HQ Player

[louisxiawei]

1 minute ago, rickca said:

It's $3K! And you're sad?

Well, for that price, also sad for the wallet. Better wait until the price goes down to a reasonable point. 

 

Regarding the performance for HQplayer, Titan Xp is pulling the i9 7980XE at the moment. 7980 can do poly-sinc-xtr DSD512 alone, with the cuda offload of Titan Xp introduced the playback stutter. i9 7980XE can even do 44.1 → 48K*512 alone with poly-sinc filters. So my titan Xp is kinda redundant for HQplayer at the moment, that's why I'm a bit sad. But I'm happy I can VR gaming

 

I wonder whether Titan V can let HQplayer do 44.1 → 48K*512 with poly-sinc-xtr Or it can run together with CPU smoothly without stutter.

[rickca]

@Miska is there anything in CUDA 9 that is of benefit to HQPlayer?

[drjimwillie]

23 hours ago, ted_b said:

If you generated a new key (same name and email as you used in the past, along with old key number) then your old key info must have been correct.  No need to open any file, just register the new HQPlayer and point it to the new XML file.

I installed the current version of HQP.

I used the blank XML.  At first it said registered evaluation version.  Then after a while HQP restarted and at the top, it said that it was registered to me.  It worked.  I admit that I was very nervous.  All of my settings were the same, including for my Acourate convolution engine.  I tried a DSD file and that worked also.  I could not get higher than DSD128 to play.  I noticed that the only setting to change is that it was set to DOP.  I took off the DOP and back to the same issue.  The front page shows DSD in the right pulldown but it is playing PCM.  None of the left hand pulldown are DSD filters. It shows the PCM file rate on the front of the HOLO Spring.  I uninstalled and reinstalled the Holo driver.  Same issue.

Any ideas, please?

[drjimwillie]

On 12/8/2017 at 6:26 PM, drjimwillie said:

I installed the current version of HQP.

I used the blank XML.  At first it said registered evaluation version.  Then after a while HQP restarted and at the top, it said that it was registered to me.  It worked.  I admit that I was very nervous.  All of my settings were the same, including for my Acourate convolution engine.  I tried a DSD file and that worked also.  I could not get higher than DSD128 to play.  I noticed that the only setting to change is that it was set to DOP.  I took off the DOP and back to the same issue.  The front page shows DSD in the right pulldown but it is playing PCM.  None of the left hand pulldown are DSD filters. It shows the PCM file rate on the front of the HOLO Spring.  I uninstalled and reinstalled the Holo driver.  Same issue.

Any ideas, please?

I am able to do DSD256 over DOP. 

As a  reminder I was doing DSD512 native, when  I first got the Holo Spring. 

I was burning in the 16 and 24 bit PCM circuits  and when I went back to DSD it would not work.  I hadn't changed anything       

[Miska]

On 12/8/2017 at 10:51 PM, rickca said:

@Miska is there anything in CUDA 9 that is of benefit to HQPlayer?

 

Yes, there are various changes that make small performance improvements, plus support for the new Volta architecture. HQPlayer has been using CUDA 9 since it was released.

 

[Miska]

On 12/8/2017 at 3:01 PM, louisxiawei said:

Regarding the performance for HQplayer, Titan Xp is pulling the i9 7980XE at the moment. 7980 can do poly-sinc-xtr DSD512 alone, with the cuda offload of Titan Xp introduced the playback stutter. i9 7980XE can even do 44.1 → 48K*512 alone with poly-sinc filters. So my titan Xp is kinda redundant for HQplayer at the moment, that's why I'm a bit sad. But I'm happy I can VR gaming

 

I wonder whether Titan V can let HQplayer do 44.1 → 48K*512 with poly-sinc-xtr Or it can run together with CPU smoothly without stutter.

 

At least Titan V is promising, Titan XP and other Maxwell/Pascal generation GPU's have 1/32 ratio between single and double precision floating point performance (except Tesla P100). But Titan V is not compromised for double precision anymore and is back to the 1/2 ratio allowed by the memory bus speeds! (for comparison Intel and AMD CPUs have that same 1/2 ratio which is natural)

 

https://www.anandtech.com/show/12135/nvidia-announces-nvidia-titan-v-video-card-gv100-for-3000-dollars

 

21+ billion transistor monster GPU...

