[Lol999]

As it says, I have a new dac coming and want to wring the most out of my music collection with what I have.
I have my music on a Lenovo Ideapad 500 laptop with i7 processor and 12 gig of ram. Music for now is stored on the HD but I'm open to persuasion to move it to a usb stick if necessary.
I've ordered a Sabaj Da2 which has native DSD 512 and PCM 32bit/384Khz. All the music I own is ripped to either FLAC or wav from my own collection via EAC and played back via FBar 2000 through usb to my DAC and hence headphones, AKG K92.

I think, from what I have read, that upsampling the ripped files has an audio benefit, and I would rather do it with software and store than do it on the fly as I listen.

Can someone recommend a suitable format to rip or convert to and how do I set up Fbar 2000 to play them?

Hope someone can help me out on this one, thanks, Lol.

[audioengr]

As it says, I have a new dac coming and want to wring the most out of my music collection with what I have.
I have my music on a Lenovo Ideapad 500 laptop with i7 processor and 12 gig of ram. Music for now is stored on the HD but I'm open to persuasion to move it to a usb stick if necessary.
I've ordered a Sabaj Da2 which has native DSD 512 and PCM 32bit/384Khz. All the music I own is ripped to either FLAC or wav from my own collection via EAC and played back via FBar 2000 through usb to my DAC and hence headphones, AKG K92.

I think, from what I have read, that upsampling the ripped files has an audio benefit, and I would rather do it with software and store than do it on the fly as I listen.

Can someone recommend a suitable format to rip or convert to and how do I set up Fbar 2000 to play them?

Hope someone can help me out on this one, thanks, Lol.

If you must upsample, the software you choose for this is critical.  I usually upsample to 24/96 when I convert tracks.  I also use exclusively .wav files because I hear deficiencies in other formats, even AIFF and uncompressed FLAC.  If you must have tags, then uncompressed FLAC will be better.  You can use DBpoweramp to uncompress the FLAC files you have now and reformat them into uncompressed FLAC.

I have used Wave Editor to upsample because it has Izotope upsampler in it, one of the best.  Not sure what it's called these days.

Make sure you use a good USB cable, like the TotalDAC cable, and play around with different USB ports. There usually some that sound better than others.

Finally, abandon Foobar and get the latest version of Amarra.  This will make a big difference.

Steve N.

[Lol999]

Hi Steve and thanks for the reply. To be honest you are swimming in a much deeper pool financially than I am 
My DAC is only £50, and regardless of which I can't afford a cable costing some £350!
The software is a possibility in the future but I have to operate within financial constraints unfortunately. I am interested on your upsampling to 24/96, I have seen others going much higher and even to DSD. I wonder how much improvement upsampling brings to soundstage etc is wishful thinking? This is no reflection on anyone's practices but I do like empirical evidence where possible, which I guess might be pretty impossible in this case as it is subjective 

Cheers, Lol

[Vincent Kars]

If you like empirical evidence why don’t you run your own test?

Foobar has a ABX comparator allowing you to do a unsighted test between the original and the up-sampled one.
Personally I would be highly surprised if you hear any difference at all.
I’m afraid you do overestimate the impact of  up-sampling or converting to another format like DSD.

[audioengr]

Upsampling improvements in SQ have everything to do with the DAC and the digital filters in the DAC.  It's worth a try though.  This is why most of my customers get the standard 24/96 upsampling Synchro-Mesh reclocker from me and not the 44.1 version.

Much more important than upsampling is the jitter in your source.  Reducing this will make significant improvement in SQ. If the USB interface or other computer source does not have really low jitter, all other bets are off. If you are using a CD transport, add a reclocker to reduce jitter.

Steve N.
Empirical Audio

[I.Greyhound Fan]

Give HQ player a try.  It is one of the best sounding music players and can up sample to over 8x dsd.  It has a learning curve but is easy to use. There is a 30 day free trial period.

http://www.signalyst.com/consumer.html

It makes JRiver sound low fi.

Roon is another great player and you can use its graphics interface with HQ player.  It is very expensive though.

Another player to try is Bug Head infinity blade. It is free and there are multiple versions.  Each version sounds different.  It  has a learning curve but I have found it the best sounding player depending upon the version and how mates with your system.

What I7 do you have in your laptop?  The newer versions of bug head require the latest quad core I7's.  But I have older versions I can send you if you are interested that will run on dual cores and a 6700HQ.

One last thing, each DAC has it's sweet spot for upsampling where the music sounds the best. My Luxman DA-06 DAC sounds great at 352K and 384K.  It prefers DSD64 vs 128.  I have a friend that has a T and A DAC and it sounds the best at DSDx8, therefore he uses HQ player for this.  In addition, up sampling can soften the music a bit and take out some harshness in some instances.  I found that a lot of older bright sounding music sounds best at 88 or 96K. 

