[music_man]

i do not know about rednet. rob got mad at me for some reason. then today he says they replaced the startech with a new version. that does not always work. well, lo and be hold it did not work with the codex. the codex is actually rather finicky about usb signal. play with it enough and it will not handshake. just read "usb" on the display. for instance i have a dac here that can take a 20m non powered usb run. way out of usb spec. the codex will lose signal at just 18 feet. 16 some feet is the 5m spec. so it is not as tolerant as some others. the startech would not work and he got mad. depending on what aoip entails i will look into it. meanwhile i am telling you guys a very high quality usb chain, no ethernet just usb sounds incredible! the codex is not every dac. the usb i outlined is good enough for me. it sounds wonderful to me. i will put this up against any comers with a stock usb chain. sure, the msb is better but the qx-5 amazingly is not leaps and bounds better. no doubt, they come from the same house. the qx-5 is still somewhat better dac and has other features so i am by no means saying the codex replaces it. i was floored the difference ultra clean usb made. what really killed the codex is that xmos receiver you have to do all this.
 
btw, sorry for other post i got carried away.

 

[austinpop]

Fellow Codex-heads,

Have any of you tried HQPlayer with your Codex? What did you find to be the optimal configuration?

The conventional wisdom appears to be to upsample to the highest supported rate (in the case of the Codex, DSD 128 or PCM 384), whereas my inclination is to trust that Ayre know what they're doing, and just pass through the native sample rate of the stream.

Just curious if any have tried HQPlayer with the Codex?

Please don't answer in abstract terms - there are entire threads debating HQPlayer. I specifically want to know how (or if) it improves the Codex for you.

 

[mink70]

  Fellow Codex-heads,

Have any of you tried HQPlayer with your Codex? What did you find to be the optimal configuration?

The conventional wisdom appears to be to upsample to the highest supported rate (in the case of the Codex, DSD 128 or PCM 384), whereas my inclination is to trust that Ayre know what they're doing, and just pass through the native sample rate of the stream.

Just curious if any have tried HQPlayer with the Codex?

Please don't answer in abstract terms - there are entire threads debating HQPlayer. I specifically want to know how (or if) it improves the Codex for you.

Hey austinpop—
 
I use HQPlayer with my Codex. I find that I prefer its sound—and not by a small margin—to Roon, Amarra and Audirvana+. Of course the UX is a bear to use and it's very processor intensive. To use Roon as a remote application for HQPlayer, you need either a very powerful computer (like a quad-core i7 with lots of RAM) or two computers. But, in my experience, the SQ justifies the hassle. 
 
To answer your question, upsampling PCM files to DSD 128 sounds best to me. (On the other hand, I prefer DSD files without upsampling.) In fact, I'd say that the magic of HQPlayer really only comes out when you upsample. I should also say that I' haven't been a fan of upsampling before getting HQPlayer. Playing the file straight through always sounded best to me, and still does in Audirvana. But in HQPlayer, upsampled files sound unambiguously better to me—it's not a subtle difference. And of course there are various filters you can play with—my favorites are regular poly sinc for PCM and DSD7 for DSD. 
 
Hope this helps,
Alex

 

[austinpop]

Hey austinpop—

I use HQPlayer with my Codex. I find that I prefer its sound—and not by a small margin—to Roon, Amarra and Audirvana+. Of course the UX is a bear to use and it's very processor intensive. To use Roon as a remote application for HQPlayer, you need either a very powerful computer (like a quad-core i7 with lots of RAM) or two computers. But, in my experience, the SQ justifies the hassle. 

To answer your question, upsampling PCM files to DSD 128 sounds best to me. (On the other hand, I prefer DSD files without upsampling.) In fact, I'd say that the magic of HQPlayer really only comes out when you upsample. I should also say that I' haven't been a fan of upsampling before getting HQPlayer. Playing the file straight through always sounded best to me, and still does in Audirvana. But in HQPlayer, upsampled files sound unambiguously better to me—it's not a subtle difference. And of course there are various filters you can play with—my favorites are regular poly sinc for PCM and DSD7 for DSD. 

Hope this helps,
Alex

Thank you! That is exactly the kind of info I was looking for.

Now you have me intrigued.

 

[austinpop]

  Hey austinpop—
 
I use HQPlayer with my Codex. I find that I prefer its sound—and not by a small margin—to Roon, Amarra and Audirvana+. Of course the UX is a bear to use and it's very processor intensive. To use Roon as a remote application for HQPlayer, you need either a very powerful computer (like a quad-core i7 with lots of RAM) or two computers. But, in my experience, the SQ justifies the hassle. 
 
