But what does it sound like !
And I don’t mean sound fidelity.
I mean does it sound like a vacuum cleaner or hair dryer 
Good find with the oratory EQ. He is an icon of the head-fi world for what he shares.
1 Like
Ha! You tried it as well!? A hair dryer it is, hot and noisy.
But here comes BOSE QC25 - active noise cancelling, amazinly efficient against laptop hissing fans! Ta-dah!
1 Like
For my current travel system, I’ve been happy with iFi xDSD Gryphon.
I still want to check out the new iFi Bar as well. But have to see when I can buy one here in Finland and how much it’ll cost.
By the way, can Gryphon do DSDx48 ?
The cost is a killer, at EUR300 price point, you may find other competition unless… In a very straight forward use case, which is a dongle to PC with Native DSDx44,1 @ 256 the performance is impressive (at least to my ears) also given that this is only 28.5g ! Some headphone cables alone would be heavier, I bet !
Again in application to this “standard” use case on Windows it would require iFi ASIO driver, and after that you can do a) either all what ROON offers with it’s DSP or b) much better to my taste - HQPlayer Desktop. Everything, except DSDx48 rates. On Ubuntu 22.04 performance seems to be even more straightforward, you don’t need to think about a special driver. So if some one is not bothered with DSDx48 it’s quite an amazing dongle!
However HQP Embeded on Ubuntu server and HQP OS are having big difficulties with it in DSD playback. It’s not may be a “standard” use case, but still. I was not able to play Native DSD - in this case HQP sees the device, plays on it, but Go BAR is silent. And in DOP the sound is terribly distorted, something is clearly wrong.
EDIT: I fixed it by installing Jussi’s low latency custom kernel for Ubuntu 22.02. GO BAR things now with Embedded, apart 3,1MHz DSD rates. @jussi_laako FANTASTIC WORK ON KERNEL!!!
But it seems GO can no do real time kernel of HQP Embedded OS
I got some attention from iFi team at “head - fi” forum and I hope iFi can look more seriously in the technical problem. The ticket I have registered with iFi helpdesk has been hanging from 8th of June with 0% progress. Let’s see - it they take it professionally they may as well reach out to you… may be it’s your chance for a free iFi GO Bar??? hahahahaha !!!
1 Like
It’s been a while since you have updated the desktop version of HQPlayer. Anything new coming? Maybe a new major release version?
On Linux we have three desktop versions:
- Desktop High DPI
- Desktop (OS Style)
- Desktop
Which one takes a smallest tall from CPU? (OS Style) or just “Desktop” ?
High DPI and regular are essentially the same from that perspective. And on Jammy the High DPI one is actually obsolete, since the newer toolkit version there automatically handles such cases.
It is hard to say if OS Style is leaner or not, since it depends on the OS style in question. But likely the default style is lighter.
Overall the CPU load differences are very small, since the GUI is rendered by GPU using OpenGL when available.
1 Like
I’m always working on some new features. I also had an office reorganization that took a bit over a week, which included taking everything out and then organizing everything back in again.
There will be a minor update release shortly.
4 Likes
@jussi_laako, imagine, finally I sent my iFi GO and GOLD bars back, just couldn’t make them work at full iFi specs. It looks iFi has been in terrible rush and released very expensive and exclusive “beta” product. 3 weeks with no coherent comment from iFi how to make the full scale of DSD rates to work (smth that was announced in their specs). Plus unnecessary secrecy about what type of Cirrus Logic chip they use. Sad, because when it works is sounds good, but price is waaaay tooooo high for this.
However, this experience made me very interested in Cirrus Logic’s D/A performance. CS43131 D/A from them seems very popular. I’m now looking into this: https://www.fiio.com/ka2 although seems targeted to mobile devices but at least this should not break the wallet like the one from iFi. will chat with FiiO about use cases, etc… I guess with CS43131 all incoming stream to D/A is converted to DSD actually, if I can read the specs diagram correctly.
I don’t remember if you mentioned, can Gryphon do DSDx48 as well? I don’t think it’s in the specs, no?
Why does this matter? If the DAC does support, great. Turn on the on the feature in HQPlayer. But you aren’t getting better sound because of it. All that you turning that feature on is a little less computation work for the system.
Ha! Good question. It matters a lot for integer upsampling. Not all filters will work if you push 48x base rates it to DSDx41.1
EDIT: for the performance it seems to matter for the weaker CPU’s. Like in my case I’ve build Linux boot on my old gaming laptop converting it to HQP Desktop listening station for my summer break. 96/24 to 12288000 goes smooth, 96/24 to 112989600 goes with dropouts. But this is really every single drop is squeezed out its stone.
EDIT2: sorry… i found that “FiiO Q3” which I currently use that is based on AK4462 DAC can play stable DSD@256x48. This is not documented, but is very pleasant discovery !
I’ve never seen anyone buy or not buy a DAC over 48K DSD support…
1 Like
Nice to meet you 
Hey, but let’s be honest, I have not seen other software apart from HQP that can upsample to DSDx48 rates, either. It’s surely not a main stream and is often a mystery for people outside of HQP world. ROON works perfectly fine with upsampling to DSD512. But we are here because we like HQP upsampling and ROON for its other features. The only reason to “jump around” DSDx48 for me is a full scale of HQP potential. Smooth mixed source playlists at maximum possible quality upsampling…
It doesn’t have DSD Direct mode, unlike the older CS4398 and the newer version called CS43198.
So the CS43131 is like all ESS Sabre chips. It processes DSD through a specific DSD processor, without rate conversions, but no direct conversion.
I have a Topping D30Pro that has 4x CS43198 which performs pretty decently.
These chips operate internally at max 128x rate, so the output always looks just like DSD128 would.
1 Like
That is useful, thanks @jussi_laako ! So, that closes that CS story!
I’m 99% sure iFi GO/GOLD employs CS43131, it’s only CS with its specs 384PCM/256DSD that has a headphone amp. I doubt they could’ve done differently at 28 gram device, I may be wrong, of course.
Anyway @musicjunkie917, here we go. Linux Ubuntu 22.04 → HQPlayer 7ECv2 DSD@256x48 → FiiO Q3. Simply awesome. The HQP feature and and the recording itself !
1 Like
That little less CPU load can be very important when on the go, with a laptop.
So it can matter, depending what you’re trying to do
In the HQPlayer world, it is a known thing by many these days, not all.
I know…my DAC, the Holo Audio May KTE, supports 48K DSD and I have the option enabled in HQPlayer. But, I would have bought the DAC regardless of 48K DSD support. It didn’t even factor in the decision.
But you are using MAY in NOS mode for main listening, aren’t you ?
My focus was the quality of MAY’s NOS with “KTE” on top for extra glam with spareparts. I, for example, am not bothered what chip does MAY employ for OS modes and can it actually do DSDx48 in OS modes… But MAY/SPRING NOS and HQPlayer is a marriage made in heaven, why not rock it on it’s full potential?
EDIT: got my parts received for intel i9-12900k HQP station, planning to give my MAY a full blow at DSD1024x48 ! let’s rock, baby !
I use HQPlayer to upsample PCM and DSD to DSD256. The DAC is in NOS mode. I don’t use integer-based filters. 48K DSD is enabled. I prefer DSD256 using the ADSM7ECv2 modulator over DSD512 using non-EC modulators. DSD1024 is massive overkill…