Bug Head Player
- Thread starter jls001
- Start date
I have been listening to 6.21 over the weekend.
However, since there was a break over the holidays I can't make a comparison.
Still the new version sounds great to my ears and will wait for it to "burn in"!!
However, since there was a break over the holidays I can't make a comparison.
Still the new version sounds great to my ears and will wait for it to "burn in"!!
Hi,
Try 6.04 beta 13 version. The brightness of 6.03 is gone.
I have been listening to version 6.23, yes the brightness of 6.03 has gone with the newer versions.
However I feel that maybe he has overcompensated. There is a slight loss in the "energy" and drive of the music.
Regards
Rajiv
Try 6.04 beta 13 version. The brightness of 6.03 is gone.
I have been listening to version 6.23, yes the brightness of 6.03 has gone with the newer versions.
However I feel that maybe he has overcompensated. There is a slight loss in the "energy" and drive of the music.
Regards
Rajiv
Listened quite extensively to K Buffer with v6.21 last night.
Very nice sound with a delicate touch on the mid range and vocals.
Susan Wong's albums "511", "Woman in Love" and "My Live Stories"
Familiar songs rendered by a beautiful sublime voice.
Susan Wong's voice just floated out from the sound stage.
Found myself listening late into the night just enjoying the experience.
Definitely something going on with this player now - who knows where it's going next.
Regards.
Very nice sound with a delicate touch on the mid range and vocals.
Susan Wong's albums "511", "Woman in Love" and "My Live Stories"
Familiar songs rendered by a beautiful sublime voice.
Susan Wong's voice just floated out from the sound stage.
Found myself listening late into the night just enjoying the experience.
Definitely something going on with this player now - who knows where it's going next.
Regards.
regeHA
Well-Known Member
Has anyone heard Daphile and/or HQPlayer and can say how it compares to BHP?
@jls001, thanks for the guide. Makes it easier.
@jls001, thanks for the guide. Makes it easier.
I have HQPlayer which I use for upsampling PCM to DSD.
It's biggest strengths are the filters on offer for pre-ringing and post ringing.
While it is an excellent player the results are highly subject to the files in hand.
Not everything sounds great at least on my setup.
I am still not sure if there is anything to all the fuss but ears better than mine have been giving HQP tall praise. In fact I am closely following some discussions on CA where application of filters are being talked about. It looks like I have to learn a lot more about my ears and how I have been listening to music. But that is another discussion altogether.
In comparison BHP makes anything you throw at it sound good!
Actually great most of the time but the user interface is really painful at first.
I used to think HQP had a lousy interface.
BHE with all it's options makes HQPlayer seem like child's play.
It makes you appreciate any software that responds immediately to commands.
Having said that ... I prefer BHE over HQPlayer.
This may however be subject to change once I start understanding filters better.
Regards.
It's biggest strengths are the filters on offer for pre-ringing and post ringing.
While it is an excellent player the results are highly subject to the files in hand.
Not everything sounds great at least on my setup.
I am still not sure if there is anything to all the fuss but ears better than mine have been giving HQP tall praise. In fact I am closely following some discussions on CA where application of filters are being talked about. It looks like I have to learn a lot more about my ears and how I have been listening to music. But that is another discussion altogether.
In comparison BHP makes anything you throw at it sound good!
Actually great most of the time but the user interface is really painful at first.
I used to think HQP had a lousy interface.
BHE with all it's options makes HQPlayer seem like child's play.
It makes you appreciate any software that responds immediately to commands.
Having said that ... I prefer BHE over HQPlayer.
This may however be subject to change once I start understanding filters better.
Regards.
If anyone feels specially intrepid today, do try the Studio Quality Check Version available as a portable executable on the Onedrive link Nikhil had provided some posts ago.
A new feature I tried out - "LPF free" has many options on this version. Since I don't know better, I'm assuming it's to choose low pass filter. I tried a couple of settings and heard a change in bass. Need to hear further to find out if it can do something likable.
I also tried changing Jitter levels (thanks to the guide I posted above). With higher jitter levels, bass became thicker and the highs lost clarity. I reverted to Jitter Free as that sounds best to my ears. Others may also like to fiddle around with Jitter setting.
A new feature I tried out - "LPF free" has many options on this version. Since I don't know better, I'm assuming it's to choose low pass filter. I tried a couple of settings and heard a change in bass. Need to hear further to find out if it can do something likable.
