XXHighend?!

Discussion in 'Computer Audiophile: Software, Configs, Tools' started by 7seven, Jan 31, 2019.

  1. 7seven

    7seven Acquaintance

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    Have you guys ever heard of this music player? I didnt until very recently, wasnt sure what to expect but damn this was a real surprise.
    Previously HQPlayer was what I considered the 'best' music player, with the use of its upsampling filters its very crisp and hi-fi sounding and seems to pull out more detail in the music. It is nothing like using Sox resampler in Foobar, which frankly sounded terrible.

    coming from HQP, XXHighend kind of sounded lack lustre at first , , but it just needed some mental adjustment.
    This player is just as resolving and hifi sounding but the sound is much different, like smoother and more natural. its very strange, foobar and HQP (and pretty much all music I hear from my PC) have this similar digital/metallic sound compared to XXHighend.

    It also allows upsampling like HQPlayer and is also really good, though not the same.
    There are all these confusing and poorly explained settings in the program that are supposed to affect the sound but I havent messed with them.

    anyway there is a free demo for it, it would be interesting to hear what you think.
     
  2. Hands

    Hands Overzealous Auto Flusher - Measurbator

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    HQP sounds like digital butt.

    XXHighEnd was a usability nightmare last I tried to use it.

    JRiver MC sounds decent to me, but PC audio is mostly poop anyway.
     
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  3. jexby

    jexby Posole Prince

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    Hands hitting .666 (2 outta 3) with his reply.

    PC/Mac audio isn't poop if your playback engine bypasses standard OS gunk
    +
    chain has AES out into the DAC, or DAC has futuristic USB input built with alien technology.
     
  4. Hands

    Hands Overzealous Auto Flusher - Measurbator

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    Argue that I did add “mostly” vs accept the 666...*scale weighing motion*

    Hmm...
     
  5. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    Isn't XXHighEnd an IBM DOS program?
     
  6. Riotvan

    Riotvan Snoofer in the Woofer

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    Sounds like a callgirl service to me, who names this shit?
     
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  7. GoodEnoughGear

    GoodEnoughGear Evil Dr. Shultz‎

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    Seems like PC nervosa territory. Kernel Streaming is pretty antiquated now, and it's available in JRiver, JPlay, Winamp and is nothing new. At a glance XXhighEnd is a usability trainsmash so thanks but no thanks. In nervosa territory different = betterer and more knobs = betterer. Elsewhere those things often = worserer or differenterer.
     
  8. 7seven

    7seven Acquaintance

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    It has worst UI ive ever seen in a software, by a long long shot... its hard to imagine paying money for this, no matter how good it sounds. After days of figuring out how to navigate the mess (gave up twice) I still think it is more usable long term than HQPlayer

    The library system is... fine, it works. HQP library... easily the worst thing ever, you get 2 controls: click or no click.
    It doesnt freeze or lag as much and generally behaves in less annoying ways, e.g how HQP resets the filters on the main screen to default filters when ever you enter settings.
     
  9. 7seven

    7seven Acquaintance

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    not sure what it is, but it looks like it's 20 years old
     
  10. FallingObjects

    FallingObjects Pay It Forward

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    Can we start using critique of old software UI for call girl services now?
     
  11. Hands

    Hands Overzealous Auto Flusher - Measurbator

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    No, that would probably be more intuitive than XXHighEnd actually is.

    It's only interesting feature is the custom upsampling filter the guy made. He sells a non-oversampling DAC and built this software to upsample without ringing. All sorts of mumbo-jumbo on his site that may or may not be nonsense.

    I think HQPlayer has a couple filters that do the same thing (but probably with no thought put into them), but, again, HQPlayer sounds like digital poop. The developer also has a filter in HQPlayer they claim is equivalent to what Schiit does in their MB DACs. I have a hard time believing he was able to whip up anything truly equivalent, and, again, the player itself sounds like butt.
     
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  12. winders

    winders boomer

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    Do you care to elaborate on that with some details? Like why does it sound like "digital poop"? Why do you think no thought was put into one or more of his filters? Why do you think Schiit is the only company that could come up with a quality closed-form filter?
     
  13. Hands

    Hands Overzealous Auto Flusher - Measurbator

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    Glare, mostly. That’s usually the de facto understanding of digital poop and the like. Did I really need to spell that out for you?

    I have my doubts that after all the work Schiit did on their filters, this guy could just whip the same thing up. I’m not saying Schiit is the only game in town, but they’re in small company for their work there. But, yeah, sure...Some dude figured it out in his software in no time. I guess not impossible, but leaves me skeptical.

    HQPlayer is mostly meant for those that mentally masturbate to the idea of upsampling everything to DSD99999999, and I’m pretty sure the guy that makes HQPlayer peddles his own DAC frequently to go with it.

    It all just stinks of the usual audiophile buffoonery.

    And, again, PC audio is usually shit anyway.
     
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  14. spwath

    spwath Hijinks master cum laudle

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    I use the built in windows 10 music player because it is easy to use. And that's what really matters for computer audio...
     
  15. GoodEnoughGear

    GoodEnoughGear Evil Dr. Shultz‎

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    @Hands being NOS oriented and all, digital largely=poop so @winders before you seize up just factor in for difference...
     
  16. winders

    winders boomer

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    I was just trying figure out where he was coming from because I have found HQPlayer to be quite good especially with Roon. No digital poop here.......
     
  17. Thenewerguy009

    Thenewerguy009 Friend

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    Did you try the best filters?

    I haven't even bothered to download the app, because to use the top filter options requires a i9 to even play & my CPU is not anywhere close to that.
    I don't have a spare $1,000 to just upgrade my CPU.
     
  18. GoodEnoughGear

    GoodEnoughGear Evil Dr. Shultz‎

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    HQP is really targeting DSD with those filters. I'm not sure Hands even has a DAC that does DSD.
     
  19. frenchbat

    frenchbat Almost "Made"

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    Lol, guys please. That discussion reminds me the "therapies" meant to turn gays into heterosexuals.
     
  20. 7seven

    7seven Acquaintance

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    Regarding the glare, I dont think its a result of the filters themselves but the heavy CPU processing of filters happening in real time, and maybe something to do with the player too.
    The Pro version has offline upsampling, so you can use the best filters and it will render and save the upsampled file however long it takes, then you can play it in a different software/machine.
    You can hear how good HQP's upsampler really is in but taking 10 mins to render a 5min track that takes up a ~1GB makes it a complete gimmick.

    the demo version only renders the first minute of a track.
     
    Last edited: Feb 4, 2019

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