Bug Head Player

Hi,

Thanks Joshua for starting this thread.

Bug Head is a seriously good player. I have been comparing Foobar and JRiver21 with BugHead these past few days and the Bug Head is clearly better to my ears.

I have been experimenting and I like x4 upsampling a lot. The tonality becomes more organic, resolution goes up, sound staging improves. It just sounds more relaxed and more musical. And less hifi

Also, when I try higher levels in Command Line mode, I don't really like the sound. A moderate level like Level 3 to 4 somehow sounds better in my setup, perhaps because I have just 4 GB of memory

My experience has been similar. Planning to upgrade my RAM soon.

I have read online that the "shape clear sound" option actually adds jitter to the signal. Is that correct?

It is recommended to get the default 50% sound degradition setting as low as possible,but I am not able to do that with the settings I have tried. Any suggestions?


Regards
Rajiv
 
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It is recommended to get the default 50% sound degradition setting as low as possible,but I am not able to do that with the settings I have tried. Any suggestions?

Rajiv, you reduce the degradation by selecting more options in "Select Options <1>" of the Setup menu.

Generally with the first few selected you get about 50%.
Selecting a few more memory options like "z Tune" and "Shape Clear Sound" will bring it further to down to about 30%.
After you upgrade memory you should be able to select all which then puts you into "High Class Professional"

I have read online that the "shape clear sound" option actually adds jitter to the signal. Is that correct?

I've read the same about this option but I think that it's a case of "lost in translation".
I think it means sound shaping with dither (not jitter).

Lot's of BHE translations are from Japanese but the most clear description is from Grizzlyaudio:
http://grizzlyaudio.blogspot.in/2015/08/bughead-infinity-blade-sq-digital.html

Regards.
 
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Tried it at last today.

I have a powerful rig, an i7, a powerful NVIDIA GPU with 16 GB RAM plus the usual frills like SSD, etc. I'm a gamer and HTPC geek who rides on madVR to projector @upscaled 4K for even Blu-rays. I even upscale YT videos...
.

OT.. could you elaborate on your setup . How are you spooling the output from the PC to the projector (on HDMI i guess ?) . What are the settings on the madVR player ? Which is the player that you use?
 
On Windows 10, I'm not getting any sound. Someone able figure out the problem with ASIO drivers on Windows 10?

You will need to click on the ASIO4ALL icon and select the audio output device. It did not pick up the default device for me. An issue if you have multiple playback devices registered on the PC.

OT.. could you elaborate on your setup . How are you spooling the output from the PC to the projector (on HDMI i guess ?) . What are the settings on the madVR player ? Which is the player that you use?

OT indeed. I will send you a PM just so we do not derail this thread.
 
Hi,

Nikhil,thanks.

Rajiv, you reduce the degradation by selecting more options in "Select Options <1>" of the Setup menu.

Generally with the first few selected you get about 50%.
Selecting a few more memory options like "z Tune" and "Shape Clear Sound" will bring it further to down to about 30%.
After you upgrade memory you should be able to select all which then puts you into "High Class Professional"

I am not able to make changes to options 6, 7 and 8 in "Select Options <1>". They are not supported by my computer. I use a Intel Dual core 64 bit processor and 4 GB Ram.

Will upgrading the Ram allow me to make changes to "ZTune" and other options in the Set Up menu?

I run Windows 10 and use the ESI Juli@ card.

Regards
Rajiv
 
I am not able to make changes to options 6, 7 and 8 in "Select Options <1>". They are not supported by my computer. I use a Intel Dual core 64 bit processor and 4 GB Ram.

Will upgrading the Ram allow me to make changes to "ZTune" and other options in the Set Up menu?

Yes, these are features that open up with more RAM.
I had 16GB but could not go higher than 30%.
Only after going to 32GB that I was able to get "High Class Professional" mode.

The ESI Juli@ supports ASIO 2.0 so it should be fine I would imagine.
Win 10 is also supported by BHE - no problem.

Dual core Pentium 64bit should be able to run BHE - no idea how it would impact performance.
The software needs a lot of juice to run the pre-processing steps like ReWrite Data etc.
It does a little of bit of number crunching while loading play lists and before playback.
This depends on the over sampling settings you choose to go with.
If you see it slowing down your PC, back off the over sampling settings.
 
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@Rajiv: as Nikhil mentioned, menu items 6, 7 and 8 are selectable only when we have higher amount of RAM. For example, if one has 16 GB, it can be logically apportioned as 4+4+4+4.

For Dual Core processor with 4 GB of memory, try using on right side menu the x8 upsampling option and Enable Stardust Mode. The Stardust button toggles thrice for Disable, Enable Stardust, and Enable x2 Stardust. I have similar config as yours' and it can't handle x2 Stardust.

On playback screen, select x4 upsampling (assuming your DAC can handle upto 192 kHz) ---> Basic ---> Red x4. The next level is Brown. My PC can't handle Brown. I'm suggesting x4 upsampling as I personally like the sound. YMMV, of course. Some users prefer plain old 44/16. Once you select Red x4, the Self Sound Optimizer will automatically select 3 flavours of optimisation. You can click on Self Sound Optimizer button and the area below this button will get populated with more flavours. You can select some more, if you want. The number of flavours selected will be displayed by a text as number of lines. Next to the text display, there is another text display showing number of threads. Click on the Thread button below and select the highest number of threads supported by your processor. Mine is Dual Core without hyper threading, so I can select only two threads. By doing this, you're utilising both threads of the processor. Some dual core processors like i3 are capable of two threads per core, so you will be able to use four threads. People who use higher processors like i5 which have four cores hyperthreading will be able to use 8 threads. I7 users with six cores should be able to select 12 threads, etc. Besides the sheer number of threads, the program is also optimized for double sided RAMs. I'm not sure if this is the same thing as dual channel RAM. One can even get four channel RAMs, but I'm not aware if it's any help to have more than two channels for this player. Further, the player can also take advantage of processor features like multi media extension (mmx+). There are many sub selections within this mmx+ menu. Newer processors will also be able to take advantage of other media related processor optimizations within the same mmx+ menu. Mine can't go beyond mmx+ level 3 (it can't handle "mistake" menu).

