Still curious about the matrix part Dear Jussi: I presume it is under pipeline set up where I enable it and enable level 3 and find Holo audio may - however what other settings should I do?
You can find all this information from the manual.
Matrix pipeline settings can be found when youāre on HQP server main window and look at the top row. From there, select Matrix ā Pipeline setup. When you have it open, check the āEnabledā box on top left corner. Then look for Correction tab and check Enabled-box there also. From drop down menu select Holo May.
To make it easy, hereās a screenshot:
I have also the Holo May. Recently I discovered that sinc-M in pcm is incredible good. Polished warm sound with almost no digital glare. I seem to prefer long filters. Shorter filters sound a bit harsh, not only in the highs, but also harsh on voices and violins.
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Hi Patouskii - thanks such much for your helpful comments. Since I am not that technically minded I am not sure what I am actually messing with here. I followed your advice but cannot seem to find anything like your: VBA LR - 12 ect. -----so where do find your filter?
Ignore those, theyāre my personal DSP filters. Just check the settings I marked with red circle.
Okay thanks!
Thanks for all the advice. My stereo has never sounded better. I only have one problem left. For the sake of my family it would be ideal to be able to turn the dac on and off and then the software should automatically work. My system is Mac mini (with HQplayer and Roon core) - ethernet to cheap switch - ethernet to a zen streamer and then usb cable to the Holo may. However, when I turn Holo May on and off very often HQplayer does not automatically identify the Holo and then there is no sound. Is this not supposed to work automatically and if not could Jussi perhaps sort this flaw out? Roon alone seems to work better in comparison - when I turn the Holo on and off normally Roon just works and picks up where I left it.
However, recently I also think my networks is malfunctioning so I am thinking I should change the switch which seems to be the issue. I have a question in this regard: Does it make any sense to buy audiophile ethernet cables and for example an English electric switch, which some apparently think improves the sound? I presume that the zen streamer or a Holo red streamer would remove any noice from the network anyway before the signal enters the DAC right? In that case it would be money badly spend. Any advice on this as well would be much appreciatedā¦
All the best, Morten
If you are able, I would strongly suggest not powering down your May and letting it run 24/7 w/ the exception of long absent periods where it will not be used and/or lightning-storm activity even if its on a battery backup. Constantly power cycling the unit on/off is harder on the componentry than just leaving it on. However, if youāre a climate activist then disregard this recommendation bc GRETA is watching youā¦
I own both a Holo Red Streamer & Custom Network Pi4. The Red is very nice and can give a bump in your auditory experience to eliminate noise w/ some additional features depending on your use case but if money is tight just go w/ a Pi4 as itās a fraction of the cost and can bridge the gap until you can pick up a Red.
Thanks Lopez - I find the HOLO may super warm - but I presume that is okay? Thanks also for your advice on the HOLO read streamer - I supposed if it eliminates noice ect - then there is no reason to also invest in expensive switches the impact of which seems quite questionable ?
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I donāt own the May but I do own the Spring 3 KTE which does run rather warm; this is normal. My Cyan-2 on the other hand runs quite cool. Tbh your May shouldnāt be having too much of an issue w/ noise given that the USB is galvanically isolated. However, there is still a benefit to going w/ a network end point like a Pi4 or the RED as I did notice that w/ mine the bkg did become more black.
Thanks again. I will keep it turned on then and thanks also on the USB that was also the way I understood it. I will try to get a HOLO read to replace my ZEN streamer mostly to be able to play DSD at higher rates than 256ā¦but then I will not spend any serious Money on the network switch, ethernet cables ectā¦
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If you plan to go up to DSD512 or 1024 you may (no pun intended) need a rather beefy PC (that is if you donāt already have one) bc youāre doubling the system load from 256 > 512 and again from 512 > 1024 and if you use Dac Correction that also adds more load and it becomes quite heavy at DSD1024.
