Bug Head Player
- Thread starter jls001
- Start date
To continue from post #20 here so as to avoid taking mpw's thread off topic: http://www.hifivision.com/my-audio-video-setup/63526-soul-curry-2.html#post700749
Brief comparison of the Hysolid player with Bug Head player as they sound on my setup:
1. Hysolid is leaner sounding than Bug Head
2. Hysolid is a touch more resolving of details
3. Hysolid playback volume is lower and hence volume pot needs to be turned up higher. On my Kuartlotron unity gain buffer two o'clock is comfortable listening volume (1 o'clock on Bug Head). If the preamp/buffer is noisy this could introduce slightly more noise into the playback. Fortunately it's not the case with my buffer.
4. Hysolid sounds less open compared to Bug Head. My gut feeling is this is system dependent, as others have reported that it is more open than Bug Head. Most likely it needs more drive than can be provided by my unity gain buffer.
5. Sound stage width and depth and image specificity is at least on par with Bug Head, meaning it's damned good.
6. Highs sound superb. Better than Bug Head.
7. Hysolid sounds clean. Does not have the harmonic richness of the Bughead.
8. But here's Hysolid's trump card - it has a great tonality. Better than any player I've heard.
Installation was nearly hitch free. I could not connect my Android tablet to the PC on first try. The error message instructed to reboot the PC. After reboot it connected fine.
The remote allows one to select playback device (I use my sound card's ASIO driver - yet to try WASAPI driver).
The music folder needs to be chosen from the PC Hysolid Tool. Once chosen this app disappears. One can choose a folder which may or may not have sub folders in it, but a root drive cannot be chosen as music folder.
I tried flac and wav files. A friend tried cue file and DSD ISO files and both failed to play. I guess they're not supported yet. May be we should ask the developer to include these important features.
Navigation on the remote is simple and easy. But don't expect JRiver-grade media management capability.
Installation file is just 4.3 MB. I didn't check exactly how much processor and memory were taken up by the player (I will check this evening and report back) but I think almost any PC should be able to run it with ease.
So we have a viable, also free alternative to Bug Head without the need to beef up the PC config.
At this point, point #4 above is the only potential deal breaker for me but your mileage ought to vary if you have a chain with better current drive.
Do try it out.
Link: HYSOLID | Hi-Res PC audio player (free)
Do go through the FAQ to understand the developer's philosophy of reducing noise.
As with any PC playback program, this player too would benefit from optimisation tweaks.
Brief comparison of the Hysolid player with Bug Head player as they sound on my setup:
1. Hysolid is leaner sounding than Bug Head
2. Hysolid is a touch more resolving of details
3. Hysolid playback volume is lower and hence volume pot needs to be turned up higher. On my Kuartlotron unity gain buffer two o'clock is comfortable listening volume (1 o'clock on Bug Head). If the preamp/buffer is noisy this could introduce slightly more noise into the playback. Fortunately it's not the case with my buffer.
4. Hysolid sounds less open compared to Bug Head. My gut feeling is this is system dependent, as others have reported that it is more open than Bug Head. Most likely it needs more drive than can be provided by my unity gain buffer.
5. Sound stage width and depth and image specificity is at least on par with Bug Head, meaning it's damned good.
6. Highs sound superb. Better than Bug Head.
7. Hysolid sounds clean. Does not have the harmonic richness of the Bughead.
8. But here's Hysolid's trump card - it has a great tonality. Better than any player I've heard.
Installation was nearly hitch free. I could not connect my Android tablet to the PC on first try. The error message instructed to reboot the PC. After reboot it connected fine.
The remote allows one to select playback device (I use my sound card's ASIO driver - yet to try WASAPI driver).
The music folder needs to be chosen from the PC Hysolid Tool. Once chosen this app disappears. One can choose a folder which may or may not have sub folders in it, but a root drive cannot be chosen as music folder.
I tried flac and wav files. A friend tried cue file and DSD ISO files and both failed to play. I guess they're not supported yet. May be we should ask the developer to include these important features.
Navigation on the remote is simple and easy. But don't expect JRiver-grade media management capability.
Installation file is just 4.3 MB. I didn't check exactly how much processor and memory were taken up by the player (I will check this evening and report back) but I think almost any PC should be able to run it with ease.
So we have a viable, also free alternative to Bug Head without the need to beef up the PC config.
