HQ Player

[KCJay]

Hi Miska,

 

I did so and it did allow me to choose SDM in the main window, but it is still not upsampling DSD - just to 384 PCM.  The setting on the left next to where I selected "SDM"  is set to "Auto" - when I try to select in that window, I only get PCM settings (44.1, 88.2, etc)

 

 

[Miska]

14 minutes ago, KCJay said:

I did so and it did allow me to choose SDM in the main window, but it is still not upsampling DSD - just to 384 PCM.  The setting on the left next to where I selected "SDM"  is set to "Auto" - when I try to select in that window, I only get PCM settings (44.1, 88.2, etc)

 

 

 

That looks strange... Are you on the latest 3.25.2 version?

 

That could happen if the ASIO driver refuses to switch to DSD mode for some reason. Since you have also Roon running, assuming on the same computer. Have you disabled that same DAC as possible output zone in Roon? Because otherwise the two could conflict.

 

[KCJay]

Hi Miska, I did so and rebooted HQP - now it works!  Thanks so much for the fast support?

[KCJay]

Miska, spoke too soon.  The file I was playing through Roon was a 44.1 file that played DSD256.  It seems weird, but when I played a 88.2 file, it played fine, but now I cannot play any 96khz or 192khz files.  It shows them playing in Roon when I click on the signal path, but in HQP, although it shows Roon and the play button is lit, HQP is kind of flickering in the top left corner.  

[timtom]

 

1 hour ago, Miska said:

 

I would leave off the "Auto rate family" in this case. PCM settings look otherwise fine, but specifications say that maximum input word length to DAC2 HGC is 24-bit, so just in case you could select 24 as "DAC Bits".

 

For SDM (DSD) settings, select 44.1k x64 as Bit rate limit. You could also try if 48k x64 works with the Benchmark DAC. I don't know...

 

Later you could check which one you prefer ASDM7 or ASDM5 as modulator.

Thanks Miska!

[Miska]

41 minutes ago, KCJay said:

Miska, spoke too soon.  The file I was playing through Roon was a 44.1 file that played DSD256.  It seems weird, but when I played a 88.2 file, it played fine, but now I cannot play any 96khz or 192khz files.  It shows them playing in Roon when I click on the signal path, but in HQP, although it shows Roon and the play button is lit, HQP is kind of flickering in the top left corner.  

 

That happens if you have "Auto rate family" enabled. Most DACs and/or ASIO drivers don't support 48k-base DSD rates. You need to uncheck the "Auto rate family" to allow HQPlayer to convert 48/96/192k content to 44.1k x256 rate...

 

[sixman]

 

23 minutes ago, Miska said:

 

That happens if you have "Auto rate family" enabled. Most DACs and/or ASIO drivers don't support 48k-base DSD rates. You need to uncheck the "Auto rate family" to allow HQPlayer to convert 48/96/192k content to 44.1k x256 rate...

 

 

I had this problem even with "auto rate family"  unchecked when upsampling to 44.1k x256. Sometimes would get pops between tracks of different base rates.

 

If using Roon create a custom upsample and then upsample all 48 multiples in Roon to 24/352.8 before sending to HQP. That fixed all 48k (and multiples) to 44.1k dsd issues in hqp.

[KCJay]

2 hours ago, Miska said:

 

That happens if you have "Auto rate family" enabled. Most DACs and/or ASIO drivers don't support 48k-base DSD rates. You need to uncheck the "Auto rate family" to allow HQPlayer to convert 48/96/192k content to 44.1k x256 rate...

 

Thanks, Miska, it worked!

[goldiver]

8 hours ago, Miska said:

 

There's no genre view in HQPlayer itself. I think some of the remote control applications may have such.

 

 

Since coaxial S/PDIF is unidirectional, DAC properties cannot be detected automatically. This is one of the reasons to have those settings in HQPlayer, so one can tell what kind of properties the DAC has (maximum rate and word length).

 

Thanks for taking the time to answer. Regarding the 'genre' question, I mean the ability to have a folder view. My library is grouped into a dozen different folders according to genre. I just want to be able to view a tree to those individual folders. Is this possible?

[Miska]

11 minutes ago, goldiver said:

Thanks for taking the time to answer. Regarding the 'genre' question, I mean the ability to have a folder view. My library is grouped into a dozen different folders according to genre. I just want to be able to view a tree to those individual folders. Is this possible?

