PC for DSD1024 48 that will handle all filters? Fanless preferred

Audio Gear Talk HQ Player
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For a general reference and community support, there is a thread on CA forum on setting up the HQP on Linux (It has been started a while ago, first half of it is probably not relevant anymore): How To Install HQPlayer Embedded On Ubuntu - Software - Audiophile Style

With two SSD’s, easiest is Win11 on the first and Ubuntu is on the second without modifications on the boot sectors. As such the default boot will always be Win11, it will never see Linux drive, only in management console. To boot linux on MSI MB you will hit F11 (it will give you BIOS boot menu to select the boot). This is the simpliest option, downside - on system reboot you always go into windows.

Alternative option is rather more complex having GRUB manager defining the OS load sequence, possible.

For Ubuntu Server installation you will need to “burn” Ubuntu USB stick (I normally use rufus for this)
Rufus: Index of /downloads
Ubuntu Server ISO (24.04.xx recommended for today): Get Ubuntu Server | Download | Ubuntu

The installation procedure for the server is rather simple in several steps following on the screen instructions. ChatGPT in paid mode can already guide you through every single step and answer specific questions reasonably good. It may as well do in “free” mode, but I don’t trust it too much, it’s more for the check/safe rail type of things… Don’t forget to install SSH (will be asked during the installation), the disk set up step is the most sensitive one - make sure you are not killing your Win11 disk !

When you install the server OS the further customisation is simple. This script will give you nVidia drivers version 580 with CUDA drivers and latest HQP Embedded, it may not be correct in the near future due to the changes of drivers or packages. You need to replace $USER$ $PASSWORD$ with a user and password you desire for managing HQP remotely via its web interface.

sudo apt update
sudo apt full-upgrade
sudo apt install nvidia-headless-580-server nvidia-utils-580-server
sudo reboot now

wget https://www.sonarnerd.net/src/noble/libgmpris_2.2.1-12_amd64.deb
wget https://signalyst.com/bins/hqplayerd/noble/hqplayerd_5.16.0-44_amd64.deb

sudo dpkg -i libgmpris_2.2.1-12_amd64.deb
sudo dpkg -i hqplayerd_5.16.0-44_amd64.deb
sudo apt install -f
sudo hqplayerd -s $USER$ $PASSWORD$
sudo systemctl enable hqplayerd
sudo systemctl start hqplayerd
sudo reboot now

You need to figure out your server IP address. With above sequence you will get the server up and running. To connect to HQPlayer on your network with any browser - you enter HQPlayer IP address and the port will be 8088, it will look smth like: 192.168.1.115:8088 for example… 192.168.1.xxx is for quite a lot of default router setups, but may as well be different for you.

For your hardware setup I would recommend to set multicore=“1” in HQPlayer config file, the quickest is like this (check how to use nano editor):

sudo nano /etc/hqplayer/hqplayerd.xml
sudo systemctl restart hqplayerd

If you don’t know how to check an IP address for Linux server, in console mode ifconfig utility will help.

Personally, once HQPlayer Server is set up, I touch my server physically very very very rarely.

For remote management from iPad I use paid version of: TERMINUS Client for iPad

For remote management from Windows PC I use Putty: PuTTY: latest release (0.83)

This may help you kick start your wonderful build !

PS: What is the motherboard finaly ?

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Thanks for the info. The builder put Ubuntu on the second drive for me.

The motherboard he ended up using was the Gigabyte z790 AORUS PRO X

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There is one important step missing between these two commands, if you use “nano” editor.

sudo chown hqplayer /etc/hqplayer/hqplayerd.xml

Otherwise you will fail to store any setting changes from any of the HQPlayer web interface pages… If you use “vim” as editor instead, no need to do anything, as it doesn’t mess with the file permissions.

In normal cases you don’t need to know the IP address, you can just use “hostname.local” where hostname is the hostname configured for the server. Another way to find the IP address is to use HQPlayer Client to discover the server and check the IP from the control panel there.

