Why isn't HQPlayer improving anything for me?

[gregorio]

Maybe using a NOS DAC without filters will do HQ justice

This. Upsampling prior to the DAC will make no difference. The only exception to this rule would be in the case of certain DACs which are not designed to be high fidelity or where a low fidelity filter option has been chosen. Some NOS DACs for example or a high fidelity DAC with a NOS emulation (or other low freq roll-off) filter selected.

G

 

[Lépine]

So I've been trialing HQPlayer up-sampling with my Chord Qutest. Virtually every review I've read says that up-sampling improves things (e.g. soundstage) vastly, and there are even reviews comparing the effect (even favorably) to the $5k Chord M-Scaler. For example @GoldenOne prefers HQPlayer to the M-Scaler.

And yet, I seem to be hearing no difference at all (with Sinc-M or Sinc-L and LNS15, which are known good choices), vs. the internal upsampling of the Qutest.

I'm in my 30s, so I doubt my ears or brain are the bottleneck. Could it be something else in my chain? I'm playing out of Roon (with Qobuz) with the Qutest's USB cable, and going from the Qutest with Topping RCA cables into a Topping A90 amp, and then to Hifiman HE6SE headphones. Now, these headphones are not necessarily known for great soundstage. Could they be essentially negating the effect of HQPlayer? Not sure if that's how it works.

I hear a big difference even using HQPlayer and sending the data to an AK SP2000 player. Works great with my Hugo 2 and Hugo TT2. I also use it to upscale before sending to a M-Scaler. One key difference I noted is that the computer makes a huge difference as well. An ordinary laptop (Intel i3) didn't improve sound due to resource limitations. I upgraded to an i7 and that was much better. Currently I use a gaming computer with 24 Core processors 32 GB Ram and a 3070 Ti NVidia GPU and off load the computations to the GPU using the CUDA API. Now that's a good sounding system. The gaming system is an 2022 model MSI Vector GP66 which is quieter than an Alienware system. Gaming desktops are now banned in the state of California so the MSI is the fastest and quietest system under $3000 to drive the HQPlayer. That app scales with performance to use the best filters and shapers.

Typical overkill, I run the client and library software on one MSI Leopard GP66 2021 and the HQPlayer on a separate MSI Vector GP66 2022. This is fast.

PS: If you are expecting Bollywood sound tracks to sound good. I don't think anything can help if the original recordings are not done right.

 

[Atriya]

I hear a big difference even using HQPlayer and sending the data to an AK SP2000 player. Works great with my Hugo 2 and Hugo TT2. I also use it to upscale before sending to a M-Scaler. One key difference I noted is that the computer makes a huge difference as well. An ordinary laptop (Intel i3) didn't improve sound due to resource limitations. I upgraded to an i7 and that was much better. Currently I use a gaming computer with 24 Core processors 32 GB Ram and a 3070 Ti NVidia GPU and off load the computations to the GPU using the CUDA API. Now that's a good sounding system. The gaming system is an 2022 model MSI Vector GP66 which is quieter than an Alienware system. Gaming desktops are now banned in the state of California so the MSI is the fastest and quietest system under $3000 to drive the HQPlayer. That app scales with performance to use the best filters and shapers.


Typical overkill, I run the client and library software on one MSI Leopard GP66 2021 and the HQPlayer on a separate MSI Vector GP66 2022. This is fast.

PS: If you are expecting Bollywood sound tracks to sound good. I don't think anything can help if the original recordings are not done right.

Gaming laptops are banned in the state of California?!?! I use an Alienware X17 and love it; I'm glad I don't live there.

Also, I don't watch Bollywood movies or listen to their soundtracks, but my understanding is that their technology is very cutting edge, at least in recent years.

 

[Seiji]

...

 

[Lépine]

Gaming laptops are banned in the state of California?!?! I use an Alienware X17 and love it; I'm glad I don't live there.

Also, I don't watch Bollywood movies or listen to their soundtracks, but my understanding is that their technology is very cutting edge, at least in recent years.

Glad to hear that about the India music and entertainment industry. It's been a few years, but when a friend wanted to share his music, I was challenged to finish listing to it.

Sorry for the confusion. In California ready made desktop Gaming systems are banned not the laptops. You can still build your own desktops and that is what most California gamers will do, so what's the point??? California is a very energy and "Environmentally Green" progressive state that usually leads our country in setting standards.

I am happy with the MSI Laptops, they are quieter than a desktop (less mechanical noise) and use battery so less electronic noise pollution in the signal path in theory. Once I separate the music library from HQPlayer, I am sure I can get rid of the spikes in my GPU usage. I have use Foobar2000 for feeding HQPlayer, but that's not taking full advantage of HQPlayer with 24-bit 9600 WAV output from Foobar for .M4A files. I am sure there is something better. For all else, I am using the HQPlayer client which is god awful

 

[Lépine]

Listening to Lola Astanova this morning. Sounds great with the Mcintosh MHA200, LCD-X / LCD-MX4. My system is what many may consider a little brightish. I have all silver Kimber Kable and silver headphone cables. I hear a lot of details.

