HQPlayer

[Confused]

Have you tried contacting Jussi for suggestions on what might work best for your setup?

No I haven't, not yet anyway.  I was thinking about posting on the HQPlayer thread on Computer Audio to see if I could pick up any tips or suggestions as a 'newbie'.  Are you suggesting I should try emailing Jussi directly?  Thinking about this, this might be a good idea, especially as the 'free tial but not signed up and parted with cash phase' does hold a tiny bit of financial leverage.

[petrik]

If you upsample to 192kHz NS9 is the one that I see most people use.

Some of the Poly-Sinc filters are often the ones being used by HQ Player users.

Yeah, I agree on this. I do like upsampling to 192khz using poly-sinc and NS9. Also the xtr sounds nice.

[ledesc]

Do you know if there is a possibility on the windows version to also stream from Qobuz, Tidal ?
Thanks.

[petrik]

Do you know if there is a possibility on the windows version to also stream from Qobuz, Tidal ?
Thanks.

You can listen Tidal by using Roon with the HQPlayer.

I am not sure about Qobuz. It might be possible via Kodi but I have never tried that.

[Confused]

If you upsample to 192kHz NS9 is the one that I see most people use.

Some of the Poly-Sinc filters are often the ones being used by HQ Player users.

I run Poly-Sinc-XTR-MP with NS9 and upsampling to 192kHz and output is via AIR to my 220.

@Confused I see you wrote Poly-Sinc-2s are you using DSD out also? I dont really get the hang of "minphaseFIR / NS1 / poly-sinc-2s" as "minphaseFIR / NS1" is for PCM and "poly-sinc-2s" is when you are outputing DSD.

I'm just trying Poly-Sinc-XTR-MP with NS9 and upsampling to 192kHz now, it is certainly digging out those finer details!

As for my post yesterday re poly-sinc-2s, no I have not tried upsampling to DSD yet.  It is more of a case of me steaming in head first yesterday and just trying things, without reading the instructions or fully understanding what I was doing!  So yes, a stupid post looking back!  It is all making more sense now, I will be 'away from my system' next week, but I do plan to at least print off the HQPlayer manual and do a little bit of studying.  I will have some time to experiment next weekend, hopefully with a better understanding of what I'm actually doing!

[octaviars]

If you upsample to 192kHz NS9 is the one that I see most people use.

Some of the Poly-Sinc filters are often the ones being used by HQ Player users.

I run Poly-Sinc-XTR-MP with NS9 and upsampling to 192kHz and output is via AIR to my 220.

@Confused I see you wrote Poly-Sinc-2s are you using DSD out also? I dont really get the hang of "minphaseFIR / NS1 / poly-sinc-2s" as "minphaseFIR / NS1" is for PCM and "poly-sinc-2s" is when you are outputing DSD.

I'm just trying Poly-Sinc-XTR-MP with NS9 and upsampling to 192kHz now, it is certainly digging out those finer details!

As for my post yesterday re poly-sinc-2s, no I have not tried upsampling to DSD yet.  It is more of a case of me steaming in head first yesterday and just trying things, without reading the instructions or fully understanding what I was doing!  So yes, a stupid post looking back!  It is all making more sense now, I will be 'away from my system' next week, but I do plan to at least print off the HQPlayer manual and do a little bit of studying.  I will have some time to experiment next weekend, hopefully with a better understanding of what I'm actually doing!

At first HQ Player is a bit confusing to setup but after some fiddeling around it is rather easy to handle. But there are som settings that one needs to get right to get the best of it.

[nicoludio]

Have you tried contacting Jussi for suggestions on what might work best for your setup?

No I haven't, not yet anyway.  I was thinking about posting on the HQPlayer thread on Computer Audio to see if I could pick up any tips or suggestions as a 'newbie'.  Are you suggesting I should try emailing Jussi directly?  Thinking about this, this might be a good idea, especially as the 'free tial but not signed up and parted with cash phase' does hold a tiny bit of financial leverage.

If you post on CA, you might be "reprimanded" and asked to do a search and read the thread, etc. Having said that, most are generally helpful and Jussi does respond quite quickly. If you can PM him, you might get a more detailed and focussed response.

