Roon / HQPlayer Integration

[Priaptor]

I'm enjoying the sound of HQ Player fed by Roon, although it is sometimes a struggle to get HQPlayer to work on my MacMini 2011. I am getting frequent crashes, disconnections, etc.

 

If I use the Polysinc setting, I get stuttering, si I cannot use that setting. Closed form settings do work but the program seems to revert to Polysinc whenever it restarts (or after crashes, of which there have been quite a few). How do I get HQPlayer to "remember" to start up in a Closed Form setting?

 

Definitely a work in progress, BUT, does show promise. I am clueless to the various settings so am just happy to see the possibilities, which I can see are huge, in the near future.

[Priaptor]

Same here. The regular poly-sinc filter works fine, as do various sampling rates that were giving me problems before.

 

I still have occasional problems switching among different albums/tracks. I have to hit the volume control disconnection button to get things going again sometimes.

 

Where is this "volume control disconnection button"

 

I don't see it.

 

Thanks

[Priaptor]

https://dl.dropbox.com/s/sbren8pif5pxtxg/Screenshot%202015-12-25%2021.56.40.png

 

So you just open and close that to make it work when you have issues switching albums?

 

Interestingly if I use a computer to open Roon I see what you show. On my iPad it shows volume at 0

 

Thanks

[Priaptor]

No, I open that dialog than click that icon and everything stops then I can hit the play bttn again.

Nothing interesting actually) that's because the Roon team hasn't updated the app yet)

 

Again thanks. Your answer explains where I am running into issues.

 

Now I have to go through the iterations of HQPlayer to find what sounds best. Just when I thought "I was happy" THEY have to come out with Roon + HQPlayer integration

 

The good news is I do have it all up and running with Roon Server and HQPlayer on my "high end" powerful desktop streaming to my Audiophilized CAPS 3 running NAA.

[Priaptor]

Hi

 

I'm hoping someone has seen this and can offer some advice.

 

I'm listening to Roon/HQPlayer as I type this on a Mac Pro 6,1/Yosemite. It just works. I've also gotten it to work on another Mac (Mac Mini6,2/Yosemite, iFi iDSD Nano).

 

But on my Windows system (Windows 7, iFi iDSD Micro) Roon makes the "Roon" track appear in HQPlayer, but the audio never starts playing. Is there something else I need to do for Windows? Note that HQPlayer works great on this Windows system by itself (without Roon).

 

Thanks in advance!

 

I can tell you I was listening and it was wonderful UNTIL I changed albums or tracks. No doubt this is a work a in progress but like other Roon introductions they quickly attack the problem

[Priaptor]

Roon build 99 is released. So, far much better with HQP - fewer losses of connection. Now we just need final build of HQP 3.13.

 

Not for me. I am having the most issues with this version.

[Priaptor]

Same here, hangups and lost connections to extent I'm not using Roon/HQP much at all, it's not worth the aggravation. Disappointing to have such an unstable UI b/w Roon and HQP. HQP on itself is rock solid at least.

 

YUP. This version has fixed nothing and for me has made things worse and as you say HQP by itself is fine.

[Priaptor]

1. The new Roon and HQP builds have solved almost all the "dropped connection" issues for me.

2. Tidal: varies. Sometimes I have sound as good as a CD, sometimes not. Don't forget that the Tidal album may be a different master than the CD in your collection, so it isn't necessarily an apples to apples comparison.

 

I have never had dropout issues but I am having stopping issues.

 

If someone running Roon/HQP on a PC has no issues upsampling to DSD I would love to hear from them and maybe we can narrow down the issues. Apparently things are different between MACS/PCs/Linux.

 

The Roon people are claiming it is a HQP issue we are experiencing as they are doing nothing differently in their streaming but that it may be how HQP buffers.

 

I think future posts when people claim all is good or they are having problems should include how they are running Roon/HQP, whether on a MAC, etc and if the no issues are streaming PCM-->DSD or DSD--->DSD.

 

For me this combination has been the worst at not being able to get through a Queue.

