Using Roon with HQPLayer with Mac Mini and NuWave DSD DAC. Need recommendations for filters/settings.

First of all, I am in the process of ripping my high quality vinyl (and others!) to DSD via NuWave Phono Converter and Vinyl Studio, which is a great program, btw. I get clean files which are indistinguishable from the original vinyl, to my ears, anyway. If the vinyl is relatively clean, I listen in DSD. If not, I’ll de-click it and maybe ever remove hiss/hum and listen in 24/96 FLAC. I am a little worried about ultrasonic frequencies damaging my gear, though, which I DSD can propogate. But, from I understand, the NuWave DAC uses a passive filter to take care of this. So, my first question is, is there any benefit to using the filters/shapers? Are they better and/or redundant with NuWave DAC? I’ve not seen huge differences in SQ wrt different settings, except for one setting which gave the files a harder digital edge. I can’t remember which one did though, but apparently it was not a recommended one. Right now I’m bypassing all that and using the “Direct DSM” option. Various users with other DACs recommend poly-sinc mp filter with ADSM7. What experience do you guys have?

My second questoin has to do with how to treat PCM files. Should I upsample 16/44 files? Convert to DSD? In my brief experience, some files sound great using the HQPlayer filters and upsampling and converting. Mainly MP3 files seem like they get that “digital edge” taken off and sound more analog. I don’t notice as much difference in 24/96 FLAC redbook rips, but it is definitely a touch softer. Depending on the recording, I prefer to keep it in PCM. My FLAC rips from DSD I prefer to convert back to DSD, but it’s close. Though trial and error, I’ve found the general settings for PCM. Keep in mind I don’t have anything higher than 24/96. I use poly-sinc short filter and TPDF as noise shaper since I mainly have 16/44 and 24/96 PCM files. I’ll convert all to 96 MHz to allow for the filtering/shaping. Would greatly appreciate you guys thoughts.

Adam

I would do a post on cpa forums

it’s much more suited for this question not that someone will not help it’s more about the traffic and what the website is geared to

1234 said I would do a post on cpa forums

it’s much more suited for this question not that someone will not help it’s more about the traffic and what the website is geared to

I thought about that but wanted to first ask here since this is more of a NuWave DAC question than anything. My point is that the NuWave had its own DSD filter but I'm not sure how aggressive/effective it is and therefore if there is any use to applying a filter in HQPlayer. I also wondered how the NuWave is treating PCM and if there is benefit to dithering, filtering, and noise shaping PCM files. It would be great if someone like Ted would chime in!

Adam