Roon vs HQPlayer vs A+ vs Amarra vs JRiver sound quality?

[orgel]

The one item you don't mention is TIDAL. A+ is awesome except it has no TIDAL. Roon integrates it in the best possible way.

 

Completely agree. I had some doubts about whether my Tidal subscription was worth it … until Roon came along.

 

--David

[orgel]

I concur the SQ is "fuzzy" compared to CD rips and other input sources, e.g., downloads. The "hiss" I referred to is audible…

 

I haven't heard the hiss either, but I agree about the fuzziness. I do think Tidal sounds better via Roon than via the Tidal app.

 

But to quote CSNY, when I am with the one I am with, I love the one I am with (smile).

 

Technically, I think you're (mis)quoting Stephen Stills, from his debut solo album. I'm somewhat embarrassed to admit it now, but I purchased that LP when it was released. Enjoyed it at the time, though.

 

--David

[miguelito]

Hope you are acclimating your system to your new space and are enjoying your surroundings.

Thx! Little by little. Two days ago I finally fully set up and aligned my speakers - complicated by their weight of about 250 lbs. I use a laser measure to align them, the towing, etc, to within ~ 1/4". A bit overkill but the are very coherent.

 

Getting there...

[REShaman]

I haven't heard the hiss either, but I agree about the fuzziness. I do think Tidal sounds better via Roon than via the Tidal app.

 

 

 

Technically, I think you're (mis)quoting Stephen Stills, from his debut solo album. I'm somewhat embarrassed to admit it now, but I purchased that LP when it was released. Enjoyed it at the time, though.

 

--David

 

Hello David,

 

You are quite right! I have taken some liberties. I won't even justify that with the word paraphrasing. Not even close.

 

I not only left out the word "not", When I am not with the one I love, I love the one I am with. I squandered the quotation's intent.

 

In a action for countenance and a few pinches of penitence, here are the actual lyrics. Love the song and CSN (and Y) smile.

 

Best

Richard

 

PS

Excuse the OTT OT (over the top)

 

"Love The One You're With"

 

If you're down and confused

And you don't remember who you're talking to

Concentration slips away

Because you're baby is so far away

 

Well there's a rose in a fisted glove

And the eagle flies with the dove

And if you can't be with the one you love honey

Love the one you're with

 

Don't be angry - don't be sad

Don't sit crying over good times you've had

There's a girl right next to you

And she's just waiting for something to do

 

Well there's a rose in a fisted glove

And the eagle flies with the dove

And if you can't be with the one you love honey

Love the one you're with

 

Turn your heartache right into joy

'Cause she's a girl and you're a boy

Get it together come on make it nice

You ain't gonna need anymore advice

 

Well there's a rose in a fisted glove

And the eagle flies with the dove

And if you can't be with the one you love honey

[REShaman]

Thx! Little by little. Two days ago I finally fully set up and aligned my speakers - complicated by their weight of about 250 lbs. I use a laser measure to align them, the towing, etc, to within ~ 1/4". A bit overkill but the are very coherent.

 

Getting there...

 

I completely understand your perspective. Perhaps you offer a new perspective for bit perfection (smile). I did the same thing as you with laser and my ear in relocating my KEF Reference 107s (cirac 1986). When I told Art Noxon of ASC's assistant, Michael, the exact distance from the front wall, he started to laugh. Apparently, I located my speakers at a distance from the wall with the exact measurement (to the decimal points) they were about to recommend to me. Then we both had a chuckle.

 

However many adjustments, enjoy the fruits of your labor. I always feel better just making the effort.

 

Best,

Richard

 

More OT. Sorry everyone (else).

[warr]

Well… I got sucked into trying Roon…. Not only does it sound better on my system vs. Jriver and A+; the whole approach to music library and discovery is absolutely incredible! I was not expecting such a treat! Then I gave Tidal a spin. The integration of Tidal and Roon opens up a whole new world. I am impressed to say the least.

 

Mark

[andybob]

I found HQPlayer upsampling to be clearly better than Roon.

 

Why am I using Roon and not HQPlayer ? Only someone who hasn't used both could ask that question !

 

The upcoming HQPlayer/Roon integration is one of the most highly supported Feature Requests on the Roon forum, exceeded only by iPad support I think. I thought Shinyc said it best "HQPlayer deserves Roon front end and vice versa".

[REShaman]

I found HQPlayer upsampling to be clearly better than Roon.

 

Why am I using Roon and not HQPlayer ? Only someone who hasn't used both could ask that question !

 

The upcoming HQPlayer/Roon integration is one of the most highly supported Feature Requests on the Roon forum, exceeded only by iPad support I think. I thought Shinyc said it best "HQPlayer deserves Roon front end and vice versa".

