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In our experience Roon is dry and Hi Fi sounding. We prefer iPeng for sound quality. We have conducted side by side comparison. charles
I have very good results running Roon core on my Mac Mini and streaming to a complete SOtM set-up, streamer, USB conditioner, power supply, battery operated Dac and modified network switch. The ethernet is also passed through a Sonore Optical Module just before the streamer. The SOtM streamer has the built in option to use HQ Player as an input instead of Roon. So, in this set-up HQ Player becomes an end point for Roon. HQ Player runs on my Mac Mini along with the Roon core and within it's preferences you just select the SOtM streamer for playback. You end up with all the functionality of Roon, but with the sound of HQ Player. It remains in the background and once the parameters are set, you can forget it is there.HQ Player is an outstanding and highly versatile digital player/upsampler. It has been compared to the Hugo M-Scaler in performance, falling just slightly short of it. I noticed an improvement over using just Roon alone right away. The difference is not subtle and it is fully adjustable through the many settings possible. For me there is no going back to using Roon on it's own.
I followed some of what you said, but can you elaborate/explain again re your setup vs mine? My current system is an Auralic Mini streamer, an nos Border Patrol SEi dac with SPDIF only, the Roon core is on my iMac desktop and Roon remote apps on my iPhone and iPad… I’ve always avoided anything to do with computers as far as music. Thanks
At it's core we are both doing the same thing, streaming from the Mac (Roon core) to our streamers and out to the Dac. My system just has a few more pieces inline to and from my streamer. First, I am using an Optical Module which converts ethernet to fiber and then back to ethernet before plugging into my streamer. Then, I am using a USB conditioner before going to the Dac. These are for isolation and noise removal.I also have a trial version of HQPlayer installed on my Mac Mini which becomes an endpoint for Roon. My streamer has special software which allows it to work easier with Roon, HQPlayer and several others. I just need to select which one I want to use through that software. Then, using the preferences in HQPlayer I can select that streamer. So, I can use Roon as normal, but when playing music it first goes to HQPlayer and then to the streamer.In your situation you would need to download HQPlayer as a trial version on your Mac. Then, see if under preferences in HQPlayer your streamer is shown as a choice. It will need a built in network adapter for HQPlayer, which it may not have. If you are able to get it to show up then you will be good to go. All you need to do then is to activate HQPlayer within Roon so it will show up as an endpoint to choose.
[…]So, I can use Roon as normal, but when playing music it first goes to HQPlayer and then to the streamer.
Do you then also have access to the volume normalization DSP feature of Roon, or is there a comparable feature on HQ Player? I am aware of Replay Gain, but I much more prefer Roon’s hands-off approach.
Charles,Can iPeng integrate Tidal and Qobuz like Roon does?Nick
I do not use that myself, but you should be able to use all of the features of Roon as normal. The trial version of HQplayer runs for 30 minutes, then you need to reset it for the next 30 minutes. That is the only difference between it and the full version.