HQ Player

[rrwwss52]

The Sonore microRendu is an ethernet to USB renderer. They are $640 without a power supply, $690 with an iFi supply. They allow for transmission of music files in several formats including squeezelite, NAA, DLNA/MPD, and Roon Ready. They were first released for sale about ten days ago. I ordered one myself and should receive it on Wednesday. The reviews have been very positive thusfar.

 

You might just like that Roon / Tidal junk. It is a nifty combination which offers a lot of music up which you might not listen to otherwise.

[rrwwss52]

When I added a Wyrd or Regen USB in the USB loop to my Mytek 192, I came to the conclusion that it (they) made USB at least as good as FW to the Mytek. The microRendu has a Regen built in.

 

I've been tinkering with HQ Player on the trial, and will see how it works up with the Roon microRendu combo. @firedog, I noticed you ran a Wyrd into a Regen....did you notice a benefit? I need a home for my Regen with the microRendu moving into the main system.

Wyrd is between my iMac and Cambridge Audio DAC Plus.....

[rrwwss52]

I noticed a small benefit. Hard to tell.

 

Thanks for the reply. I'll give it a whirl.....

[rrwwss52]

Hello Miska, I have NAA HQ Player mode enabled with a Sonore MicroRendu feeding a Wyred4Sound Dac-2 (PCM DAC).....Using a trial software of your product for MAC, I can get the device to operate in Roon, but no music is produced in the DAC. Is the Wyred4Sound DAC not compatible with your HQ Player? The connection to the microRendu is via ethernet in a separate system away from the iMac. Thank you.

[rrwwss52]

I selected the NAA on the HQPlayer software, but no selection was available under the Device selection. No choices at all.

 

I can get HQPlayer to run on the IMac (local host) computer speakers, but not into the other room where the microRendu is hooked up with the DAC.

[rrwwss52]

l

This usually means the NAA is not found on the network. What kind of network setup do you have?

 

I assume you have switched microRendu to NAA mode?

 

I have a less than one year old iMac desktop running current version OSX El Capitan. ASUS RT68AC router in office. Audio system is in another room and mutltiple components are connected with ethernet over power Linksys PLEK 500 and Linksys gigabit switch. The switch is hooked to a Sonore microRendu via ethernet cable, and the W4S DAC-2 is connected to the microRendu by USB cable. I can select NAA on the HQPlayer software, but no Device field is available/ listed. I can access Roon on both the desktop system (local host) and living room system. I can get HQPlayer to work on the desktop (and through Roon), but not on the microRendu which is the living room (not in the same room as the imac). NAA is selected on the microRendu. The mystery is the Device setting in HQ Player. The setting which allows renaming the server also wont allow me to enter the IP address for the microRendu either (in HQPlayer). I have been able to get Roon to emulate the microRendu playing in Roon, but no sound is outputted.

[rrwwss52]

Thank you Miska. I'll try these suggestions and see if the network will recognize my DAC in the network....

[rrwwss52]

If the NAA doesn't appear on the list in "Network naming" dialog, then the problem is certainly network related and the initial discovery handshake between HQPlayer and NAA is not working.

 

Do you have firewall enabled on Mac? If you get a dialog from OS X asking if you want to allow HQPlayer to access network, then the game is already lost, because the packets are already lost while OS X is waiting for response to the dialog.

 

If you want to use NAA with HQPlayer running on Mac, you need to disable firewall on OS X and use a firewall device on your internet-facing network edge instead (ASUS router in this case).

 

If you already have firewall disabled, then the problem is somewhere else. Upcoming networkaudiod-3.3.1 + HQPlayer 3.14 combo may help in some cases...

 

OSX firewall was off. Temporarily dropped firewall in ASUS router to see if that was an issue. Upon selecting the NAA, the Device dialog box remains blank, so the NAA is apparently not being found. Router sees the microRendu which works in the other modes (Roon, squuezelite, DLNA). NAA is the only one it can't seem to lock in on (for now at least)....I'll check out your next update and hopefully that can resolve the glitch. Again thanks for your efforts.

[rrwwss52]

OSX firewall was off. Temporarily dropped firewall in ASUS router to see if that was an issue. Upon selecting the NAA, the Device dialog box remains blank, so the NAA is apparently not being found. Router sees the microRendu which works in the other modes (Roon, squuezelite, DLNA). NAA is the only one it can't seem to lock in on (for now at least)....I'll check out your next update and hopefully that can resolve the glitch. Again thanks for your efforts.

