In Ambleside this time. We often just drive over here early every other Saturday for mountain walking and climbing.
Love Scotland, spend at least 2 weeks each year in the North West Highlands. Love Novembers up there. It’s either great weather or really bad but if you pick a great cottage with great views and you can’t get out, just pop on the headphones, pickup a dram of whisky and you’re set!
I got around to listening to some PGGB’d music this weekend. Very impressed with it, the result is like using an MScaler without having to buy one. I installed Jriver on my Laptop to play these files, direct USB from the Laptop to the TT2 USB input. I am only using the USB cable that came with the TT2, with a few ferrites attached. This tech is the real deal, so I will be buying a computer that is capable of processing my own music, and acquiring a licence. This only works with music you own, so the Mscaler will be staying for use with streamed music from my ND5XS2. I urge anyone with a Chord Dac to give it a try, well worth the effort.
I agree… the differences between the two are very small and it shows there is more than one way to skin a rabbit. I don’t see it as one being better than the other, just slightly different. It will be a preference decision.
PGGB sounds very similar to HQP over optical NAA as well with Sinc - Mx & Poly-sinc-gauss-xla with LNS15.
I’ve been listening to them both via HQP (no upscaling for PGGB files) and there are many similarities. We’re spoilt for choice now!
I agree they are similar, I only listened to the PGGB files with my KEF Meta’s so far, I might install my big Peak Consult speakers tomorrow to give it a go. It kind of depends if you mainly listen to your own music, versus Qobuz or Tidal I guess, as to which direction you go.
The other thing is everyone that tries it with the Audiowise SRC -DX seems to prefer that over USB input, so maybe we are not hearing everything it has to offer yet.
Possibly, but I’m happy with the quality of PGGB for files and HQP over optical for streaming. Everything looks sort of neat in the office now with minimal cables etc.
I’m just running in the Uptone JS-2 on the OpticalRendu. The Keces P3 is now powering network switches in the other room. I’ve been using the JS-2 as well for the TT2 after @dayjay gave positive feedback on the LPS he has. Once it’s had another week or so I’ll have a listen to the TT2 on the normal power brick to see if I miss anything.
Sounds great now, much better than the P3 but that could just be the feed into the oR.
I am in no rush to dive right in, it seems to be getting daily updates if you follow the Audiophile style thread. I have got by for years just listening to my local files, and internet radio, so I have never been a fan of paying a monthly fee to rent music. The playing field is rapidly changing right now when it comes to streaming services, so who knows what will be best in a years time. Maybe trade in the Mscaler and TT2 on a hopefully Dave 2 will be something to think about soon.
Meantime, I am going to start my search for a suitable Windows computer to do my own conversions.
Not sure about a Dave 2… last I heard Chord are still challenged with meeting the demand for Dave… which I have been told by someone in the business is unusual for a consumer electronics product of that age.
I suspect if you get Dave in a good system the desire to tweak on bit modifying content might diminish… it did with me… kind of the focus moves to thinking about the music… it’s influences, the players, the motifs… it’s like a load of ‘processing’ is released from your brain, and other thought processes come in… though Dave certainly does reveal the huge differences in master resolution and quality. I think on a good system the source master or mix master can quite quickly become the weak link.
Perhaps we are all different… we just need to find the right product that suits our cognitive and aural processes.
I do wonder if the next products from Chord will be the digital amplifiers… after all the current Chord high end DACs are all future proofed to support.
I am always curious, but PGGB looks impractical currently … if and when it genuinely offers something new I would be want it to be implemented in ASIC or FPGA… but that would require more development costs… software devops is cheap let’s see where it gets to … So yes I do dabble in the office and with my production equipment… but I kind of got to the point where I separate that out from my music appreciation which I do separately in a different room.
As I say in my main music room, I believe the master is typically the weakest link, and I can’t control that.
I guess if I ever consciously get dissatisfied with my music replay system, I will look at all the variables… after all it was that prompted my last change.
Well I am sure Nick (Fourlegs) would be happy to send you a couple of albums to check out. The Dave no longer has to do any work, other than converting digital to analog. I sure notice a difference with my TT2.
Well you don’t want your DAC to do anything else do you? That would not be a good thing surely?
Clearly you can digitally manipulate a file to adjust a response from a master… and also to exaggerate some characteristics… so in that regard fill your boots if that is what you want… but are you going to tweak every master… I am sure that is not for me, even though I have the tools now to do if I wish.
