HeadMania.org Upsampler

A million-tap audio processor in your pocket.

HeadMania UpSampler rebuilds your music with the same 64-bit filter engine as the desktop app, then feeds a USB or network DAC at the highest rate it accepts. On an M-series iPad, four million taps.

Neuromancer, a free experimental neural renderer, shapes the attack of each note on the Neural Engine, now also in lighter Eco versions.

What you need

HeadMania UpSampler does not play through the iPhone or iPad speaker. It needs a real output:

• A USB-C or Lightning DAC — a plain USB-C-to-3.5 mm dongle counts.
• Or a UPnP/DLNA network DAC or streamer on your Wi-Fi.

Bluetooth and AirPods are not supported. To receive from a control point, both must be on the same Wi-Fi, and you must allow Local Network access when iOS asks.

THREE WAYS TO FEED IT
- Your own files on the device: FLAC, WAV, AIFF, ALAC, CAF, MP3
- Lossless internet radio — 14 stations whose operators gave written permission
- UPnP/DLNA receiver — send to it from mconnect, JPLAY, Audirvana or any control point

OUTPUT
PCM up to 705.6 / 768 kHz over USB or the network, if the DAC accepts it.

THE FILTERS
Eight families, each at several kernel lengths, so you can hear the difference rather than take it on trust: Organik (minimum phase, no pre-ringing), Organik Touch and Organik Pulse (a short path for drum hits, the long Organik reconstruction around them), Linear (linear phase), Mixed Phase (between the two), Organik-Adaptive, Transient-Perfect (optimised for step response) and Kinetic (polyphase).

Lengths run from 6,000 taps to 1,000,000 on iPhone and 4,000,000 on an M-series iPad. The tap count shown is the measured length of the kernel built.

If playback starts to starve (short memory, sustained heat), a lighter filter of the same family takes over mid-track and the app says so.

NEUROMANCER
It reshapes the attack of notes as the music plays: the kick, the bass note, the snare hit come forward by a fraction of a decibel to about two, and little else changes. It is not an EQ. Four choices: Neuromancer, Awakened, Revelio and Revelio's Pulse. Each comes in a lighter Eco version, close to it but not identical, with up to about three times less processing. Compare with Original.

It is demanding: it needs iOS 27 and was tested on iPhone 18 Pro Max and iPad Pro with M5. The app measures each model as it plays and turns it off where it cannot keep up. Expect more battery use and warmth; Eco asks less. Playback starts about three seconds later. Trained on openly licensed multitrack recordings, credited in About.

ROOM CORRECTION
Your room does more to the bass than any filter does. Record a test sweep with a microphone and the app finds the resonances the room adds, then places parametric cuts at them, each sized to its measured height and adjustable by hand. Where a note keeps ringing it can also shorten the decay, previewed first and marked experimental. Bass only, one seat; no equaliser fixes reflections. Without a microphone it can design from a floor plan. It is still in testing and says so.

WHAT IS FREE, PERMANENTLY
Every filter below 500,000 taps, at every output rate. Neuromancer, full and Eco. All three input paths. Measuring your room, with the graph, the editor and saving. No account, no time limit.

SIGNATURE EDITION
One optional purchase adds the presets from 500,000 taps upward (on an M-series iPad up to 4M) and hearing room correction applied. One payment, no subscription. A 30-day trial comes first; when it ends, playback continues on the deepest free preset of the family. Codes redeem in the app.

PRIVACY
No account, no analytics, no crash reporting, no telemetry. Neuromancer runs on the device. The app listens on the local network so control points can find it, and connects out only to radio stations you choose, the AutoEq database when you search it, and the App Store.

REQUIREMENTS
A USB or network DAC and iOS 15 or later; Neuromancer needs iOS 27. A renderer and a player, not a music service.