until now, I was using Roon with its DSP processing directly on the DENAFRIPS PONTUS II DAC with the “NOS” option so that there was no overdriving and a direct signal
Now I have just installed HQplayer Desktop and I would like to know the basic settings including filters because it is quite complex I confess
I would have liked to know which ones can be used with the R2R DENAFRIPS Pontus Ii DAC
I put you the screenshots for the opttions that I put for a DSD 256 treatment during the reading 16-44 towards DSD 256
1st Screenshot ( Diagram of my dematerialized installation)
@jussi_laako has a Denafrips so will correct me here but if using ASIO driver then you don’t need to select SDM Pack = DoP , you can select Native DSD instead?
And does the Denafrips support 48x256 for ‘Bit rate limit’? You have selected the 48k DSD option.
It is recommended to set ‘Vol Max’ to -3dB (negative) at most. Maybe set your Vol Min to -12dB. I’m assuming you use the Hegel for analogue volume control. During playback you should be able to leave it at -3dB but if you see ‘Limited’ going over 0, then you can turn the HQPlayer knob down to -4dB or -6dB or whatever, for that track/album.
For 1x filter also try out poly-sinc-gauss and poly-sinc-ext2 and some of the other popular ones
With my Ares II, I’m most of the time sticking to poly-sinc-ext2 + ASDM7EC, or poly-sinc-gauss-long + ASDM7EC, DSD256 always. If you don’t have enough CPU power to use ASDM7EC, falling back to ASDM7 is fine too, which also allows you to go for DSD512 if you like.
I still hear a fuller sound with HQplayer /Roon than Roon alone but the HQplayer settings seem to be more complex because of the number of important options
Maybe it’s a mistake from my part to have switched to Hqplayer ?
Roon should be enough
Hqplayer is made for the audiophile purist and who have time to devote to their passion
too bad because I think it brings a plus combined with Roon
The Pontus materials (manual, marketing, etc) claim that it has separate DAC hardware for PCM and DSD, but this could be misleading. Does it actually do Direct DSD with its “6-bit DSD (32 step FIR Filters)”, or is that simply a mechanism to convert DSD stream to PCM for the R2R side to handle?
It seems that recommendations for the Pontus II (even by some Signalyst folks) vary between 1536kHz PCM and 256x DSD, so one could assume that it has dedicated hardware for both and the choice is purely subjective / by preference.
I know someone will tell me to listen to both and decide for myself, but I’d like to understand what additional DSP (or lack of it) is done to PCM vs DSD streams.
Found a relevant comment - seems like no-one really knows although the response from Denafrips (see response to @jussi_laako’s comment) seems to again imply lack of DSP for DSD input
What I’ve done tons of measurements with it, it seems to do some DSP and not directly convert the data into analog. This is because the bandwidth doesn’t change as function of sampling rate, and there is some amount of noise aliasing. Using higher sampling rate, like DSD1024 lowers the amount of aliased noise.
I am new to HQplayer. Bought it this week. I immediately heard an improvement compared to Roon as a player. Mainly regarding spaciousness. I do have a few questions about my settings.
My set up is as follows:
Mac mini M2 → Roon → HQplayer → Denafrips Arce → Denafrips Pontus 15th → active speakers. The Arce is connected through I2s.
The Arce should be able to do DSD 1024, but I can’t seem to get it working. I get hiccups all the time, although the M2 has lots of CPU power left (4 cores are busy…). When I go to DSD512 I have no issues. Is it due to the Mac mini, is this the maximum I can get?
I am using the following filters for now:
I am wondering if the bit settings (20) are ok for the Denafrips Arce & Pontus. I have tried 24 as well, since the Arce is capable of 24 bits, and the Pontus - according to the manual- true 26 bit. I have no clue…
I don’t think it is easy to get DSD1024 out of Apple M-series CPUs. Your M2 probably has 4 performance cores, thus those ones are most loaded. And modulators are mathematically such, that not all of the processing can be spread to multiple cores. DSD512 with your settings should be already give a very good quality though.
Should be the correct one, based on my measurements of the Ares II.
It is technically impossible to make R2R ladder that is accurate to 24 bits, let alone 26 bits… Setting DAC Bits to 20 and using LNS15, especially at higher output sampling rates provides audio band dynamic range of 24+ bits.
Thank you for your response! It clears things up for me. I will play a bit around with the filters, but I am really enjoying Poly since-gauss xl and hires-lp with ASDM7EC light. If I change filter or modular I seem to be getting hiccups. But I keep it like this for now and enjoy.