[Confused]

Time for an update regarding my trials with HQPlayer, this is promted in part by @LBameule's recent post on another thread, but I was planning to write something anyway.  I find that it is useful write up your observations periodically as a kind of archive record of your thoughts, I quite often refer back to old posts I have made, it is surprisingly useful sometimes.

Anyway, if you take the long road from being HQPlayer 'Newbie' to HQPlayer 'expert', I would say that I am still firmly in the first half of that journey, but learning all the time.  At first I was doing many comparisons between upsampling to DSD vs PCM.  To be clear, this was using the microRendu and Mutec MC3+USB, so the Mutec ends up doing a final DSD to PCM conversion, before reclocking the PCM and sending to the Devialet.  All source material was 16/44.1.  There was a lot I liked when trying DSD, maybe sounding more natural, in some instances slightly magical, improvements to sound staging, lots of good stuff.  However, I was fairly consistently finding DSD upsampling to be a little less dynamic and also I was finding a clearly discernible loss of bass definition and accuracy.  After much experimentation I made the decision that DSD upsampling was not for me, and that I should spend my time concentrating on finding the best PCM filters.  Basically, I could not live with the loss of bass definition, that said, a different system, different tastes in music, there is some real magic in DSD upsampling, so it may well work for others.

So I then started running through all the PCM filter options.  Eventually I found that I likes the various 'poly-sinc' filters, poly-sinc-mp, poly-sinc-shrt, and poly sinc-shrt-mp.  These ended up on a short list with a couple of other options.  When running through my short list I did have some 'wow' moments, those kind of moments when you really start hearing those details, and a new insight into familiar music emerges, these came with poly-sinc-ext (which is a linear phase filter).  After some careful listening, I think the 'audiophile magic' that came from poly-sinc-ext is basically a manifestation of slightly better upper mid to treble definition.  This is about as far as I had got by last weekend, I had not yet has time to experiment properly with the various 'dither' options.  It is interesting to note that after I had been running through the various filters and posting a few comments and questions on 'Computer Audiophile', Dr Tone (Late of this parish) posts something along the lines of 'I found poly-sinc-ext NS9 worked best with the Devialet'. (Dr Tone has now moved to the pleasant land of McIntosh and blue VU meters)  I have a lot of respect for Dr Tone, but is fair to say that there have been a few things we have disagreed upon over the years, however, I do find it interesting that we both pretty much indipendantly found poly-sinc-ext to work well with a Devialet.  For the Record, he has moved to different settings with his new McIntosh rig.  Anyway, I knew that last weekend there would be much time to listen to music but no opportunity to play with HQPLayer filters, so HQPlayer was set to poly-sinc-ext NS9 and much casual listening to whatever anyone wanted to listen to ensued.  All I can say is that with all kinds of music everything sounded great.  The 1000 Pro has sounded excellent from day 1, but right on the margins there have been thoughts that something is not quite right, that tiny bit of upper mid digital fuzz that gets you thinking that the Pro is so revealing that it needs a better source, maybe I do need an Aurender N10 or dCS upsampler or something.  The effect of all these HQPlayer filters are on the margins, small tweaks, often just discernible or maybe just discernible, but last weekend I found myself simply enjoying the music, and indeed enjoying the music beautifully reproduced without worrying about the system.  Lets put it this way, in absolute terms, I do not think HQplayer has done that much to change the sound quality, it has made a change, but it is small.  However, that change has eliminated some of the tiny little annoying niggles that get to you sometimes.  The niggles too are small, but they can have a big effect on whether or not you sit down and get into the music or if you sit down and get worry about if the system is quite right.  The effect of these tiny little changes, if you get it right, can actually be huge.


So that is where I am now, I still have not had any time to properly experiment with the 'Dither' settings, and perhaps revisit the 'minimum phase' poly-sinc filters versus the 'linear phase' options.  Although I can take my time with this now as I am pretty happy with poly-sinc-ext NS9.  Also, I see DSD as unfinished business.  Aural memory is notoriously hopless, but notwithstanding this, I cannot help but think back to the demo I had of the dCS Upsampler and clock.  During one demo of this with a D800, the dCS rep was on hand.  He said it would sound best feeding the Devialet DSD64, I argued that the Devialet ADH is PCM, so this is converting to DSD simply for the Devialet to convert back to PCM, pointless and inefficient.  So, we ran though a playlist upsmpled to DSD 64, then upsampled to PMC.  From what I recall of the demo, Upsampled to DSD sounded best.

