HYSOLID | Hi-Res PC audio player (free)

[Wil]

With release of NA-11S1 Marantz supplied a White Paper on Computer Audio, here's link to an updated version:

https://www.us.marantz.com/-/media/Files/DocumentMaster/MarantzNA/US/Marantz_DAC_White_Paper_4_5_2016.pdf

Well, rather than paying for JRiver or Audirvana, I searched to see if there are other software options and found HYSOLID https://www.hysolid.com/

You may want to give it a try.


And interesting to note, for them… https://www.hysolid.com/faq.html
Q. Which is better: WAV or FLAC?
A. WAV demands a smaller load from the PC, making it advantageous in terms of sound quality.
For reference: with HYSOLID, when a FLAC file is played, Windows' read cache is always active, but when a WAV file is played, it can be changed (the default is OFF). When it comes to sound quality, read cache OFF is advantageous. Although we have received a feedback saying it sounds better with it turned ON.

 

[Friesiansam]

Can't see that it offers me anything I want, that Foober2000 (equally free) doesn't already provide. There are also a wide range of addons for Foobar and it is highly customisable.

 

[Wil]

Shrug. What you saw wasn't what you heard. Perhaps it'll be better-sounding to someone. Merely sharing knowledge of an option.

Can't see that it offers me anything I want, that Foober2000 (equally free) doesn't already provide. There are also a wide range of addons for Foobar and it is highly customisable.

 

[Wil]

It appears you're still jumping to generalised conclusions about playback methodologies.

you can encode your CD rips to DSD using Roon.

No point doing that, it can't improve quality and you are just adding more processing.

While studying the NA-11S1 player that was mentioned at the start of this Thread, I learnt:
"Ishiwata is also an advocate of upconverting existing CD-quality files to the DSD format in the computer, and then playing them back through a DSD DAC such as the NA-11S1.

Why so? Ishiwata says his enthusiasm for DSD ‘has nothing to do with the original recording format or quality – it’s simply due to the fact that the majority of today’s D-to-A converter chips are utilising Delta/Sigma technology.

‘DSD can by-pass certain processing within those D-to-A converter chips, so you …. get a less processed signal with DSD compared to PCM, which of course will influence the sound quality.’"

 

[manicm]

It appears you're still jumping to generalised conclusions about playback methodologies.


While studying the NA-11S1 player that was mentioned at the start of this Thread, I learnt:
"Ishiwata is also an advocate of upconverting existing CD-quality files to the DSD format in the computer, and then playing them back through a DSD DAC such as the NA-11S1.

Why so? Ishiwata says his enthusiasm for DSD ‘has nothing to do with the original recording format or quality – it’s simply due to the fact that the majority of today’s D-to-A converter chips are utilising Delta/Sigma technology.

‘DSD can by-pass certain processing within those D-to-A converter chips, so you …. get a less processed signal with DSD compared to PCM, which of course will influence the sound quality.’"

It’s a fact that decoding lossless compressed audio files will put a hit on processing power - in hifi and PCs, and it’s up to the software/hardware as to how it’s mitigated.

It’s also why Naim, till before the current Uniti series at least, preferred customers to use WAV. Their philosophy was the less coding in software required to decode audio formats, the better. On the other hand companies like Linn didn’t think it mattered, but I respect both companies equally. And in this respect I somewhat sided with Naim.

And initially years ago, I too preferred raw WAV to anything else. And on two of my Windows laptops, I preferred AIFF and Windows Lossless rips to FLAC. I found Windows Lossless the fastest to encode, and yet the best sounding in fact. On hifi I could not say because it was virtually not supported at all.

 

[manicm]

For lossy formats I also preferred WMA, I found it vastly superior to both MP3 and AAC.

 

[manicm]

With release of NA-11S1 Marantz supplied a White Paper on Computer Audio, here's link to an updated version:

https://www.us.marantz.com/-/media/Files/DocumentMaster/MarantzNA/US/Marantz_DAC_White_Paper_4_5_2016.pdf

Well, rather than paying for JRiver or Audirvana, I searched to see if there are other software options and found HYSOLID https://www.hysolid.com/

You may want to give it a try.


And interesting to note, for them… https://www.hysolid.com/faq.html
Q. Which is better: WAV or FLAC?
A. WAV demands a smaller load from the PC, making it advantageous in terms of sound quality.
For reference: with HYSOLID, when a FLAC file is played, Windows' read cache is always active, but when a WAV file is played, it can be changed (the default is OFF). When it comes to sound quality, read cache OFF is advantageous. Although we have received a feedback saying it sounds better with it turned ON.

Looks very good, does it do automatic bitrate switching though, like JRiver?

 

[Friesiansam]

"Ishiwata is also an advocate of upconverting existing CD-quality files to the DSD format in the computer, and then playing them back through a DSD DAC such as the NA-11S1.

