[gnostalgick]

   So I began using Bughead Emperor/Infinity Blade last month... I can't remember exactly when or where I first read of it, but every now again it's magical sound & arcane (or obtuse) interface has been reverentially mentioned by the true believers on a variety of audio fora (longtime lurker here):  color me curious but skeptical...
 
  Recently, too impatient to wait for an upcoming amplifier upgrade (which a local shop predicted would make the greatest difference), I drunkenly downloaded the 6.03 beta 5 & a couple of English user guides. After about 15 minutes I was playing music!  Anyone who read my recent introduction knows this is a weak point of my system which always seems to only play the recordings.  Simply put, it completely changed the character of my system from slightly bright & coldly clinical to a sense of the musicians being in my room (if also in my face).  So great was the change, I had to confirm with my girlfriend it wasn't just the Guinness.
   
   Later, the 6.04 beta 13 smoothed out a certain crispiness & made for a pleasant but more collapsed, less involved experience.  And now the current(?) 6.24 edition has returned the presence I missed without any harshness & widened rather than push forward the soundstage (though its perhaps unnaturally large for my small room).  Anyways, I am truly amazed at how good my basic system can now sound ($1000 speakers & $500 AVR connected to an old PC in our bedroom)!

  Oh yeah, the interface is weird, but I find it easier to use than HQPlayer.

Kirk

(Kraftwerk-Computer World)

[JLM]

Tell us more.  As I understand it's a Windows player only and a RAM hog.

[wushuliu]

I can't seem to find an easy to read guide to how this works. It sure isn't an intuitive interface. Also isn't a quad core cpu required? After 10 years on various audio forums its gets tiring to have to hunt down information piecemeal to figure out how to use these 'cutting edge' software. Less proselytization and more information would be great.

[*Scotty*]

The processor must have the AVX, Advanced Vector Extensions instruction set. AVX 2 might also be advantageous to have when using Bughead. It is a memory player and 16Gs or more of RAM wouldn't hurt.
 You can use up all of your RAM loading songs into a playlist so, you have to pay attention to the size of the files involved.
More Power can't hurt either. Quad and Octa-core processors would also be good to have as the program can apparently use the increased processor power to good effect.
See list of processors with AVX. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Vector_Extensions#CPUs_with_AVX
Scotty

[randytsuch]

I tried it, but was worried that it was coloring/changing the music.

It has a TON of different options you can try, if you are so inclined.

BTW, I have a xeon quad core processor with 16gb of ram in my audio PC.

Randy

[*Scotty*]

I would certainly say it could change the music, that seems to be the point of the program, you tweak it until you get to the sound you prefer.
The problem at this point is that we really have no idea what the music actually sounds like. I picked the DAC I am currently listening to based on its ability to create a sound I preferred with both DSD and PCM file playback.
 Only the Schitt Gungir Multibit and the Yggdrasil with their Closed Form Filters actually keep the original numbers supplied to to them intact from input to output and you are still listening to the result of decisions made in the design of the analogue output stage among other things.
Scotty

[gnostalgick]

   Yeah, I guess I got a little excited there & my last write up was all subjective impressions without much useful information.  It is windows only, rather cpu intensive & supposedly best with 32gb ram.  But I can say it runs well enough on my old multi-use pc with a sandy i5 @ 3ghz & just 8gb ram.  Those with an ultra minimal near jitter free pc & dac set probably won't hear the same advantages as its main function is rewrite data in order to reduce jitter.  There is too, almost certainly, some sort of DSP involved, so if you value purity above all, its probably not your thing.  I've also heard it can even cause some flatness in very revealing systems.

   Nonetheless, I went ahead & tried it because I couldn't yet afford a real upgrade to my modest set up & excitedly wrote about the newest version it because it brought so many details to light without being over analytical.  My comparisons are to the same songs played through Tidal or foobar.  At 24/96 or more its more subtle, and perhaps only pleasantly colors the sound, but with redbook & 320 kbps it absolutely shines (anything less is substantially improved, but still not suited for critical listening).

   If I've interpreted Google Translate correctly, it was originally written because mp3s in a program the creator was working on caused him headaches, but he's since updated it to also 'better' play higher resolution pcm & dsd.  A huge amount of the information can be found in a 100+ page thread on the jplay forums, but the place I got started was:  http://grizzlyaudio.blogspot.com/2015/08/bughead-infinity-blade-sq-digital.html

I find using the zTune & DIMM settings, as well as Stardust x2 (or more) make the biggest differences.

Hope that helps,
Kirk

[I.Greyhound Fan]

High KirK,

I have been using BH for over 6 months and love it.  It does not color the music.  It presents it as it should be.  I am still using version 5.31 because of its slightly warmer presentation but not too warm.  It is a revolutionary program.  When playing 44K music, I upsample using 4 and 8x with the Emerald setting.  It is very processor intensive but just outstanding.   If you are interested in trying 5.31 I can send it to you.  I am using a Dell laptop with an I-7 cpu running at 2.8-3.0ghz but it is a dual core I-7.  Also use 16gb ram.  It will run with a high end I-3 (2.4ghz) and 4gb ram but with basic settings which still sounds better than HQ player.

Larry

[randytsuch]

Really long thread here, best place to get info on it, and see when new version come out
http://jplay.eu/forum/index.php?/topic/1553-infinity-blade-hq-bug-head-emperor-worth-trying/

As to coloration, obviously this is an opinion, and IMHO can't really be proved, or disproved.

However, I do think bughead and infinity blade sound good, and are definitely worth evaluating.

It's free, nothing to lose.

And of the "better" playback software programs, its actually not too hard to install and use.