Interesting discussion on the bit rate limit for SDM in HQP. That’s a parameter I didn’t complete understand until now.
I’m upsampling all media to DSD256. What is the best bit rate limit to choose? My media files are a mix between 44.1, 48, 96 and 192kHz.
Which maximum bitrate parameter is the best? 44.1/256 or 48/256?
I understand the upsampling to DSD256 can lead to 2 different absolute bitrates depending on the input being 44.1 or 48 (and multiples) kHz.
Is it possible to disturb a DAC with the wrong bitrate? My DACs accept “native” DSD256 (iFi Zen DAC and Cayin N3-Pro). But I cannot find any documentation about the appropriate bitrates for the DAC chips inside. Afaik a Burr Brown 1793 inside the Zen and two AK4493 inside the Cayin.
With upsampling to DSD256 the Cayin stops audio output every few minutes while Roon and HQP are playing on. With DSD128 I don’t see this problem. The Zen DAC doesn’t have with DSD256, it works fine all time.
By default the 44.1k base rate multiples are the ones to use. Most DACs don’t support multiples of 48k. For this reason there is also the “48k DSD” check box which should be left off, unless you are certain that your DAC supports DSD at multiples of 48k.
DAC chip doesn’t matter much from this perspective, it is about functionality of the USB interface and clocking system.
QUESTION:
Can I install HQPlayer OS on an Intel i9 NUC? Like this. Basically I want it to be as fast as possible, but managed totally by HQP with no underlying OS SW competing for resources.
BACKGROUND:
I currently have an i7 audio-specific server (running Roon Core + HQP) that can only upsample to DSM 128 with all EC modulators / filters. It can only do 256 with, for example, ASDM7.
I want to move to a separate Roon core, and a dedicated HQP upsampling machine. I will use a consumer NUC for Roon, and would like to use a consumer i9 as above fora dedicated HQP machine. The theory is that my audio quality will not suffer as I will keep my current expensive endpoint which is optically isolated from the network with 2 EtherRegens.
Both of these consume machines will be away from the playback system do I don’t care about appearance or fan noise.
Likely it will work fine, use the “x64amd” image on such. It is still the basic non-K CPU model, but it should do DSD256 just fine with EC modulators and also DSD512 with EC modulators with some filter settings.
OK, sadly can’t get that one due to supply chain issues. Generally speaking is it possible to install HQP OS on a random gaming motherboard? Or does it have to be a NUC?
In terms of speccing a high-end machine that will run 512 with all filters, for instance, do you have a preference for AMD Threadripper vs i9 K models? how much does it make sense to add high end video cards? How much can be offloaded to them?
… and in terms of CPU performance, does HQP DSM upsampling care more about single-core or multi-core performance? How much does memory (size) and speed matter?
the NUC you’ve referred to was on offer at USD 1,7k. But for a budget at and below 2k you can build i9-12900K + 32GB DDR5-6000. Ok, this will be without fancy NVIDIA, but still…
Gaming motherboards are much better choice than a NUC. I’m mostly using gaming boards myself. At the moment I don’t have any NUCs running HQPlayer. My only NUC that is in use is running Roon Server under Debian 11, and nothing else.
Both, best is to look for CPU that has highest number of cores without penalty in single-core performance. You will likely want a CPU that can keep turbo clocks >= 4.5 GHz under multi-core loads. Best combination is a CPU that can reach very high clock speeds combined with a powerful Nvidia GPU. This way, the CPU provides maximum single-core performance while the GPU provides maximum multi-core performance.
OK, thank you both. I’m decidedly not a fan of building my own machines, and I realize I have to pay for that.
Could the upcoming Mac Studio(March availability) be a good option for full DSD512 capability? Options are 10-core M1 Max or 20-core M1 Ultra. (I did look at the Mac Mini M1 but it didn’t seem enough of a performance improvement.)
Is it unreasonable to hope that the folks working on a port of HQP OS will eventually get it working on this machine? The machine would meet my have other uses for me anyway.
So is fair to say (assuming I’m building from scratch) I should go with a gaming mobo, fast RAM, and an Alder Lake i9 (12900K or as much as I want to spend)?
Yes, that’s my recommendation. It also allows you to later add a powerful GPU if necessary. It would be good idea to rate the PSU accordingly with enough reserve for a GPU.