Roon / HQPlayer Integration

[kaka]

I played build 94 for about 8 hours last weekend with frequent changes to playlists - I got dropouts still but they seemed less prevalent. It survived some sequences which would have probably stopped it before

 

Looks to be heading in the right direction.

[digitalzed]

After playing around further with Roon and HQP since posting my issues a couple of weeks ago here I'm reporting back that with thre latest HQP update, 3.130beta1 and Roon Alpha build 98 I'm still experiencing dropouts when trying to get anything to play on SDM. No matter what filter, dither, sample, oversampling combination I try playback is never smooth. There are always dropouts. This does not happen with PCM settings. I'm in a 2015 iMac with 8gb of memory and CPU usage is around 30% when running both programs.

 

HQP plays fine on its own at all settings, SDM or PCM. I really want this to work but just have worked so hard to try to figure out a way but to no avail. Before I chuck HQP, any more ideas from anyone? Jussi?

[nautibuoy]

HQP plays fine on its own at all settings, SDM or PCM... ...Before I chuck HQP...

 

Sounds like you would be chucking the baby out with the bathwater.

 

You could maybe try Muso and see if you still have similar control issues? Muso isn't Roon but it might help isolate the issue.

[Munchoba]

Hi,

 

If I replace my USB cable from my Mac Mini to my Ayre DSD Dac, with a Firewire, check off '2-wire' on HQ, should I be able to get DSD 128?

Right now, through the USB, I seem to top off at 64.

 

Thanks

Bernard

[orgel]

If I replace my USB cable from my Mac Mini to my Ayre DSD Dac, with a Firewire, check off '2-wire' on HQ, should I be able to get DSD 128?

 

Does the Ayre have a FireWire input? Is it capable of DSD128? (I think the Codex can do DSD128, but not the QB-9, and it doesn't look like either one has a FireWire input.)

 

--David

[Miska]

HQP plays fine on its own at all settings, SDM or PCM. I really want this to work but just have worked so hard to try to figure out a way but to no avail. Before I chuck HQP, any more ideas from anyone? Jussi?

 

Please enable HQPlayer log file, restart HQPlayer, do one standalone playback (no issues) and then one playback with Roon (issues). And then please email me that log file. I could then try to figure out what is going wrong.

 

The main difference between the two is that when HQPlayer is playing alone it is handling the file reading on it's own. When you play with Roon, Roon is handling the file reading and then streaming the data to HQPlayer.

 

Also make sure you use "localhost" in Roon settings as address to HQPlayer.

 

Other possible culprits:

- If you are using CUDA offload (shouldn't, I believe 2015 iMac doesn't have nVidia GPU anymore), Roon adds it's own GPU load on top

- Some network issues, some process (like sofware firewall) interfering with Roon-HQPlayer comms

- Roon having trouble keeping up with dataflow from a file to HQPlayer

[scintilla]

Hi friends, is anyone currently implementing room correction within HQP fronted by Roon? If so, how is it working with Roon and your endpoint? I currently have acourate filters in a convolver plugin hosted by Puremusic 3, but I am getting itchy to try Roon to manage my large library. My system is limited to PCM 192 (no DSD), but as I understand it HQP will work just fine, I just wont get the benefit of some of the modulators. Has anyone done a compare/contrast with Puremusic / HQP in their systems and have an opinion? I assume that both players are going to be pretty transparent in actual use, particularly when used with RC. Comments?

[nikander]

yes I do - this is one of the fantastic advantages of the HQ Player (it even works with DSD files - as far as you have decent horse powers in your computer).

I actually use two different acourate filters (far field and near field).

Roon and HQ Player works in my setup (Mac Book Pro, CAD script running) but not build 94.

Once in a while I have to reinstall Roon because of connection problems with HQ Player (all of a sudden the "Loudspeaker icon on the right bottom changes to a HQ Player icon and then nothing works).

 

Cheers,

 

Christian

[firedog]

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.

[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.

[Forehaven]

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.

[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.

[REShaman]

It worse for me. roon won't play at all. I get the message Transport can not connect to HQPlayer. I select any album and roon will NOT play. I am aghast as I just downloaded the new build, 1.1.99 and this is the result. I haven't tried another Zone, but so what, the Zone selected, HQPlayer should be working and it's NOT. Started a thread at roon in the support section as I can figure how to recover.

 

Best,

Richard

[REShaman]

Update: Of course, after calming down, I switched Zones to my W4S Dac2 DSDse and voila. It therefore must be HQPlayer and roon are broken by 1.1.99. Is it just me? By that I mean, I download a new build and immediately it's broken the HQPlayer Zone and roon had no clue? Between the beta testing, and offering us the new build, we have to find out this way? Who's minding the store? Or am I being too severe?

 

Best,

Richard

[tne]

... Before I chuck HQP, any more ideas from anyone? Jussi?

 

I suggest getting rid of Roon, not HQPlayer, at least until they produce a workable version. Just drag and drop in to HQPlayer....the music will sound as good as if you GUI-ed it through Roon. SQ is the only aspect that matters to me.

[jhwalker]

Update: Of course, after calming down, I switched Zones to my W4S Dac2 DSDse and voila. It therefore must be HQPlayer and roon are broken by 1.1.99. Is it just me? By that I mean, I download a new build and immediately it's broken the HQPlayer Zone and roon had no clue? Between the beta testing, and offering us the new build, we have to find out this way? Who's minding the store? Or am I being too severe?

 

Best,

Richard

 

No problem here - in fact, the new release is much more stable than before. HQPlayer working great, start / stop working great. Sorry it's problematic for you

[REShaman]

No problem here - in fact, the new release is much more stable than before. HQPlayer working great, start / stop working great. Sorry it's problematic for you

 

Hello John,

 

I am a complete Ass. I was beta testing the new build from Sonic Studio for A4T. Got excited. Then read about the download availability for 1.1.99.