To answer your question, upsampling PCM files to DSD 128 sounds best to me. (On the other hand, I prefer DSD files without upsampling.) In fact, I'd say that the magic of HQPlayer really only comes out when you upsample. I should also say that I' haven't been a fan of upsampling before getting HQPlayer. Playing the file straight through always sounded best to me, and still does in Audirvana. But in HQPlayer, upsampled files sound unambiguously better to me—it's not a subtle difference. And of course there are various filters you can play with—my favorites are regular poly sinc for PCM and DSD7 for DSD. 
 
Hope this helps,
Alex

 
I have a machine available on which to try it. The specs are:

1. Processor: Core i7-4770 @ 3.4GHz, quad core
2. Memory: 12GB RAM
3. Graphics: NViDIA GeForce GT 635, IGB
4. Disk: 256GB Samsung Evo (system), 1TB 7200RPM for music
5. OS: Windows 10 Enterprise

 
Hoping that's powerful enough for HQPlayer and Roon?

 

[music_man]

i cannot get hq player to work on two machines but these are with windows insider previews. that could be why. don't know. however i found the codex works best when files are played at their native format. charlie hansen agrees.for what it is worth. i would tend to trust him though since he designed it.
 
i found  a clean usb chain makes a big difference. all kinds of tweaks i found simply degraded the sound. i would simply run jriver with no dsp and the files in their native format using wasapi.
that is just me. everyone else is of course welcome to do as they please.

 

[austinpop]

  Hey austinpop—
 
I use HQPlayer with my Codex. I find that I prefer its sound—and not by a small margin—to Roon, Amarra and Audirvana+. Of course the UX is a bear to use and it's very processor intensive. To use Roon as a remote application for HQPlayer, you need either a very powerful computer (like a quad-core i7 with lots of RAM) or two computers. But, in my experience, the SQ justifies the hassle. 
 
To answer your question, upsampling PCM files to DSD 128 sounds best to me. (On the other hand, I prefer DSD files without upsampling.) In fact, I'd say that the magic of HQPlayer really only comes out when you upsample. I should also say that I' haven't been a fan of upsampling before getting HQPlayer. Playing the file straight through always sounded best to me, and still does in Audirvana. But in HQPlayer, upsampled files sound unambiguously better to me—it's not a subtle difference. And of course there are various filters you can play with—my favorites are regular poly sinc for PCM and DSD7 for DSD. 
 
Hope this helps,
Alex

 
Hi Alex, 
 
Can we get down to brass tacks? Would you tell me exactly what settings you modify in HQP to achieve what you said in words? Here's what I have so far. This does no upsampling of PCM or DSD.
 

 
 
 

 
Any info would be much appreciated!!

 

[mink70]

   
Hi Alex, 
 
Can we get down to brass tacks? Would you tell me exactly what settings you modify in HQP to achieve what you said in words? Here's what I have so far. This does no upsampling of PCM or DSD.
 

 
 
 

 
Any info would be much appreciated!!

Austinpop, the preferences look very much like mine. I believe upsampling is forced on the main screen, in the four drop-downs. I use, going from (left to right),  poly-sinc-2s/DSD7/5644800/SDM (DSD). This should force all PCM to be upsampled to DSD128. If you want DSD files to be played back without upsampling, which sounds best to me, go to the "file" menu at the top of the screen, choose "DSDIFF/DSD settings," and check the box that says "DirectSDM." That should do it. Please report back about what you hear. 

 

[austinpop]

  Austinpop, the preferences look very much like mine. I believe upsampling is forced on the main screen, in the four drop-downs. I use, going from (left to right),  poly-sinc-2s/DSD7/5644800/SDM (DSD). This should force all PCM to be upsampled to DSD128. If you want DSD files to be played back without upsampling, which sounds best to me, go to the "file" menu at the top of the screen, choose "DSDIFF/DSD settings," and check the box that says "DirectSDM." That should do it. Please report back about what you hear. 

 
OK thanks, I will.
 
Oh, one other question. What about PCM at higher resolutions like 24/192, 24/352.8 and 24/384? Wouldn't converting those to DSD128 be more like downsampling?

 

[mink70]

   
OK thanks, I will.
 
Oh, one other question. What about PCM at higher resolutions like 24/192, 24/352.8 and 24/384? Wouldn't converting those to DSD128 be more like downsampling?

