I have put together a Beginner's Guide to MQn - attached (if I could attach a txt file). Hope it's useful.
Maybe it could be pinned to the start of the topic.
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MQn setup - Windows 10 and Windows Server 2012 R2 - 6 Dec 2016
MQn music player for usb audio is notoriously difficult to set up, but the effort is worth the frustration.
It runs a very minimal audio renderer to minimise the influence of all the extra processing done by most player software and Windows itself. It produces no error messages, or messages of any sort - once started, it just plays music. These notes may help you set up MQn if you are new to it.
A. Downloads
1. The MQn download site (run by the creator, sbgk) is on Google drive - you may need the Chrome browser to download. The "Main" folder has the latest versions and will play .wav files at 44/16 only.
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... DhNZ1Utbm8
2. Download these files for your system:-
mqncontrol, mqnloader, mqnplay (I find I have to delete any * in the save name)
Also mqn.bat, paste.exe, mqndevinfo, mqnparam.txt, stop.bat
Optional: rewrite.exe & .bat, foobar files.
All the exe files have extension names including the version. Rename the extension to .exe when you copy everthing to the root folder, eg. C:\Mqn
3. To play files other than wav, download mqnload.exe from Christoph (and read his notes).
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/u71wm4ki02vdvg6/p-DhIcn5L0 Put it in the root folder.
4. Use mqndevinfo.exe to obtain the usb port/driver string. If it does not work (see below), you will need to download ks_64_config.exe from the extras folder in the download pages of "aplayer 64bit" from
http://vv.uka.ru/aplayer_eng.html
B. Hardware and OS requirements
(The mqnreadme.txt from the MQn download site dated Sep 2013 has been superseded. MQn now uses Kernel Streaming, not Wasapi, it doesn't run under W7 or W8, and once started it has no user input)
1. MQn runs under W10 (Home or Pro) or Windows Server 2012 R2 (including 6 month trial version - free). The Server versions may run under W8.1. The main software exe's are labelled as W10, 2012R2, and SSE4 (for pre-Haswell processors). You only need one set.
2. You will need a PC running an Intel 64-bit processor (but it may work on some AMD processors).
3. All versions written in 2016 require a PC with an Intel Haswell or later Intel CPU (processor number starting with 4 or more, eg 4020), as they use a larger and more efficient instruction set (AVS2). Earlier processors, and some AMD processors perhaps, use just the SSE4 instruction set. If you have one of these (use CPU-ID to find out) you will need to download the older (Dec 2014) versions of mqncontrol, mqnloader, and mqnplay marked SSE4. Other MQn software elements will run on any recent Intel processor.
C. Configuration
1. Choose and load your dac usb driver; the driver must enable KS (Kernel Streaming).
2. Choose a usb port. Plug in DAC and turn on. Subsequent config only applies to that particular port,
3. Run mqdevinfo to create mqnparam.txt, which is a pointer to the hardware and its driver. If it fails (which is the case on my laptop, a Lenovo TP410), run ks_x64_config.exe which puts port info into a.ini
4. Put port information from a.ini (omit first few characters - slashes etc - there is an example in the downloads) into C:/Mqn/mqnparam.txt. The file mqnparam.txt should have a second line with just a single character channel number, eg. 0 - try 1,2, or 3 if 0 doesn't work.
5. Run paste.exe to put this port information into mqncontrol.
6. Set mqncontrol.exe to run as admin, unnecessary for mqnloader or mqnplay.
7. Don't run anything in W8 or W7 compatability mode.
8. Put ffmpeg.exe and flac.exe in C:/Mqn/data (see Cristoph's notes on which version of each to download).
D. Runtime
1. Select a wav file or a folder containing wav files (other file types will be ignored). Use ctrl/c or r/click copy.
2. Run the mqn.bat file in C:/Mqn, by double clicking, or setting up a shortcut, or a hotkey.
3. mqnloader will load the file into memory (5-30secs) and kick off mqnplay, putting the music filename in a text window.
4. mqnplay will play until it has finished, then exit. It does not output any messages.
5. The batch file mqnstop may terminate playing. If not, use the Task Manager (ctrl/alt/delete) to find the two mqn tasks, right click and select "end task" to terminate.
6. If you wish to play flac, m4a, mp3 etc files, then mqnload.exe from Cristoph is very useful. Select a file in the same way, then run mqnload. It will convert files to wav, using ffmpeg.exe or flac.exe, then use mqncontrol and mqnplay to play them.
E. Extras (I have not tried these).
1. Rewrite wav files (and software?) in memory. Use mqnrewrite.exe
2. Set task priority and affinity (allocates tasks to a specific processor core).
3. Trigger mqn as part of Foobar.
4. Some earlier versions (there are several hundred from 2012 to 2016) run hires files; Gordon tried out lots of options, including hires, on users in the pursuit of the best audio software. You will need to delve into his "archive" folder and the "Tir na hifi" message board (800 pages!!!) to find these.
viewtopic.php?f=15&t=2418&hilit=Peter_T&start=8000
5. Some notes on Randy Such's blog may be helpful:
http://randytsuch-audio.blogspot.co.uk/ ... setup.html
6. Current developments involve a version using the microsoft "usb2 audio" drivers, soon to be part of W10.
F. Basic Windows tweaks
1. Disable UAC, File indexer, Virus checker, Visual themes, Display scaling, and Software updates.
2. System clock?
Apologies for any errors or ommissions. Beresford.
