Subscribers play the HIGHRESAUDIO catalogue on Windows, Mac, iPhone and iPad through HeadMania’s long upsampling filters and its own DSD conversion.
HIGHRESAUDIO, the Berlin-based store and streaming service for high-resolution music, and HeadMania, the independent audio software by Dan Gheorghe, bring HIGHRESAUDIO streaming into HeadMania UpSampler 3. HIGHRESAUDIO streaming subscribers sign in inside the app and play the catalogue through HeadMania’s complete signal path, on to a USB DAC or a network player. HeadMania UpSampler 3 is free on Windows and Mac; on iPhone and iPad the app is free, with an optional one-time Signature Edition.
“A seamless integration inside HeadMania’s UpSampler 3, makes listening to HiRes music, effortlessly, comfortable and more enjoyable for hours,” says Lothar Kerestedjian, CEO and founder of HIGHRESAUDIO.
The catalogue, inside the player
A new tab, HRA Streaming, brings the catalogue into HeadMania: the HIGHRESAUDIO home page with its charts, new releases and editorial playlists, search, albums, the subscriber’s own playlists and favourites, and My Tracks. Albums and playlists play on, track after track. On iPhone and iPad the lock screen shows the album cover with Previous and Next, and an album keeps playing while the phone is locked. With HeadMania running as a server on a Windows PC or a Mac, a browser or the HeadMania app on an iPhone or iPad can browse and play HIGHRESAUDIO on that computer from anywhere on the home network.
“HIGHRESAUDIO doesn’t manipulate, re-encode or use any filters to match the volume level across playlists of an album or curated playlists. Customers receive unaltered and full dynamics – different for each track, album and playlist. HIGHRESAUDIO doesn’t down-sample on-the-fly or uses adaptive-streaming to adjust to narrow bandwidth connections,” says Kerestedjian.
The same path as a file on your own disk
Every HIGHRESAUDIO track takes the same path through HeadMania as a file on the listener’s own disk: the chosen upsampling filter, Neuromancer neural remastering (experimental), DSD conversion if wanted, the EQ and the room correction, then out to a USB DAC or a network player; network players that show artwork display the album cover and title. The Play screen shows the real chain, from the source’s sample rate and bit depth to the rate the DAC receives. Tracks are streamed and held in memory while they play; no music is written to disk.
About the engine
HeadMania UpSampler is a one-person project by Dan Gheorghe. It upsamples with filters of up to 4 million taps live on Windows and Mac when the processor can carry it (up to 16 million for files), 1 million taps on a capable iPhone and 4 million on an M-series iPad. Its Organik filters have no pre-ringing: all of the filter’s ringing comes after the transient, none before it. Organik Touch and Pulse adapt to the music live, giving each drum hit a short filter while sustained sound stays on the long one. HeadMania also converts to DSD itself, up to DSD512, and DSD1024 on Windows over ASIO (DSD2048 experimental); offers Neuromancer, a neural model that gently remasters the music as it plays (experimental, free on every platform); and room correction measured with an iPhone.
“HIGHRESAUDIO is built around high-resolution sound, and so is HeadMania. Now its catalogue plays through every filter, through Neuromancer and the room correction, exactly as a file on your own disk does. My thanks to Lothar Kerestedjian and his team for opening the door, and for their feedback along the way,” says Dan Gheorghe, who builds HeadMania.
“Dan has developed an awesome software player, that stands out from the rest – I love it!” adds Kerestedjian.
Availability and pricing
HIGHRESAUDIO streaming in HeadMania UpSampler 3 is available now: free on Windows and Mac at headmania.org, and in the App Store for iPhone and iPad. The iPhone and iPad app is free; the optional Signature Edition, a one-time purchase with a 30-day free trial, adds the largest filters (from 500,000 taps) and lets you hear your room correction. Neuromancer is free on every platform. A HIGHRESAUDIO streaming subscription is required, where HIGHRESAUDIO offers it; see highresaudio.com.
For Windows and Mac, download version 3.3.9. Versions 3.3.7 and 3.3.8 for Windows and Mac have been withdrawn because they went out with automatic updates switched off: a copy of either never offers a newer version. Anyone who installed one of them should download 3.3.9 once and replace it; the settings are kept, and from 3.3.9 on, HeadMania offers its updates itself again. The iPhone and iPad app updates through the App Store and is not affected.
System requirements
Windows 11 (64-bit) with an AVX2 processor; a Mac with Apple silicon; an iPhone or iPad with iOS 15 or later. For the full HeadMania sound on iPhone and iPad, a USB DAC or a network player. Neuromancer needs, on Windows, a graphics card such as an NVIDIA RTX 3060 or AMD RX 6600 or better, or one of the strongest graphics built into a processor (HeadMania tests yours); macOS 27 on the Mac; iOS 27 on iPhone and iPad.
Links
- HeadMania: headmania.org
- Download for Windows and Mac, version 3.3.9: github.com/danghe/HeadManiaReleases/releases/tag/3.3.9
- iPhone and iPad: App Store
- The full article on HeadMania UpSampler 3: HeadMania.org UpSampler 3: A World-Class Audio Engine, Still Free
- Video tour: youtu.be/BKW99BMCtyU
- HIGHRESAUDIO: highresaudio.com
About HeadMania
HeadMania is independent audio software by Dan Gheorghe: an upsampling player and network audio processor for Windows, Mac, iPhone and iPad, built, measured and listened to by one person. It is free on Windows and Mac. More at headmania.org.
About HIGHRESAUDIO
HIGHRESAUDIO is a music service that offers exclusively 24bit high-resolution downloads to own and streaming via subscription of recordings with the highest possible sampling rate, covering all types of music genres. HIGHRESAUDIO provides a broad range of music for Hi-Fi enthusiasts and music lovers who value and appreciated sound quality. Native 24bit guarantee: A highly skilled quality-control department verifies all delivered content prior in releasing it online. HIGHRESAUDIO was founded by a team of experienced, visionary and enthusiastic music experts and studio engineers in Germany. The team has harnessed technological advances in the music industry to help music lovers in search of an authentic listening experience. HIGHRESAUDIO also develops innovative services and applications, creating new business models and opportunities for artists, labels and manufacturer of digital audio products.
Press contacts
HeadMania: Dan Gheorghe, dan@headmania.org
HIGHRESAUDIO: Lothar Kerestedjian, lothar@highresaudio.com
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