Recently I came across references on forums to this esoteric audio player built by a Japanese gentleman. People who are using various players including foobar, JRiver, JPlay, Audirvana, etc were raving about how much better it sounds than all of these. Intrigued, I installed the program and have been experimenting and enjoying for some days now.
Starting a new thread for sharing setup advices and optimisation tips of the Bug Head/Infinity Blade audio player.
First of all, here's the download link for the latest build of the application:
Bug head
Choose the version 5.24 (10.4 MB file). On installing it will install Bug Head, Bug Head SQ, Infinity Blade, Infinity Blade SQ, and a couple of other programs.
Requirements:
1) 64 bit operating system
2) support of ASIO driver. Latest version no longer supports WASAPI.
3) RAM recommended is very high (32 GB), but you can make it work even on 4 GB by limiting processing. But at least 8 GB is desirable.
4) processor capable of four hyperthreads is recommended. Higher clock speed is a bonus. But even a dual core processor with no hyperthreading will work with the usual reduction in processing. This issue will be explained further.
Caveats:
1) the UI (user interface) is cluttered, looks like a fairly primitive MS-DOS era program interface, has lots and lots of user selectable choices/settings, each of which does something to the final sound. It is therefore confusing where to begin. So when in doubt, start with a lower setting (e.g. Level 3 instead of going to much higher level like Level 7). One can increment the steps/levels as one understands what the initially chosen level does to the sound.
2) there is no real English language manual to speak of. Most of it is in Japanese, with only a tiny section translated into English. So there is hardly any explanation of the meaning or consequences of menu choices. So one needs to experiment to find out the optimal settings, subject to one's available memory and processing power.
3) outside of Remote Desktop type remote control, there is no remote control app for Android or IOS devices.
4) There are hidden menus.
A couple of references in other forums:
Infinity Blade HQ (Bug Head Emperor) worth trying - Page 4 - Computer Audio - JPLAY - hi-end audio player for Windows
http://www.computeraudiophile.com/f11-software/bughead-emperor-19966/index4.htmlScreenshots:
Screenshots and setup instructions follows:
1) This is the initial screen of Infinity Blade SQ.
Click on the image for larger image. Click on setup.
2) It will take you to this screen:
Bug Head recognizes the available ASIO drivers. For example, it recognizes the ASIO driver of my sound card. The ASIO driver for JRiver is also recognized but is not selectable. So if you're using, let's say, an USB or SPDIF DAC with correct ASIO driver, that will get displayed.
3) Click on the driver to configure further as shown in next screen shot:
The menu in red are selected. Those in blue are not selected. On the left half of the screen I usually enable menu items 3 & 4, use phase correction A, and also enable menu items 9 & 10. 6, 7 and 8 are not supported by my computer.
On the right half of the screen, I usually select menu 4 for Upsampling upto 8X. BTW, the program uses something called spline interpolation algorithm to upsample (not that I understand what the gobbledygook that means
). Then click Start.
4) It will take you to the actual player screen. Below is how the player screen looks after it does some initial processing of its own:
Starting from top left corner of the screen, choose Normal if you don't want to upsample. Else choose x2 or x4. Note that each of these two upsampling rates have lots of further flavours to choose from. For starters, choose the third levels. Later you can try higher levels if your computer is up to it.
There are numbers from Min, 1 to 29 then Max. You will want to choose Max, as this is volume control. Being done in the digital domain, reducing volume here will end up throwing away useful bits. At Min, you'll obviously hear nothing
On the right top half of the screen there are more menus to choose from. In sGalaxy, choose one of the options. Similarly, there are two choices to be made within mmx+ menu. Choose something midway so as not to strain your processor too much. If it is too much to process, it will just stop. Not very graceful
To the right of the box labeled PCM, there are two unlabeled boxes. One of them is for manging memory and the other is to choose DSD playback options. You may like to play with them.
If you click on the Self Sound Optimizer, you'll get a bunch of icons below it. Each fancily named Optimizer will enhance the sound. On my pisspoor processor, I could go only upto 7 or 8 lines before it hangs up on me. I'm not sure but I think the effect of these optimizers is additive. The more, the better.
Another way of enabling optimizers is to choose Black spells or Random spells using the button below the Optimizer window. This window doubles up later to display album art.
Load a playlist of your favorite tracks, then press Play. Wait while the player processes through a count down, then PLAY, then Envalid count down. You'll finally hear music after 1-2 minutes, depending on how much processing you've configured and the processing mojo of your PC.
The sound: wonderful
One way to get around the issue of low RAM is to use the Secret Menu. After you've done your settings and loaded tracks, Click on the empty space to the right of LPF free and Self Sound Optimizer. A new menu window will open. Enable Command Line menu, then close the window. Start Play. After some time the player screen will disappear. You will not be able to stop, skip, etc. The only way to stop playback is from the Task Manager. But using Command Line, you can get away with 4 GB of RAM.
