Roon And HQ Player 4

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bluegrassphile

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I noticed there hasn't been any recent discussion on this forum regarding Roon and HQ Player 4. I'm curious if there have been any new developments in this software? I'd like to try HQ Player 4 with my system but I'm a newb to this kind of software (and digital stuff in general). I can navigate to it but I'm afraid if it doesn't work out I won't know how to get back to the default. I'm using Roon Nucleus and my system already sounds really good. I don't want to mess things up.

The consensus seems to be that HQ Player 4 sounds better as a playback engine vs Roon's player. Has Roon made any mods to it's player software within the last few months that would boost its SQ (vs HQP4)? Not that Roon's software sounds inferior. I'm just wondering if there's anything new, or possibly on the horizon, that might mitigate the need for a "third party" player? If I come across as not very tech-y it's because I'm not.
 
Roon build 1.8x sounds better on my system than previous versions of Roon.
In my case HQ Player didn’t improve the sound quality. Others swear by it.
It’s not hard to try out and revert to what you have if you don’t hear an improvement.
 
bluegrassphile said:
I noticed there hasn't been any recent discussion on this forum regarding Roon and HQ Player 4. I'm curious if there have been any new developments in this software? I'd like to try HQ Player 4 with my system but I'm a newb to this kind of software (and digital stuff in general). I can navigate to it but I'm afraid if it doesn't work out I won't know how to get back to the default. I'm using Roon Nucleus and my system already sounds really good. I don't want to mess things up.

The consensus seems to be that HQ Player 4 sounds better as a playback engine vs Roon's player. Has Roon made any mods to it's player software within the last few months that would boost its SQ (vs HQP4)? Not that Roon's software sounds inferior. I'm just wondering if there's anything new, or possibly on the horizon, that might mitigate the need for a "third party" player? If I come across as not very tech-y it's because I'm not.
Click to expand...

The advantage of using HQP player is that it offers a multitude of filters that are not available anywhere else. And while it can be a 'set it and forget it' kind of software, it requires getting involved with techie stuff to get it to that point. One question that comes to my mind is whether the Roon Nucleus computer is powerful enough to run the more complex filters available in HQP. Another question is: can your DAC accept high-resolution and bypass internal processing?

To get a better idea of what is involved, I suggest that you visit the Roon community forums. Users of Roon/HQP contribute to threads where the creator of HQP participates. See here: HQ Player - Roon Labs Community


If you want to improve the sound without having to buy/learn new software (or hardware), my suggestion is to use DSP (room-correction) filters with Roon. You can create the DSP filters yourself or you can have someone do it for you - check out Home Audio Fidelity English - Home Audio Fidelity . Once you have the installed the DSP filters, you can enable or disable them with the click of a button to hear the difference.

IME, the difference in sound when using DSP room correction filters will be VERY noticeable and the best bang for your buck.
 
nicoff said:
One question that comes to my mind is whether the Roon Nucleus computer is powerful enough to run the more complex filters available in HQP.
Click to expand...
Just a point of clarification. taken directly from a Moderator's post on the Roonlabs forum:

"HQ Player cannot currently be installed on a Roon Nucleus. The Nucleus runs Roon OS as an operating system and Roon OS only runs Roon Server. If you want to use HQ Player with a Nucleus it must be installed on a separate computer. You can only use ‘localhost’ when Roon Core and HQ Player are on the same computer, and that is not currently possible with a Nucleus."
 
Thank you for your responses. I do appreciate them. I'm starting to learn a few things. I'll check out Roon Community for sure. I'm also going to experiment a little with DSP. A lot of music is so well recorded I won't mess with it, but there are some recordings that "need help."
 
audio.bill said:
Just a point of clarification. taken directly from a Moderator's post on the Roonlabs forum:

"HQ Player cannot currently be installed on a Roon Nucleus. The Nucleus runs Roon OS as an operating system and Roon OS only runs Roon Server. If you want to use HQ Player with a Nucleus it must be installed on a separate computer. You can only use ‘localhost’ when Roon Core and HQ Player are on the same computer, and that is not currently possible with a Nucleus."
Click to expand...

Can the Roon OS on a nucleus be overwritten by another OS?
 
Alkyogre said:
Can the Roon OS on a nucleus be overwritten by another OS?
Click to expand...
Technically it might be possible, the Nucleus is a customized version of a fanless Intel NUC which is optimized to run their dedicated OS and Roon Core. It wouldn't have the necessary processing power to run HQ Player anyway.
 
Alkyogre said:
Can the Roon OS on a nucleus be overwritten by another OS?
Click to expand...

After reading more about it, Nucleus is a purpose-built computer made to run Roon. It is not a very powerful computer as Roon does not need that.
Trying to make a Nucleus do what it was not supposed to do would be iffy in my book specially considering that the OP already mentioned that he is not a techie guy.
 
bluegrassphile said:
Thank you for your responses. I do appreciate them. I'm starting to learn a few things. I'll check out Roon Community for sure. I'm also going to experiment a little with DSP. A lot of music is so well recorded I won't mess with it, but there are some recordings that "need help."
Click to expand...

