NOS1a and HQPlayer on Win 10

[manisandher]

I'm now listening to internet radio on Roon through the NOS1a. The total path is:

Roon [on music server] -> HQP (poly-sinc-xtr-MP, NS5, 705.6) [on audio PC] -> NOS1a -> amp (volume controlled by Roon)

Listening to BBC Radio 3, even though it 'only' streams at 16/48 320kbps, I have to say the SQ is really very good. Time to finally take down the massive FM antenna I have on the roof of the house!

Perhaps getting the NOS1a working effortlessly with Roon/HQP may open up a whole new customer base for the NOS1a? Unfortunately, I suspect many who may have been interested in this approach in the past have already jumped onto the DSD DAC bandwagon. (Not meaning to be derogatory here.)

Mani.

[PeterSt]

Hi Mani,

Why would a Roon/HQP combination incur for some DSD relation ? Do you stream DSD from Tidal perhaps ?
haha

Anyway, I still don't know about anybody who likes DSD better over something the NOS1(a) can play (which is PCM of course). Same counts for HQP etc.

What we should be careful about (if that's an appropriate expression) is that there are trainloads of people who like DSD or Audirvana or Dirac Live or Hires or ... make up your own combination, who have no reference (obviously ! ... says me). Those are lost cases anyway, until they could be convicted somehow. But please notice that I myself care less because if such a same crowd would (over here) start to shout about everything which sounds "te best" while still not having any reference ... now THAT would be bad. Bad for further serious development.

For example, think about how "we" are not shouting on any CA forum. We just don't. This, while the same "we" seem to have genuinely the best sound. No wait, no need to claim that. "We" hear differences that nobody else observes - not even after a million hints.

I am fine with this all. But in the end it is about "you".

Peter

PS: If you watch carefully you can see that DSD is already behind us. Not really related, but how people just shout around a bit before they finally find out after 7-8 years.
PPS: Now start watching MQA (I say nothing yet but explicitly express that it can go either direction).

[manisandher]

Why would a Roon/HQP combination incur for some DSD relation ?

My feeling is that the majority of people who use HQP do so to 'upsample' PCM to DSD, which they then feed to their DSD DACs, ranging from a humble iFi up to a fully speced-out Lampi. And it was this crowd that I was referring to. (Whether they use Roon or not is neither here nor there.)

Anyway, I still don't know about anybody who likes DSD better over something the NOS1(a) can play (which is PCM of course). Same counts for HQP etc.

Oh, I think there are many over at CA who are convinced that PCM is evil and DSD pure/good. And a player that can perform the alchemy of turning the evil into good is the new messiah. Don't get me wrong, I really like HQP's DSP functionality - I've found it a great learning tool, especially with the NOS1a.

I am fine with this all. But in the end it is about "you".

Well, if it's about me, let me say that I don't think I've ever been more content with the sound I'm getting in my two systems. I'm not saying they're perfect at all, but really, I'm at a point now where the quality of the sound is satisfying enough to allow me to just relax and listen to the music, as opposed to constantly obsessing about this or that element of the sound.

And the NOS1 upgrades still to come

Mani.

[PeterSt]

Mani,

Maybe I should have explicitly added that we agree to begin with. So all I did (and you do too) is create context. So another example (now) :

Oh, I think there are many over at CA who are convinced that PCM is evil and DSD pure/good.

Exactly. But Exactly^2 because of that other message you brought which I agree with :

My feeling is that the majority of people who use HQP do so to 'upsample' PCM to DSD,

... which starts out as PCM. Maybe we recall that I too can have the theoretical (!) idea that this works out for the better (in the very end it is upsampling way beyond our 16x and the more the better) BUT one huge difference : I "did" that without the HF noise coming along with DSD.
Of course I "did" nothing as such, but the program works. It is only that the receiver (= NOS2) never came about.

Once, on a rainy Sunday, I will try DSD myself. I am 100% sure I will have the most excessive expressions about it, with a bet that it will be negative all over. This is also how I referred to Audirvana (which is not HQP of course) which is quite unlistenable (all is relative, but some will know what I mean). It is one big pile of processing (nothing abnormal here) and you hear it. "We" imply the exact opposite (and hear that).

