HQPlayer and the Directstream. Settings?

OK! From what I’ve seen, this filter hasn’t been released for the desktop version yet :frowning_face:

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Hi! for some reason I’m not being able to play in DSD the 48K multiple bit rates in DSD. So far I’ve used the HQPlayer to upsample to the highest bit rate (352/384) without any trouble, but when it comes to DSD, even if I have the 48K DSD checkbox selected, it won’t work

Any idea on what I’m doing wrong?

Thanks! :slight_smile:

The DS doesn’t support DSD with a sample rate that’s a multiple of 48k (presuming you are using the PerfectWave DirectStream DAC)

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Thanks a lot, @tedsmith! I’m indeed using the DirectStream DAC. I was not aware that the DS did not support the 48K bit rate family in DSD and this perfectly explains the situation :slight_smile:

Very interesting topic and sugestions.

Although it seams that the Matrix X-SPDIF-2 is a workaround on getting I2S to the DS DAC, I believe that the main issue of jitter on these chains is the fact that they are all electrically hooked somewhere in the chain via a USB connection, thus, Ideally we should have an ethernet end-point (roon endpoint et al) and an I2S output, similarly to what you can do with a Pi2AES (PI2AES - PRO AUDIO SHIELD - Pi2 Design).

My problem is finding a chain Roon End-point Ethernet - I2S - DS DAC similar to what you can do with PiAES, but that supports 32bit/384kHz PCM and DSD64 (or even above), enabling the maximized use of HQPlayer upsampling schemes, without a USB electrical connection on the chain.

Any ideas on how to achieve this?

Tkx

Jitter isn’t much of an issue with the DS. The issue is often groundloops caused by a lack of galvanic isolation. Ethernet isn’t a panacea; its transformers allow high frequency noise thru and Ethernet transceivers are inherently noisy since they require a processor to process their layered protocols. USB isolation is a possible route, tho people have mixed results with it.

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My Euphony Summus 2 comes with a 30-day trial of HQplayer. But I could not find a setting that I liked because it sounds less clean and un-nature to me. I ended up using the server without it.

Am I the only one who felt this way? What is your favorite filter setting with DS and I2S input?

I’m using HQPlayer just in ‘pass-through’ mode. That is, with no filters. What goes in just goes straight through to my DSDAC. I’m happy enough with the up-sampling and filtering Ted does. :yum:

I will give it a try since I still have a couple of weeks left for the free run. So far I don’t see a great value to purchase it. Thanks!

Hope I’m not hijacking. How do like your Summus2. Didn’t think they were available yet (based on Euphony’s website).
I use a Euphony PTS and original Summus and Summus Endpoint via USB to DSD SR since no I2S output.

The Summus 2 with I2S output connecting to DS sounds great. The music files I stored in the interior SSD sounded as good as the original CDs (they seem to sound better actually). But I had no previous server to compare with because I was using Bridge II. But I would think it is at the top tier level.

The unit is available as a direct purchase from Euphony. They are not available in the US yet, and it is likely due to the supply chain issue like everybody else.

If using the filtering capability is a major criterion for you then I’d tend to agree. For me this wasn’t the compelling reason. Although I dabbled a bit with up-sampling and filtering in the HQPlayer server settings, I decided not to go down that particular rabbit hole. I found with some settings that the processing demand on the host CPU was quite high. That was counter to my desire for a minimal digital processing footprint in order to listen to my music. (To minimise interference with the music bit stream from an electrically noisy computer.)

I purchased HQPlayer licences for Windows, Linux and Raspberry Pi a couple of years ago when I was looking for a way to simplify the signal path between PCM and DSD files and my DSDAC (and had a little more cash with which to play. :smirking_face: ) I’ve settled (for the moment at least) on using my general-purpose Windows-based PC as the host for both the HQPlayer server and client (and optionally the Android-based client).

I plan to revisit the whole scheme after I move into my new house and have more flexibility with isolating the digital realm from the rest of the (analogue) system.

For the moment at least the sound (through EC Nemo monoblocks and B&W 800 Diamonds and DB1 subs) is not too shabby. :smiling_face:

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We use different OS and I use a dedicated music server, and with the Stylus OS the sound is better without the HQP so far. I have a couple more weeks to try different combinations. If I find a great one I’ll report here.

I don’t understand how you guys are able to output anything in DSD to the DS Jr Dac from the HQ player.

Anytime I do that I get a sample rate mismatch. I tried everything I could think of and no matter which sample rate I use it just won’t do it. For PCM, I got no issues whatsoever.

Thoughts?

Can you give us some more details Mike? For example,

What input are you using on the DAC?
On what platform (Windows, Mac, Linux) are you running HQPlayer?
Can you show us a picture of your HQPlayer settings?

I can definitely give more details.

I’m using the HQPlayer Desktop for Windows and I’m connecting to the DAC via USB.

My current settings are as follow.

I tried pretty much all combinations of sample rates and each time I am getting a sample rate mismatch for DSD

A few things I did so far trying to fix the issue without sucess:

  • Disabling the DS DAC zone in Roon
  • Tried to change default sample rate for the DAC in the windows sound settings
  • Tried different USB ports on my PC
  • Reinstalling PS Audio ASIO drivers

Really appreciate the help!

Thanks for that Mike. This may be a little guess work because I have a DSDAC (senior) and I don’t use Roon. With that in mind, my understanding is as follows.

AFAIK the PS Audio USB driver doesn’t support ASIO. As such it can only handle DSD over PCM (DoP). I think you need to use I2S in order to input a native DSD bit stream. From the looks of your settings, HQPlayer is seeing a 96/24 (PCM) input, converting it to quad-rate DSD (DSD256) and attempting to output it to the PS Audio USB device which, if I’m not mistaken, can’t handle it as I wrote above.

I may be misinterpreting the settings. However, the other thing that doesn’t look right is, if HQPlayer is outputting DoP, technically it can only output up to DSD128.

Things to try.

Set the output device settings to WASAPI.
Set the maximum output rate to DSD128.
Set the default output mode to ‘[source]’.

The PS Audio USB driver does do ASIO, but it doesn’t support native DSD. There’s no reason to be bothered by that since DoP delivers the exact same DSD bits to the DS. However, as you state, the DS doesn’t support higher rates than DSD128 via USB.

With I2S you can do native DSD256 or DoP DSD256 if you have a DSD256 capable source that supports PS Audio I2S format.

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The max I was able to do with WASAPI was DSD64, with ASIO all sample rates in SDM mode gives a mismatch including DSD128. No idea what can possibly be the issue.

Hello Ted:
Sorry to bother you. I am experimenting with HQPlayer into the DS Mk2.
I am currently using HQplayer to upsample to DSD256 and feed that to the DS Mk2 via a Holo Audio Red NAA. Source is from Roon.
I wanted to ask you if the DS Mk2:

  • supports 48k DSD?
  • supports 32 bitrate?
    Additionally it seems that the setup only works using DoP, not sure is this is because of the Holo Red, or the DS Mk2.
    I was also thinking beyond personal taste, would it be better to upsample to PCM 705.6k to send to the the DS Mk2 rather than DSD256 ( based on DAC processing)?

Thank you very much for your time and dedication.
I am really enjoying the DS MK2.

Luis