Which HQP Filter are you using? [2015-2023]

Floris_Buwalda · September 22, 2022, 2:59pm

I came across these measurements from Archimago:

And I noticed that poly-sinc-mqa is almost identical to a favourite of mine, sinc short, however it appears to be very good in reaching full attenuation by Nyquist and is also excellent the time domain! The only thing you trade for this is that it starts attenuating at 18khz already, but I don’t think this is a great loss as I don’t hear much above 16khz anyway.
Does anyone else have any experience with using the mqa filter for non-mqa content? I quite like it myself!

dabassgoesboomboom · September 22, 2022, 3:21pm

I’m colour blind but I don’t think this shows full attention by Nyquist (22.05kHz) ?

Or has my colour blindness made me look like a fool again

Floris_Buwalda · September 22, 2022, 3:24pm

No you’re right! Only one with full attenuation by Nyquist is Sinc-M. However it is one of the “closest” ones only beaten by sinc-xtr and sinc-ext.

dabassgoesboomboom · September 22, 2022, 3:26pm

If you want the time-domain properties of mqa filter but want actual full attention by Nyquist, 1x = gauss-long and Nx = gauss-hires-lp is made for you !

It’s the best balance of both.

Give it a try !

Floris_Buwalda · September 22, 2022, 3:32pm

The Gauss filters are indeed awesome! I have these as my defaults as per Jussi’s recommendation.
It’s a shame appear to never have been measured as I’d like to know the tradeoffs of switching to gauss-short or gauss-xla.

dabassgoesboomboom · September 22, 2022, 4:00pm

Some tradeoffs might be able to be guesstimated from the manual’s description?

Compared with gauss-long:

Non-apodizing in the case of gauss-short. A little less extended freq response? Less pre and post ringing ? Less attenuation?

A bit less apodizing in the case of gauss-xla? A little more extended frequency response? More pre and post ringing?

I don’t know though! I’m both colour blind and dumb

jussi_laako · September 22, 2022, 9:03pm

I think I have posted some filter responses earlier in this thread.

poly-sinc-gauss-short:

poly-sinc-gauss-xla:

Note a different axis scales.

Thus with poly-sinc-gauss-short, image of 20 kHz is -124 dB down.

jussi_laako · September 22, 2022, 9:19pm

With -4 dB white noise test and spectrogram the difference looks smaller:

poly-sinc-gauss-short:

poly-sinc-gauss-xla:

This is with low 4x conversion ratio so that at least something is visible.

Stef_Dahl · September 23, 2022, 12:25pm

Given my age, which is not so advanced… I must not perceive anything above 14 000hz. Which does not prevent me from having preferences !

Chunhao_Lee · September 25, 2022, 1:36pm

I prefer using poly-sinc-mqa/mp3-mp for Apple Music Atmos contents. This filter somehow can match Dolby Atmos Music FR curve (such curve’s final downward is: above 10KHz, -3dB per octave).

erekola · September 27, 2022, 9:38am

Its nice to get sameday i7-12700, 16gb ddr5 and rtx3060 12gb hqp pc + iFi Neo iDSD

erekola · September 30, 2022, 6:02am

Näyttökuva 2022-09-30 084150

boomboom

qafro · September 30, 2022, 1:51pm

@jussi_laako Please can you expand on the update regarding streaming improvements?

HQPlayer 4 Embedded 4.32.5 released.
Streaming improvements, especially for Qobuz. Eject button for CD media. Bug fixes and component updates.

jussi_laako · September 30, 2022, 3:38pm

There’s a workaround for case where their CDN cuts the connection in the middle of the track. Freewheel is now also default for new installations, since it seems to be less likely happen that way.

There are also improvements on how TLS handshake is performed asynchronously while streaming (when source uses HTTPS).

Shawn_Williams · October 4, 2022, 9:26pm

After some time with my Holo May KTE, I have decided I prefer DSD512 (non EC) over DSD256 (ASDM7ECv2). Current settings for my M1 Mini (for the foreseeable future).

patouskii · October 5, 2022, 3:13am

I’ve been thinking to try out HQPlayer. I’m in process of moving my core to NUC 8i5 with 16gb RAM. How high can you go with this kind of setup? DSD256?

musicjunkie917 · October 5, 2022, 4:43am

The NUC series is not very powerful and a poor choice for HQPlayer…especially if you are doing DSD….

I would look at the M1 Mac mini. It’s relatively inexpensive and quite powerful. That is what I use with my Holo Audio May KTE DAC.

Tomas_Novotny · October 5, 2022, 6:18am

I have the same NUC 8i5 16 GB ram and using with HQP. Only Gauss filter with DSD 256 can’t be played because of less power. The other formats are OK.

Stefano_Antonelli · October 5, 2022, 6:26am

Which modulator are you using?

dabassgoesboomboom · October 5, 2022, 6:27am

Not necessarily. My fanless NUC8i7 can do DSD256 just fine with ASDM7 (non EC) and 1x = gauss-long and Nx = gauss-long-hires.

This sounds great feeding RME ADI-2 DAC in DSD Direct mode.

So as usual, “it depends”

In this case, depends on filter and modulator combo and DSD rate.

But I wouldn’t make blanket statement that the more powerful NUCs are automatically a poor choice.