 

Downloaded 1.1.99, selected the Jimmy Giuffre Paul Bley Steve Swallow CD, Fly Away Little Bird with HQPlayer Zone already selected. No play.

 

Requested support from the roon community. And then after Brian responded with great support as always, it dawned on me:

Is it plugged in? Is the on button pressed? Richard, did you launch HQPlayer?

 

Oooops! How embarrassing it that? Apologies to everyone for my silliness, here and at the roon community.

 

In the words of Emily Litella (Gilder Radner character) "Never mind".

 

Not at my best,

Richard

[Freann]

Weird but easy to test (on OSX).

 

If I run Activity Monitor in the background, dropouts decrease to maybe one per hour.

 

Is the polling from Activity Monitor keeping network services from going into sleep mode?

Anyone with similar experience?

[1markr]

This latest version took care of all the disconnect issues I had with v88 and v94. It's running great, and I am finally enjoying it very much! Love the gui front end, and of course the kick ass audio from HQP!

[REShaman]

Update post silliness.

 

roon/HQPlayer has been playing for nearly 90 minutes with nary a disconnect. Not one glitch, not one disconnect, just boring great playing. When the Jimmy Giuffre, Paul Bley Steve Swallow, Fly Away Little Bird, concluded, the radio feature took over and is playing selections from my music library.

 

Perhaps as 1markr concludes, 1.1.99 cures the disconnect issue with roon/HQPlayer. The SQ is excellent, truly. Amarra Symphony with iRC is better in my opinion. But I know that's OT so I won't elaborate. roon in January with HQPlayer is a delight. I am sorry other members are experiencing frustrating issues. I understand the context behind the counsel to get rid of roon and keep HQPlayer. I cannot concur. Instead of getting rid of anything, find the trigger(s) cure them and enjoy the marvelous integration of the two players.

 

Oh, and remember to turn on HQPlayer if you want roon to play through the HQPlayer Zone. Just sayin'...(smile)

 

Hello roon! Thank you for 1.1.99.

 

Enjoying the music,

Richard

[Freann]

After trying all the common players I found A+ to be head and shoulder above the rest when it comes to SQ and user experience.

 

Then I tried Roon with HQPlayer plus NAA.

 

Roon make some other player apps look ridiculously amateurish. World class UX and visual design (Im a designer).

 

Roon + HQP + NAA sounds bigger, more fluid and more alive – to my ears/setup. A+ now comes across as hard and congested. This without any kind of up software sampling or filtering in either A+ or HQP.

 

I found my new champion combo.

[jhwalker]

I believe Miska has discussed this before, but couldn't find it using search

 

Is HQPlayer supposed to switch sampling rates automatically based on the incoming stream? Example:

 

I'm playing a 44.1k stream from Roon (i.e., Redbook) and using HQPlayer to upsample to DSD128. If HQPlayer is using the 48k variant DSD rate (i.e., 6144000), it often stutters badly, but it plays rock-solid at 5644800. When I stream from Roon, though, no matter if I play a 44.1k stream or a 48k stream, HQPlayer *always* picks 6144000, so sometimes it stutters quite a bit, and other times it plays flawlessly

 

Seemingly, the only way to correct this is to let the playback start, then stop HQPlayer, change the sampling rate to the "right" one, then restart playback in Roon. I'd think HQPlayer *should* choose the correct sampling rate based on the inbound stream, but maybe I'm mistaken.

 

FWIW, I'm typically using poly-sinc, ADSM7, DSD128.

[orgel]

Is HQPlayer supposed to switch sampling rates automatically based on the incoming stream?

 

My experience is that HQP doesn't change the sampling rate on its own. It just stays (usually) at whatever rate you set. In my case, using my usual poly-sinc-short-mp and DSD7, I just leave the rate set at 5644800 in the prefs (since the Mytek maxes out at DSD128) and that seems to work for whatever I throw at it.

 

(The iDSD nano at work can do DSD256, so there I double the rate in the prefs.)

 

--David

[Samuel T Cogley]

I believe Miska has discussed this before, but couldn't find it using search

 

Is HQPlayer supposed to switch sampling rates automatically based on the incoming stream? Example:

 

I'm playing a 44.1k stream from Roon (i.e., Redbook) and using HQPlayer to upsample to DSD128. If HQPlayer is using the 48k variant DSD rate (i.e., 6144000), it often stutters badly, but it plays rock-solid at 5644800. When I stream from Roon, though, no matter if I play a 44.1k stream or a 48k stream, HQPlayer *always* picks 6144000, so sometimes it stutters quite a bit, and other times it plays flawlessly

 

Seemingly, the only way to correct this is to let the playback start, then stop HQPlayer, change the sampling rate to the "right" one, then restart playback in Roon. I'd think HQPlayer *should* choose the correct sampling rate based on the inbound stream, but maybe I'm mistaken.

 

FWIW, I'm typically using poly-sinc, ADSM7, DSD128.

 

Your experience mirrors my own.

 

Basically upsampling a 44100 source to a multiple of 48000 is too heavy a lift for most (all?) CPUs. Add to this iFi telling me that Fs48000 rates are not part of the DSD spec (and therefore are unavailable in Windows using their ASIO driver), and I myself have abandoned using those rates.

 

FWIW, poly-sinc-2s usually works for me with PCM44100 --> DSD12288000, but never poly-sinc.

[Forehaven]

Kman suggested to try turning off App Nap: https://community.roonlabs.com/t/build-99-hqp-stopping-and-shrieking/7260/9

 

And amazingly, it worked for me. For the first time in awhile now Roon and HQP are playing together. I turned it off via Terminal.