Don't give up on HQPlayer

 

[Atriya]

In fact, I now do hear the differences between HQPlayer filters, unlike when I started this thread, but it was a strange step that led me to this: getting rid of my amp altogether. I used to use a Burson Soloist 3XP, but I now directly drive my headphones from my Chord Qutest DAC (yes, this is possible, as many people have reported on the Chord Qutest thread), using HQPlayer for volume control, since the Qutest does not have volume control. This seems to have added enough transparency that I can now hear things I couldn't before.

 

[Lépine]

Should try some higher quality interconnects. Maybe the rca cables your problem?

I used to use Kimber Kable Hero all copper. Good price and good performance.

 

[Atriya]

Should try some higher quality interconnects. Maybe the rca cables your problem?

I used to use Kimber Kable Hero all copper. Good price and good performance.

I was using Chord Clearways, which are supposed to be good. But I'm happy directly driving the headphones from the Qutest. I don't seem to be missing anything at all.

 

[pattont]

I messed around with HQPlayer last night on my Macbook Pro M1 Max and while I could tell a difference the UI on HQPlayer / Desktop is really really really bad. I need to have HQDesktop running and then fire up HQPlayer, select "Local" and then select Qobuz to find songs. Then, if I want to change filters, I have to restart HQPlayer and do the clicks to get Qobuz re-selected. I would be interested in buying the software if it wasn't such a PITA to use... I mean c'mon... At a MINIMUM it should remember my last play source and go back to it when restarting HQPlayer.

This may not be the right place for this debate, but how do you guys use HQPlayer?

 

[redrol]

 

[Rayon]

I messed around with HQPlayer last night on my Macbook Pro M1 Max and while I could tell a difference the UI on HQPlayer / Desktop is really really really bad. I need to have HQDesktop running and then fire up HQPlayer, select "Local" and then select Qobuz to find songs. Then, if I want to change filters, I have to restart HQPlayer and do the clicks to get Qobuz re-selected. I would be interested in buying the software if it wasn't such a PITA to use... I mean c'mon... At a MINIMUM it should remember my last play source and go back to it when restarting HQPlayer.

This may not be the right place for this debate, but how do you guys use HQPlayer?

I use HQPlayer Embedded as a Roon endpoint and Qobuz is integrated with Roon. No experience with HQPlayer standalone as I just want the filters, not the player.

 

[Atriya]

I messed around with HQPlayer last night on my Macbook Pro M1 Max and while I could tell a difference the UI on HQPlayer / Desktop is really really really bad. I need to have HQDesktop running and then fire up HQPlayer, select "Local" and then select Qobuz to find songs. Then, if I want to change filters, I have to restart HQPlayer and do the clicks to get Qobuz re-selected. I would be interested in buying the software if it wasn't such a PITA to use... I mean c'mon... At a MINIMUM it should remember my last play source and go back to it when restarting HQPlayer.

This may not be the right place for this debate, but how do you guys use HQPlayer?

I use it with Roon. Interface is Roon, HQP Desktop just stays in the background.

 

[chesebert]

So I've been trialing HQPlayer up-sampling with my Chord Qutest. Virtually every review I've read says that up-sampling improves things (e.g. soundstage) vastly, and there are even reviews comparing the effect (even favorably) to the $5k Chord M-Scaler. For example @GoldenOne prefers HQPlayer to the M-Scaler.

And yet, I seem to be hearing no difference at all (with Sinc-M or Sinc-L and LNS15, which are known good choices), vs. the internal upsampling of the Qutest.

I'm in my 30s, so I doubt my ears or brain are the bottleneck. Could it be something else in my chain? I'm playing out of Roon (with Qobuz) with the Qutest's USB cable, and going from the Qutest with Topping RCA cables into a Topping A90 amp, and then to Hifiman HE6SE headphones. Now, these headphones are not necessarily known for great soundstage. Could they be essentially negating the effect of HQPlayer? Not sure if that's how it works.

I have had much better luck with getting pretty decent sound from PC using EVGA Nu Audio optical out into Chord dac as opposed to USB straight from PC (with or without HQPlayer). The sound is simply more analogue, dynamic and musical. You will need to power the sound card via a separate PSU but the results are fantastic. Worth to explore if you feel comfortable around PC hardware. I had spare PSUs and spent a total of $60 for the sound card buying B stock from EVGA

 

[chesebert]

I hear a big difference even using HQPlayer and sending the data to an AK SP2000 player. Works great with my Hugo 2 and Hugo TT2. I also use it to upscale before sending to a M-Scaler. One key difference I noted is that the computer makes a huge difference as well. An ordinary laptop (Intel i3) didn't improve sound due to resource limitations. I upgraded to an i7 and that was much better. Currently I use a gaming computer with 24 Core processors 32 GB Ram and a 3070 Ti NVidia GPU and off load the computations to the GPU using the CUDA API. Now that's a good sounding system. The gaming system is an 2022 model MSI Vector GP66 which is quieter than an Alienware system. Gaming desktops are now banned in the state of California so the MSI is the fastest and quietest system under $3000 to drive the HQPlayer. That app scales with performance to use the best filters and shapers.


Typical overkill, I run the client and library software on one MSI Leopard GP66 2021 and the HQPlayer on a separate MSI Vector GP66 2022. This is fast.

PS: If you are expecting Bollywood sound tracks to sound good. I don't think anything can help if the original recordings are not done right.

wooh..CAL Sigma. Blast from the past and fondly remembered.