Roon Discussion

Actually, this seems to be wrong information, sorry. I don't remember how I reached this conclusion, I think both HQP Embedded and Desktop produced the same hardware fingerprint that can be used for licensing. I now actually tried to use my Embedded license in HQPlayer desktop, and it didn't work.

I then looked at Signalyst's web shop and found that you don't even have to enter the hardware fingerprint when licensing HQPlayer Desktop, so it seems to be a completely different scheme.

Sorry for the misinformation. I'll change my post above.

But still, especially for a headless computer, Embedded make more sense than Desktop IMHO. It runs as a service and starts automatically, which is what I want for my HQPlayer.

 

After unlimiting my CPU and dinking more with the settings, I was able to get my current setup to run HQPlayer with just about any PCM upsample config, and reliably resample PCM > DSD to most 128x configs, and a few 256x. Fan noise was unacceptable unless I was going PCM > PCM16x or less however

At this point I believe for DSD, the oversampling filters selected (say, sinc-Mx vs. poly-sinc-gauss-xla) matter as much, or more, then the DSD modulator itself. If I chose the same filter, say 44.1 > 352 (staying in PCM realm) using sinc-Mx, and compared to 44.1 with sinc-MX then > DSD to 256x, I thought they sounded just about the same with the Cyan 2. Maybe a Spring KTE or May there would be more differential.

@earnmyturns , with your fanless Roon setup (I note your not running HQPlayer on it) the CPU is the "T" version (so I7-13700T - the reduced wattage version for low power/fanless setups) is it not? Whenever I config a current generation (14th) i3, i5, i7 in a HD Plex H1 case at builders like SilentPC, QuietPC, etc. the "T" version is what's available. That said based on CPU scores (single core is more relevant for HQPlayer I believe) an i3 is at least the equal (a bit better really) of my current rig, i7 being a bonus...

 

I think it's a 13700 (not T), given the specs it came with and what lscpu says. Power supply is 65W, total W is throttled in BIOS. But to be sure I'd have to open it up, which I will try to remember to do next time I reboot it for an OS update.

 

No need thanks for the offer however. I suspect the “T” versions just accomplish the same thing as your BIOS setup in the chip set - otherwise it’s the same CPU likely. I ordered a box from quietpc that should allow me to run Roon & Hqplayer to 256x dsd at least. Now I just need to refresh my Linux skills. In the past I always gravitated to SuSE (I liked YaSt), but will probably go with Mint on this box as it is Ubuntu based but does not use Gnome desktop which I recall I did not like.

 

With the new update, Room supports Folder browsing. And with that, not much of a purpose of using UPnP for me at this point. I prefer Folder browsing, and it’s good.

 

I'm shocked and pleased. For years, Roon had adamantly insisted that folder browsing went against their vision for a music player, and told users in the community forum that it would never happen. They have posted about how they came around to it.
Hell freezes over, or how Folder Browsing came to Roon!

 

Personally, I always liked their interface much better than my folders (although they are well structured, too). But still, it feels very good that they are now listening to their customers.

Not that I’ll ever need it, probably, but a point I didn’t feel good about was the impossibility of playing without an internet connection since 2.0. Not bad enough to stop using Roon, but, eewww, no, I just didn’t like it. So I was very happy when they changed that again.

 

Yeah, Folder browsing is the great. But I laugh at some of the people in the Roon support forums saying I want to turn off Folder browsing. Not like it is up front in your face in Roon to begin with. As I previously stated, Folder browsing kills UPnP for me at this point.

If Roon continues, it will be a "something for everyone" player. I can still use Roon to search my library as normal and use Folder browsing. But I will not do the HQPlayer route, seems too old farts for my liking.

P.S.: One overlook update to Roon is their support for the KKBOX streaming service. I guess it is the streaming music service for a lot of Asian music genres like Cantonese Pop (eww), K-Pop (ewwww), and J-Pop (weebish). Not my stuff, since I know too many people using Cantonese Pop to test IEMs to the point I want to puke.

 

I'm probably going back on the Roon bandwagon, i just noticed with just Tidal the interface is shit for discovering new music. And now with file browsing i'm really tempted. As a precaution for Roon not going nuts and eating all the resources i've installed rock inside a vm so i can dictate how much it uses. Instead of being stupid and using like 32 gigs to cache or decide to have memory leak.