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Music servers and other computer based digital audio technologies.

I experimented with HQPlayer years ago...

HQPlayer is pretty incredible in what it can do with on-the-fly sample rate conversion especially from PCM to DSD but it can be a real CPU hog depending on how you configure it.

I had a 2012 Mac Mini at the time with a 2.6 GHz Intel Core i7 quad-core CPU (3.6 GHz turbo boost). Roon allows for HQPlayer integration so I was able to incorporate HQPlayer into my playback system without being forced to use HQPlayer's gawd-awful user interface.

Some HQPlayer configurations were fine but the more complex ones would bring the Mac Mini to a crawl with the case heating up and the fan spinning up like a vacuum cleaner.

It was fun playing with HQPlayer but I decided that the end result while good wasn't something I really needed. Roon on its own sounds fine and Roon soon had it's own internal DSP to play with. I use it for the most basic PCM sample rate conversions like 44.1 to 88.2, headroom management, volume leveling, and the very occasional parametric EQ.

It might be fun to play with HQPlayer again on the much newer Mac Mini M1 that I now have for AV duties. Even this entry level 1st gen M1 CPU is far more capable than the 2012 era Intel i7 quad-core I was running.



Edits: 03/18/25 03/18/25

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