Hi! I’m going to purchase a new Mac Studio to run Roon Server and HQ Player. I’ve ordered the step up M4 Max version (16-core CPU, 40-core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine) with 64gb of RAM.
I’m thinking about changing my order to the base M3 Ultra version (28-core CPU, 60-core GPU, 32-core Neural Engine) with 96gb of RAM.
Which would be more powerful with HQ Player:
the newer architecture and faster single-core performance of the M4 Max;
or the older M3 architecture with slower single-core performance but substantially greater multi-thread performance?
Which would you choose, understanding I can get better performance from a PC with a discrete Nvidia card? I have a PC with a 13900k and a 4090. I just don’t want that thing running all the time. I’m looking for something more efficient for everyday use.
M4 is nice, but is not a massive improvement over M1.
The things that matter are
Number of performance cores (efficiency cores are not much applicable on macOS)
Memory bandwidth
And of course the question is what you’d want to do. If your primary focus is doing DSD512, then single core performance is more critical. While if you focus more on certain heavier filters or convolution, then number of performance cores becomes critical.
Thanks, Jussi. So core count matters more than single core speed for more intensive filters. Sounds like I’ll be taking a trip to exchange for the M3 Ultra when the M4 Max is delivered tomorrow. I appreciate the info. Thanks!
I just picked up the M4 Max Mac Studio. It can’t run DSD512 with DAC Correction and a few of the more processor heavy filters. It can run everything at DSD256, though.
The newest modulators, that is EC-ul/light/fast/super (and 512+fs variants of these) are the most optimized ones (and technically best), so those are recommended. The new AHMxEC8B is also very good and efficient, but further optimizations are coming in future making it even lower load.
Wow, listening to my Holo Cyan 2 on my Devore o/96’s.
Redbook->DSD1024(!) with DAC correction, with poly-sinc-gauss-ext2 over AHM7EC8B, and my Mac Mini M4 base model is not even breaking a sweat. I could probably run this on one of my old school x86 Proxmox hosts it’s so undemanding. I’m not positive if I prefer this over DSD256 or DSD512 with different shapers, but Abby Lincoln’s voice sure is refined. I didn’t used to like higher bitrates for old school jazz recordings, but this is pretty magic.
With the modulators / filters in my screenshot, 1024 x 48k on my DAC 200 worked very smoothly. I also put a screenshot of my DAC 200 screen to share my DAC settings (NOS 2, LP 60, INV OFF). Please note I am using my DAC 200 as a pre-amp connected to 2 x M200 monoblocks.
I’m just curious, because I have my HQplayer set to 1024, 48K also - but my DAC 200, like yours does, shows 44.1k on the display. I could get the DAC to show 48k on the display by unchecking adaptive rate on the output screen of HQPlayer preferences, but then I couldn’t play anything without pauses in the music.
I can only do DSD 256 x 48k with ASDEM7ECv3 (my favorite filter) + DAC correction. 512 drops out with my M2 processor.
I couldn’t do DSD 512 x 48k with AHM7EC8B as the filter combination doesn’t work in HQP yet.