 

 

EDIT: Got it to work Miska. As you stated, it was a Networking issue where the NAA could not be recognized by HQPlayer at the desktop. Effectively, I had my desktop connected directly behind my cable company router/modem, and the ASUS router was in parallel to the desktop (also hooked directly to the cable company router/modem), not in series. I changed the ethernet cable order to Cable company router/modem> ASUS router > desktop and it worked. Thank you again for taking the time to point me in the right direction.

[rrwwss52]

I'm trying to get HQPlayer to play in NAA mode with a microRendu.

 

Here's my setup:

 

Headless Mac Mini (running OS X) is running HQPlayer, connected to the LAN. microRendu is connected to my DAC which is also connected to the LAN.

 

I am trying to get this all to play through Roon, but Miska recommended in this thread to get the NAA working without Roon first, so that's what I'm trying to do with no luck.

 

My DAC is an LH Labs Geek Pulse X Infinity.

 

I added two tracks that are on Mac Mini locally and when I try to play the first track, nothing happens. It appears that the track is going to play, but the Time does not change. Then when trying to play the next track, oddly, the entire app gets stuck with progress bar going back and forth. I have to force quit HQPlayer to get it to stop.

 

Here's a screenshot of my preferences. Any ideas?

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]26061[/ATTACH]

 

TIA

 

- Gary

 

Taking a look at HQPlayers website, it recommends upping the buffer time to 100ms (from default). I am using the player for PCM only, none of the lower boxes are checked on mine (Cuda, Pipeline SDM).

[rrwwss52]

IME there is a lot of misplaced mystique about HQP. It doesn't require particular IT skill or expertise to use, but rather suffers (not unlike other similar products) from minimalist documentation. For example, I struggled for some time in getting NAA to work (no documentation at all is provided to the best of my knowledge), but now I know what to do, I can see that the necessary steps could have been provided on a single page of installation notes. We shouldn't confuse lack of skill with lack of knowledge. The former takes time to accumulate, but the latter can be easily addressed via adequate step by step instructions, especially for a far from inexpensive product.

 

Compared to JRMC, I think HQPlayer is pretty simple to understand. It actually has instructions whereas in JRiver you have to search wikis and forums and wait for a reply at times. IMO, JRMC is a more complex program too. Useful, but a big learning curve.

[rrwwss52]

I don't disagree. As a first time user of HQP last year it took me less than 10 mins from initial download to playing great sounding music directly from PC to DAC. Definitely agree that it's easier than JMRC to get going. For me its when I got into NAA territory that things got a lot less clear (noting that some at least see NAA as essential to HQP use)

 

My point was precisely that HQP doesn't need lots of IT skills and experience to use and new users shouldn't be put off under this mispprehension. It's just that to maximise the enjoyment of the most users a bit more dissemination of knowledge via documentation would be useful.

 

I had a couple of issues with configuring the NAA as well. It was my confounded method of network setup since I had two routers in the system. I'm in agreement with you though, more instructional documentation is better.....

[rrwwss52]

Jussi, have a compatibility question. I recently purchased Actiontec MoCA modules (ethernet over coaxial cable adapters). My Bryston BDP-1 and Sonore MicroRendu both work using the MoCA modules in Roon Ready mode. HQ Player doesn't work. Is there a setting I need to change, or is HQ Player not compatible with MoCA.

 

I switched back to my Powerline adapters, and HQ functions fine using that ethernet transmission technology.

 

Thanks Robert

[rrwwss52]

Thanks Jussi. It is a standard established by cable companies (which I believe was set up) to let DVR and cable boxes communicate. It's pretty neat setup, using coaxial cable as ethernet cable. No worries here, Powerline modules / ethernet works great with Roon and HQPlayer.

 

http://www.mocalliance.org

[rrwwss52]

My setup with moca adapters works great with HQplayer and an NAA.

 

Sent from my MI 2 using Computer Audiophile mobile app

 

Got it going. Rebooted everything, and installed a switch to control the microRendu and BDP-1. Thank you again for the reply letting me know yours worked. HQPlayer now working with MoCA connection.