As noted above, your Nucleus cannot run HQ Player. Therefore HQP is not an option for you with your current hardware.

However, using Roon with DSP room-correction filters is still an option. Room-correction filters can make ALL of your music sound better (the ones that are well-recorded and the ones that are not).

Some folks spend thousands of dollars on cables, power cords, conditioners, digital voodoo, etc., and not get the benefits that properly-implemented DSP can deliver. I hope that it works out for you!
 
A saying in Holland: “measuring is knowing”

I did make tests with the same motherboard as the nucleus one test with an 8i5 nuc, one with the 8i7 nuc, which is the same board as the nucleus. As ram memory 2x 16GB was used, like the Nucleus. As OS I used Linux with PSensor on the background measuring the CPU usage and Core Junction Temperature. I converted a 16 bit 44 kHz file to DSD 512

The results: the processor usage of the i5 goes up to 90%, which is still ok, the I7 is about 30%.

The critical issue is The Core Junction Temperature. It slightly goes up to 80-85 degrees centigrade where it is on its max. Intel suggests that the processor does not become higher then 90-95 degrees centigrade. The thing is: is the passive cooling which uses the nucleus, better or worse then my test setup?

That about the Nucleus, the computer is powerful enough to run HQPlayer in a high conversion
 
Alkyogre said:
A saying in Holland: “measuring is knowing”

I did make tests with the same motherboard as the nucleus one test with an 8i5 nuc, one with the 8i7 nuc, which is the same board as the nucleus. As ram memory 2x 16GB was used, like the Nucleus. As OS I used Linux with PSensor on the background measuring the CPU usage and Core Junction Temperature. I converted a 16 bit 44 kHz file to DSD 512

The results: the processor usage of the i5 goes up to 90%, which is still ok, the I7 is about 30%.

The critical issue is The Core Junction Temperature. It slightly goes up to 80-85 degrees centigrade where it is on its max. Intel suggests that the processor does not become higher then 90-95 degrees centigrade. The thing is: is the passive cooling which uses the nucleus, better or worse then my test setup?

That about the Nucleus, the computer is powerful enough to run HQPlayer in a high conversion
Click to expand...
Thanks for sharing your valuable test results!
Some additional details from Roon about the Nucleus hardware: "The base model Nucleus has an i3 CPU with 4GB of RAM. The Nucleus+ has an i7 CPU with 8GB of RAM."
 
An i3 isn’t indeed powerful enough to run hqplayer. Strange that the nucleus+ is just 8 GB, in my memory they used 2x16 for that. I also did run hqplayer on 8 GB of ram and had some issues with stability.

By the way: working on a new mini pc with a streacom case, a gen 10 i5 processor fanless with liquid cooling to reduce heat. Stuff is in house, looking forward to build it.
 
bluegrassphile said:
I noticed there hasn't been any recent discussion on this forum regarding Roon and HQ Player 4. I'm curious if there have been any new developments in this software? I'd like to try HQ Player 4 with my system but I'm a newb to this kind of software (and digital stuff in general). I can navigate to it but I'm afraid if it doesn't work out I won't know how to get back to the default. I'm using Roon Nucleus and my system already sounds really good. I don't want to mess things up.

The consensus seems to be that HQ Player 4 sounds better as a playback engine vs Roon's player. Has Roon made any mods to it's player software within the last few months that would boost its SQ (vs HQP4)? Not that Roon's software sounds inferior. I'm just wondering if there's anything new, or possibly on the horizon, that might mitigate the need for a "third party" player? If I come across as not very tech-y it's because I'm not.
Click to expand...

I'm using my desktop computer as my Roon Core and streaming to HQ Player 4. I'm upsampling to DSD 512X on my Audio Holo May KTE DAC with HQ 4 and also using convolution filters designed for my headphones. All is working great now but there is a definite learning curve in getting this to work. I'm streaming both Tidal and Qobuz and the sound improvements using HQ player are extremely obvious.
 
Trying to make HQPlayer work again, but this year it was replaced by version 5, and version 4 is made that way it does not work anymore.

A new license would cost over then 300 euro, and with the old license I will get a coupon which will give me 15% reduction. Damned ☹️
 
Alkyogre said:
Trying to make HQPlayer work again, but this year it was replaced by version 5, and version 4 is made that way it does not work anymore.

A new license would cost over then 300 euro, and with the old license I will get a coupon which will give me 15% reduction. Damned ☹️
Click to expand...

I have HQP4 and it works just fine. You might want to check your settings in HQP4.
I was not aware of the update but after you brought it up I looked up the changes and I am not sure if the upgrade is worth it to me. Thanks!
 
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