I run HQPlayer and Roon on an M1 Mac Air laptop to an Innuos Zenith as NAA. The sound quality of Innuos Sense is better than Roon (most seem to agree with this), and HQPlayer from Roon is a step up again. I do find HQPlayer sound quality is even better without running from Roon, but with what Roon brings to the table I usually use both together outside of very critical listening, With the M1 Air I oversample to DSD256 and the sound quality improvement is well worth it for me but will be system dependent.
Signalyst HQPlayer - Is it worth the upgrade?
I have been reading high praises in audio forums about HQPlayer rendering the best sound quality from Qobuz or Tidal. I realize best is subjective in the context of one’s system and end user’s personal preferences driven by choice of gear and budget.
I have been a long time Aurender user and also been using Roon now for past 3 years. Those who have read my posts knows my take on Roon as not the best sounding renderer when directly compared with Aurender’s Conductor app. Others may disagree with my position on Roon but those are my findings within the context of my system. I do enjoy Roon interface for obvious reasons but not so much the sound.
The purpose of my post is to explore the possibility of elevating the sound of my existing Roon player (Merging Technologies + player) by integrating HQPlayer as the final renderer. By doing so, Roon will pass along a stream of bits from my local stored files on SSD and stream from Qobuz. This configuration allows me to enjoy the benefits of HQPlayer SQ and the fabulous library management capabilities of Roon at the same time.
I am seeking opinions from those who have actually compared Roon vs HQPlayer or using HQPlayer exclusively. Did you find HQPlayer worth the upgrade? What hardware or device you’re using to enjoy HQPlayer in your system.
Thank you!
PS: Please refrain from posting if you’re in bits are bits, 1’s and 0’s camp or believe high end streamer/servers are over priced and waste of money.
Showing 2 responses by sworksone
@hgeifman I can upsample from 44.1 to 192kHz PCM to DSD256 with most HQPlayer modulator / filter combinations and to DSD512 with some, but I personally prefer DSD256 with some of the more demanding ones. This is with an 8GB M1 MacBook Air. The HQPlayer interface is functional but not in the ballpark of Sense / BluOS / Roon. Roon through HQPlayer is amazing. It might be the fact that I’m running both Roon and HQPlayer on the same M1 laptop that I notice an improvement running HQPlayer alone - not sure as I haven’t been able to test this. |