So, either my memory of the dCS demo is poor, or the dSC DSD upsampling does not suffer the loss of dynamics and bass definition that I find with HQPLayer.  I would need another demo of the dSC to sort this one out for sure.  The only problem here is that if I do request another demo of the thing, I will start to become obliged to buy it!  Oh well....  One thing I may try when I get some time and sufficient motivation is to try HQPlayer DSD upsampling via AIR, so using the Devialet DSD MAT Engine to do the DSD to PCM conversion, rather than the Mutec, which is more equivalent to the dCS demo.  That can wait though, I am more than happy with the more purist PCM only approach, poly-sinc-ext for now, and the next trials will be to establish what these 'Dither' settings might do.

[brit]

Time for an update regarding my trials with HQPlayer, this is promted in part by @LBameule's recent post on another thread, but I was planning to write something anyway.  I find that it is useful write up your observations periodically as a kind of archive record of your thoughts, I quite often refer back to old posts I have made, it is surprisingly useful sometimes.

Anyway, if you take the long road from being HQPlayer 'Newbie' to HQPlayer 'expert', I would say that I am still firmly in the first half of that journey, but learning all the time.  At first I was doing many comparisons between upsampling to DSD vs PCM.  To be clear, this was using the microRendu and Mutec MC3+USB, so the Mutec ends up doing a final DSD to PCM conversion, before reclocking the PCM and sending to the Devialet.  All source material was 16/44.1.  There was a lot I liked when trying DSD, maybe sounding more natural, in some instances slightly magical, improvements to sound staging, lots of good stuff.  However, I was fairly consistently finding DSD upsampling to be a little less dynamic and also I was finding a clearly discernible loss of bass definition and accuracy.  After much experimentation I made the decision that DSD upsampling was not for me, and that I should spend my time concentrating on finding the best PCM filters.  Basically, I could not live with the loss of bass definition, that said, a different system, different tastes in music, there is some real magic in DSD upsampling, so it may well work for others.

So I then started running through all the PCM filter options.  Eventually I found that I likes the various 'poly-sinc' filters, poly-sinc-mp, poly-sinc-shrt, and poly sinc-shrt-mp.  These ended up on a short list with a couple of other options.  When running through my short list I did have some 'wow' moments, those kind of moments when you really start hearing those details, and a new insight into familiar music emerges, these came with poly-sinc-ext (which is a linear phase filter).  After some careful listening, I think the 'audiophile magic' that came from poly-sinc-ext is basically a manifestation of slightly better upper mid to treble definition.  This is about as far as I had got by last weekend, I had not yet has time to experiment properly with the various 'dither' options.  It is interesting to note that after I had been running through the various filters and posting a few comments and questions on 'Computer Audiophile', Dr Tone (Late of this parish) posts something along the lines of 'I found poly-sinc-ext NS9 worked best with the Devialet'. (Dr Tone has now moved to the pleasant land of McIntosh and blue VU meters)  I have a lot of respect for Dr Tone, but is fair to say that there have been a few things we have disagreed upon over the years, however, I do find it interesting that we both pretty much indipendantly found poly-sinc-ext to work well with a Devialet.  For the Record, he has moved to different settings with his new McIntosh rig.  Anyway, I knew that last weekend there would be much time to listen to music but no opportunity to play with HQPLayer filters, so HQPlayer was set to poly-sinc-ext NS9 and much casual listening to whatever anyone wanted to listen to ensued.  All I can say is that with all kinds of music everything sounded great.  The 1000 Pro has sounded excellent from day 1, but right on the margins there have been thoughts that something is not quite right, that tiny bit of upper mid digital fuzz that gets you thinking that the Pro is so revealing that it needs a better source, maybe I do need an Aurender N10 or dCS upsampler or something.  The effect of all these HQPlayer filters are on the margins, small tweaks, often just discernible or maybe just discernible, but last weekend I found myself simply enjoying the music, and indeed enjoying the music beautifully reproduced without worrying about the system.  Lets put it this way, in absolute terms, I do not think HQplayer has done that much to change the sound quality, it has made a change, but it is small.  However, that change has eliminated some of the tiny little annoying niggles that get to you sometimes.  The niggles too are small, but they can have a big effect on whether or not you sit down and get into the music or if you sit down and get worry about if the system is quite right.  The effect of these tiny little changes, if you get it right, can actually be huge.


