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

[Miska]

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.

 

Let's see, current desktop mode GUI is evolution from one I created in 2009 and the fullscreen/touch one is from 2013. I've done lot of requested tweaks to the GUI on the way.

 

Redoing a GUI is a lot of work, and so far most of time and resources have been put primarily to the sound quality.

 

So far, I think the best approach has been co-operation with people working on those alternative GUIs and supporting creation of such, instead of trying to create more GUIs into HQPlayer (on the side of already existing two built-ins). In fact, even the fullscreen/touch GUI is actually fully customizable and can be replaced with something else if someone wants to take on that.

[beerandmusic]

Let's see, current desktop mode GUI is evolution from one I created in 2009 and the fullscreen/touch one is from 2013. I've done lot of requested tweaks to the GUI on the way.

 

Redoing a GUI is a lot of work, and so far most of time and resources have been put primarily to the sound quality.

 

So far, I think the best approach has been co-operation with people working on those alternative GUIs and supporting creation of such, instead of trying to create more GUIs into HQPlayer (on the side of already existing two built-ins). In fact, even the fullscreen/touch GUI is actually fully customizable and can be replaced with something else if someone wants to take on that.

 

OK, thanks so much for your time in communicating about the GUI. I will have to research this fullscreen/touch GUI you speak of. I did see in settings just now a checkbox for fullscreen, but don't see much difference immediately...perhaps it will just take more effort on my part to learning the program.

 

Ultimately, i just want a simple interface where i can click a song and play it, and then click a different song and play that with as little input as possible. it seems most interfaces will allow you to do this very easily, and maybe the fullscreen gui will allow that. I am a lot happier with it already now that i know i can see the tree view again, just by scrolling the library view to the left, but i wish i didn't have to do that..maybe it is my screen resolution that is causing that? Not sure why you would purposely make the tree view scroll to the right if there was a way around it...it's very annoying to me anyway.

[Miska]

OK, thanks so much for your time in communicating about the GUI. I will have to research this fullscreen/touch GUI you speak of. I did see in settings just now a checkbox for fullscreen, but don't see much difference immediately...perhaps it will just take more effort on my part to learning the program.

 

That checkbox controls whether the fullscreen mode switches to true full screen or just maximized window.

[beerandmusic]

That checkbox controls whether the fullscreen mode switches to true full screen or just maximized window.

 

 

>>>fullscreen/touch one is from 2013

 

am i misunderstanding you then....is there a newer gui that is different than the default gui with the latest beta? I am trying the latest beta...is there a way to change the gui?

 

or at very minimum, is there a setting to prevent the library view from scrolling to the right ...i want to always be able to see the tree view without having to scroll back to the left.

[beerandmusic]

what is your email, i need some information ?

 

I assume you are asking for miska, not me as i am a novice and have no answers (grin).

you can send private message here to anyone....just click the userid.

[sdolezalek]

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

 

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.

 

I assume from the above answers that you would also prefer a $500 Pioneer receiver to $5,000+ separates of DAC/Pre-Amp and Amp? Receivers are where the mass market is, but I hardly think of Computer Audiophile as a site for mass market consumers. Most of us are here because a) we enjoy doing a bit of DIY especially as far as computers and software are concerned, b) we want the very last drop of audio quality, c) we like the fact that computers, DACs and software like Roon and HQPlayer allow us to achieve that at a fraction of the cost of esoteric audio hardware, or d) all of the above.

 

I, for one, love that fact that Miska focuses his attention on what he does best and has taken the time to integrate with a team that does UI's better than he does -- the Roon team. And I love the fact that Roon was willing to acknowledge that HQPlayer could sound better than Roon alone and left their egos behind in making the time to integrate HQPlayer.

 

Some have found that JRiver gets them close enough for less money. If your ears are in that camp, go for it. But if you can hear the difference, the $700 for the Roon/HQP combo is a huge bargain compared to what it would cost you to get the same level of improvement from better hardware.

 

Just my two cents.

[beerandmusic]

I, for one, love that fact that Miska focuses his attention on what he does best and has taken the time to integrate with a team that does UI's better than he does.

 

I agree, different people have different talents....that is why MISKA should work with roon or ANYbody that can create a decent interface, and come up with ONE player that sounds good and functions good....jmo

 

differences of opinions are good.

and btw, i have a macintosh amp and hate jriver.

 

I retired as a virtualization engineer, and i worked with router engineers..i wouldn't want to do what they do, nor would i want them to do what i do, but together we form a great team.

 

As long as MISKA is of the contention his GUI is fine, he will have a mediocre product even though it sounds hands above the rest....jmo

 

To neglect what customers want is not in their best interest if they want to make money, and STAY successful...

 

....eventually a product will come along that will be as good or better than his soundwise, and have a better gui...he should want to be a part of that boat...jmo

 

and for the record, i was one of the first people on this website to suggest DSD is to stay, and that reciever and dac manufacturers will climb on board the DSD bandwagon, and many people laughed at me...i had very little support in people believing in me....

 

opinions are.....

[orgel]

i was one of the first people on this website to suggest DSD is to stay, and that reciever and dac manufacturers will climb on board the DSD bandwagon, and many people laughed at me...i had very little support in people believing in me....

 

Um, if you were one of the first people here to become a DSD enthusiast, your Join Date is off by a few years.

 

Just sayin'.

 

--David

[beerandmusic]

Um, if you were one of the first people here to become a DSD enthusiast, your Join Date is off by a few years.

 

Just sayin'.

 

--David

 

New userid years ago...

[beerandmusic]

To get back on topic....