At this point, point #4 above is the only potential deal breaker for me but your mileage ought to vary if you have a chain with better current drive.
Do try it out.
Link: HYSOLID | Hi-Res PC audio player (free)
Do go through the FAQ to understand the developer's philosophy of reducing noise.
As with any PC playback program, this player too would benefit from optimisation tweaks.
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johnysamajhdar
Member
Thanks for the share and the detailed review. In process of downloading the software and will surely try it asap.
Hysolid uses 6.6 MB of memory constantly. Hysolid Manager uses 1.1 to 1.2 MB. With only Hysolid player playing on the PC the combined CPU usage varies from 0% to max 5%.
So this player is extremely frugal with resources.
BTW, it is a 32-bit application.
Edit: WASAPI driver doesn't seem to work for me but ASIO4ALL and native ASIO driver both work.
So this player is extremely frugal with resources.
BTW, it is a 32-bit application.
Edit: WASAPI driver doesn't seem to work for me but ASIO4ALL and native ASIO driver both work.
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D
Deleted member 45006
Guest
I wasn't active in this forum for some time. Today I just logged in, and came across this thread. Without expecting too much I installed this to my PC (with A 9018 Asynchronous DAC, from Hifimediy, Luxman L410, and ALR Nummer 3 speakers) This thing literally sings now! I had been using Foobar until now, and was not completely satisfied(my foobar had too many addons- so I am not sure if it was sounding perfect, due to the processes) .. Thanks alot sharing this.
dheerajin
Well-Known Member
Magical presentation of sound of Bughead is not there in Hysolid. YMMV....
For me a remote app is must. Hence I was using Foobar with Monkeymote app and it was working fine. After looking into jls001 thread (Thanks jls) I downloaded the app and completed the registration. Added my music folder that has all my flacs and wav files and started listening.
My observations:
1) Very easy and simple to download. Website is classy & easy to understand with all the information required unlike bug-head where you have to scratch your head to read the instructions
2) While sound is quite good and seems better than foobar but not as good as Bughead. Bughead even after simple processing has very rich sound. My personal feeling only, others might have different experiences due to more resolving system
3) In my system it works through Wasapi. Could not work it through Asio perhaps DAC supports wasapi. I am not a techie so did not experiment much
4) I like the easy access to my whole library with folder options
5) In Monkemote sometimes connection breaks but Hysolid was working just fine
6) Few MP3 files did not work. WAV and FLAC filed worked fine
I gave up on bug head after some initial listening because 1) I don't know where to start and where to stop the settings everytime 2) No remote app 3) I want my player to be stress free and simple 4) Too tired to experiment and prefer to listen more than experimenting 5) Not very familiar with technology 6) Time required to start music
This weekend is little busy. 1) Daughter taking part in a fashion show (unbelievable she is just 12, courtesy her mom's fashion designer friend ) 2) Going for Wadaali Brothers live concert. Hoping to experience some good live music. Last week was not very pleasing experience in a mismanaged Ghulam Ali concert. Yes Delhi is flooded with back to back concerts
Thank you jls001. Will listen it more next week and post my observations.
My observations:
1) Very easy and simple to download. Website is classy & easy to understand with all the information required unlike bug-head where you have to scratch your head to read the instructions
2) While sound is quite good and seems better than foobar but not as good as Bughead. Bughead even after simple processing has very rich sound. My personal feeling only, others might have different experiences due to more resolving system
3) In my system it works through Wasapi. Could not work it through Asio perhaps DAC supports wasapi. I am not a techie so did not experiment much
4) I like the easy access to my whole library with folder options
5) In Monkemote sometimes connection breaks but Hysolid was working just fine
6) Few MP3 files did not work. WAV and FLAC filed worked fine
I gave up on bug head after some initial listening because 1) I don't know where to start and where to stop the settings everytime 2) No remote app 3) I want my player to be stress free and simple 4) Too tired to experiment and prefer to listen more than experimenting 5) Not very familiar with technology 6) Time required to start music
This weekend is little busy. 1) Daughter taking part in a fashion show (unbelievable she is just 12, courtesy her mom's fashion designer friend ) 2) Going for Wadaali Brothers live concert. Hoping to experience some good live music. Last week was not very pleasing experience in a mismanaged Ghulam Ali concert. Yes Delhi is flooded with back to back concerts
Thank you jls001. Will listen it more next week and post my observations.