Since you're using sound card, you can also try using the analog output of your sound card, thus avoiding DAC in the chain. I have to use mine that way because my DAC upsamples all external inputs to 192. So I end up having two upsampling, and it's no good for the sound. Also, I believe the analog outputs of sound cards are sorely underrated, as I discovered to my pleasant surprise after many years of ownership.

Then there is the BHE menu and Kitty menu. Try LV3 on both.

Ignore PCM menu for now, unless you have DSD/DXD files you want to play.

Just above Kitty menu, there is a button that toggles thrice for CL, SP and a third option I can't recall. Try all and choose the flavour you like.

Try playing with the above settings. Hopefully your processor shouldn't throw up it's hands:)

Happy listening.
 
Hi everyone, so I have been following this thread with utmost curiosity and plunged to download and try the player last evening. I agree, it was not the most ideal nights to listen to audio and more so not to discern between audio players, with Diwali crackers intruding the space. However, I must say, what a find. My first impressions are so positive about this one.

Yesterday only I tried comparing, Foobar Vs JRiver Media Vs Jplay. I have also recently upgraded my DAC configuration. This player seems to have serious potential.

Right now I have 8gigs of RAM and I am tempted to upgrade it to 32gigs soon. But for now, I will play around more with this player with my existing config and try to absorb the changes.

@Nikhil - I owuld like to talk to you to get more understanding on your impressions of the player and the differences you are seeing with the increase in RAM. Will PM you for your number. If convenient, maybe we can speak this evening.

Most importantly, KUDOS to jls001 for this amazing find !!
 
To add to my last post, I use Audio Fideliser to optimize the performance of my PC to Audiophile level. It helps me run more processing in IB SQ.
 
Going to be a weekend project, will upgrade the RAM to 32 GB and check. I have played around with some of the higher settings, but did not find RAM to be an issue. In fact the CPU usage went up all the way to 50-60% on some settings, but the RAM itself stayed at 2-3 GB in terms of usage.

If anyone can check with and without an SSD, that would be good feedback too. Might not make a difference, but personally I found an SSD and M.2 SSD making the most difference in system performance. Nothing else (like RAM, CPU upgrade, etc.) made that much of a difference as the addition of an SSD to an existing setup.
 
That is a good point. I've found SSDs to be a big improvement in sound quality not just for BHE but for overall improvement in audio.
Spinning hard disks add a lot of noise and are just too slow in comparison.
 
Now you guys are making my upgrade path more and more costly:)

Hmm is it really worth to invest in so much with high processing power, 16/32GB RAMs for getting a freeware to work to its optimal capacity or can I say to the audiophile standards. The best part is that the software player is free but to make it to work to our standards you need to invest so much ;)
 
Hmm is it really worth to invest in so much with high processing power, 16/32GB RAMs for getting a freeware to work to its optimal capacity or can I say to the audiophile standards. The best part is that the software player is free but to make it to work to our standards you need to invest so much ;)

For some the fun is in the tinkering, and for some it is worth the effort (and the costs involved) for the improvement in the quality.

Take the case of madVR, it is absolutely the best and I have read reports of folks comparing it to $2000 AVRs and being better and yes it is 100% free. However, it needs a top-of-the-line GPU to really get it to work, and there still do not exist graphics cards that push or use it 100%. It brings the system to its knees when pushed over 50% of its capabilities.

Crysis was (and still is) the game that will bring a system to its knees, and is still the gold standard for benchmarks.

Guess the audiophiles have found something similar to play music on
 
Hmm is it really worth to invest in so much with high processing power, 16/32GB RAMs for getting a freeware to work to its optimal capacity or can I say to the audiophile standards. The best part is that the software player is free but to make it to work to our standards you need to invest so much ;)

For BHE ... the answer is yes.
But as the saying goes - your mileage may vary.
 
Now you guys are making my upgrade path more and more costly:)

Josh, my SSD upgrade coincided with my decision to build my AudioPC a few months ago for DSD playback.
But I even had my old Dell Latitude upgraded to SSD a little before that.

Booting up in seconds is a beautiful thing!

BTW a Transcend 32GB SSD is approx Rs 2,360 on Ebay. (64GB is Rs 2,980)
Plenty of space for running a pure Audio machine IMO.
 
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Hmm is it really worth to invest in so much with high processing power, 16/32GB RAMs for getting a freeware to work to its optimal capacity or can I say to the audiophile standards. The best part is that the software player is free but to make it to work to our standards you need to invest so much ;)

I honestly don't want to invest in new hardware but seeing how much this player has raised the quality of my playback even with my humble PC config, I want to hear it at its best.

On another note, over at the JPlay forum, someone reported that the BHE developer has announced that version 5.56 which is already available for download, is the best ever, and cannot be improved further, so he's ceasing further development.

@manniraj, install Bug Head if you have a regular PC with at least 4 GB RAM. You'll like what you hear. Promise:)
 
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