I also tried changing Jitter levels (thanks to the guide I posted above). With higher jitter levels, bass became thicker and the highs lost clarity. I reverted to Jitter Free as that sounds best to my ears. Others may also like to fiddle around with Jitter setting.
Interesting ... looks like Hiroyuki has a handle on how to voice the software.
I've just installed v6.24 and bass is very nice and articulate.
I think the rapid beta releases in the past few weeks were perhaps tests for voicing.
Anyway this is some sweet sounding music over here ...
I've just installed v6.24 and bass is very nice and articulate.
I think the rapid beta releases in the past few weeks were perhaps tests for voicing.
Anyway this is some sweet sounding music over here ...
Been playing around with settings on the Studio Quality Check Version. It's a good way of opting out of the "keeping up with latest version" race
On the first page of settings, Menu 1 is set as usual for zero sound degradation. I've set Menu 2 for x4 upsampling and enabled sound optimisation.
On the main player page, to keep things manageable I varied only one parameter while keeping every other setting constant. The constants for my purpose were:
mmx+ : plus, mistake
Bug Level : 3
Kitty: Level 3
Jitter: Level 3
Jitter quality: null
sGalaxy: Star Symphony tuning
Phase correction: Auto A
Threads: 4
With the above kept unchanged, I cycled through the x4 settings.
First choice in x4 is BASIC. Within BASIC there are again many flavours. Of these both White x4 and Banana x4 sound quite good though both lacked the fullness of sound heard from other more advanced settings within x4. I think I also heard an ever slightly nagging hardness in both these settings.
After BASIC, there are a couple of Test Sounds to choose from. Of these, Magnet x4 sounds quite nice.
Later I tried Emerald, Sapphire and Snow (no time to try all, but will try to listen the other x4 flavours in future).
As one progresses through the Emerald1 x4, 2, 3, 4, and Sapphire1 x4, 2, 3, 4, and Snow1 x4, 2, 3, 4 one thing becomes clear - the lower numbers consistently sound lighter and airier. As the numbers go up, sound becomes denser. It is is not easy to discern the difference from 1 to 2, or 2 to 3 but one can easily hear the difference between 1 and 4. To my ears, Snow3 x4 sounded very nice, but it wasn't night/day difference from Emerald or Sapphire. They're more similar than different. Other yet untested flavours may tell different stories.
Having arrived at (for now) Snow3 x4 as good sounding, other parameters were then varied, one at a time. I cycled through sGalaxy, Star Symphony and Slash Crystal tunings. There are 3-4 more but I could not go through all yet. Here, I still stick to my earlier choice of Star Symphony tuning.
Finally, for tonight, I varied the Jitter level from nil, then 1, followed by 2 and 3. Level 3 gives me the bass weight I like without overwhelming the rest of the musical spectrum. Here too, the lower numbers consistently sounded lighter. Very high number didn't work for me as the bass weight overwhelmed everything else, eating up resolution in the mids and highs.
I didn't find too much change in the sound on varying the Jitter quality from nil to higher numbers. I also played with Bug Level and Kitty Level but didn't hear much difference when varying either, though higher numbers thickened the sound, and they weren't much to my liking. More listening is required to be sure.
As one can see, the process is tedious and there are no shortcuts. To ease the task, select a track you're very familiar with and play at the most a minute of the track. Otherwise you'll end up spending too much time, and possibly lose track of the subtle differences the parameter changes brought about.
As an acid test after all these faffing and general audio tomfoolery, listen to a few familiar tracks and see if they do sound better. Most likely it will.
Try this at home
On the first page of settings, Menu 1 is set as usual for zero sound degradation. I've set Menu 2 for x4 upsampling and enabled sound optimisation.
On the main player page, to keep things manageable I varied only one parameter while keeping every other setting constant. The constants for my purpose were:
mmx+ : plus, mistake
Bug Level : 3
Kitty: Level 3
Jitter: Level 3
Jitter quality: null
sGalaxy: Star Symphony tuning
Phase correction: Auto A
Threads: 4
With the above kept unchanged, I cycled through the x4 settings.
First choice in x4 is BASIC. Within BASIC there are again many flavours. Of these both White x4 and Banana x4 sound quite good though both lacked the fullness of sound heard from other more advanced settings within x4. I think I also heard an ever slightly nagging hardness in both these settings.
After BASIC, there are a couple of Test Sounds to choose from. Of these, Magnet x4 sounds quite nice.