 

[Miska]

On 12/9/2017 at 1:26 AM, drjimwillie said:

The front page shows DSD in the right pulldown but it is playing PCM.  None of the left hand pulldown are DSD filters. It shows the PCM file rate on the front of the HOLO Spring.  I uninstalled and reinstalled the Holo driver.  Same issue.

Any ideas, please?

 

Driver is refusing to switch to DSD mode. I don't know why.

 

[bibo01]

@Miska

(This is taken form JRiver wiki) Do you think that a similar feature could be implemented in HQP? 

It seems useful to me in situations like convolution, matrix and whenever HQP volume is used, e.g. a pure DSD DAC.

 

Volume Protection is a feature to prevent unexpectedly loud output. It is useful in cases where you connect Media Center to a high-gain amplifier where unexpected output at full volume could damage equipment or your ears.

Volume protection does the following:

1. Makes it so that it isn't possible to increase the volume by more than 5% at a time (so accidentally clicking 100% on the slider will not go to 100%)
2. Makes it so that the volume can not be increased by more than 20% a second
3. Makes it so that starting playback if nothing has played for 30 minutes sets the volume to 20% (unless the volume is already lower)

 

[Bob Stern]

5% and 20% are ambiguous in the context of volume.  I wonder what they really mean in terms of dB.

[bibo01]

3 hours ago, Bob Stern said:

5% and 20% are ambiguous in the context of volume.  I wonder what they really mean in terms of dB.

I am sure that, if Miska thinks it's worth it, he will refine it in his own way...and be clear

[Miska]

4 hours ago, bibo01 said:

@Miska

(This is taken form JRiver wiki) Do you think that a similar feature could be implemented in HQP? 

It seems useful to me in situations like convolution, matrix and whenever HQP volume is used, e.g. a pure DSD DAC.

 

Volume Protection is a feature to prevent unexpectedly loud output. It is useful in cases where you connect Media Center to a high-gain amplifier where unexpected output at full volume could damage equipment or your ears.

Volume protection does the following:

1. Makes it so that it isn't possible to increase the volume by more than 5% at a time (so accidentally clicking 100% on the slider will not go to 100%)
2. Makes it so that the volume can not be increased by more than 20% a second
3. Makes it so that starting playback if nothing has played for 30 minutes sets the volume to 20% (unless the volume is already lower)

 

 

That's why there's the "Max" volume setting, so that it can be adjusted to a value that is still safe... Adjusting "Min" and "Max" to suitable values allows comfortable listening range and easier volume adjustments...

 

But it is worth noting that there is still possibility that some other application or the OS decides to put some sound out at different, potentially full, volume. For this reason my recommendation has been usually that it is safest to rely on some external hardware based limit for maximum volume...

[dean70]

...or good overdrive protection on the amps

[Hammer]

Hi, saw an interesting/inexpensive Raspberry Pi DAC on Amazon: the Wingoneer WX4000.  Does anyone know if I can use this as an NAA endpoint / DAC and connect directly to my pre-amp?  I guess since Pi3 can be used as NAA, I’m really wondering if the Pi3 NAA image has the drivers for the DAC.  It looks like it is connected to the Pi3 via HDMI.  Thanks!

[Miska]

3 hours ago, Hammer said:

Hi, saw an interesting/inexpensive Raspberry Pi DAC on Amazon: the Wingoneer WX4000.  Does anyone know if I can use this as an NAA endpoint / DAC and connect directly to my pre-amp?  I guess since Pi3 can be used as NAA, I’m really wondering if the Pi3 NAA image has the drivers for the DAC.  It looks like it is connected to the Pi3 via HDMI.  Thanks!

 

I didn't find any detailed information about this device anywhere...

 

HifiBerry and IQaudio DAC cards should work. I have HifiBerry DAC+ Pro.

 

[Hammer]

3 hours ago, Miska said:

 

I didn't find any detailed information about this device anywhere...

 

HifiBerry and IQaudio DAC cards should work. I have HifiBerry DAC+ Pro.

 

Hi, just tried it with DietPi and NAA and it works!  Although for some reason, I am limited to PCM even though the ess9018 supports DSD...

