You just load the convolution filter to one of the matrix “Process” entries and then click Plot button. You can use either the simple convolution engine or the matrix processor for performing convolution. But please don’t enable both simultaneously.
Not effectiveness, but helps avoiding sudden limiting if there are are any peak boosts.
This sounds more like grounding problem between computer - DAC - amplifier that becomes audible when the DAC unmutes. Usually USB isolators like Intona help fixing such.
HQPlayer will likely also complain about lack of “microphone” access. macOS considers any hardware audio input as a “microphone”, not just microphones. But this is not critical, since you are likely not using the input feature.
My interpretation of this plot is that the peak gain of the filter stays under 0 dBFS. Is this correct?
I think I’ve solved the grounding problem by removing a USB C Hub Ethernet, Gigabit Adapter from the chain. I’m using my MacBook as a streaming source & it only has USB-C out. Is USB galvanic isolation still going to help minimise noise in the chain? Do you know of a reasonably cost-effective NAA compatible streamer which has galvanic isolation built-in?
I’ve just timed this & it’s taking 15 seconds (!) from me pressing pause or play for the pausing or playing to happen. When I disable the Convolution filters, this time drops to 12 secs.
Yes, it is about 4 dB under, so it is completely fine without gain compensation. You could even apply a bit of positive gain compensation to it (3 - 4 dB), as long as you keep HQPlayer volume at no higher than -3 dB (recommended).
I think I inadvertently checked the Log file option. When I uncheck this, the delay is back to six seconds. Is this a typical delay & how can I reduce this? It does interfere with my experience of playing back music somewhat…
Thanks for your message @Stefano_Antonelli. I have just tried this change & the delay is now ~4-5 secs. What’s the constraint here, is it processing power or RAM or something else?
It can depends on both, but here is always a little delay.
The delay should be on the first track only if you let play your play queue without jumping from one track to another one
I have never seen any delay caused by logging. Storage device would need to be horribly slow, or some other process intervening the file access for it to take several seconds to write couple of lines text (few hundred bytes) to a file. It even goes through disk caching.
closed-form-M16 will have inherent delay associated with it, I would advice against excessively long filters unless you have a strong preference for such.
You can also reduce delay by setting “Short buffer” to greyed and set Buffer time to 10 ms. This increases possibility for drop-outs, but reduces delay since there is less buffer at the NAA side.
With some of the filters, there is initialization delay when you first start playback of certain input/output rate combination. But then some of the data is cached for subsequent encounters of same combination with same filter, this cache is retained until you exit HQPlayer or open the settings dialog. So if you want to change filter or similar, it is always best to just change active ones from HQPlayer control application like HQPlayer Client, instead of touching server settings.
All seems well with your suggested changes implemented.
I don’t know why the logging setting seemed to have such an effect. The MacMini M1 is totally standard and clean, only used for Roon Server and HQPlayer.
I am so impressed with the differences I’ve heard in sound quality running HQPlayer in my setup. Thank you for your help in getting it setup well.
@jussi_laako, I bought and installed a JDS Labs Synapse UAC2 Ground Loop Isolator. This is the only change I’ve made since the configuration you helped me achieve above. I took this step to be thorough & on the assumption that it would solve any lingering interference of different types, sometimes what sounds like high frequency crackling, sometimes breaks in playback.
I’m sad to say that this device hasn’t had the effect I was expecting. It’s there for my peace of mind but something else is still not quite right in my setup clearly.
As I’ve said, I am really enjoying your product apart from these quirks. Can you help me troubleshoot what’s going on please?
Of course I cannot know for sure if it’s going to help your case. But your descriptions sounds just like cases I’ve had, where isolation fixed the issue. If those are faint ones in the background.
But breaks in playback are typically due to CPU overload, so if you get such, you may need to switch to lighter settings. Like closed-form-16M is potentially too heavy. I’d suggest to switch it to the default poly-sinc-gauss-long and check it the issue persists.
Have you tried with another USB cable? Something completely standard, preferably with the official USB HiSpeed Certified badge.
Please restart HQPlayer and check if the wrong filter still sticks.
I assume your Mac Mini is connected over wired Ethernet throughout to the NAA? And no WiFi involved? Because M1 has a bug in WiFi implementation in a way that macOS Location Services interfere with the WiFi and cause a huge network latency. Apple has been trying to work around this hardware bug over past macOS releases. And now in latest macOS releases they wake up the location services only occasionally (side effect with my MacBook Pro M1Max being that it ends up frequently being on wrong time zone when traveling). Wired Ethernet interface on Mac Mini is not affected by this.
