Sorry as I mentioned yesterday, I canât try every possible combination. It is running NAA OS.
I tried the one you asked though and it worked.
Donât forget you can use it as an input device. So it can feed your more powerful HQPlayer machine over the network⌠Thatâs how I use it.
My UpBoard is in my office with my headphones setup. My 11900K is in a different room, other side of the house.
The UPboard feeds the 11900K, then HQPlayer outputs DSD256x44.1k (fixed output, auto family rate disabled) back into my room to a different NAA. Works flawlessly with Apple Music Hi-Res Lossless, this way.
Can do the same with HQPlayer Desktop too.
UP Board runs NAA OS - doesnât need another HQP license for this feature.
My primary listening station is iMac 27 late 2015 (4GHz i7), Apple Music > soundsource> blackhole >HQPlayer desktop > Teac UD-505 dac.
I also got a new Macbook M1 Pro (which is nearly the most powerful one in the market) but donât always have the access for listening music.
Then I also got other stuffs like macbook pro (2014), another macbook pro (2017), apple camera kit, raspberry pi 3B+, another raspberry pi 3B+ with Allo digione but they are not particularly useful at this moment. Later they can be my NAA in and NAA out in the chain, but I canât find out how to configure raspberry pi 3B as NAA out like Upboard.
I used to Roon/Tidal + HQplayer but then Apple Music with Dolby Atmos arrived. I found the sound of iMac27/apple music/HQplayer all together is most pleasant. Roon somehow feel more harsh and fatigue. I still use Roon for my music library sometimes. Roon is still the most balanced setup between functionality, user friendiness, stability & sound quality but I donât subscribe Tidal anymore, and I like some Dolby Atmos songs.
Generally Apple Music on Mac is more buggy and troublesome than iphone version (no auto rate, sometimes no sound, sound level not consistent even with sound check on, song skip or no sound in the middle, etc) And my iMac 27 canât run resource demanding filter (such as poly-sinc-gauss-xls/LNS15, and filters/DSD256). So I am looking for a solution which support iphone and auto rate. Ideally an external HQplayer box which can free up my iMac27 cpu for other computing tasks.
Thank you for the tipp with soundsource. Well in reagards to Apple MusicâŚThose arr the reasons why myself switched to Qobuz again. Did not find a solution for Apple Music. Loved to have the Atmos possibilty too. Same applies for Amazon Music Ultimate. So, I fear for Atmos only Tidal is a workimg way, but I do not use it myself anymore too.
In fact Apple Musicâs ATMOS contents are the easiest thing to deal with. Nearly all of the streaming ATMOS is fixed at 48KHz sample rate so just set Audio MIDI setup to 48KHz and select the 7.1.4 or 5.1.2 speaker setup then done. Apple Music app will stream ATMOS contents automatically.
You can use BlackHole to make a 16ch output to HQPlayer and using Matrix to downmixing it, or if you have Merging+Anubis / Hapi / Horus you can select RAVENNA as output to play ATMOS 7.1.4 contents directly.
Screen shot was Apple Music ATMOS 5.1.2 â BlackHole 16ch â HQPlayer Embedded (7ECv2 doing 8ch DSD256) â RAVENNA protocol â Merging+Anubis 8ch out.
I used to use UP Squared running HQPe upsampling to 1.4/1.5MHz using -gauss-long with NS9 or 1x sinc-M / Nx closed-form-M with NS5 to feed my Ares II when lazy or just enjoying music.
Why do you still need blackhole? Isnât the Hqplayer embedded installed on Upboard and you plug it to Mac thru USB cable? How do you chain blackhole to Upboard?
You need BlackHole to trigger ATMOS or Dolby Digital decoder in system level.
Channel setting is 2 in hqplayerd.xml so the UAC2 is always stereo by default. Havenât tried to change to 12 tho. Maybe will test that later.
You need to run an NAA daemon on macOS and let it deliver the audio data to HQPlayer Embedded. Add one line in your HQPeâs hqplayerd.xml file:
Restart your HQPe. Then go to âInputâ page of HQPe, in the âInputâ pull down menu youâll see âYOU_NAME_ITâ. Pick and click âSelectâ. Now the Embedded is ready to receive data from BlackHole.
