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Roon Questions - and some pics

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Posted on June 13, 2016 at 22:11:20
AbeCollins
Audiophile

Posts: 46280
Location: USA
Joined: June 22, 2001
Contributor
  Since: February 2, 2002
 I'm playing with* Roon Core and Roon Bridge software (60-day trial) and wondering if anyone has tried Roon with HQPlayer.

Did you run HQPlayer on the same server as Roon Core? If not, where did you run HQPlayer? My HQPlayer trial ran out several months ago.

I'm warming up to the Roon interface but I slightly prefer the sonics from Audirvana Plus, so I'm wondering how others have integrated Roon with HQPlayer as Roon does not support AV+, PM, Amarra, etc.

Roon Core on Mac Mini i7 Quad-Core 16GB + SSD -----> Networked Roon Bridge end-point on older Mac Mini Core 2 duo 8GB + SSD to USB DAC

iPad control for Roon

Roon screen shot on iPad

Roon screen shot on iPad

* Proof of concept test setup for convenience. Not the final configuration or layout. As an aside, I first tried full blown Roon as the end-point on the 2nd (older) Mac Mini and it works fine but as expected the Bridge software is less of a resource hog. I confirmed this by monitoring CPU utilization and also noticed a drop in CPU temperature (via CPU PECI) when running Bridge for the end-point. If I'm not mistaken I believe Bridge became available only within the past couple months with the release of Roon 1.2.

 

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All on one, posted on June 13, 2016 at 22:23:48
PaulN
Audiophile

Posts: 1412
Joined: January 13, 2000
 I implement Roon and HQPlayer with acourate-based convolution filters on a late 2012 3.4 iMac i7 with 8gig of ram and an nvidia GTX 680mx with 2 gig of vid ram for cuda offload. My DAC is limited to 192k PCM, so DSD upsampling is not an issue. This is a stable system and I suspect that I will not upgrade for another few years.

You probably have sufficient resources on the mini unless you decide to do DSD512 output, in which case you will need to update your hardware.

 

RE: All on one, posted on June 13, 2016 at 22:33:52
AbeCollins
Audiophile

Posts: 46280
Location: USA
Joined: June 22, 2001
Contributor
  Since: February 2, 2002
 Thanks Paul, So you run "full-blown" Roon and HQPlayer on the same system, no separate system for Core, and no end-point?

And the system performance is sufficient? Cuda support thru your nvidia GTX 680mx must be helpful.

The Mini integrated GPU probably wouldn't support cuda offload. I guess I could try HQPlayer on the Mini & Roon Core and see how it does. I'm not that interested in DSD upsampling.



 

RE: All on one, posted on June 13, 2016 at 22:39:08
PaulN
Audiophile

Posts: 1412
Joined: January 13, 2000
 CUDA is useful for high-intensity processing like convolution and dsd. Otherwise, it isn't really needed. I have my DAC connected to the iMac via a 5m run of USB3 cable. I may try a microrendu at some point in the future, but since I have a firewire connection to the dac from the same iMac for vinyl playback, it would not effectively isolate me electrically unless I disconnect it each time I listen. HQPlayer isn't such a resource hog unless you upsample to high-rate DSD. If that is your desire, then you do need to consider more horsepower.

 

RE: All on one, posted on June 13, 2016 at 22:51:18
AbeCollins
Audiophile

Posts: 46280
Location: USA
Joined: June 22, 2001
Contributor
  Since: February 2, 2002
 HQPlayer isn't such a resource hog unless you upsample to high-rate DSD.

Good to know. I have little interest in DSD. Thanks.

My main interest is seeing if I can use the Roon interface but get better sound quality. Roon sounds fine, but as previously mentioned I prefer Audirvana Plus by a slight margin. Since Roon doesn't support AV+ I was hoping to do a little better with HQPlayer in the picture.

It was several months ago that I said I would have no need for Roon but after playing with it for a while and discovering some new capabilities and features, I'm beginning to like it.




 

Roon is amazing, posted on June 13, 2016 at 22:56:15
PaulN
Audiophile

Posts: 1412
Joined: January 13, 2000
 Once you have used it for awhile, there will be no going back. Ever. Just buy the lifetime membership and be done with it. While I haven't played with AV+, I do have Puremusic 3 and I can assure you that there is no better player software available than HQPlayer. It is simply crushing in quality. I am literally done with the chase now. It took me 30 years, but I have arrived and this is where I am going to remain happy. Anything I add or change now is simply a shade of flavor-enhancement.