I convert high-rez PCM to DSD as well. I find it works very well. My advice: don't worry so much about the theory and just give it a listen. It won't take you long to figure out what you prefer.

 

[music_man]

jplay,hq player, fidelizer al crash. perhaps jriver is blocking them. he hates those. tbh, jriver does all of that anyways. at least with a plugin or two. i would not go to crazy on usb even though i sort of did but stuck with solely usb. i do not change it into packets. i would not try to tweak an ordinary pc too much either. waste of time imo. you will do better with a dedicated music server. much better. at that point i would be looking at something like the qx-5 twenty anyways. which i also have. so you can use a native cat6 connection without any conversion. converting to packets and back to me sounds much worse. others as well. ymmv. i just do not know why all the "tweakers" crash here. as i said with ayre equipment i would play files in their native resolution. again, ymmv.

 

[music_man]

well i wanted to try microrendu and psa lanrover. could not get either of those to work either. that, may be very old streamlength drivers we have. don't know. i am unhappy hqplayer does not work. got fidelizer working though. i know no one can troubleshoot my pc in this thread nor would i ask them to. i have no idea why these things do not work. i am lucky i have sound at all i suppose. also beter gear is going to make more of a difference. i am happy with my sound. the weakspot of the codex is the usb board. you can put garbage right into it and it will output garbage. most pc's are full of garbage. so i tweaked the usb chain somewhat but did not go crazy. that is honestly very important with the codex. although a better amp,headphones,speakers etc isat that point going to make much more difference than tweaking software imo. i could be wrong though. i heard no difference with fidelizer. i think if your usb hardware chain is good enough these programs shall make little difference. i honestly do not know that for sure though. if hqplayer is better than fidelizer i would like to at least try it but alas, it does not work here. i wish i could get the microrendu to work but my understanding is it just does not suport jriver? jriver is my favorite app. just a personal preference. on a mac you could do better but on a pc roon etc. has more features but i do not think better sound. if anyone wants to help me to get these things to work i would really appreciate that. although i know it is a long shot. there are simply too many varibles in windows to troubleshot this in this thread afaik. just feel bad this stuff is not working for me. i will try anything. i am not against anything either. if something sounds better to me i will be the first to say so. although according to charlie hansen you should use the codex in native format. i agree from my experiments. if upsampling sounds better to anyone than by all means do it! i have a feeling the things i am playing with simply do not jive with jriver. i do not wish to switch programs though as i really like jriver. both the sound and ui. i am betting that is what my issue is. are you guys using hqplayer with jriver? than at least i will know it is something else.
 
Never mind. I did not realize HQPlayer is a media player. Not a tweaking program like Fidelizer. No wonder it conflicts with JRiver installed. MicroRendu works by DLNA in JR but is badly crippled. Really need to run Roon. As far as not seeing USB output device with PSA LanRover I read a lot of people had this issue. Oh well. I am very happy with the sound here anyways. I am sorry I bothered you guys about all this. My bad.
 
just one thing: for the codex and usb i am stopping at the uptone regen and js-2. i could drive myself crazy both shopping and figuring things out. i would just rather listen to it already. i think i am completely satisfied with the codex setup here going into the ax-5 twenty. i know there is even better sound. i have it downstairs. this is certainly within the realm of reference quality. i really am happy. the lanrover may be better but i could not get it to jive and i am done fiddling. usb is plug n play, ethernet is not. i don't have anything more to do. if i can help anyone with questions in this thread that i can answer i will gladly do so.

 

[music_man]

Co0dex all the sudden was putting out garbled audio. unplugged ac for 20 sec and all is fine. i hope this is not a sign of things to come.

 

[ToddRaymond]

Co0dex all the sudden was putting out garbled audio. unplugged ac for 20 sec and all is fine. i hope this is not a sign of things to come.

Crap. Though the culprit may be something upstream....

 

[music_man]

I do not think It was because I immediately plugged in the qx-5 twenty sitting on the floor up here. i just happened to have it up here last night. it worked fine without shutting down the pc or anything. i really hope the codex is not going to die and that was just a one time thing. it was like complete distortion. i don't mean a little bit but like just digital noise. it is now out of warranty. i will be furious if it dies on me. if that happens i will either ask charlie for a personal favor or just get another dac. the problem is nothing has this performance in even twice the size. a benchmark, teac etc to me is a step way down. so long as you supply clean usb this thing is the cats whiskers for it''s size.