Later I tried Emerald, Sapphire and Snow (no time to try all, but will try to listen the other x4 flavours in future).
As one progresses through the Emerald1 x4, 2, 3, 4, and Sapphire1 x4, 2, 3, 4, and Snow1 x4, 2, 3, 4 one thing becomes clear - the lower numbers consistently sound lighter and airier. As the numbers go up, sound becomes denser. It is is not easy to discern the difference from 1 to 2, or 2 to 3 but one can easily hear the difference between 1 and 4. To my ears, Snow3 x4 sounded very nice, but it wasn't night/day difference from Emerald or Sapphire. They're more similar than different. Other yet untested flavours may tell different stories.
Having arrived at (for now) Snow3 x4 as good sounding, other parameters were then varied, one at a time. I cycled through sGalaxy, Star Symphony and Slash Crystal tunings. There are 3-4 more but I could not go through all yet. Here, I still stick to my earlier choice of Star Symphony tuning.
Finally, for tonight, I varied the Jitter level from nil, then 1, followed by 2 and 3. Level 3 gives me the bass weight I like without overwhelming the rest of the musical spectrum. Here too, the lower numbers consistently sounded lighter. Very high number didn't work for me as the bass weight overwhelmed everything else, eating up resolution in the mids and highs.
I didn't find too much change in the sound on varying the Jitter quality from nil to higher numbers. I also played with Bug Level and Kitty Level but didn't hear much difference when varying either, though higher numbers thickened the sound, and they weren't much to my liking. More listening is required to be sure.
As one can see, the process is tedious and there are no shortcuts. To ease the task, select a track you're very familiar with and play at the most a minute of the track. Otherwise you'll end up spending too much time, and possibly lose track of the subtle differences the parameter changes brought about.
As an acid test after all these faffing and general audio tomfoolery, listen to a few familiar tracks and see if they do sound better. Most likely it will.
Try this at home
Just to be clear, I must give credit to an excellent new interconnect I've been trying for the past couple of days, plus a home-brewed absorber at the first reflection point, for the much improved sound I hear with the 6.31.
Damn! Just when I was getting to know 6.24 a little better :lol:
Can any one share the best settings for 6.31. Also I couldn't convert files from pcm to DSD on the fly. But over all the sound is terrific. It feels like I have an upgraded Dac and Rethms are so true to the source ...I can't believe this.
Last edited:
I don't think you can convert PCM to DSD in Bughead player.
You can up-sample to 384/352.8 depending on the up-sample strategy.
If source is 16/44.1 then an 8x up-sampling will take it to 352.8
Similarly a 4x setting will take it to 176.4 ... See what sounds best with your DAC.
I would recommend taking it to at least 176.4 to avoid aliasing artifacts.
Last edited:
Try the settings mentioned in #149.
If you want more weight, use Brown4 4x. You can also play around with Bug Level 3, 4, 5 or Jitter level 2, 3, 4 to find the sweet spot where the bass weight, midrange sweetness and treble energy balances to your taste.
To add to above: higher levels of any tuning flavour thickens the sound. This is invariably at the cost of mids and highs. For example, if you try Bug Level 8, it almost completely kills the mids and highs, but bass will go up, resulting in a very recessed and overly laid back soundstage. A moderate level like 3 or 4 seems more balanced.
Also, for those who want to play around with Self Sound Optimizer tuning, more number of lines again kills the sound in the same way as using higher levels of Bug Level. In my experience 8-12 lines sound best. Anything higher puts too much load on the computer without corresponding benefit in the sound.
So if tuning through x2 or x4 settings, choose a tuning flavour that results in 8-12 lines on the Self Sound Optimizer window.
Experiment by varying one setting at a time while keeping all other parameters constant. It takes time but you'll discover a sound you like.
Also, for those who want to play around with Self Sound Optimizer tuning, more number of lines again kills the sound in the same way as using higher levels of Bug Level. In my experience 8-12 lines sound best. Anything higher puts too much load on the computer without corresponding benefit in the sound.
So if tuning through x2 or x4 settings, choose a tuning flavour that results in 8-12 lines on the Self Sound Optimizer window.
Experiment by varying one setting at a time while keeping all other parameters constant. It takes time but you'll discover a sound you like.
M
mpw
Guest
no wonder the guy named it bug head :lol:
Get the Wharfedale EVO 4.2 3-Way Standmount Speakers at a Special Offer Price.