Best regards and thanks,
Peter (who only thinks DSD is evil )

[boleary]

Mani, just wondering, are you running HQ Player from RAM-OS or from a BASE volume?

[christoffe]

PPS: Now start watching MQA (I say nothing yet but explicitly express that it can go either direction).

http://positive-feedback.com/audio-discourse/questions-answers-mqa-interview-andreas-koch/

[manisandher]

Mani, just wondering, are you running HQ Player from RAM-OS or from a BASE volume?

Hi Brian, I'm running everything in RAM-OS. Personally, I think this is absolutely necessary for the best sound.

Mani.

[toddn]

Hey Guys,

Sorry to pipe into this conversation so late, but I've been running HQPlayer from the RAM OS with W10 14393 for about 3 months now. I did not, however, know I could run it at 705Khz through the NOS1 dual input mode. So I was only running it a 352 in standard input mode. I guess I just got lucky, because it ran from the start to the NOS1a without any issue. But now a big thank you to Peter for ironing out the idiosyncrasies of using it with the NOS1a and up to 705 and 768k!

I found XXHighEnd still preferable for PCM playback. I was really using it more when listening to a Holo Spring DAC in DSD mode. I really wanted to hear how that sounded coming from the Mach II and RAM-OS. It worked great for that, but other than Mani's purpose of using Roon as a server to his secondary office set up,  I wouldn't use it with the NOS1a.

Also of note in my little experiment, I found that if I wanted to use the Mach II with HQPlayer upscaling to DSD 512 into the Holo Spring DAC in NOS mode,  I had to switch out my Xeon 2650 v4 12 core to 6800k 6 core that runs at a much higher clock rate. Of note, the 6800k runs fine on the Mach II linear power supply even though it is a 135w processor. Maybe I need a 2nd Mach II

Todd

[manisandher]

Having been feeding the NOS1a with HQPlayer, set to one of its most demanding PCM outputs (poly-sinc-xtr-mp/NS5/705.6) for the last few weeks with absolutely zero glitches, and really very good sound, I've asked Jussi to add the NOS1a to his 'recommended hardware' list. (Of course, it's totally his decision whether he does or not.)

Just to be clear though, I still have a strong preference for XXHighEnd in my main system - it just sounds better in MinOS mode. But being able to use Roon with the NOS1a is just perfect for my office system.

Mani.

[jabbr]

I hope I'm close to getting this working and suspect I'm missing something really basic but I need some assistance.

I've installed Windows 10 onto my "NAA", connected the NOS1a and installed the driver (after enabling unsigned). I running Signalyst networkaudiod (NAA). This is seen in HQPlayer. When I play a song all seems good but no sound comes from the NOS1a.

[PeterSt]

Jonathan,

If you applied what's in this post and also do *not* use ASIO in the firts place, ... without more data points I can not tell.

Do you have the Driver Control Panel running ("Streaming is up and runnng" in the bottom line) and showing now errors ?

I suppose there's more questions to ask regarding the combination with the NAA, but personally I don't know anything about that.

Peter

[jabbr]

Peter, no I hadn't applied that post ...

some weirdness, when I look at the NOS1a driver properties, there is no "Advanced" tab and I need to reinstall the driver ... not signed to I will reboot into the special mode for unsigned drivers and try again... (really loving Windows more and more now ... 

this post seems helpful!

Jonathan

[jabbr]

Still no luck ... is it possible I need to do something with ASIO mapping? ... I think NOS1a is up and running so this is likely an NAA issue at the moment. (I have no idea of what an ASIO mapping is, but NAA seems to be sending the output to "Dummy" channel even though it is picking up the NOS1a driver

I'm feeling close though ... got some system sounds through my headphones !!

[PeterSt]

Jonathan,

This Advanced tab really is key. If you don't get that or have that, go back to basics first and use XXHighEnd and Kernel Streaming. There's really no issue other than apparently only me understanding what's happening with WASAPI and HQPlayer ... somehow. haha

Drop ASIO because it is really not related and seriously won't work anyway. So that's the wrong track always ...

You will get it done !
Peter

[jabbr]

Ok progress ... I have sound playing through HQPlayer via NAA ... but now only the left channel ... when I test the driver both R/L go to left channel ... reinstalled driver and now all sound in right channel ...

Not sure what to do?