dusk said:

NS9 dither to take advantage of 4x rates (176.4/192) setting the output of HQplayer to 24/192

sinc-long most of the time (sounds the best to my ears from the ones I've tested)

sinc-MGa (local FLAC) or poly-sinc gauss-hires-lp (tidal MQA) if I get crazy Apod numbers 

 

am I on the right track or missing something?

 

You are on right track! Remember to set "DAC Bits" to 24 just in case, so that there is no accidental truncation!

 

Just in case, I would also keep fixed 192k output rate. I'm not sure how the Genelec DSP works. Many times such devices use fixed rate  internally and if that's the case, it would convert 176.4k to 192k. Otherwise it would need to have some technical person from Genelec to confirm how they actually do things. So instead of sinc-MGa you could use poly-sinc-gauss-xla which is similar enough and gives you capability to convert to fixed 192k output rate.

 

[Miska]

1 hour ago, dusk said:

now, on the HQplayer side, what's the best dither/filter combo to optimize for 24/96?  I have it set to Gauss1 and poly-sinc-guass-xla but shaped or NS4 could also be options, still playing around with them but wanted to get some additional color on those filters.

 

I would use TPDF or Gauss1. But you could as well use NS4 if you feel it sounds better.

 

Filter is up to your preferences, gauss-long is a good starting point, but gauss-xla is also good. Depends also on source content genre, what kind of properties have emphasis.

 

[Miska]

9 minutes ago, johsgjerde said:

@MiskaDo you have a suggestion for bit depth for a Hegel HD20? Using USB and JPlay, pcm only. 

 

It says the USB is 24-bit capable, so best set it that way. Couldn't see much information about it, but I doubt that it would be a true PCM DAC, so likely 24-bit is best material for it's internal DSP. Seems like coaxial would allow getting 192k there while USB is limited to 96k (probably USB Audio Class 1.0 device, so not asynchronous even). So considering USB-DDC could be worth for this DAC, in which case bits should be also explicitly set to 24 to avoid accidentally sending more resulting in truncation at S/PDIF transmitter.