So that is where I am now, I still have not had any time to properly experiment with the 'Dither' settings, and perhaps revisit the 'minimum phase' poly-sinc filters versus the 'linear phase' options.  Although I can take my time with this now as I am pretty happy with poly-sinc-ext NS9.  Also, I see DSD as unfinished business.  Aural memory is notoriously hopless, but notwithstanding this, I cannot help but think back to the demo I had of the dCS Upsampler and clock.  During one demo of this with a D800, the dCS rep was on hand.  He said it would sound best feeding the Devialet DSD64, I argued that the Devialet ADH is PCM, so this is converting to DSD simply for the Devialet to convert back to PCM, pointless and inefficient.  So, we ran though a playlist upsmpled to DSD 64, then upsampled to PMC.  From what I recall of the demo, Upsampled to DSD sounded best.

So, either my memory of the dCS demo is poor, or the dSC DSD upsampling does not suffer the loss of dynamics and bass definition that I find with HQPLayer.  I would need another demo of the dSC to sort this one out for sure.  The only problem here is that if I do request another demo of the thing, I will start to become obliged to buy it!  Oh well....  One thing I may try when I get some time and sufficient motivation is to try HQPlayer DSD upsampling via AIR, so using the Devialet DSD MAT Engine to do the DSD to PCM conversion, rather than the Mutec, which is more equivalent to the dCS demo.  That can wait though, I am more than happy with the more purist PCM only approach, poly-sinc-ext for now, and the next trials will be to establish what these 'Dither' settings might do.

Hi Confused, many thanks for this very interesting, and informative, update on your HQPlayer experience - always very refreshing to read other peoples experiences. I have fought shy of entering this particular arena as the thought of any form of "room correction" or "music shaping" has left me a bit cold and non-plussed - the very term "poly-sinc-ext" leaves my untutored mind reeling!

I am now firmly wedded to ROON, and since the recent ROON/AIR integration, even more so (I am even going to give ROCK a go next week, when back home!). ROON now has both an Equalistion function, and room correction built into its DSP (room correction requires the downloading of room analysis software and files), but I might give this a go at some stage - plenty of guidance on the ROON Community forum (with plenty of input from our own Hi_fiswlon and Dr Tone). I can not recall whether you had tried ROON or not, and  wonder what it is that gives HQPlayer its particular interest - though I believe that ROON and HQPlayer can work together? It may be my ignorance of what HQPlayer can achieve, or more likely my fear of it, but what can it do that ROON can't?

David

[Confused]

David - Let me put it this way, I would not be going anywhere near HQPlayer if it was not for it's link with Roon. In fact, when I started the free trial of HQPlayer my main concern was it invoking system issues, reducing usability and stability and so on. Indeed, reading the HQPlayer thread on CA genuinely got me worried about all this. However, in my case, once set up, I find it just works. Fire up Roon and HQPlayer on the PC, music plays. Having said all that, when I tried the integrated Roon AIR yesterday, I was more than a little surprised just how good it was, so if you want to keep it simple, you are not missing much sticking with Roon AIR to be honest.

So what are you actually missing? It is the ability to 'fine tune' your system with the various filter / dither options. This works very well for me, I like it. Although for some I can see it is a step to far, might be considered pointless, might upset some purist thoughts, or whatever. But now I have found some settings that work for me, I can just turn everything on and enjoy the music. It is hassle working out the settings, but once set up to your liking it is then hassle free, and for me delivers absolutely superb results, and let's be honest here, I haven't really got a clue what poly-sync-ext means either!