 

Depending on your OS you can do that with Windows File Explorer, or macOS Finder, or if you use Linux the one your desktop environment has, and then use drag-and-drop to HQPlayer window to queue content for playing. You can either drop folders or files. If you drop folders, entire subtree starting from that point is traversed.

 

[goldiver]

Thanks again. I think HQPlayer has the best sound quality from all the Windows players I've tried. (Windows Server 2016 for me). I do suggest that in future versions a Genre heading be added to the library. Otherwise for large digital libraries it's just an endless sprawl of albums. 

[bibo01]

1 hour ago, goldiver said:

Thanks again. I think HQPlayer has the best sound quality from all the Windows players I've tried. (Windows Server 2016 for me). I do suggest that in future versions a Genre heading be added to the library. Otherwise for large digital libraries it's just an endless sprawl of albums. 

As Miska mentioned previously, HQPDcontrol (an Android remote client) allows to have GENRE view, provided the albums are genre tagged.

[goldiver]

That was really helpful - thanks so much. Got it working, very convenient.

[simonklp]

On Sunday, December 16, 2018 at 10:18 PM, Miska said:

 

Some component updates and couple of new tools. But the only new feature is that it is running as RAM image which also makes it compress poorly, that's part of the reason for bigger size.

 

 

Hi @Miska, this update has not been stated on the "Main" page of your website. Is this RAM image only for Linux?

[Miska]

11 hours ago, simonklp said:

Hi @Miska, this update has not been stated on the "Main" page of your website. Is this RAM image only for Linux?

 

I don't always list small updates like image rebuilds or such. I also recently rebuilt all networkaudiod packages for Debian.

 

Yes, it is Linux...

[Bob Stern]

Have you decided on upgrade pricing for HQP 4 Pro?

 

p.s.  It would be helpful for posters in this thread to agree on a shorter abbreviation for HQP 4 Pro  

[Bob Stern]

Can HQP 4 Pro on a Mac capture audio from another application such as a web browser or the app from a streaming service such as Idagio or Qobuz?

 

I realize this can be accomplished using Soundflower to create a virtual audio device interposed between the source app and HQP, but Soundflower has been unstable on Macs for the last several versions of OS X.

[rickca]

17 minutes ago, Bob Stern said:

Have you decided on upgrade pricing for HQP 4 Pro?

I must have missed the announcement.  What is HQP 4 Pro and where can I read about it?

[arglebargle]

I doubt I would convert my whole library to DSD256 but I'm very excited by the possibilities of "offline" upsampling using HQP4. A quick test shows that its possible to upsample to filters my current machine is not capable of in realtime. Playing .dsf generated with non-2s xtr filters, and using only 10-15% CPU...amazing. I could also see using this to change rate families, or perhaps some kind of first-stage upsampling where further realtime is done by HQPlayer Embedded, etc. 

 

What's HQPlayer4 Pro you say? Clearly you don't follow Signalyst on Twitter or Facebook. Hopefully some intrepid forum member will make a dedicated thread. 

[rickca]

5 minutes ago, arglebargle said:

Clearly you don't follow Signalyst on Twitter or Facebook.

Thanks.  No I don't use social media at all.   Thanks for the link.

[Bob Stern]

I'm alerted within 24 hours of new releases of HQP by using the Visual Ping service to monitor changes to the web page <http://www.signalyst.com/index.html>

 

Visual Ping is free for checking 1 or 2 websites daily, $4/mo to check 10 websites daily, etc.  It is based in Canada.

https://visualping.io/pricing

[Bob Stern]

I would never use Facebook.  They undermine democracy and support murderous attacks worldwide.  Also, they promote inequality by allowing employers, banks, etc to selectively solicit employees, grant home loans, etc based on ethnicity, neighborhood, etc.

[Bob Stern]

I just checked HQP's Twitter site (even though I don’t have a Twitter account).  Its brief announcement of HQP 4 Pro does not mention receiving input from an audio device.  I discovered the latter from the PDF user guide included with the beta download.

[arglebargle]

Sorry. My comment was meant to be a general statement, not a response to anyone in particular. 

[LoryWiv]

The currently available information on Signalyst site about HQPlayer 4 Pro notes it's use as a mastering, post-production tool. Is it aexpected to also confer advantages over HQPlayer Desktop for more common consumer use as a multi-format, high quality, upsampling audio file player?