After all the reconstruction process is just one part of a long chain.
Yeah if you like the TT2 you will most likely fall in love with Dave… it really goes up into the next league of reconstruction, the audible performance difference becomes frustratingly apparent when you compare the two side by side like I did with the right matching system/headphones. … other than Dave can’t directly drive speakers like the TT2, and the TT2 is possibly less demanding of matching components.
An illustration: I have the equipment that allows me to model and dynamically adjust antenna performances which can affect audio legibility … in software I can model many things… I can then implement that model remotely to a configurable antenna 15 metres in the air… however once I settle on my optimum models I stick with them as there are so many variables… to me audio reconstruction is similar… there comes a point where other weakness in the chain have more dominance.
I have had the Dave at home for a week a few years ago, so I am aware of its capabilities. I just think these guys are pushing the boundaries, after everything else in their chain is optimized, so where else could they go really? Three of the guys who started experimenting with PGGB are using Taiko extreme servers, so they have money no object systems.
I say bravo, keep up the good work.
I feel it’s good that people push boundaries, if they didn’t, we wouldn’t see advances in music quality.
In terms of disc space, PGGB is probably a couple of years ahead of its time but that will change quite quickly as larger hard drives are produced. There was a time when 4K footage production was deemed too much for most systems but, tech advanced and now it’s not an issue.
I appreciate the work from both HQPlayer & PGGB have done and both sound fantastic over Chord DACs. I have about 3tb of PGGB files of my favourite albums and use HQPlayer for streaming.
I managed to source a 6-month old Cuddly Bear 5v Micro USB which landed yesterday and have it plugged into my Qutest. Can’t believe that such a small device can have such an impact…I may have to invest in one of their other models for my SN3.
I’ve also got my eye on a used MScaler which is at a good price too.
I feel a bit daft… After reading a lot about HQPlayer and Chord DACs here, I installed HQPlayer on my PC, and also in Roon. In HQPlayer, I enabled the network function. This I thought would allow me to choose my Hugo 2 cum 2go in Device Setting so that I can feed the Hugo 2 via Roon… But I cannot find the Hugo (presumably when choosing Network Audio Adapter?), and of course I don’t have sound in Roon when choosing HQPlayer.
I googled for solutions without success. Where am I going wrong?
Many thanks!
P.S. HQPlayer and Roon Core are on the same machine.
There are settings in HQPlayer (web interface via browser, accessed via IP address on PC) that need to be set to recognise the streamer/DAC combination.
I had the same issue with my ORendu/TT2/SonicTransporter combination in my previous system - see screenshot. The “DoP” checkbox was what got it working.
I expect @anon23154165 will be along shortly with recommendations on HQP filters - after he has finished frying breakfast on the ORendu
A fair bit of tinkering and multiplicity of boxes of different shapes & sizes put me off in the end so I have “gone to Naim” (see profile) since Naim deliver connectivity and proven component combinations, in a standard design of black box.
It would be nice to see Naim provide HQP compatibility in the future - it could also deflect some sales away from the MScaler…
Thanks @T-elmi for your super-fast response. I am using the Desktop version, but I did find DoP in Settings. Changed the setting to DoP (in SDM Pack – whatever that is…), but still the Hugo 2 doesn’t show…
Yeah, the OpticalRendu is rather warm but that’s normal. I can easily place my hand on it and isn’t burn hot. This is similar to most other streamers but as the oR only has a small gap between the case and the circuitboard, the box acts like a heatsink.
In my system, I only have the oR, JS-2, TT2 & Etude in the listening room. I like how it blends into the office rather than taking over what is a small space.
Settings wise. From what I can understand @Naim_The_Dragon is using a laptop for Roon Core & HQPlayer. I’m presuming this is them connected to the DAC via a USB?
If yes, then follow the instructions on the image with the screen shots.
To get the best out of HQP and avoid electrical noise transferring from the laptop into the DAC, the best thing to do is use an NAA (like the oR). Other options would be Raspberry Pi or a MicroRendu plus a host of other mini end points.
If this doesn’t work, take screen shots of the settings screens in HQP and Roon for the HQPlayer. Hopefully when you zoom into the image you’ll be able to see it clearly.
Hqplayer won’t find the Hugo dac as 2go is not running the NAA daemon (HqPlayer needs that for discovery), that’s my understanding. You have to hook up HQPlayer into Roon and use Roon to find the 2go is my opinion without actually attempting this as I don’t use Roon or have a 2go.