 

I concur with that perspective: HQPlayer deserves roon front end and vice-a-versa (sic)". I would have also enjoyed had Amarra Symphony which I prefer over HQPlayer, if only for the SQ which I experience as incomparable. But, alas, that was not meant to be. HQPlayer's down/up sampling, Native DSD playback is unparalleled so it makes sense that roon, given it's penchant for excellence would allow an integration that takes roon higher in the UI/UX/EM.

 

roon, has, in my estimation, improved it's SQ and along with AsQ+wiRC and 16 filters/ 4-band parametric EQ, Dirac Live (Full) allows us to integrate the best with the best for the best. And the icing on the cake is the remote app that just works flawlessly (mostly) with a UI/UX/and therefore EM to die for. To date no remote app comes remotely close in all facets.

 

The best is yet to come.

 

Enjoying the music,

Richard

[andybob]

Hi Richard,

 

I'd love to try Amarra with Roon, but I think it's still OSX only ? Have you heard of any plans that you can tell us about as regards Armarra Windows or Linux ?

[REShaman]

Hi Richard,

 

I'd love to try Amarra with Roon, but I think it's still OSX only ? Have you heard of any plans that you can tell us about as regards Armarra Windows or Linux ?

 

Hello andybob,

 

Nice to chat with you around the block. The short answer is I am only beta testing OSX applications; and, therefore, am not up to date with Windows and/or Linux. I do know that AsQ+ and I believe A4T with HIFI will be working in Windows. Sorry I can not be more helpful. But, perhaps, an inquiry to Sonic Studio will yield reliable information. And I just read a post at another thread where the member indicated that Sonic Studio is planning to support DSD when TIDAL starts streaming that format. iRC is OSX. Dirac Live works with Windows, I believe. I am OSX centric so take my remarks for what that's worth. The combination of roon and AsQ+wiRC adds another nuance to "fine-tuning" a wonderful roon and an excellent AsQ+, which roon alone does not (yet, smile) offer standalone. But who knows, things are a changing and associations are a being-made, i.e., roon with HQPlayer.

 

It's a great time to enjoy computer audio. Nice chatting with you here and over at roon.

 

Best,

Richard

[Magellan]

As for sound quality there is no differences between different PC or MAC software players - as long as the computer or software is set up not to alter the bits. That is, as long as the data is bit perfect transported to a external DAC with proper jitter correction, then sound quality is equal between the mentioned players. If re-sampling or any other form of signal treatment is wanted, in Roon it has to fall back on the operating systems own audio engine. If re-sampling is needed fore example, I would strongly recommend a MAC and not a PC, if Roon is the choice. Windows audio engine is rather poor compared to OSX. If Windows is the preferred system, and If resampling or any other sound processing is wanted or needed, then Jriver (or foobar2000) is the obvious choice. It´s inbuilt audio engine is superb compared to others. I would say no other software-player comes close.

 

I agree that Roon has a very nice TIDAL integration, but that is also in my opinion it´s only outstanding strength. In my view, the big drawback is the need for a traditional PC or MAC. Roon is a relatively demanding system on resources. You can for example not use an Android smartphone as remote - as you can with most other software players - but you need a rather powerful tablet. If you want to use an iPad, you need a rather new model. etc.. Me myself have become tired of powering up a traditional computer every time I want to listen to music. I have therefore built a small RapsberyPi+HiFi-Berry computer, and as a player I use Volumio and MPD. Since this system is DNLA compliant, and as I have al my music on a NAS, it is very convenient. AND - the great thing is - Jriver is also DNLA compliant, which mean I can remotely control the Volumio player with Jriver on an laptop. If I want to read about the music I am playing, like in Roon, observe then that Jriver is linked to Wikipedia (and Google if wanted) and can provide tons of info within the system. I find this DNLA feature in Jriver outstanding. If I don´t want to fire up a laptop and Jriver, then I use BubbleUpnp on my Android smartphone instead, and control the Volumio player in that way.

[Magellan]

Just a correction to my own post. I just remembered Roon can do resampling and some other signal processing. I have not seen any actual measurements comparing the signal processing in Roon with other software. For the time being I would not use Roon for signal processing.

[iamoneagain]

Just to point out you can now use Roon and HQPlayer together. Roon sends the PCM stream to HQPlayer and it processes the sound. So best of both worlds.

[ted_b]

Just to point out you can now use Roon and HQPlayer together. Roon sends the PCM stream to HQPlayer and it processes the sound. So best of both worlds.

 

Not just PCM...DSD too.

[jroyer]

I am new to HQPlayer. I like what I ear so far but to compare with my Audirvana+ setup on which I oversampler to DSD128 with no problem, I still need to figure out how to oversample to DSD128 with HQPlayer. Untill I crack the code on this one A+ sound better.