 

RE: Roon Questions - and some pics, posted on June 14, 2016 at 08:12:56
Mercman
Audiophile

Posts: 6581
Location: So. CA
Joined: October 20, 2002
 The primary reason to use the HQPlayer is for upsampling your files or conversion to DSD so says Jussi:

"Playing PCM files unprocessed is not goal of this player, so although possible, is not very convenient nor recommended way to use it."

I run Roon Server on my Windows 10 Pro laptop and HQPlayer and convert all to DSD256. Works beautifully with Roon and sounds excellent.

 

RE: Roon Questions - and some pics, posted on June 14, 2016 at 09:19:20
AbeCollins
Audiophile

Posts: 46280
Location: USA
Joined: June 22, 2001
Contributor
  Since: February 2, 2002
Thanks Steve. My primary goal with HQPlayer will be to improve sound quality while using Roon as the interface. I experimented with various upconversions through Audirvana Plus including PCM to higher resolution PCM but I believe the main sonic benefit was simply by virtue of the fact that AV+ bypassed Apple's CoreAudio, along with some other features. I'm not clear on everything HQPlayer does but if I have to upconvert to DSD I suppose I will.... if it's not too taxing on the Mac Mini.


 

RE: Roon Questions - and some pics, posted on June 14, 2016 at 19:48:39
tnewell
Audiophile

Posts: 427
Joined: March 29, 2001



I am currently on a trial of HQ Player with Roon. I am upsampling all PCM to 192. I am not applying any processing to DSD. I have an Auralic Vega DAC.

I think it sounds better than ROON alone.

 

RE: Roon Questions - and some pics, posted on June 14, 2016 at 20:09:24
AbeCollins
Audiophile

Posts: 46280
Location: USA
Joined: June 22, 2001
Contributor
  Since: February 2, 2002
 Very cool. Thanks for posting. Is that Signal Path display part of HQPlayer when integrated with Roon? I may have to buy HQPlayer AND Roon. If I can get at least on par with Audirvana Plus in terms of sonics, I'll be happy since the Roon interface is also to my liking.

BTW, I'm an EC fan and also have The Breeze: An Appreciation of J.J. Cale. Love that album too.

 

RE: Roon Questions - and some pics, posted on June 15, 2016 at 14:35:20
beautox
Manufacturer

Posts: 366
Location: New Plymouth
Joined: July 9, 2013
 I run Roon, HQplayer and Acourate Convolver on a fairly low end PC (NUC style, fanless, celeron). Using HQP to upsample to 192khz, the data is then passed to Acourate Convolver to perform room correction. I know that you can use the exact same filters in HQP but I find Acourate Convolver sounds better (and I am not the only one who finds this).

Typically this uses about 40-50% cpu

 

RE: Roon Questions - and some pics, posted on June 15, 2016 at 16:50:35
Bibo01
Audiophile

Posts: 648
Joined: December 18, 2008
 I am a long time user of HQPlayer alone.
I run and tested Roon+HQPlayer in various configurations, using various combinations of Windows and Linux for Roon Core and HQP.
Now I am mostly running both on a Linux system and control Roon through a Win laptop or Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10" tablet (it's not an approved platform, but one just has to tweak the Android OS on it).
In this configuration you can still run a NAA device (a network audio end point) with HQP because it is HQP in charge of the output, like a Cubox or microRendu or... Your server (Roon Core+HQP) can reside in a different room, perhaps with your router/switch, away from your audio equipment.

Although there is still room for improvement for Roon as library manager, I am very happy with this setup. I would only like to be able to change HQP configuration (filter and noise shaper/modulator) from within Roon.

 

RE: Roon Questions - and some pics, posted on June 15, 2016 at 16:54:35
Bibo01
Audiophile

Posts: 648
Joined: December 18, 2008
 I have heard this comment before on the difference between the two convolvers, but it always came down to an incorrect setup on the HQP side.
However, if you are happy with your present setup, all is fine.

 

RE: Roon Questions - and some pics, posted on June 15, 2016 at 17:17:19
PaulN
Audiophile

Posts: 1412
Joined: January 13, 2000
 I agree. A convolver is a convolver and there is simply no reason one would sound different from another. I said that over at CA as well. Uli doesn't have any special magic in his convolver, and it is also expensive for what it does as well as being Win-platform specific. All of which are no bueno. But people still think marigo dots do more for their system than a well-implemented RC filter, so apparently Peter Belt won.

 

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