HQPlayer Impressions and Settings Rolling Thread

[b0bb]

Ok, I understand your point and I will try.

Stutters happen when CUDA offload is disabled. If I enable it, then playback is stable.

This is expected, the laptop cpu has a power envelope between 20-50W, the 3060 GPU is 140W, it can do more given the higher power budget.
Below are some numbers comparing sinc-long 44k integer and non integer conversion.

With integer conversion it took about 104W vs 170W for non integer conversion.
104W is within the power budget of the 3060, the GPU will throttle above 140W

Latest version of GPU-Z advanced sensor tab tracks the power consumption and power throttle events.

 

[MrWalkman]

This is expected, the laptop cpu has a power envelope between 20-50W, the 3060 GPU is 140W, it can do more given the higher power budget.
Below are some numbers comparing sinc-long 44k integer and non integer conversion.

With integer conversion it took about 104W vs 170W for non integer conversion.
104W is within the power budget of the 3060, the GPU will throttle above 140W

Latest version of GPU-Z advanced sensor tab tracks the power consumption and power throttle events.

CPU has 100W, but yes, it's ok for integer conversion.

 

[jjazzy]

Non integer upsampling to 384k is computationally intensive.

Try 44.1 to 352.8kHz, 352.8 is an integer multiple of 44.1.
The load on the GPU will halve and hopefully eliminate the stutters, your CPU utilization will also go up as the GPU is no longer holding things up.

I did notice that difference too in resource use too, it is quite noticable.

 

[tlcocks]

Has anyone done a direct comparison between hqplayer’s parametric EQ and Mojo2 EQ? That’s one EQ I haven’t had the pleasure of meeting yet?

 

[tlcocks]

Or perhaps a more useful question:
On the HQPlayer parametric EQ, can you boost bass and treble filters +9 at both ends of the spectrum (which I do on some old suboptimal rock recordings) and not get clipping requiring gain attenuation ? You can do this on Mojo2

 

[taipan254]

Hello, long time reader, first time writer.

What type of dither are you using with those new filters? (PCM output, obviously)
Still the popular LNS15?

This is DAC dependent. Jussi says that lns dither is made for R2r. As I own a sigma delta DAC and also enjoy pcm upsampling I use tpdf. I think it sounds great!

 

[jjazzy]

This is DAC dependent. Jussi says that lns dither is made for R2r. As I own a sigma delta DAC and also enjoy pcm upsampling I use tpdf. I think it sounds great!

Tpdf is only for 44,1/48khz playback I think, not for higher khz output to dac?

 

[ra990]

Tpdf is only for 44,1/48khz playback I think, not for higher khz output to dac?

TPDF is a good general dither one that should work with all rates, although the LNS noise shapers are recommended for higher rates like 384k/768k.

 

[taipan254]

TPDF is a good general dither one that should work with all rates, although the LNS noise shapers are recommended for higher rates like 384k/768k.

Not exactly. LNS15 is recommended for use with R2R ladder DACs at higher sample rates. TPDF or Gauss1 noise shaping is recommended for Delta Sigma DACs.

Here's a post from Jussi (HQP Author) on AS that clears the argument up:

On 4/16/2023 at 8:46 PM, Zaphod Beeblebrox said:
If that is the case why even provide Noise shaping options like LNS15? 24bit dither should be good enough?

It is designed to linearise R2R ladders. In such cases word lengths are much lower than 24-bit. And curve is designed such way that in-band noise floor stays below analog noise floor and out of band noise floor is also as low as possible. But it still removes the ladder non-linearity distortions.

At the end of the post:

Noise floor is limited by analog domain, but the distortion got removed.

If the output is to a delta-sigma DAC like most DAC chips, Chord DACs, etc, then TPDF or Gauss1 are best choices.

Link to full post / discussion here. There are some graphs in the linked post that show the benefit of LNS15 for R2R DACs (some distortion gets removed).

So while you are right that LNS dither is designed for use at higher sample rates, that is not the WHOLE story: LNS noise shaping offerings exist to linearize R2R ladders at higher sample rates (4fs+). Unfortunately, Jussi's HQPlayer manual is not clear here and I too was misusing LNS filters. Jussi needs to re-write that manual!