 

I am actually able to upsample to 5.6M with HQPlayer but something must be wrong in my setup because I eard noise or should I say 1 sec of sound then noise then 1 sec of sound etc...My DAC has no issue when I upsample to 5.6M using A+. ANyone has insights?

[bobbmd]

iamoneagain-How exactly did you do that? I can not get HQP to integrate with ROON nor can I get HQP to even play alone it incorporated my iTunes library but it freezes and if I use it as a ROON Zone/Group nothing happens at all.

[beerandmusic]

As to the differences between USB and Ethernet, I'm not sure if that is due to my network, my Ethernet cables, or my DAC's treatment of the two, but it probably deserves more work to see if I can equalize between Ethernet and USB..

 

you don't say which you think sounds better?

 

I think hqplayer out of the box to a local file sounds as good or better than any other thing i have tried, and i have tried many...but i HATE it's interface, where i won't use it regularly, and won't buy it, until the interface is more mainstream in functionality like 99% of the players out there.

 

I may buy roon, but refuse to buy into a subscription..i heard they have specials some times, but haven't heard of one yet...not paying $500 either.

 

If roon and hqp could get together and make an offering for around $300, i think that would be the ticket, but the integration must be seamless....jmo

[beerandmusic]

Just to point out you can now use Roon and HQPlayer together. Roon sends the PCM stream to HQPlayer and it processes the sound. So best of both worlds.

 

So for roughly $700 ($500roon+$200hqplayer), you can have a poorly integrated interface....I will wait for something more promising at a more reasonable price for a "player".

[kennyb123]

So for roughly $700 ($500roon+$200hqplayer), you can have a poorly integrated interface....I will wait for something more promising at a more reasonable price for a "player".

 

Poorly integrated interface? It doesn't get any better than Roon - and the integration with HQPlayer has been seamless for. The only reason you'd have to visit the HQP interface is to change filter settings. But once you settle on a filter, HQP becomes just another app running in the background.

 

Both offer free trials.

[beerandmusic]

Poorly integrated interface? It doesn't get any better than Roon - and the integration with HQPlayer has been seamless for. The only reason you'd have to visit the HQP interface is to change filter settings. But once you settle on a filter, HQP becomes just another app running in the background.

 

 

a better integrated interface would be having to start and run only one program...

 

The music world shouldn't have to buy 2 different programs to get one decent player....jmo

 

the software should be transparent to present the 1s and 0s to the output...this shouldn't be rocket science....the industry is lagging imho....

 

I also believe a justifiable price for a "player" would be under $200, although i would be willing to pay maybe $300, but certainly not $700....that combo will never have market share or be popular amongst the masses....poor marketing....they would be much better off by appealing to the masses, than to charge ridiculously high pricing for limited software that isn't on par with technology in other fields....I will continue to wait.

[Miska]

the software should be transparent to present the 1s and 0s to the output...this shouldn't be rocket science....the industry is lagging imho....

 

Entire point of HQPlayer is the DSP functionality to improve DAC performance. If you just want 1's and 0's copied from input to output you better look at something else.

 

I take it almost as an insult if someone is using HQPlayer without the DSP features... Sooo many years of work wasted.

[Miska]

where i won't use it regularly, and won't buy it, until the interface is more mainstream in functionality like 99% of the players out there

 

You also want it to sound like 99% of the players out there?

 

I'm really happy that it's not like 99% of the players out there. Because I truly hate 99% of the players out there.

 

If roon and hqp could get together and make an offering for around $300, i think that would be the ticket, but the integration must be seamless....jmo

 

IMO, HQPlayer is already too cheap compared to the amount of R&D.

[beerandmusic]

 

IMO, HQPlayer is already too cheap compared to the amount of R&D.

 

So improve the interface and increase the price and i will buy (grin). I am confident that even your best supporters would wish some tweeks to the interface, unless they aren't using the interface.

[beerandmusic]

You also want it to sound like 99% of the players out there?

 

I'm really happy that it's not like 99% of the players out there. Because I truly hate 99% of the players out there.

 

 

No, i don't want it to sound like 99% of the players out there...yours stands head and shoulders above all the rest sq wise...but absolutely worst gui....jmo...

[beerandmusic]

Entire point of HQPlayer is the DSP functionality to improve DAC performance. If you just want 1's and 0's copied from input to output you better look at something else.

 

I take it almost as an insult if someone is using HQPlayer without the DSP features... Sooo many years of work wasted.

 

I admit, I am not sure what yours does to sound better, and if it is "coloring" the 1s and 0s in some way, that is fine by me. I will say that i like playing native DSD and yours sounds the best, whatever it is doing, right out of the box, without changing any settings. For me, i don't want listening to music to be a tweeking thing..i just want something that sounds great out of the box, and that your product does do well.