HQPlayer settings for specific DACs

[bogi]

1 minute ago, MarcMarc said:

Is there a reason to use 48x256?

My pcm files are mostly Redbook CDs.

It brings performance benefits to keep sample rate families (44.1 or 48) during upsampling. Therefore 'Adaptive rate' ('Auto rate family' in Embedded) tristate checkbox exists. So it brings benefit with 48k based recordings. Upsampling across sample rate families may work if HQPlayer computer has plenty of computing power, but people often get dropouts or stuttering.

Other reason to use 48k DSD rates may be that some DACs may sound better on 48k based rates.

Many DACs don't support 48k based DSD rates.

[bogi]

14 minutes ago, MarcMarc said:

Is there a easy way to integrate Crossfeed, PEQ or convolution filters (headphone guy) into HQPlayer?

Yes, in Matrix pipeline dialog box.

[MarcMarc]

36 minutes ago, bogi said:

Yes, in Matrix pipeline dialog box.

 

I'm to dumb.. I have wav files for convolution (44.1khz , 48khz). And peg settings from oratory. But what do I put where? Is there a guide for fools?

[bogi]

Pathname of 1ch (mono) convolution WAV files can be entered in Process column.

But you can enter here also PEQ string.

It is possible also to enter here pathname of TXT file in RoomEqWizard format.

Examples how WAV files are used:
https://audiophilestyle.com/forums/topic/61330-stereo-to-binaural-for-headphones-how-to-setup-hqplayer-jriver-foobar2000/
 

Example of tilt filter setting using PEQ:
https://audiophilestyle.com/forums/topic/19715-hq-player/?do=findComment&comment=1165623

 

See HQPlayer manual for some more info.

[dusk]

so I just realized that the speakers I am currently outputting HQplayer > Chord Hugo2 to have their own DAC, even in analog mode

 

genelec 8361a

 

the on board dac is limited to 24/192kHz, so it doesn't make sense to send PCM > chord upsample to 768 to analog > genelec downsample to 192 digital > analog - the sound gets pretty muddy during high intensity pieces.  They do not do DSD at all.

 

I since took the chord out of the chain and hooked my holo red directly to the AES and the presentation is much cleaner (I had to boost each speaker output by 12db gain to get the slam I wanted)

 

I know most people here use HQplayer to max out the frequency, but I'm finding it rather enjoyable with the dither compared to not using HQPlayer at all, there is def a huge difference to my ears.

 

I don't see much if any talk about optimizing for 24/192 dacs, but what are optimal settings for my specific setup?

 

I read through the manual and came up with the settings I think make the most sense for my use case:

 

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?

 

(maybe down the road I'll upgrade to pmc mb2s xbd with pass labs amps and a T+A dac/streamer, but for now, I have to work with what I got, which is already pretty amazing :)

 

thanks!

[CJH]

Dusk

9 hours ago, dusk said:

so I just realized that the speakers I am currently outputting HQplayer > Chord Hugo2 to have their own DAC, even in analog mode

 

genelec 8361a

 

the on board dac is limited to 24/192kHz, so it doesn't make sense to send PCM > chord upsample to 768 to analog > genelec downsample to 192 digital > analog - the sound gets pretty muddy during high intensity pieces.  They do not do DSD at all.

 

I since took the chord out of the chain and hooked my holo red directly to the AES and the presentation is much cleaner (I had to boost each speaker output by 12db gain to get the slam I wanted)

 

I know most people here use HQplayer to max out the frequency, but I'm finding it rather enjoyable with the dither compared to not using HQPlayer at all, there is def a huge difference to my ears.

 

I don't see much if any talk about optimizing for 24/192 dacs, but what are optimal settings for my specific setup?

 

I read through the manual and came up with the settings I think make the most sense for my use case:

 

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?

 

(maybe down the road I'll upgrade to pmc mb2s xbd with pass labs amps and a T+A dac/streamer, but for now, I have to work with what I got, which is already pretty amazing :)

 

thanks!

While the Genelec accepts 24/192 digital input, it may downsample and do all its processing at 24/96. So, 24/96 may be the better choice.

CJH

[mcdirt]

Is the RME ADI-2 FS v2 (AKM) still a good option for HQ Player or is there better new stuff available now? Inbuilt headphone amp is a plus for me but do NAA devices work better by cutting usb out of the path? Still evaluating HQP (with a Mojo2) and 2 of the AKM RME dacs have come for sale locally in the past 2 weeks (1 sold already). I believe these can be hard to come by but don't want to rush in & make a mistake. 

[AudioDoctor]

49 minutes ago, mcdirt said:

Inbuilt headphone amp is a plus for me but do NAA devices work better by cutting usb out of the path?

 

Are you sure you are aware of what an NAA device is?

[mcdirt]

Ha - well, I thought I did. I was thinking of the Gustard A26 dac that has NAA internally.

[AudioDoctor]

11 minutes ago, mcdirt said:

Ha - well, I thought I did. I was thinking of the Gustard A26 dac that has NAA internally.

 

The NAA is a network audio appliance. All it does is accept audio streamed to it, over an Ethernet network, from HQPlayer. It is software that turns hardware into an network audio endpoint and transfers that audio stream to a DAC. It can be as inexpensive as a Raspberry Pi or as expensive and fancy as a Sonore Signature Rendu SE.


In the case of the Gustard DAC, they built that in as another input option right on the DAC as a different input for the music, one which makes USB entirely unnecessary or gives you a second input for a separate device. It likely has a Raspberry Pi compute board inside it that provides that function, among others.

[Zauurx]

5 hours ago, AudioDoctor said:

...

In the case of the Gustard DAC, they built that in as another input option right on the DAC as a different input for the music, one which makes USB entirely unnecessary or gives you a second input for a separate device. It likely has a Raspberry Pi compute board inside it that provides that function, among others.

 

Not RPI.

A26 is an evolution of the R26 for the streamer part, not using the same motherboard (100ASK-T113-Pro Allwinner with 2 cpu) and therefore not the same update process (driver, etc). Latest streamer version: 1.42 integrates NAA 4.4.0-56 with kernel is 5.4.61 #12 SMP PREEMPT on Debian 12

[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.

 

[dusk]

2 hours ago, Miska said:

 

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.

 

oh this sounds really good

 

damn, this is the best (cleanest) I've heard these speakers sound

 

thanks!

[dusk]

On 9/8/2023 at 9:43 AM, Miska said:

 

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.

 

alright, just spoke to someone at Genelec and was able to confirm that the THE ONE range converts everything to 24/96, so I don't want to have the speakers doing any unnessesary conversion so I'll send it 24/96

 

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.

 

thanks!

[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.

 

[johsgjerde]

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

[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.