[Priaptor]

Howie, I am (knock on wood) having no issues so far, upsampling all content to DSD256 (ASIO not DoP), using the following:

* Android Roon remote (build 94, haven't looked to see if GooglePlay has the build 99 update yet)

* Roonserver (build 99) and HQPlayer (3.12) on i7 3770S 64 bit WS2012 R2 with AO, with Mellanox fiber SFP PCI card

* HQP NAA on DN2800MT Atom-based WS2012 R1 AO, JCAT USB card

* current DAC for this report is Fore Audio DaisY1 with Amanero Combi384 USB driver (ASIO, raw DSD).

* HQP player settings in pic below

[ATTACH=CONFIG]23710[/ATTACH]

 

Ted,

 

Thanks

 

Maybe it is my CAPS configuration?? Or maybe the MSB ASIO. Maybe I will experiment with my HUGO and see if the same issues arise. That will at least rule in or rule out my ASIO driver

 

I have tried NAA and HQ direct all with the same issues. It will play 20 minutes of a DSD album and just stop. PCM I am having better luck.

[Priaptor]

Well, I have to apologize to Priaptor. I did not experience his 18 minute DSD cutoff for one special reason: since build 99 I had not let any music/album go on that long. I was always flitting from one album and sample rate to another. But, since experimenting with letting a DSF album run, sure enough here is what happens (see system in post above):

* at about 13 minutes Roon's now playing section freezes, while music continues to play for about another 5 minutes (could be multiple tracks). In one case, NAA crashed with this:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]23737[/ATTACH]

In all other cases, HQP needed to restart, while NAA was fine to restart on its own (i.e never crashed).

 

It "feels" like Roon is timing out somehow, going to sleep or something. I only mention this cuz when I actively use Roon to select another different album, the 18 minute DSD freeze does not happen.

 

Edit: I am way past 18 minutes into a redbook to DSD256 album listen, and nothing special happening except nice music.

 

Well it is nice to know I am not crazy or experiencing something unique to my setup. As I told Ted, I have tried every possible combination to thwart this issue BUT to no avail.

 

Hopefully the two companies will put their resources together to solve the issue. After hearing HQP there is no going back SO hopefully Roon will resolve whatever issues there are with HQP or I am sure some else will. In any case until such time I will have to load my DSD albums manually into HQP and listen that way.

[Priaptor]

It works great here as well, when playing an entire album, or a playlist. It fails miserably when I try to change tracks, change albums, or even un-pausing. HQP crashes every time, and needs to be restarted. Once this is fixed, it will be a fabulous combination.....

 

Agree.

[Priaptor]

I selected Tracks on Roon, and let it play over the last 14 hrs, pcm and dsd, and the music is still playing this am! Seems incredibly stable for me now.

 

It sounds like you filled up your Roon queue and let it play. What I am talking about is playing a DSD to DSD then changing either to another DSD or PCM track all being converted to poly-sinc-mp/ASDM7/5644800. My RoonServer sits on the same "high end" Win 7 Pro desktop as my 13B5 HQPlayer being streamed to NAA on my CAPS ZUMA running Server 2012 R2 using AO beta10 runing in Core Mode.

 

I am finding NAA closing when switching tracks between PCM-->DSD and vice versa. Will do more testing to see if that is all that is occurring.

[Priaptor]

What OS do you run NAA on? If you can find some simple systematic way to reproduce a problem on HQPlayer or NAA, it would help fixing those...

 

NAA is running on my CAPS ZUMA with Windows Server 2012 R2 in Core mode using AudioPhil's Audio Optimizer.

 

With beta7 of HQPlayer, so far (fingers crossed) I haven't had an issue. I have switched between DSD64, 128 and most PCM all to poly-sinc-mp/ASDM7/DSD5.6448M without issue.

 

I was having issues with Beta5

[Priaptor]

I'm having almost no issues with 3.13b5 or b7 and updated Roon. Only a very occasional disconnect, and I mean very occasional. All formats and all types of upsampling \ resampling work fine.

 

Not sure if you are using NAA or what OS you are using BUT B7 and updated Roon seems to be the ticket for my system which includes all Windows and NAA. Haven't had a disconnect yet in 7 hours