[bobh3501]

I am a new HQP user and experimenting with roon/hqplayer on a WS2016/AO build.  I am currently running roon on a NUC/ROCK but miss getting my hands dirty.  WIth much fiddling I have almost everything working.  I have a few test configurations I am trying out in my office system with a Chord DAC and I am also trying to get a configuration working using my Berkeley Alpha USB (my main system DAC is not USB).  Everything works great direct USBto the Chord, however I can't get HQP to recognize the Alpha USB.  I can select it from the dropdown device list but HQPlayer shows a big red volume knob.  After stopping and starting HQP, it comes up with a "no device" warning, so it is not even saving the dropdown device selection.  The Alpha works fine in WS2016 Windows "Sound".  The Alpha also works fine in Win10 with HQPlayer so it is related to WS2016.  Is this a thing, or do people have some ideas.  Thanks. 

BTW I do really like the sound I am getting from HQP in the office system and would like to try it in my main system.  I am hoping to use HCP upsampling PCM to my NOS DAC.  I have tried Roon upsampling and this led me to HQP.

[charmerci]

I'm trying out this program because someone suggested it as having great sound.

 

First, this thing is not very intuitive.

 

Anyway, a song will be playing and then in the last half of a song - sometimes, the song starts to distort and slow down! What's going on?

 

I'm running a fairly new laptop output to the USB ODAC.

[Miska]

15 minutes ago, charmerci said:

Anyway, a song will be playing and then in the last half of a song - sometimes, the song starts to distort and slow down! What's going on?

 

You are likely running out of CPU power... Amount of needed CPU power depends heavily on your settings.

 

[charmerci]

1 minute ago, Miska said:

 

You are likely running out of CPU power... Amount of needed CPU power depends heavily on your settings.

 

Wow. OK, will setting the rotary volume at half alleviate that?

[giordy60]

1 minute ago, charmerci said:

Wow. OK, will setting the rotary volume at half alleviate that?

the problem is not the volume but the set of filters and upsampling you have set

[charmerci]

Just now, giordy60 said:

the problem is not the volume but the set of filters and upsampling you have set

OK - I'm just going with default - so this is definitely not a plug and play or for anyone who's not good with computers then. Eliminating the non-enthusiasts, I guess.

[giordy60]

3 minutes ago, charmerci said:

 - so this is definitely not a plug and play .....

I would say no

even if reading the settings well is not so difficult, obviously a good machine is needed to run it.

[ted_b]

HQplayer is not a simple default music player, it is a sophisticated upsampling engine, used in conjunction with your dac to squeeze out the best sound that your dac is capable of producing.   But...just a few screenshots and we can get you set up for unattended performance.

 

What is your dac?

What is your music source, and from what platform (Windows, MAc, Linux)?

How powerful is your music server cpu (i.e what model is it)?

Where does your dac seem to sound the best to you, as all dacs exhibit pretty obvious sweetspots (i.e PCM at 192k, DSD at DSD256, etc etc).

 

The goal is to get HQPlayer to send any music you have to that dac at that sweetspot, so the server does all the processing/heavy lifting, and the dac does as little as it can (given that many dacs will still upsample internally but at least a lot of the heavy lifting is already done by much more powerful processes outside of the dac).

 

[charmerci]

2 minutes ago, giordy60 said:

I would say no

even if reading the settings well is not so difficult, obviously a good machine is needed to run it.

 

7 minutes ago, ted_b said:

What is your dac?

What is your music source, and from what platform (Windows, MAc, Linux)?

How powerful is your music server cpu (i.e what model is it)?

Where does your dac seem to sound the best to you, as all dacs exhibit pretty obvious sweetspots (i.e PCM at 192k, DSD at DSD256, etc etc).

 

 

I'm not sure it will work for me because I have just a 2016 inexpensive laptop (some Celeron cpu) with 4meg of RAM, Windows 10 and FLAC files (some AIFF, WAV and APE) mainly at Redbook.

 

Right now, I'm just testing into an ODAC but I also would be feeding into a Muse SPDIF converter into regular DAC.

[Hammer]

On 12/13/2017 at 5:22 PM, Miska said:

 

I didn't find any detailed information about this device anywhere...

 

HifiBerry and IQaudio DAC cards should work. I have HifiBerry DAC+ Pro.

 

Hi, here is the amazon link.  I set it up and can confirm DSD works (via i2s) and so it seems like good value.  But to my ears, it’s much better to have HQPlayer in the chain and so if a Pi NAA can play to it directly (I tried and it does not) that would be awesome!  Thanks.

 

https://www.amazon.com/WINGONEER-WX4000-Multifunction-Expansion-Raspberry/dp/B06XCDGS1B/ref=sr_1_16?ie=UTF8&qid=1513216305&sr=8-16&keywords=Pi+dac