 

Some of the most respected names here seem to agree that HQPlayer and A+ both are superior to ROON SQ wise.

 

So unless someone wants to pay $500 for subpar SQ to what they can get for a fraction of the cost, for me ROON is a non-starter and not even worthy of a trial...I have no desire to pay $500 or $700 (roon/hqplayer) just to have miles davis biography on my player screen. If i was a geek and wanted to run 2 players and integrate them and had deep pockets where $500 was a drop in the bucket, it may be a consideration...but I hope something better comes along that has a decent gui and rivals HQPlayer SQ capability and crushes ROON for their price gouging....jmo

 

I may be geeky enough to try muso/HQplayer though....will investigate further tomorrow.

[DancingSea]

While very overpriced, Roon is pretty cool. Might be worth the free trial, if for nothing else, so you can entertain these lengthy Roon discussions from a more informed place. Roon has created a very interesting product. Great and clever programmers does not necessarily equate to being good business people.

[angelo]

can Hqplayer with roon manage Iso from sacd? Can HQplayer manage all? I've a music server running Windows 10, can I manage it with an Android phone? Thanks

[bibo01]

can Hqplayer with roon manage Iso from sacd? Can HQplayer manage all? I've a music server running Windows 10, can I manage it with an Android phone? Thanks

 

Neither Roon or HQPlayer support ISO from SACD.

Roon perhaps might support it in the future.

[angelo]

Neither Roon or HQPlayer support ISO from SACD.

Roon perhaps might support it in the future.

 

thanks...so I've to convert them in dsf... Does Hqplayer have other problem with Others formats? Thanks

[bibo01]

thanks...so I've to convert them in dsf... Does Hqplayer have other problem with Others formats? Thanks

HQPlayer has no "problem" with the formats it supports. Afterall ISO is not a music format. Read on its homepage what formats are supported.

If you use Roon, Roon supports more formats (including loss ones) than HQPlayer and you can send those as a stream to HQPlayer for processing.

[orgel]

If you use Roon, Roon supports more formats (including loss[y] ones) than HQPlayer and you can send those as a stream to HQPlayer for processing.

 

One of the really great things about Roon/HQP integration. All of the PCM tracks in my library are ALAC, so this is a huge benefit to me.

 

--David

[bobbmd]

I have spent hours A/B/Cing A+/ ROON/ ROON+HQP/Amarra Sq+/Amarra for TIDAL/Tidal alone/Qobuz alone.

HQP especially with ROON is a royal PIA and doesn't sound any better than ROON alone/HQP interface for just iTunes SUCKS and I never got it to work even just shuffling a playlist or an album it would stop after one or two songs or just crash

ROON alone is very good but really if I am that interested it's just as much fun to 'Google' a group or individual artist or album or genre/plus for the cost I don't use it's features as often as I did when ROON first appeared plus all that gibberish with 'ZONES' 'GROUPS' is also just a PIA but I still really like it and the fact I get some great radio stations ESP the Jonathan Channel on wync and fordhams radio station etc is great so it is a keeper.

 

 

Audirvana 2+ is the best-sound wise ease of using different configurations to experiment with SQ-has all three libraries I use iTunes/TIDAL/Qobuz all in one package with great interface/page and hardly ever crashes and gives me everything I need in one place.

 

 

Finally I gave JRiver MC for MAC another chance but all I can play is my ITunes library which I felt sounded great plus radio stations but that incessant Last.fm ad pops up every few minutes and couldn't get rid of it even asking the universal know it all JimH-their blogs and info pages are worthless no one answers questions inquires simply or at all and the fact you can't get Qobuz or TIDAL to stream is game breaker.

 

Audirvana 2+ IMHO is hands down the best

[bobbmd]

Sorry forgot to mention Amarra sQ+ and Amarra for TIDAL-the SQ is excellent but trying to engage sQ+ is frequently problematic and 'for' TIDAL loads soooo slowly makes it non gamer and the fact it doesn't include Qobuz also makes it a gamebreaker.

[canali]

thought i'd subscribe...am trialing roon labs and tidal hifi from my laptop (using ifi micro idsd)

...wish to avoid going the way of buying a separate streamer (of which there are many)...also

have my cds and some 24/192 files on my laptop.

 

unsure if i'll keep roon after the 2 mo period...but some of the competitions (aurdivana?) doesn't support windows.

[wouterk]

I am using Roon on Mac Mini with IFI microDSD - sounds great (latest JRiver is about as good), but Roon is a different approach altogether:)

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Computer Audiophile

[canali]

Amarra repliex to me saying "amarra 4 luxe" will soon be out ... for Windows 10 users.

 

I've still to find if tidal by itself or thru roon (on my laptop) sounds any different. I'm not into paying $20/Mo for better meta data or bio stuff than what i get with tidal alone if the SQ improvement isn't there too.. esp at that moment cost.

 

I'm also investigating streamer devices, but that is a bit beyond me right now.

 

Lastly it's rumoured some new chord mojo addition/extension might have some roon related endpoints or such...Guess we'll find at the upcoming CES in early January

[PeterG]

I'm back to Amarra after flirting with both Roon and A+.

 

As part of this, I did a pretty good comparison of sound quality between A+ and Amarra. My take is that A+ is more forward and analytical. Amarra's warmer and more vinyl-like, which, at least for me, carries the day.

[canali]

this just in from Darko on an imminent Roon update:

 

[h=1]Coming over the hill: the monstrous Roon 1.3[/h]by John H. Darko

 

Coming over the hill: the monstrous Roon 1.3 | DAR__KO