Regards,

Larry

[Lol999]

I’m afraid you do overestimate the impact of  up-sampling or converting to another format like DSD.

I have no opinion one way or the other Vincent, I have merely read what other people have stated from their own experiences and it seems to be a mixed bag.

@ Larry - my laptop i7 is the 6500U, a twin core so the internet tells me, so if you have any copies of Bug Head that will work please do send me them, and thanks for the other info, very useful.

Regards, Lol

[I.Greyhound Fan]

I have no opinion one way or the other Vincent, I have merely read what other people have stated from their own experiences and it seems to be a mixed bag.

@ Larry - my laptop i7 is the 6500U, a twin core so the internet tells me, so if you have any copies of Bug Head that will work please do send me them, and thanks for the other info, very useful.



Regards, Lol

Do you have a drop box account?  If not you I will send you my drop box address and you can download a few versions from there.  I will set it up tonight.

Also, Bug Head needs to run with ASIO driver vs WASAPI.  If you DAC runs with WASAPI there is a program that converts WASAPI to ASIO. 

Does you DAC come with drivers that you had to install?  You can also install ASIO For ALL driver.


Larry

[Lol999]

Hi Larry, no I don't have a dropbox account I'm afraid. I don't receive the dac until Thursday and I don't believe it requires drivers but I can find what I need on the net hopefully.

many thanks, Lol

[charmerci]

Give HQ player a try.  It is one of the best sounding music players and can up sample to over 8x dsd.  It has a learning curve but is easy to use. There is a 30 day free trial period.

http://www.signalyst.com/consumer.html

I downloaded the trial. It doesn't play through my computer hookup at all.

http://www.signalyst.com/quickstart.html

Quick? I've transferred a file to test and there's no sound. I've gone through the upper menu and I can't figure out how to connect to the output.
It's playing, I went to Settings and found the output to my DAC and..... no sound. There's no help in the Help menu.

[ksbruce]

Do you have a drop box account?  If not you I will send you my drop box address and you can download a few versions from there.  I will set it up tonight.

Also, Bug Head needs to run with ASIO driver vs WASAPI.  If you DAC runs with WASAPI there is a program that converts WASAPI to ASIO. 

Does you DAC come with drivers that you had to install?  You can also install ASIO For ALL driver.


Larry

I have the DA3 and the driver comes with asio and wasapi. I can confirm Bug Head works with the asio.

[I.Greyhound Fan]

I downloaded the trial. It doesn't play through my computer hookup at all.

http://www.signalyst.com/quickstart.html

Quick? I've transferred a file to test and there's no sound. I've gone through the upper menu and I can't figure out how to connect to the output.
It's playing, I went to Settings and found the output to my DAC and..... no sound. There's no help in the Help menu.

Do you have the virtual volume control on the upper right turned all the way up.  That is a common mistake. Try increasing the buffer time.  Do you have it set to the right driver?  What are your computer specs? If you want, take a screen shot of all you settings and I can see if you have things set up right.  Another option is send Miska ( the developer if HQP) an email and he can help you out.  It may also not be compatible with you DAC.

https://www.computeraudiophile.com/forums/topic/19715-hq-player/?page=424

Lol999, I will put all my Bug Head versions in my Drop Box either Friday or Saturday when I have more time.  I have several versions you can try but they are on different computers.

Larry

[Lol999]

Thanks Larry, I don't know if the latest version is suitable as it has a bit of Japanglish "suitable for all cores" on it.

Thanks, Lol

[charmerci]

Do you have the virtual volume control on the upper right turned all the way up.  That is a common mistake.

WHAT? Who the hell sets a music players volume default setting at ZERO??? 

That was it, thanks!

[I.Greyhound Fan]

WHAT? Who the hell sets a music players volume default setting at ZERO??? 

That was it, thanks!

I had the same issue when I first tried HQ Player a couple of years ago, but I eventually figured it out, LOL.


Lol999, the new versions typically require the newer 4 core cpu's unless something has changed.  When you are ready to set up bug head, I can help you with the initial settings and the hidden settings which there are quite a few.  You may need to set the ASIO buffer to max.

[Lol999]

Lol999, the new versions typically require the newer 4 core cpu's unless something has changed.  When you are ready to set up bug head, I can help you with the initial settings and the hidden settings which there are quite a few.  You may need to set the ASIO buffer to max.
[/quote]

Larry I'll just wait for your dropbox files thank you, and thank you for the offer of setting up guidance, for someone who works in IT I can be pretty thick sometimes