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Jussi, they might have fixed this nano “bug”/behaviour on the latest Ubuntu Server Releases. With above script and with sudo nano ... the ownership for /etc/hqplayer/hqplayerd.xml always remained with hqplayer (at least for me). I guess, this may be not a universal rule for other debians-ish…

Solid choice! Somewhat stronger than MSI PRO in VRM, this may be more beneficial for overclocking. Also, possible better memory stability at higher speeds. For HQP, as you see I do not recommend anything higher than 6800 (I think it is already a borderline). Good thing you have your dedicated builder who can hopefully tame what is needed. I was afraid they would sell you some type of marketing B/S for “gamers”, but at the end is a great value for money choice.

When you say Ubuntu - desktop or server ?

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OK, that’s great! Maybe Canonical has just patched their version of nano to fix the annoying bebavior. Since it potentially creates problem with many system configuration files…

Regarding RAM, I have couple of machines with G.Skill’s DDR5-6400 CL32 kit-of-two and these have been very stable for me (XMP Profile 1 enables the full speed).

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I picked up the new machine today and have been playing around with it using HQPlayer Desktop since I still have my license. Nice to be able to use ASDM7ECv3 without any hiccups. So far poly-sinc-gauss-long sounds great with it,

I have to set everything to 1024 44.1. This isn’t a computer issue at all, though. I use the EtherRegen and it won’t pass the 1024 48 signal to the Holo Red. I tried 1024 48 without the EtherRegen and it works perfectly, but 1024 44.1 with the EtherRegen in place sounds much better. Everything is tighter with more weight. A new version is supposed to be coming, but it’s been been delayed a few times. Maybe when it;s ready it will pass the 1024 48 signal.

All in all, I’m really happy with the performance of the new machine. I know I’m in the minority here with my amplification and speakers, but running HQPlayer through the T+A DAC 200 into a pair of 45 SET Monoblocks and high efficiency Omega HO XRS towers with integrated subs is as close to audio perfection as I’ve heard. FWIW, I used to work in audio and have had some very well put together systems. Before this, my favorite system was an all Ayre front end through a pair of Sonus Faber Il Cremonese. This HQPlayer digital/analog system is about as “you are there” that I’ve experienced. If anyone is in the NY/NJ area, you’re more than welcome to come by.

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Ok, here is a bottom line. Xeon CPU’s are awesome for HQPlayer.
I just grabbed an engineering sample for like $200 or less. Its a 8480+ that was 56cores and max turbo frequency 3.7Ghz. 28 cores can run 3.7Ghz simultaneously. With registered DDR5@6000Mhz CL32 i am able to play DSD1024 with ASDM5EC-Fast 512+fs or ASDM7EC-Fast 512+fs, poly-sinc-gauss-long. Load per core is 60-90% but it plays smooth and sound, without offloading, running HQPlayerOS. Imagine a w9-3565X at 5Ghz+
I’ve disabled half of the cores, but cant disable hyperthreading.

xeon
xeon1920×809 91.3 KB

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Will this one’s performance be stronger than the 14900?
Has anyone tried Threadripper?
The 9970X has 32 cores, which is 2 to the power of 5, so theoretically it’s also suitable for HQPlayer.

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14900KS gives you 6.2 GHz P-core clocks, not many other options getting close to that. Where it matters is if you desire highest DSD rates with flexible modulator choice…

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Can more cores not replace higher clock speeds?
(The 9970X is 5.4GHz)
So is it better to pair a high clock speed CPU with a GPU?

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In my system / configuration it cannot. The last bit of processing is one core per channel so I see 2 cores basically max out and that’s my limit. Could be my configuration though, I don’t claim to understand the why only explaining what I’m seeing.

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Not for all algorithms. Some calculations have mathematical constraints that you cannot perform these in parallel.

Generally yes, CPU excels at things where multiple cores cannot help. While GPU has thousands of cores to spare on calculations that can run on multiple cores.

My recommendation when used with GPU is to have at least 2 * C + 2 cores, where C is number of channels. On AMD CPUs it is also important to consider that the CPU has balanced CCX/CCD configuration where each block has equal number of CPU cores. However, for above formula and stereo use, it should be OK to have 4+2 configuration, but 4+4 is a safer bet..

Intel Core series nowadays has two types of cores in one package, performance cores (P-cores) and efficiency cores (E-cores). HQPlayer understands about this, and can use the E-cores a bit like a GPU. This is quite useful on CPUs like 14900K(S) that have 8 P-cores and 16 E-cores, when use without GPU is desired.