@jls001
As per the site I think we can use a network folder as the source of music files but which does not have a user id and password. But in my system I have a network folder "D:" which is mapped to my NAS server where all the music is stored. With this setup the Hysolid does not show up any music files on my Android app but it recognises the DAC. The network folder when its created I have saved the NAS user admin credentials so the Foobar works fine but the Hysolid does not recognize the folder. Anyway to resolve this issue.
As per the site I think we can use a network folder as the source of music files but which does not have a user id and password. But in my system I have a network folder "D:" which is mapped to my NAS server where all the music is stored. With this setup the Hysolid does not show up any music files on my Android app but it recognises the DAC. The network folder when its created I have saved the NAS user admin credentials so the Foobar works fine but the Hysolid does not recognize the folder. Anyway to resolve this issue.
dheerajin
Well-Known Member
Dheeraj, I agree with you that it hasn't unseated the Bughead in terms of sheer audio quality. I had suggested this player due to its modest resource requirement and the fact that it has a ready-made remote. Plus the fact that it is a very impressive player, nearly rivaling Bughead.
The D drive that I have is actually a windows mapped network drive and acts like a local drive. So when I click on the D drive the folder opens up with the list of songs from the NAS on my windows explorer as the login credentials are already part of the mapped network path. I have a Synology NAS and I think I need to have a admin password always configured to work. But let me try that option if I can remove the user credentials from the NAS server.
Thanks
@vinay2013: I'll suggest a simple configuration - on the second setup screen (the screen that comes after selecting the ASIO driver), select every setting on the left hand side of the second screen except second last setting. To expand slightly, select "A" for phase, select your memory equally (e.g. 2+2+2+2, 4+4+4+4, 8+8+8+8 depending on how much RAM memory you have installed).
Right hand side leave as default.
These settings will be remembered by Bughead (see right side of same screen bottom where four settings are memorised and can be recalled by clicking the one you want without having to configured afresh).
On the main player screen, click on Normal and select Galaxy 41 under Heavy Latency.
On mmx+ button, select "avx +2".
Rest settings leave them at default
Play music.
The above setting works really well for me.
If you need more bass, click more "+" signs. Alternately, you can select "mmx +2" instead of "avx +2".
Also, rewriting your songs before playing with Rewrite Data really helps. I usually rewrite with AVX flavour. Rewrite rearranges your songs in contiguous memory locations (AFAIK) and therefore needs to be done again say after one-two weeks. Some say 48 hours, but I don't do it that often.
If you want even better sound, especially version 7.27 onwards, run Bughead from a single layer cell SD card and not from the usual C: drive.
BTW, on a related note, Bughead 7.30 will not work on your computer (irrespective of whether your Windows is 10, lower than 10 or Server 2012) unless your processor supports AVX 2.0 standard. So for many users 7.27 is end of the road, unless the developer changes his mind.
Right hand side leave as default.
These settings will be remembered by Bughead (see right side of same screen bottom where four settings are memorised and can be recalled by clicking the one you want without having to configured afresh).
On the main player screen, click on Normal and select Galaxy 41 under Heavy Latency.
On mmx+ button, select "avx +2".
Rest settings leave them at default
Play music.
The above setting works really well for me.
If you need more bass, click more "+" signs. Alternately, you can select "mmx +2" instead of "avx +2".
Also, rewriting your songs before playing with Rewrite Data really helps. I usually rewrite with AVX flavour. Rewrite rearranges your songs in contiguous memory locations (AFAIK) and therefore needs to be done again say after one-two weeks. Some say 48 hours, but I don't do it that often.
If you want even better sound, especially version 7.27 onwards, run Bughead from a single layer cell SD card and not from the usual C: drive.
BTW, on a related note, Bughead 7.30 will not work on your computer (irrespective of whether your Windows is 10, lower than 10 or Server 2012) unless your processor supports AVX 2.0 standard. So for many users 7.27 is end of the road, unless the developer changes his mind.
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Have been using Bughead 6.89 for sometime now and Im generally happy with the results. Though the play time and track stop time is higher than previous versions. Can't try higher versions as I am on Win 7.
Reading about Hysolid, tried that as well. For starters, I shared only one album to check out the ease of use. Pairing between PC & Mobile is extremely fast. No lag, no glitches. SQ is a bit more congested than Bug but overall far better than Foobar. I found it extremely convenient and considering the advantages over Foobar, would like to use it as my primary player for a while.