I recently built a dedicated PC to host Roon Server & HQPlayer Desktop for a 2-channel (headphone) setup specifically to do DSD512 & 1024 w/ Dac Correction Enabled. Iāve been able to do every DSD512 combo I throw at it but DSD1024 is a mixed bag and mostly only works w/ Dac Correction disabled w/ the exception of AHM7EC8B.
My System Specs:
i9-14900K + RTX 4070 Ti Super (soon to be upgraded to a RTX 5080) + Teamgroup 48GB DDR5 7200MHz CL34 + m.2 Samsung 990Pro SSD
Be advised the hardware Iām using doesnāt necessarily mean that you need to be using the same or better. It really depends on the filter/mod comboās you wish to run. I over built my system w/ the goal of being able to do all DSD512 combos w/ headroom so I didnāt have to redline my pc when under load.
The only time I run DSD1024 is w/ AHM7EC8B + Dac Correction enabled bc itās the only combo that doesnāt unnecessarily stress my PCās thermals & power. Other DSD1024 combos only work if I disable Dac Correction and I personally donāt find the uplift to DSD1024 worth it given the current PC hardware available in 2025.
I have no doubt others will disagree on the topic of DSD1024 as some have been able to climb that mountain w/ success. If thatās an option you choose to chase more power to you and I wish you the best of luck.
Thanks for your advice - I have the latest generation of Mac mini with M4pro and 64 GB RAM - probably set its own limits for how high one can go in the DSD competition. Do you feel DSD512 is better than DSD256?
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Tbh, Iām still exploring both DSD256 & 512 as I find in some situations one sounds more pleasing than the other. Not to sound unhelpful but you need to explore that road for yourself to find what you like.
I do find I mostly listen in DSD512 followed by 256 and then 1024. I also enjoy PCM but I didnāt go much into that bc itās a very light load compared to DSD and the convo seemed to focus more in that direction.
Btw, if you do find a filter mod combo that you want to try but itās not working be sure to come to the forums first to ask for help before running out and buying gear. The problem might be easily solved by a simple setting change and if not at least you can get some guidance on what to buy so you donāt waste $$$.
I really enjoy HQ Player and love its upsampling to DSD. I find the sweet spot for me is DSD 128. Excellent sound, normally without too much CPU for my mac mini. Oddly, I note though that when the source is anything other than 44.1, it takes much more processing power. For example, 192 sources almost double the cpu intensity and my mini starts to get hotter than Iād like. Is this because I am actually downsampling in a way, and then upsampling? Intuitively, it seems that HQ Player would need to do less work with something already encoded at 192. Thoughts on this?
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@Mr_Todah You havenāt mentioned which filter or modulator causes this issue. It matters a lot
First reason would be conversion from 48/96/192k rate family to 44.1k-base family DSD output. This is not really heavier from calculations point of view, but it more demanding on the memory bandwidth. So the difference depends mostly on memory access speed.
With two stage filters for example 176.4k and 192k are also heavier than 44.1k or 48k because the first (heavier) stage converts by factor of 8 or 16. So for example 48k becomes 768k, while 192k becomes 3072k. So the first stage is four times heavier when the source rate is four times higher. Only then the second stage filter is applied to convert it to the final output rate, which in this case is 5.6 or 6.1 MHz.
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Iām using SMSL Raw MDA1 as my DAC and for the last few days I have playing with the filters on HQPlayer using this forum recommendations, Iām trying to tailor it to my Analog sound preference. I want to escape that glare sound on some digital recordings I own and replicate that analog sound on SACD and Vinyl (mainly listen to Jazz, Classical and soft rock). Iām noticing iir and xla filter combination on 1x/nx gives me that but DSD5 as a modulator was a bigger impact than ASDM5EC on sound. So far Iām so impressed with HQPlayer more than any tool I used before not sure if I get a better DAC I would get much better results or not. Any other recommendations?
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You could try poly-sinc-short-mp-2s as filter. For both 1x and Nx.
You could also try ASDM5EC-super as modulator.