Ironically I have really discovered IIR as a filter while experimenting on a “weaker” machine and playing with CD’s. Even more… it was PCM (but don’t tell anyone! ) Redbook at PCM 1.4MHz. What I found to my hearing is that IIR often (but not always) nicely suits live / concert recordings. After that I have been exploring left and right and for me it suits a huge range of musical genres but strongly depends on particular recording, actually sometimes being totally “unacceptable”.
IIR filter design peculiarity is that it is not offloaded to GPU. Now, as you mention, indeed, after a better look I realised that IIR2 is not flying on my machine @ 512 as well. It drops out quite reguraly. @ 256 for IIR2 is doable.
There are few other favorites for sure. I do come to EXT3 for timbre, very true. But it can equally be sometimes too “busy” or “clottered” on some recordings. I experimented with “Sinc-L” it can be very nice but not a “default” go-to variant. Also used to like “Sinc-LL” especially with strings, but newcomer “Sinc-Lh” takes it all now
The recent one I was experimenting with was poly-sinc-gauss-halfband, and it suites some recordings nicely as well.
May be allow me to elaborate on “my experimenting”. As my default filters I stick to Jussi’s reccomendation, for modulator I normally set 7EC-super 512+fs. This truly works wonders many times… untill it hits a wall (in my head obviously or rather a old bone !?) on some “new” recording when magic stops bein magic and sounds like a painful torture. Then I start mingling with combinations of filters and modulators to either “lighten” somewhat busy recordings or ressurect transients or polish-off rough brightness until the grail is found again. At the end I really enjoy when I find a sweet-spot for a particular record, and with enough excitement post my findings here sometimes…
BTW, lets not forget DSD sources - I have it on FIR2 / XFi
I used to default to ext-3 for, like you, timbre, but these days I am really diggin’ sinc-MGa + ASDM7EC-fast 512+fs. I am a set-it-and-forget-it kinda person and don’t want to have to adjust filters with every song. Of course, I probably spend almost as much time comparing different permutations to find that elusive perfect setting
Exactly same for me. One of my friend I9-10900 cannot run IIR2 in DSD256. It is a CPU killer filter, but I am sure that it would be possible if I knew how to really optimize CPU setting in the K-range.
If using a very clean network and a RME, the IIR2 does not exhibit any harschness och sibilance whatever moron has been doing the production. Off course you will hear the artifacts, but they will not kill your ears.
Saying that; mains, descrete power supplies, network, switches, etc, electrical connections bringing everything together in a galvanic race of ground and superimposed noise is absolutely crucial for filters that will not smooth things out. I can guarantee all of the HQP filters to be anything but unpleasent to audition. HQP make wonders, but I vouch for the system implementation electrically as equally important. For speaker listening of course also the room acoustics
Very true! I’ve been also jumping around HQplayer embedded players after installing Minserver and running a backup of my sound library on a Mac Mini M1, just realized so much going on, anyway happy with roon.
Should i be using a ASDM5 or 7 for the Topping DX5? It has 2x ES9068AS DACs.
edit: Also, for the matrix pipeline if i want to just use crossfeed, do i need the “enable” box ticked at the top of the screen or just the “enable” box to the left of the crossfeed settings?
9068 is essentially same as 9038Q2M, but with ADC and MQA included. So it is older generation chip where 5th order modulator is recommended. But you can still also use 7th order if you prefer.
on a Mac Mini M1, just realized so much going on, anyway happy with roon.