But here is an issue I am getting. I linked a music folder which has about 780gb of content. It has been almost more than 72 hours that Hysolid is trying to create a list of the sound source but it has not yet ended. Earlier also I attempted this but when it dint happen in say 5-6 hours, I killed the process. Later I thought maybe I killed the process in haste so lemme attempt again. It certainly does not seem to be the case here. Can anyone else corroborate if they also faced such a challenge? Has anyone linked such a big folder with Hysolid and has been successful in building this network library?
I tried linking a different folder which is probably lesser than 100gb or near about, and it was sorted within seconds. I am guessing some other issue with the previous folder that I was trying to link. But it is strange, why should it happen? Would it matter if there are say video files also stored in any sub folders within the parent folder?
A friend of mine tried linking a 1.3 TB source and it failed despite running the process over night. Even 300 GB failed. Later I asked him to link smaller chunks and he succeeded with 40 GB or so. I think the database manager is not powerful enough to handle very large databases, so it's better to stick to smaller chunks of your music database.
I had not checked out linking a large database myself because I'm more used to Bughead type of loading an album at a time for playback. I did try loading about ten different albums stored in a single folder as sub folders, but find it clunky to scroll through the albums. So lesser is easier to handle.
PS: the intrepid PC audio guy may also like to try out Korg's AudioGate player (caveat: no remote).
I had not checked out linking a large database myself because I'm more used to Bughead type of loading an album at a time for playback. I did try loading about ten different albums stored in a single folder as sub folders, but find it clunky to scroll through the albums. So lesser is easier to handle.
PS: the intrepid PC audio guy may also like to try out Korg's AudioGate player (caveat: no remote).
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Honestly, remote is a monumental plus but still would like to give the Korg player a try.
I read up on some other forums regarding the Hysolid, and someone had written that he does the whole round of going via Audio Optimizer, Fidelizer, process lasso and Hysolid and that improves sound quality for him.
I tried that (without AO as I dont run Win Server 2012) and it does impart some body to the sound.
Later I configured Fidelizer with Foobar just for curiosity and it improves things there. To my ears, a brief 15 min listed was giving me slight more air with Foobar/Fidelizer combo as against Hysolid/Fidelizer combo. H/F combo still had some more weight to the sound which gave a congested impression maybe. Detailed and longer sessions are required. But, it was certainly much better than Foobar vs Hysolid as a comparison.
Maybe one of you can try this as well to share your impressions.
I read up on some other forums regarding the Hysolid, and someone had written that he does the whole round of going via Audio Optimizer, Fidelizer, process lasso and Hysolid and that improves sound quality for him.
I tried that (without AO as I dont run Win Server 2012) and it does impart some body to the sound.
Later I configured Fidelizer with Foobar just for curiosity and it improves things there. To my ears, a brief 15 min listed was giving me slight more air with Foobar/Fidelizer combo as against Hysolid/Fidelizer combo. H/F combo still had some more weight to the sound which gave a congested impression maybe. Detailed and longer sessions are required. But, it was certainly much better than Foobar vs Hysolid as a comparison.
Maybe one of you can try this as well to share your impressions.
Hi All,
I installed Hysolid , but found the output playback change very painful ,the android and the asio in the PC goes out of sync followed by crashes. I would retry this later. I also have moved away from bug head and currently running the AIMP. I think this is a very underrated player. It is certainly better than foobar and jriver in terms of detail.
Request , if you have Bug head (newer) vs AIMP vs Hysolid ... please post the difference.
I installed Hysolid , but found the output playback change very painful ,the android and the asio in the PC goes out of sync followed by crashes. I would retry this later. I also have moved away from bug head and currently running the AIMP. I think this is a very underrated player. It is certainly better than foobar and jriver in terms of detail.
Request , if you have Bug head (newer) vs AIMP vs Hysolid ... please post the difference.
My (brief) impressions in post #362 on this thread. IIRC, I think Pureplayer is the best sounding of the lot (to my ears in my setup).
To add: those familiar with Linux should give wtfplay a spin. Can be run from a bootable image on a pen drive without having to create a dual booting computer. It's lean on resources and plays quite good though I must quickly add that the UI is very basic, like those on ancient shell/MS-DOS programs, and uses arrow, tab and enter keys for navigation and playback.
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