[Housteau]

My intuition tells me that if you're not using Roon's audio player for playback, then the DSP options would not be available. Can you confirm by checking your Zone options and seeing if the Volume Leveling option is still available?

I'm interested in trying the HQ Player to see if I can gain any fidelity, but I won't even attempt if I have to use Replay Gain.

I am not home right now, but will look into that for you.  You make an interesting point.  It is a feature I am not familiar with.  Roon treats HQPlayer like any other end point though and I believe all end points receive the same digital data.  HQPlayer then takes that data and makes it it's own, just as a streamer, or Dac would.

[Housteau]

Yes, the sound leveling works with HQPlayer.

[thrak76]

Yes, the sound leveling works with HQPlayer.

Thank you for checking. Much appreciated.

[Zuman]

I've just been listening to Holly Cole's "Night" album, a well-recorded 48kHz 24-bit FLAC downloaded from HDTracks onto the internal disks of my NAD M50.2 vault/player. The M50.2 is connected directly via an Audioquest Coffee AES/EBU cable to my NAD M32 amp with no external DAC or preamp in the path. I can play music via NAD's native BluOS or Roon, with the M50.2 serving as Roon Endpoint.
I listened to "Night" tracks back-to-back on the two different platforms and there is no question that, at equal volume levels, Roon has a more "crystalline" sound than BluOS. My ears are almost 69 years old, so I appreciate it in most cases. However, if a recording is inherently harsh I'll switch to BluOS, which warms the sound a bit.
I also compared Pink Floyd's "Delicate Sound of Thunder," (96kHz 24-bit FLAC), and was a bit surprised to find that I didn't note any loss of weight or bass extension with Roon vs BluOS. And, fortunately, I don't find Roon "dry and Hi Fi sounding" as Rollo did.

[rollo]

iPeng is a control point (remote), not a music player. LMS can function as a player, or you can use any LMS compatible player, such as Innuos, Squeezebox, etc.

 Correct. Easy to use and works with my server.


charles

[Housteau]

For anyone contemplating HQPlayer I recommend looking it up and going through the many reviews and set-up guides available.  The better ones do a good job of describing the sound you can expect from the many different options available.  It is free to try out, so why not?  As with anything else a lot depends on the music listened to.  Just yesterday I switched back to straight Roon and found my listening experience completely enjoyable.

I have recently got involved collecting and listening to direct 2-track open reel copies of studio, safety and production master tapes.  That has been a revelation in enjoying pure analog.  Even some second generation copies of such material have proven to sound just wonderful.  Does straight Roon hold up to tape?  No, but who would really expect it to?  However, if one didn't have tape to compare to, then one would probably never feel slighted in the least.  But, being able to make such a comparison I find that Roon with HQPlayer on the proper settings comes very close indeed.  It is close enough for me to question my sanity spending the kind of money I do for master tape copies, although infrequently.

Once again a lot depends on the kind of music listened to.  Often older rock music does not lend itself to the finest resolution of detail as say a great jazz recording can.  Most of my listening on tape is of the older rock variety such as Heart, ELP, King Crimson, Pink Floyd, Led Zep, Alan Parsons, Genesis, Yes, etc.  On the other hand the higher end more modern jazz I listen to as digital.  I have always felt that digital done right sounds right.  So, of the jazz I do have on tape the gap compared to the Roon / HQPlayer combo is wider. 

[fittebd]

I think that is a loaded Analog vs Digital question.  Many a gun fight come from those.  I have not heard reel to reel ever.  I know my father had it in the early 70s.  CDs came out when I was getting into this hobby in 83 so I never did analog except for some kids records.  That being said I love roon for digital delivery.  Like many other digital solutions there are 100 ways to do it.  Some ways are better than others.  USB can be noisy, Ethernet way better.  DAC or no External DAC on streamer.  Source of file, who ripped it vs what the CD or DVD source really was.  I use the DSP functionality of Roon and it works really well to fix some room issues.  No delay but I sit dead center so I dont care.  Subwoofer integration was way better with DSP on as well.  Would be better if I got some RELs on speaker connection, but hey ran out of money.  I do FLAC, DSD, and streaming to external dac all over network connections without a hickup.  Keep everything wired. No wireless. 

[rollo]

I've just been listening to Holly Cole's "Night" album, a well-recorded 48kHz 24-bit FLAC downloaded from HDTracks onto the internal disks of my NAD M50.2 vault/player. The M50.2 is connected directly via an Audioquest Coffee AES/EBU cable to my NAD M32 amp with no external DAC or preamp in the path. I can play music via NAD's native BluOS or Roon, with the M50.2 serving as Roon Endpoint.
I listened to "Night" tracks back-to-back on the two different platforms and there is no question that, at equal volume levels, Roon has a more "crystalline" sound than BluOS. My ears are almost 69 years old, so I appreciate it in most cases. However, if a recording is inherently harsh I'll switch to BluOS, which warms the sound a bit.
I also compared Pink Floyd's "Delicate Sound of Thunder," (96kHz 24-bit FLAC), and was a bit surprised to find that I didn't note any loss of weight or bass with Roon vs BluOS. And, fortunately, I don't find Roon "dry and Hi Fi sounding" as Rollo did.

  My comparison was to iPeng vs. Roon. Not a fan of up sampling either. If recorded originally in Hi-Rez great better than 44.1 [ Bluecoast Recordings ]. Not easy to upsample without changing the character of original. Want to hear great DSD check out Bluecoast Recordings. Not affiliated with BC.

charles