Why so? Ishiwata says his enthusiasm for DSD ‘has nothing to do with the original recording format or quality – it’s simply due to the fact that the majority of today’s D-to-A converter chips are utilising Delta/Sigma technology.

‘DSD can by-pass certain processing within those D-to-A converter chips, so you …. get a less processed signal with DSD compared to PCM, which of course will influence the sound quality.’"

But, on the other hand, you are adding another layer of processing by carrying out the conversion from WAV to DSD in the PC. I will try it out for myself.

 

[manicm]

But, on the other hand, you are adding another layer of processing by carrying out the conversion from WAV to DSD in the PC. I will try it out for myself.

I don’t know about PC, but in the high end Marantz, PS Audio and other players the digital to analogue path is actually shortened and less complex when converting to DSD.

 

[Wil]

But, on the other hand, you are adding another layer of processing by carrying out the conversion from WAV to DSD in the PC. I will try it out for myself.

Using an analogy, I've been relaying game plans—whether you or I can implement successfully (assembling the-winning-team) will be the-game-itself. Failure (to satisfy) is a possibility e.g. this parallel caution from WHF:
"We’re less positive about the upsampling option on some players. If the implementation isn’t spot-on you end up with a smoother, more refined sonic presentation, but one where the attack and sparkle in the music have been diluted."

How to get the best sound from your CD player

Spin like you've never spun before with these handy tips

www.whathifi.com

 

[manicm]

The upsampli

Using an analogy, I've been relaying game plans—whether you or I can implement successfully (assembling the-winning-team) will be the-game-itself. Failure (to satisfy) is a possibility e.g. this parallel caution from WHF:
"We’re less positive about the upsampling option on some players. If the implementation isn’t spot-on you end up with a smoother, more refined sonic presentation, but one where the attack and sparkle in the music have been diluted."

How to get the best sound from your CD player

Spin like you've never spun before with these handy tips

www.whathifi.com

The upsampling comment is interesting, as many streamers, including Linn, upsample.

 

[Wil]

Upsampling methodology goes way back, and end result reflects how it's implemented e.g.:

 

[Wil]

Recalling Foodbar 2000 was mentioned earlier, readers new to it may want to look into this:

 

[Friesiansam]

Recalling Foodbar 2000 was mentioned earlier, readers new to it may want to look into this:

Using foobar2000, I use the ASIO drivers supplied by Pathos which deliver the output to my DAC/headphone amp at the sample rate of the file, unmolested. Use of ASIO drivers makes Windows sound settings irrelevant, as Windows sound processing is bypassed.

 

[Vdvdv81]

Hi,

I am using HS on my headless NUC and I am trying to figure out how to setup HS without logging on to Windows. Anybody suggestions? I have added a shortcut to hysolid.exe in my ‘startup’ folder but that doesn’t do the trick.

Thanks

V.

 

[Wil]

It's coming up to 18 days since your question, I trust you've the issue solved.

Hi,

I am using HS on my headless NUC and I am trying to figure out how to setup HS without logging on to Windows. Anybody suggestions? I have added a shortcut to hysolid.exe in my ‘startup’ folder but that doesn’t do the trick.

Thanks

V.

Of course, from their homepage, they're happy to be contacted:

 

[Wil]

Looking into Delta/Sigma technology…

While studying the NA-11S1 player that was mentioned at the start of this Thread, I learnt:
"Ishiwata is also an advocate of upconverting existing CD-quality files to the DSD format in the computer, and then playing them back through a DSD DAC such as the NA-11S1.

Why so? Ishiwata says his enthusiasm for DSD ‘has nothing to do with the original recording format or quality – it’s simply due to the fact that the majority of today’s D-to-A converter chips are utilising Delta/Sigma technology.

‘DSD can by-pass certain processing within those D-to-A converter chips, so you …. get a less processed signal with DSD compared to PCM, which of course will influence the sound quality.’"

I nearly started a new Thread "ΔΣ DACs, Tastes-like-chicken" because:
(Page 11) Sigma-delta D/A conversion can generally be thought of as the [sigma-delta] A/D conversion process in the reverse order, where all the basic functions of the digital filter and sigma-delta modulator previously discussed are the same.

(Page 1) The sigma-delta converter is inherently an oversampling converter, although oversampling is just one of the techniques contributing to the overall performance. Basically, a sigma-delta converter digitizes an analog signal with a very low resolution (1 bit) ADC at a very high sampling rate. By using oversampling techniques in conjunction with noise shaping and digital filtering, the effective resolution is increased. Decimation is then used to reduce the effective sampling rate at the ADC output. The sigma-delta ADC exhibits excellent differential and integral linearity due to the linearity of the 1 bit quantizer and DAC, and no trimming is required as in other ADC architectures.
The key concepts involved in understanding the operation of sigma-delta converters are oversampling, noise shaping (using a sigma-delta modulator), digital filtering, and decimation.

So, if we've a Delta/Sigma DAC, with all PCM being upsampled/upconverted, discerning-a-difference-in-sound from competing formats will likely be…