In macOSâ preference pane, select output to BlackHole then play Apple Music.
Yes, and theoretically it should work. But last time I tried to get it working I failed. Maybe it is/was a BIOS bug or something else. But I couldnât get it workingâŚ
USB Audio Class 2 has annoying limitations. For example when you double the number of channels, the maximum sampling rate you can achieve is cut to half. And so onâŚ
Hmmm⌠I could use UP^2 as UAC2 input for my iPad in last Sep⌠(after that I switched to another topic )
Iâll try that again when I get home (about a week after).
Just now I set my iMac to NAA to my ancient mac pro running ubuntu+hqplayerd and then my DAC. Everything working fine.
But I have one more question. Its quite annoying to select âinputâ to âYOU_NAME_ITâ everytime. Can it be automatic? Or can I use the hqp-control2 to do this? Its more easy to run a command rather than using the browser.
There is no automatic sample rate switching with this solution right?
NAA input will pickup whatever sample rate is for Blackhole in Audio MIDI? Which you set manually?
So with Apple Music Hi-Res 2-channel , you need to manually change sample rate?
Iâm just trying to understand if your method performs same as my UpBoard Gateway NAA input- where UAC2 input does support auto sample rate switching nicely with iOS
I guess if @jussi_laako made NAA for iOS then no need for hardware like UPBoard Gateway
Blackhole is great imo, however all my experiments I had to switch sample rate by hand. (When using with HQPlayer Desktop on Mac to route Apple Music have to pick in HQplayer the sample rate from blackhole as audio imterface. By using Blackhole you can combine Audirvana with HQP too which gives you the advantage of using AU in Audirvana before output to HQP via blackhole. If your Mac is strong enough you can route Apple Music or Sportify or whatever via blackhole to Logic, Ableton,âŚapply there your Equalizer, Audiounits, VST and route further to HQPlayer. Might require two different virtual cables. Most powerful is Jack ofcourse imo. Putting it all together, myself was not happy with this virtual cable stuff. Too complicated. Also, I want to handle the playback via iPad or iPhone as UI. Tried a bit to chain two HQPlayer Desktops.But did not get it running. Well, so,far still not using HAPlayer embedded. Thinking about it as my backend is Ubuntu Server (not Studio version but with light Desktop) anyway. Maybe âVirtual cableâ can do sample rate switching on Mac. Did not try. Like said, guess Jack is most powerful option amyway. However decided to let Apple Music go and using Qobuz with Roon and HQPlayer as most comfortable solution imo. In regards to Apple Music and Atmos pls. refer to following article about Appleâs used Atmos decoder in Music. Do not know, if still uptodate. But for my kiddi stuff, I decided not to publish on Apple Music in Atmos. Also because it is 30 USD extra per track to do so. I am only a hobbyist and do not pay this. I guess JMJ did know, why he did publish in binaural and not Atmos. However def. something to keep an eye on.But not ready imo.BTW try to play Apple Music or Amazon on Android⌠Have fun with Amdroids lousy USB driver. Apple and Amazon super obvious do not want you to integrate their service with e.g. USB Player Pro or Hybi or whatever. Therfore no go right now for me. And on iOS you can not even apply Apple Musicâs own equalizer on Hires streaming. This is all a waste of time imo. The stuff is not ready from Apple or Amazon. Stay with Tidal or my recommendation Qobuz. If you buy an album from Qobuz, the hires Flac is DRM free.You can play it how and where you want⌠Ok, just my 2 centsâŚAtmoy in compare from Apple. Amazon and Tidal: The problem with Dolby Atmos music is its inconsistency | What Hi-Fi?
but but but, i had the chance to see and listen to Kraftwerks Katalog in cinema in atmos that time.it was fantastic! when you pick Katalog as bluray you get the Atmos tracks PS If you really want to have fun, I guess you need Atmos True HD anywayâŚ.Apple Atmos plays via Bluetooth