M Scaler on the cheap?
I spent some time the last week playing with Roon & HQ Player. I know HQ Player has fans in 2 channel, and some of my audio buddies convert all PCM to DSD and swear it sounds better. This may be Dac dependant though, I am not sure.
Anyway, I decided to install Trial HQ Player, and use it through Roon. I am latest Mac Mini M1 with latest system and Roon Core.
I normally use a 432 Evo music server in my 2 channel, but that won't support HQ Payer. So for this test, I used the Mac Mini into the DAVE via USB, LCD4 and both powered off the PS Audio P10 (which upgrades the Mac Mini sound a LOT).
I have been using Audirvana+ for 2 months and prefer it to Roon, even though Roon looks pretty and is nicer to find new tracks. Roon has a smearing of transients to my ears, and a muddy image / soundstage. It sounds a bit thick and gets confusing once the music gets busy. It got me thinking - maybe using Roon as an interface only, with HQ Player as a player will fix that?
After a few days testing here are my thoughts. I do think HQ player open up things a bit on base Roon, though it is not a huge improvement. I can hear more details and depth, layering ect. The soundstage is not popping as it is reputed to do with M Scaler for example. HQ Player never gets to catch up to Audirvana+ to my ears (on the DAVE).
I have HQ Player set to upsample to 768k, and have tried all the filter options, and like Sinc-N filter and NS9 dither the best. The computer loads is about 12% so not a big deal. In fact I ended up using the same settings as the AudioBacon review (pic above) did. I also agree with them on the results.
The effect of HQ Player is an upgrade inside Roon, but v Audirvana+ playing the straight PCM files at 44.1k or 96k, it simply sounds cleaner, clearer and less flat / smeared.
So my conclusion, no cheap path to the M Scaler unfortunately. Maybe on other Dacs that have DS chips, and can handle DSD, it may sound preferable? A certain extra weight to the mids and a smoothing of treble details may suit some systems. DAVE prefers PCM and converts DSD back so no point doing that here. But the DAVE's magic is the detail and soundstage, depth of the image. I can't loose any of those things or the magic disappears for me. On 2 channel, my server is Linux and uses Logitec Media Server, which is very transparent v Roon, it is way ahead, and sounds just ahead of Audirvana+.
Maybe the unique FPGA and filters in DAVE don't mix well with others - processing over processing? Quite possibly the purpose built M Scaler fits DAVE better.
Anyone else tried HQ Player and have any feedback on it with the DAVE?