Do try this at home and share your experience.
Starting a new thread for sharing setup advices and optimisation tips of the Bug Head/Infinity Blade audio player.
First of all, here's the download link for the latest build of the application:
Bug head
Choose the version 5.24 (10.4 MB file). On installing it will install Bug Head, Bug Head SQ, Infinity Blade, Infinity Blade SQ, and a couple of other programs.
Requirements:
1) 64 bit operating system
2) support of ASIO driver. Latest version no longer supports WASAPI.
3) RAM recommended is very high (32 GB), but you can make it work even on 4 GB by limiting processing. But at least 8 GB is desirable.
4) processor capable of four hyperthreads is recommended. Higher clock speed is a bonus. But even a dual core processor with no hyperthreading will work with the usual reduction in processing. This issue will be explained further.
Caveats:
1) the UI (user interface) is cluttered, looks like a fairly primitive MS-DOS era program interface, has lots and lots of user selectable choices/settings, each of which does something to the final sound. It is therefore confusing where to begin. So when in doubt, start with a lower setting (e.g. Level 3 instead of going to much higher level like Level 7). One can increment the steps/levels as one understands what the initially chosen level does to the sound.
2) there is no real English language manual to speak of. Most of it is in Japanese, with only a tiny section translated into English. So there is hardly any explanation of the meaning or consequences of menu choices. So one needs to experiment to find out the optimal settings, subject to one's available memory and processing power.
3) outside of Remote Desktop type remote control, there is no remote control app for Android or IOS devices.
4) There are hidden menus.
A couple of references in other forums:
Infinity Blade HQ (Bug Head Emperor) worth trying - Page 4 - Computer Audio - JPLAY - hi-end audio player for Windows
http://www.computeraudiophile.com/f11-software/bughead-emperor-19966/index4.htmlScreenshots:
Screenshots and setup instructions follows:
1) This is the initial screen of Infinity Blade SQ.
Click on the image for larger image. Click on setup.
2) It will take you to this screen:
Bug Head recognizes the available ASIO drivers. For example, it recognizes the ASIO driver of my sound card. The ASIO driver for JRiver is also recognized but is not selectable. So if you're using, let's say, an USB or SPDIF DAC with correct ASIO driver, that will get displayed.
3) Click on the driver to configure further as shown in next screen shot:
The menu in red are selected. Those in blue are not selected. On the left half of the screen I usually enable menu items 3 & 4, use phase correction A, and also enable menu items 9 & 10. 6, 7 and 8 are not supported by my computer.
On the right half of the screen, I usually select menu 4 for Upsampling upto 8X. BTW, the program uses something called spline interpolation algorithm to upsample (not that I understand what the gobbledygook that means
). Then click Start.4) It will take you to the actual player screen. Below is how the player screen looks after it does some initial processing of its own:
Starting from top left corner of the screen, choose Normal if you don't want to upsample. Else choose x2 or x4. Note that each of these two upsampling rates have lots of further flavours to choose from. For starters, choose the third levels. Later you can try higher levels if your computer is up to it.
There are numbers from Min, 1 to 29 then Max. You will want to choose Max, as this is volume control. Being done in the digital domain, reducing volume here will end up throwing away useful bits. At Min, you'll obviously hear nothing
On the right top half of the screen there are more menus to choose from. In sGalaxy, choose one of the options. Similarly, there are two choices to be made within mmx+ menu. Choose something midway so as not to strain your processor too much. If it is too much to process, it will just stop. Not very graceful
To the right of the box labeled PCM, there are two unlabeled boxes. One of them is for manging memory and the other is to choose DSD playback options. You may like to play with them.
If you click on the Self Sound Optimizer, you'll get a bunch of icons below it. Each fancily named Optimizer will enhance the sound. On my pisspoor processor, I could go only upto 7 or 8 lines before it hangs up on me. I'm not sure but I think the effect of these optimizers is additive. The more, the better.
Another way of enabling optimizers is to choose Black spells or Random spells using the button below the Optimizer window. This window doubles up later to display album art.
Load a playlist of your favorite tracks, then press Play. Wait while the player processes through a count down, then PLAY, then Envalid count down. You'll finally hear music after 1-2 minutes, depending on how much processing you've configured and the processing mojo of your PC.
The sound: wonderful
One way to get around the issue of low RAM is to use the Secret Menu. After you've done your settings and loaded tracks, Click on the empty space to the right of LPF free and Self Sound Optimizer. A new menu window will open. Enable Command Line menu, then close the window. Start Play. After some time the player screen will disappear. You will not be able to stop, skip, etc. The only way to stop playback is from the Task Manager. But using Command Line, you can get away with 4 GB of RAM.
Do try this at home and share your experience.
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