Bug Head Player

Listening to 6.40.

The sound is right up my alley:)

Resolving, very beautiful tonality (especially upper highs), deep and wide sound stage.
 
OK, so 6.40 sounds outstanding but it's such a processor hog. It keeps stuttering. Fed up, I tried Normal without upsampling. Here's a setting I like:

Normal > Star 3 (when you select Star 3, "Star 3" should be displayed on the box which normally shows sGalaxy - stick to Star 3).

avx plus boost, mistake (instead of mmx tuning - this tightens bass heavy tracks which are normally on the boomier/flabby side, without a penalty in the mids and highs).

Jitter free

And that's it!

Very good sounding to my ears. Probably the best version I've heard. Deep soundstage, clear mids and highs, tight bass, very resolving without being clinical, pin point imaging.

Right now listening to Buika's Volver Volver
 
Just trying to download and observed its no 6.41. how to download previous versions?


OK, so 6.40 sounds outstanding but it's such a processor hog. It keeps stuttering. Fed up, I tried Normal without upsampling. Here's a setting I like:

Normal > Star 3 (when you select Star 3, "Star 3" should be displayed on the box which normally shows sGalaxy - stick to Star 3).

avx plus boost, mistake (instead of mmx tuning - this tightens bass heavy tracks which are normally on the boomier/flabby side, without a penalty in the mids and highs).

Jitter free

And that's it!

Very good sounding to my ears. Probably the best version I've heard. Deep soundstage, clear mids and highs, tight bass, very resolving without being clinical, pin point imaging.

Right now listening to Buika's Volver Volver
 
Just trying to download and observed its no 6.41. how to download previous versions?

There is no way you can download older versions. I have maintained archives since 6.24. If you want , get it from me. May be some other sites too maintaining older versions..check it out..
 
We will have to request Dheeraj to kindly put it up on some file sharing site like Onedrive, Googledrive, etc:)

I also downloaded many versions but not all.
 
Hi jls001

Am curious. Why are so many versions being released? Based on feedback to various versions, will there be one final version released? Are all these versions WIP?
 
Hi Prem,
I'm not sure why he pursue such a frantic pace of development:) He is restless.

Current version is 6.41. Just yesterday it was 6.40. Perhaps it will be 6.42 tomorrow!

But one thing about ever newer versions - the latest is not always the best sounding. Besides the quality of sound, I've also observed that playback level varies with version. One needs to turn up the volume a bit more on some versions. Personally, I stick for some time to a version that sounds good to my ears. For example, I didn't want to try versions 6.32 to 6.38 though I was aware that they've been released. I follow the JPlay forum for feedbacks by users on which version sounds good/bad, and take the plunge only when a particular version has more positive responses.

Also, some versions were not too stable. Some needed unusually higher processing and memory resources.

He does take user feedbacks on his Facebook page. Not an easy task, as one has to go through machine translation since he post in Japanese only. I think a lot of things gets lost in translation, including the small English portion of the user manual. He seems to have a legion of followers from Japan, China, Russia, and now the rest of the world. I consider him in the same esoteric class
of underground Japanese audiophiles who introduced the world to the beauty of low-powered SET amps driving efficient horns, who rediscovered the relentless drive available in vintage idler drive Garrard turntables, and many other innovations in audio.

Though difficult to keep with the pace of his development, I'm extremely happy to have discovered this player. It has raised the quality of playback of my humble setup to a higher level. Thank you, Hiroyuki-san.
 
Prem,

The developer is sort of a "beautiful mind" - genius but unfortunately suffers from some ailments that cause insomnia, headaches etc. Bughead is the fruit of his labor. I mention this only to give you an insight into why the way things are the way they are.

In terms of sound this player goes toe to toe with the best.

Regards.
 
Normal > Star 3 (when you select Star 3, "Star 3" should be displayed on the box which normally shows sGalaxy - stick to Star 3).

avx plus boost, mistake (instead of mmx tuning - this tightens bass heavy tracks which are normally on the boomier/flabby side, without a penalty in the mids and highs).

Thanks Joshua - I also found the bass a little flabby on some piano tracks I was listening to last night.
Will try your settings to see if they help improve things on my setup.

I was listening to Kid Ory's version of "Jambalaya" on HQPlayer before I switched to 6.40. Wow!
Bughead made the sound absolutely pop - fleshing out the sound beautifully.

I then started playing some of my older music just to see what BHE would do to them!
Pulled up some Hall & Oates and this is a CD album that sounds very thin.
BHE immediately made it sound so much nicer giving a little warmth and body to the sound.
 
Interesting. Thanks jls001. Among the various media players you have tried, do you find this the best? Is this Windows and Mac compatible?
 
Yes Prem, this is absolutely the best sounding player I've heard.

It's for Windows only. Not compatible with Mac or Linux.

And though many are intimidated by the user interface and hardware requirements, I would day that it is not any more troublesome to use than, say, JPlay (read JPlay forum for the kinds of twists and turns they go through and the hoops they have to jump to get good sound :)).
 
There is no way you can download older versions. I have maintained archives since 6.24. If you want , get it from me. May be some other sites too maintaining older versions..check it out..

Can you share the version 6.40 on googledrive or any other.
 
Prem..if you get a hold of ifi dsd micro then try it with bug head...it is a very balanced sounding dac.Foobar didn't do justice to it but bug head and my marantz cd 48 transport really makes it sinh.
 
Kushnava, thanks for the reco. The problem is I am still all very new to this. Bug head player is something I will look up only when I get some time with computer audio. At this point I am looking at a one box solution like Sony HAP Z1ES. I am always willing to trade up a little sound quality for convenience:)
 
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