I'm actually getting better Tidal sound airplaying Tidal from the iphone app direct to the Atom Nuc NAA computer via custom Audiolinux Airplay, than Tidal via roon and no HQplayer.
For Windows:
Open Task Manager
Select Process tab
Right click on the application (HQPlayer)
Select Set Priority
Choose Real Time
Obviously, this is not totally Real Time because you would need a RT OS which Windows is not.
If you use AudioLinux, you have a special procedure to it.
For Mac, I do not know how to increase priority of processes. Usually application in f.g. has more priority and it is set by OS.
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How do make this settings stick? They go back to normal priority after HQPlayer has quit/restarted or PC rebooted
Putting the old DOS hat on. You could make a small batch job to run at startup with:
START ["title"] [/D path] [/I] [/MIN] [/MAX] [/SEPARATE | /SHARED]
[/LOW | /NORMAL | /HIGH | /REALTIME | /ABOVENORMAL | /BELOWNORMAL]
[/NODE <NUMA node>] [/AFFINITY <hex affinity mask>] [/WAIT] [/B]
[command/program] [parameters]
And put a shortlink on the desktop in case you need to restart..
START ["title"] [/D path] [/I] [/MIN] [/MAX] [/SEPARATE | /SHARED]
[/LOW | /NORMAL | /HIGH | /REALTIME | /ABOVENORMAL | /BELOWNORMAL]
[/NODE <NUMA node>] [/AFFINITY <hex affinity mask>] [/WAIT] [/B]
[command/program] [parameters]
And put a shortlink on the desktop in case you need to restart..
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=niNc4Xr46xk
Perhaps you need to run task manager as administrator to make it stick?
Ray
Just to prove the point, today I've been listening with DSD7 256+fs engaged and CPU loading is around 55% (DSD256 12MHz).
Ray
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You probably will not have to worry about this with Beatles on the Cloud now in HiFi 😀
They sound pretty good. But downsampled to 16 bit. My 24 bit discography on disk sounds better 🙂
Very interesting!
My setup was even simpler. TIDAL direct to Sonny's USB DAC. No Roon, HQPlayer, NAS etc. The AKM chip up sampling to 768k/32bit PCM at the point of consumption. Connected to Home wifi. No dropouts or other issues even when movies were streamed in another room
Compared this to CD ripped files on the same host PC with HQPlayer set to bypass its own up sampling. I could not detect difference in SQ. Still early days but pretty impressed by Tidal. At least for rest of family I am no longer the Tillerman 🙂
My setup was even simpler. TIDAL direct to Sonny's USB DAC. No Roon, HQPlayer, NAS etc. The AKM chip up sampling to 768k/32bit PCM at the point of consumption. Connected to Home wifi. No dropouts or other issues even when movies were streamed in another room
Compared this to CD ripped files on the same host PC with HQPlayer set to bypass its own up sampling. I could not detect difference in SQ. Still early days but pretty impressed by Tidal. At least for rest of family I am no longer the Tillerman 🙂
Not sure if Tidal downsamples to 16bit. Thought CD quality is 16 bit native recording and Tidal streams this as lossless FLAC
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Tidal's max quality is 16/44 lossless. My Beatles discography is 24/44 lossless, from the 2009 24 bit remasters. They are the same source files, so they downsample them.
Tidal sounds way better upsampled to DSD 256 with HQplayer with Sonny's DAC. Actually Sonny's DAC doesn't upsample at all. It plays the whatever format you give it, at the rate it's at. I thought it did before, but no it doesn't.
But the PCM sounds good as well. When I AirPlay tidal from my phone app to my Audiolinux NUC/Sonny's DAC, it sounds really good. The AKM "Velvet sound" filters are very impressive.
Thanks Mike, much appreciated! The provenance is very important especially at this level of promotion. I will feedback this to Tidal at the end of the trial before committing further. Also, vendors need to clearly state their product specifications rather than relying on users to figure out limitations.
Yeah you will need Roon to feed the Tidal through HQplayer.
Sonny's datasheet does say there is no upsampling. I originally thought the chip upsampled to 32/768. But that's the max it can accept. You need the AK4137 if you want the upsampling. Or use software like HQplayer.
In other words this AK4990 is a NOS DAC?
I am trying to avoid Roon as it is just a music management software that Tidal also does and the price tag! Hopefully HQPlayer version in future enables a direct connect to Tidal. Technically, I cannot see much difference between music served from the Cloud and from local NAS.
Well it says the chip is 256x oversampling on the AKM site. So I'm a bit confused.
Yes you pay the $120 per year, but it's a pretty slick GUI, and the upsampling to DSD 256 is a game changer for the redbook quality. Plus it will allow your Directdrive to be compatible with Tidal.
I really don't think Jussi has any plans of allowing integration with other media players.
Yes you pay the $120 per year, but it's a pretty slick GUI, and the upsampling to DSD 256 is a game changer for the redbook quality. Plus it will allow your Directdrive to be compatible with Tidal.
I really don't think Jussi has any plans of allowing integration with other media players.
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I will have double check on this AKM chip. AFAIK, Sonny's USB interface simply pulls strings on this DAC chip.
Yes, DSD conversion benefits and the lack of direct connection of Tidal to HQPlayer means Roon has to come in. Probably trial it for a year and see.
I will most likely adjust my DSD DAC design for direct connection to Tidal. Even HQplayer/Roon will become options rather than core requirement as it is currently.
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