My personal preference for PCM upsampling is to use TPDF with either Sinc L or Sinc M. My two cents.

 

[jjazzy]

Not exactly. LNS15 is recommended for use with R2R ladder DACs at higher sample rates. TPDF or Gauss1 noise shaping is recommended for Delta Sigma DACs.

Here's a post from Jussi (HQP Author) on AS that clears the argument up:



At the end of the post:


Link to full post / discussion here. There are some graphs in the linked post that show the benefit of LNS15 for R2R DACs (some distortion gets removed).

So while you are right that LNS dither is designed for use at higher sample rates, that is not the WHOLE story: LNS noise shaping offerings exist to linearize R2R ladders at higher sample rates (4fs+). Unfortunately, Jussi's HQPlayer manual is not clear here and I too was misusing LNS filters. Jussi needs to re-write that manual!

My personal preference for PCM upsampling is to use TPDF with either Sinc L or Sinc M. My two cents.

Thanks for the info, but yes I agree it would be really nice to have a little bit explanation in the manual regarding the filters etc… so to also understand why to choose which filter. Besides it is interesting it is also handy

 

[jjazzy]

Did anyone tried the nvidia tesla cards like a p100 which has almost 3600 cuda cores for hqplayer? It is a calculation card (no video out). Mostly used for virtualmachines. They are powerwise comparable to a gtx1080.

I am curious if that could be a usable option. Second hand quite affordable.

 

[Faitoq]

Greetings!
I do not have HQ Player for now but I do plan to purchase in the future. AFAIK Roon can only select a single HQP as an endpoint( not like where you can select from multiple Roon endpoints/zones) so HQP will handle all of the actions once it was handed over by Roon. I also plan to have a separate server/computer for Roon and HQP. My questions are as follow

• Since HQP will be on a different computer/server, will I be able to adjust the settings from my PC/mobile device through localhost via web browser?
• (most important question) Can I set different configuration for multiple NAA devices for example Pi4-RopieeeXL, Holo Audio Red streamer/DDC? If yes, is there a program/app(for mobile) that I can use to select what NAA device will HQP send the stream to? Just like roon when you select an endpoint or zone.

 

[GoldenSound]

Greetings!
I do not have HQ Player for now but I do plan to purchase in the future. AFAIK Roon can only select a single HQP as an endpoint( not like where you can select from multiple Roon endpoints/zones) so HQP will handle all of the actions once it was handed over by Roon. I also plan to have a separate server/computer for Roon and HQP. My questions are as follow

• Since HQP will be on a different computer/server, will I be able to adjust the settings from my PC/mobile device through localhost via web browser?
• (most important question) Can I set different configuration for multiple NAA devices for example Pi4-RopieeeXL, Holo Audio Red streamer/DDC? If yes, is there a program/app(for mobile) that I can use to select what NAA device will HQP send the stream to? Just like roon when you select an endpoint or zone.

You can add multiple HQP endpoints to Roon, they just can't all be running on the same machine. (Or you could maybe if you put one in a VM on the main machine)

 

[Faitoq]

It's GoldenSound himself!

You can add multiple HQP endpoints to Roon, they just can't all be running on the same machine. (Or you could maybe if you put one in a VM on the main machine)

oh yeah, why I haven't thought of that. But won't it have licensing issue? Do I have to own 2 licenses since it's running 2 HQP on a separate machine.
Anyway, maybe I'll figure something out once I got there. I would love to see you make a video about HQP what it does, how can it be integrated in Roon, for multiple setups like desktop and speaker system. I mean not the nitty-gritty installation guide as we can just look them up but the capabilities and what you can do with HQP.
Thank you

 

[sup27606]

Yes, I agree. Hqplayer has a lot more presence on Audiophilestyle and Roon forums, but not a lot on YouTube or head-fi. It’s amazing, how much the sound from a DAC can be improved by offloading the upsampling to a powerful cpu. It will be also beneficial if goldeneye does a comparison video between mscaler vs Hqplayer. I see, he already did one on YouTube on the mscaler alone.