Upsampling Tidal through HQP

Audio Gear Talk HQ Player
1

At the risk of being OT Miguel, have you tried upsampling Tidal through HQP ?

2

I have and it works fine. However, I have only tried upsampling to DSD. With my particular DAC (EmmLabs XDS1v2) I have found that PCM=>DSD conversion sounds more magical when done internally in the DAC vs in HQP. I have not tried upsampling TIDAL to PCM yet but I will.

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3

Tried last night: TIDAL->Roon->HQP (upsampling to 192)->DAC. Fantastic. But I have a problem with this setup: I cannot play DSD files in Roon, which is why I was only using HQP upsampling to DSD. I asked Miska (HQP developer) if it would be possible in HQP to have a setting that upsamples PCM to PCM while leaving DSD untouched. The other option is to use VNC to switch the output mode in HQP to DSD when playing DSD, but that’s beyond my lazyness level…

4

In DSDIFF/DSF settings in HQP if you enable DirectSDM then HQP will disable all processing when the source file is DSD content and the output is SDM to a DSD device.

That still requires manually changing the output in HQP from PCM to SDM when a DSD track is played.

If DirectSDM were to automatically change HQP output to SDM when a DSD track was played and then revert to default HQP output otherwise I can’t see a user case that would be adversely affected. Anyone wanting to convert DSD to PCM could just not select DirectSDM.

What do you think @jussi_laako ?

5

That’s what I asked for… But I understand this needs to be an “extra feature”, some people surely count on the output format to be fixed. And BTW, when Roon plays a DSF file to HQP, with HQP set to convert to PCM, I get no sound from the DSF file.

6

I understand DSD to PCM in HQP from Roon is being fixed in the next release of HQP.

What I was wondering was if there is a class of user who might tick DirectSDM but want to configure output manually. Provided HQP reverted to a default output when the source was not DSD I couldn’t think of one.

7

Understood… But I still want upsampling PCM->PCM with a PCM source and DSD untouched (ie not converted to PCM).

8

Yep. That would work. DirectSDM only has effect when the source is DSD.

9

Not quite… To get PCM->PCM you need to set the output format to PCM. If you do, an incoming DSD is converted to PCM regardless of the DirectDSM setting. This setting only works to not touch the DSD stream when the output format is DSD - as far as I can tell that is.

10

I see what you are saying.

So the question is:

Given that the current logic bypasses processing when:

  • Source is DSD; AND

  • Output is SDM; AND

  • DirectDSM is selected

Is there a class of user who may be disadvantaged if the logic were changed so as to bypass processing and send output to SDM when:

  • Source is DSD; AND

  • DirectDSM is selected

and continue to use configured output in any other case.

I think the answer is logically no. That class of user would be someone who both wants SDM output from a DSD source (DirectSDM is selected) but would somehow be dissatisfied if an SDM source automatically sent SDM output from a DSD source.

11

It needs to be like the magic “follow-the-source” mode where the logic goes like:
Source is DSD AND output is DSD capable AND DirectSDM is selected.

There could still be the case where someone either prefers to convert DSD to PCM even if the DAC is DSD capable or the DAC is not DSD capable at all.

What I don’t like is the case where the GUI controls in main window are set to some position while output ends up being something else. It can be extremely annoying and confusing. What I was thinking is to add third selection called “Auto” or “AutoSDM” to the output mode selection list in addition to PCM and SDM output modes. I actually have a function called AutoSDM in the engine, but it was never used. The logic around these things is already mind bendingly complex in HQPlayer because there are many possible combinations of PCM/DSD sources, PCM/DSD/only-PCM/only-SDM capable DACs, DirectSDM enabled, follow-the-source mode, can do output rate X with filter Y for source rate Z, etc… Somewhat regression prone to touch that part of code, hard to avoid new corner cases.

It won’t be long until someone asks the inverse though, to have DirectPCM, but processing for DSD… :wink:

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12

I have been upsampling Tidal through HQP at 5.6 MHz DSD and it sounds fantastic! It’s been a challenge getting Roon, HQP, and my Dacs to work together - but well worth the effort. I still need to work a bit to get things working each time I boot up, but it gets a little easier each day. I can’t figure out why it works or doesn’t work, but I always get it going after about 10 minutes of relaunching, loading playlists, checking program parameters, etc. Kudos to the development team at Roon for making all this happen. You’ve far surpassed the expectations I had when Roon launched. I never thought audio quality would be the thing I value most about Roon.

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13

That sounds great. Yes completely agree you want the main toggles to always do what they say.