Upsampling in Roon 1.3

[GuillaumeB]

I have a win10 desktop computer which is running Roon Server, HQPlayer and AIR. Everything works fine up to 192khz and sound quality is great

Great! Have you tried using HQPlayer to upsample 44.1kHz to DSD?

Guillaume

[octaviars]

I have a win10 desktop computer which is running Roon Server, HQPlayer and AIR. Everything works fine up to 192khz and sound quality is great

Great! Have you tried using HQPlayer to upsample 44.1kHz to DSD?

Guillaume

I think that Roon will evolve their dsp and do other filters and other modulators in the future but if they will be as good as HQ player well time will tell. 

I think I will wait and se what Devialets streamerboard will bring.

[GuillaumeB]

I have a win10 desktop computer which is running Roon Server, HQPlayer and AIR. Everything works fine up to 192khz and sound quality is great

Great! Have you tried using HQPlayer to upsample 44.1kHz to DSD?

Guillaume

I think that Roon will evolve their dsp and do other filters and other modulators in the future but if they will be as good as HQ player well time will tell. 

I think I will wait and se what Devialets streamerboard will bring.

You could be in for rather a long wait!!! 

Guillaume

[octaviars]

Great! Have you tried using HQPlayer to upsample 44.1kHz to DSD?

Guillaume

I think that Roon will evolve their dsp and do other filters and other modulators in the future but if they will be as good as HQ player well time will tell. 

I think I will wait and se what Devialets streamerboard will bring.

You could be in for rather a long wait!!! 

Guillaume

Well I dont have any rush to get something else than the Roon AIR situation I use today. I sold my microRendu and Mutec and went with AIR instead as I think it is very small difference in sound but less stuff to worry about and less cables and powersupplys to worry about.
I might build a dedicated win10 with Fidelizer and run Roon server and AIR on it just to perhaps get a bit more out of the setup than today. Throw in optical FMC between the PC and Devialet, get a Paul Hynes PSU to power the stuff that runs on DC power and be done with that.

[petrik]

I have a win10 desktop computer which is running Roon Server, HQPlayer and AIR. Everything works fine up to 192khz and sound quality is great

Great! Have you tried using HQPlayer to upsample 44.1kHz to DSD?

Guillaume

Yep, I tried HQPlayer's upsampling to DSD64 today. I didn't do any critical listening yet, but generally speaking it sounds great.

I haven't been particularly impressed by Roon's upsampling features. I think the sound quality is slightly better when Roon's upsampling is set off. This is not the case with HQPlayer. HQPlayer definitely does a better job in upsampling.

Functionally the only problem that I have noticed when upsampling to DSD64 is that there seems to come a soft click/crackle sound from a left channel always when a new track begins. I think it's just because AIR 3 isn't yet officially supporting DSD64. At least this is how I understood Sébastien's message below:

Sébastien Faure December 08, 2016 16:18
Dear all,

RC 3.0.2 for windows and RC 3.0.1 for MacOs have been published.

Please post here your feedback.

Theses RCs are focussed on the white noise and sounds delivery, all others aspects are not covered yet (DSD, Screen size, etc..) but are still in progress from our side. As soon as the CORE functions are close and delivered as expected we will dive into other aspects pending.

This is the final stage before issuing the final release.

Cheers, 

Seb

[octaviars]

I have a win10 desktop computer which is running Roon Server, HQPlayer and AIR. Everything works fine up to 192khz and sound quality is great

Great! Have you tried using HQPlayer to upsample 44.1kHz to DSD?

Guillaume

Yep, I tried HQPlayer's upsampling to DSD64 today. I didn't do any critical listening yet, but generally speaking it sounds great.

I haven't been particularly impressed by Roon's upsampling features. I think the sound quality is slightly better when Roon's upsampling is set off. This is not the case with HQPlayer. HQPlayer definitely does a better job in upsampling.

Functionally the only problem that I have noticed when upsampling to DSD64 is that there seems to come a soft click/crackle sound from a left channel always when a new track begins. I think it's just because AIR 3 isn't yet officially supporting DSD64. At least this is how I understood Sébastien's message below:

Sébastien Faure December 08, 2016 16:18
Dear all,

RC 3.0.2 for windows and RC 3.0.1 for MacOs have been published.

Please post here your feedback.

Theses RCs are focussed on the white noise and sounds delivery, all others aspects are not covered yet (DSD, Screen size, etc..) but are still in progress from our side. As soon as the CORE functions are close and delivered as expected we will dive into other aspects pending.

This is the final stage before issuing the final release.

Cheers, 

Seb

The soft crack or pop between songs when you play DSD is on all inputs not just AIR or so it was when I tried USB and AES. I think it is when the MAT switches from PCM to DSD and this happens between every song even if it is two DSD songs so it seems to me.

I know there are some discusion on Roon forum regarding the quality of the up-sampling and that HQ Player is better at upsampling than Roon. I think Roon will come with more options in the up-sampling section but if they will be as good as HQ Player time will tell.

Do yoy feel that HQ Player is doing a better up-sampling than Devialet?

What filters and sample-rate do you use with your HQ Player Devialet setup?

I am curious to test HQ player in my setup

Edit: I installed HQ Player to try it is it right that the test version does mute the sound some second and then play again? Little bit hard to test it when it does like this, I dont feel like paying 150€ without a proper test period

[Hifi_swlon]

I know there are a lot of discusion on Roon forum regarding the quality of the up-sampling and that HQ Player is better at upsampling than Roon. ...

Are there?

[octaviars]

I know there are some discusion on Roon forum regarding the quality of the up-sampling and that HQ Player is better at upsampling than Roon. ...

Are there?

There is one thread were there was many discusions about this but some got deleted as it had nothing to do about Roon.

[petrik]

The soft crack or pop between songs when you play DSD is on all inputs not just AIR or so it was when I tried USB and AES. I think it is when the MAT switches from PCM to DSD and this happens between every song even if it is two DSD songs so it seems to me.

I know there are some discusion on Roon forum regarding the quality of the up-sampling and that HQ Player is better at upsampling than Roon. I think Roon will come with more options in the up-sampling section but if they will be as good as HQ Player time will tell.

Do yoy feel that HQ Player is doing a better up-sampling than Devialet?

What filters and sample-rate do you use with your HQ Player Devialet setup?

I am curious to test HQ player in my setup

Edit: I installed HQ Player to try it is it right that the test version does mute the sound some second and then play again? Little bit hard to test it when it does like this, I dont feel like paying 150€ without a proper test period

Thanks a lot for explaining a reason for the soft crack/pop sound between songs. Nice to learn new things! 
Initially I also got some dropouts/muted sound but I got it solved by defining a buffer time of 100 ms in the HQPlayer.

Currently I'm using following settings when upsampling to 192khz:
- Filter: Poly-sinc-shrt-mp
- Dither: NS9

I have no idea whether there is a better sounding setting available but this already sounds quite nice. Fast and clear with a great bass definition. Perhaps the most obvious difference there is in the bass definition. I would be happy to hear whether you could find something better. Of course the differences are not huge or dramatic, but hey, this software only costs 150 euros. I have spent a lot more on cables and tweaks... 

With DSD64 I have tried following settings but I didn't do any critical listening with these yet.
- Oversampling: Poly-sinc-shrt-mp and Poly-sinc-shrt-mp-2s
- Modulator: ASDM7 and DSD7

[petrik]

Do yoy feel that HQ Player is doing a better up-sampling than Devialet?

I'm not sure about this. For sure it sounds a bit different when using HQPlayer, but I need to do more listening before doing any conclusions.