Also, have you compared HQplayer in passtrough mode to Squeezeplayer?
I am very curious about this.
Not yet. That HQPlayer is licensed now should make it easier. Iāll get to it sometime this week.
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I own the K50. Curious did you need to buy a new HQ subscription to update it to HQP5 or did the antipodes update take care of this? Thanks
Antipodes & the owners of HQP are not linked. You wonāt het a HQP licence from Antipodes, you can only buy it from HQP
In release notes re HQPlayer
HQPlayer 5 sounds wonderful. Squeeze is still better in my humble opinion. I base that on what I perceive as far as each player getting out of the way of the music. Squeeze put a living, breathing singer in the room with me to the point where I actually gasped when I heard her begin to sing. HQP sounded so good that I was actually expecting it to be close. It was not.
Not just my iPad. Safari on macOS is shown below. Chrome on macOS seems to get it mostly right though.
Paul, It is always difficult to answer that sort of question without the benefit of being to go back to AMS 4 and the earlier version of Squeeze. All I can say is that with AMS 5.0 and Squeeze + Squeeze I am getting a stunning sound from my system. That Lacques Loussier Trio album I mentioned leaves me in no doubt that all the other combinations of Server and Player apps are some way behind Squeeze + Squeeze in terms of sound quality.
The piano at the start of the track Toccata and Fugue in D Minor is a fantastic test. It is easy to forget that piano is a percussion instrument and when heard live it has quite an attack to the notes. Squeeze + Squeeze makes it sound like a real piano. None of the other app combinations do that.
Then there is the double bass. With Squeeze + Squeeze there is so much detail and shape to the notes. Unfortunately with the other apps the notes can easily become just a shapeless thump.
With AMS 5.0 it is very easy to switch between Server and Player app combinations and I strongly suggest that it is worth setting aside and hour to do that. The first two or three minutes of that track played with each combination will be enough to make up ones mind.
Edit. It occurs to me that it might be worth pointing out that all my listening in this is using the BNC output from the Oladra2 to a Chord Mscaler connected to a DAVE Dac (with SJ ARC6 power supply) and that is connected directly to ATC 150 Active speakers. I donāt own any headphones. Also I am listening to locally stored files on the Oladra SSD because I marginally prefer the sound compared to streaming the same files from Qobuz.
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I experienced very much the same and it appears that (at least for the two of us), clearing out the history on my iPad /Safari browser resulted in the iPad expressing the relatively identical same cover art and behavior as the desktop. In other words, everything was normal and playback was robust on my Mac Studio once I cleared out the history , and then did the same on my iOS device and it mirrored the desktop experience. So apparently there must be something to this.
@NickBacon I agree completely that Squeeze sounds considerably better than Roon. Not even close. The music is more alive, more transparent absent any sort of midrange congestion I generally associate with Roon.
Further, I am quite sure the SQ has improved with AMSv5. In an email exchange with Mark he more or less agreed and suggested it was the new software stack that has contributed to improved sound quality. More good stuff comingā¦.
Overall I have to say that after a few bumps in the road everything seems to be working normally for me now.
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Hi, my upgraded K50 player/server are still āstuckā at AMS4.4 and labeled āup to dateā. How do i kick off the 5.0 update ? TIA
Great to hear from you Nick. It seems like youāre having a great time with AMSv5. Itās always a pleasure diving into your sonic endeavors, and Iāve been eager to learn more. I would say that nobody has explicitly stated that the incorporation of Squeeze in AMSv5 should result in better sound quality, and itās probably not the focus for now. However, itās evident that Antipodes could already be working on enhancements since theyāve established a solid foundation for future upgrades.
I previously had Tidal integrated into my AMSv4, so in AMSv5 I canāt access the album in my Squeeze to Squeeze setup as you suggested unless I switch to Qobuz (I am on Tidal Family with 4 more, so changing is a little complicated).
Perhaps itās better to listen to my own version from SSD. Is that how you listen to it, or do you stream?
Hi @fuzzypoodle , this should work, or pm @MarkCole first.
I thought AMSv5 has been pulled from the servers for the moment?
You are correct itās been 3 days. Time for a heads up from @antipodes ?
We have dis-abled the update to AMSv5 until we get a grasp on the issues that people are experiencing.
If you have a problem, book a remote support session. I am working thru clearing the current queue
Iād rather they hold fire until issues are identified and resolved.
Weāve managed without v5, a few extra days will make no difference
Good recommendation. Trying out apps can be even more convenient. For the purists among us (and there might be a few), remember to close the apps that you do not use.
Paul, AMSv5 seems quite well behaved in doing that anyway but you are correct that it is worth checking. AMSv4 seemed to leave behind a few open but unused server apps.
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This is very similar to what I experienced on both desktop and laptop when I set the path for Artist Images to the Pictures folder in Settings - completely unrelated images and a lot of duplicates. I think I first came across that adjustment from a reply you made to a question I asked in a much earlier discussion, so you may have the same path set. It seems that I have to re-set this path every time there has been an AMS upgrade, so I naturally thought doing so in AMS5 would again correct the minority of errors. Instead, it appeared to make things worse (unless I am confusing correlation with causation). And as a side note, the errors I was seeking to correct by setting this path were the apparent result of the software searching for artist images on the internet and finding the correct name but the wrong person.
In AMS5, when I removed that path and cleared caches/history, all went back to more or less normal, which means a few slightly irritating but manageable errors.
At some point I hope Antipodes will get around to addressing this now that the issue appears to be more common. But in the meantime, have you investigated whether or not modifying that setting corrects this?