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I’m the OP. I have had this system up and running for a bit and updated to HQplayer6 over this past weekend. Running 14900KS, 48GB, RTX5090. Only recently did I realize I wasn’t using my offloading to the 5090 properly. I have everything dialed in and I picked up a new preamplifier and amplifier. The setting I landed on as sounding the best in my system was DSD1024 48 with ASDM7ECv3 and closed-form-16M.

Previously I thought my etherregen was bottlenecking everything, but I have no issue passing this signal to my DAC200 (shows on the front display), but for the Nx filter with 96k files it will play for 20-25 seconds before running out of resources using HQPlayer Desktop on Windows 11 (I watched the meter on HQplayer Client).

I wanted to try to see if it would run on Linux, bypassing all the Windows 11 nonsense. I did a deep dive last night and first tried to follow the steps posted in this forum and elsewhere. No luck. Then I went to Google AI and spent five hours trying to get hqplayer embedded to run on Ubuntu. I couldn’t get it installed and launched.

Does anyone have step by step instructions to get it to work on Ubuntu? I just paid for HQplayer Desktop 6, but I’ll have to bite the bullet and get Embedded if I can get it to work on Unbutu because I’m pretty sure my desktop key won’t work ;(

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You could use HQPlayer Desktop on Ubuntu? And your Desktop license key naturally works there as well.

For Embedded, you can just “sudo apt install” the .deb package file. Then set web credentials with “sudo hqplayerd -s username password” and then just “sudo systemctl enable hqplayerd ; sudo systemctl start hqplayerd”. And then it should be up and running. The installation is simpler now with version 6 as number of external dependencies have been dropped and you only need to install one package delivered by me and rest is covered by the OS itself.

For Nvidia drivers you need to take some extra actions, in particular on Ubuntu Server.

Please also remember that HQPlayer is still on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS. I will move to 26.04 LTS once it is officially supported to upgrade 24.04 to 26.04. Which will happen when 26.04.1 is released (usually has been by late August / early September).

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I literally need to have Google AI walk me through the steps. Which file am I downloading for using HQPlayer 6 desktop on Unbutu? Am I just downloading it with chromium browser?

Also, do I install the RTX5090 drivers before or after HQPlayer. I think when I tried it before it mattered. Although I was trying on 26.04. I’m downloading 24.04 LTS now.

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I can’t even get into Unbutu 24.04. Apparently the RTX5090 is causing some kind of conflict. It just hangs the system when I either try to install it or go into graphics safe mode.

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you normally only need to make the Ubuntu Server boot USB and go through simple (or not ) installer process. Once server is set up, this is the script you may use (choose your USER and PASSWORD):

sudo apt update
sudo apt -y full-upgrade

wget https://developer.download.nvidia.com/compute/cuda/repos/ubuntu2404/x86_64/cuda-keyring_1.1-1_all.deb
sudo dpkg -i cuda-keyring_1.1-1_all.deb
sudo apt update
sudo apt -y install nvidia-open

wget https://signalyst.com/bins/hqplayerd/noble/hqplayerd_6.0.2-3_amd64.deb
sudo dpkg -i hqplayerd_6.0.2-3_amd64.deb
sudo apt install -f

sudo hqplayerd -s USER PASSWORD
sudo systemctl enable hqplayerd
sudo reboot
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I can’t get past the black screen that says Try/Install Ubuntu. It gives me a message about booting with a non blinking cursor line below it and the system hangs. I don’t know if I need to go into my BIOS and change something, but I can’t get into Ubuntu to start the process.

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Ah, ok - it may indeed be caused by 5090. I can not reproduce, as I don’t have 5090.

14900KS has video adapter, if your MB has the CPU video output, my idea – I would first try the following - check in BIOS that MB/CPU video port is enabled , connect your screen to MB instead of GPU. This idea is based on the assumption that installer does not hang under black screen, but only have a glitch with 5090 video output without the driver.

PS: once in bios, I would also switch off “secure boot” → it’s side effects is a pain under linux, especially when installing nvidia drivers or kernels.

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I assume I would need to completely disable the 5090 in BIOS? Will changing the primary video adapter to the intel one allow Ubuntu to install without disabling the nvidia?