[Progisus]

To be honest, probably the removal of mscaler and future cable sales will always subliminally bias your opinion. When I had my mscaler and compared it to HQPlayer I found sinc-m, lns15 768k, adaptive rate checked was comparable with the genre of music I mainly listen to. Progressive rock.

 

[andrewd01]

Apologies in advance for what is probably a stupid question, but why would you use HQPlayer when you already have an MScaler?

(I'll admit I'm not entirely sure exactly how HQP works, despite Googling it - a combination of old age and alcohol has turned my mind into mush...)

HQPlayer is a software solution to apply 16x, 1-2million-tap sinc upscaling with high order noise shaping (aka dither). The M scaler does the same thing in a separate hardware box with proprietary code on an FPGA. The M scaler adds between £3.5k and £5k to your system cost (increased cost if you use fancy BNC cables), and extra clutter due to additional power supplies and cables.

Some people who have tried both think the HQP solution sounds very close to, or even better than M scaler (see huge thread on Roon forums: ‘Which HQP filter are you using’). It is of course system dependent; it varies depending on what server, DAC, amps, headphones you are using. That is why it is very useful to get different opinions from people with different systems, but ultimately this is something you need to try yourself. If you already own an M scaler and then find that HQP is a satisfactory substitute, the M scaler can be sold to recover a substantial fraction of its cost.

 

[Progisus]

At present: EX(roon)>network 2>fibre>Allo USBridge(ropieeeXL)>TT2

Before the hqplayer upgrade to 4.20.2 I was having stutters so I decided to enable Squeeze on the ropieee to give it a try. I must say it is a definite upgrade from raat and maybe better than hqplayer.

 

[Triode User]

Help please with using HQPDcontrol on an ipad to control HQP on the Antipodes K50.

On the suggestion of some other Head-Fi members I have disabled Roon on the K50 server (which I had been using to control HQP) and instead I want to use HQPDcontrol on an ipad to control file selction and playing with HQP.

HQPDcontrol automatically discovers the K50 server but it does not display any albums and it seems to want the player port to be manually entered. Any ideas for what I am doing wrong or need to do?

 

[andrewd01]

Antipodes used to have an excellent guide for setting up all of the apps, but this has been removed from the web site.
I would suggest emailing Tony Devitt at Antipodes for direct support (support@antipodes.audio). @Kapiti, can we please have these user guides back on the Antipodes web site? they can be in a legacy section if necessary.

Basically, you turn on HQPlayer with your Roon ipad app (under settings). You then use Roon as a front end. You will see HQPlayer as an available player in Roon.

Edit, I see you were already using Roon. Why would you possibly not want to not use this?

 

[Triode User]

Antipodes used to have an excellent guide for setting up all of the apps, but this has been removed from the web site.
I would suggest emailing Tony Devitt at Antipodes for direct support (support@antipodes.audio). @Kapiti, can we please have these user guides back on the Antipodes web site? they can be in a legacy section if necessary.

Basically, you turn on HQPlayer with your Roon ipad app (under settings). You then use Roon as a front end. You will see HQPlayer as an available player in Roon.

Edit, I see you were already using Roon. Why would you possibly not want to not use this?

I have come to the conclusion that Roon degrades the sound quality and this has been confirmed by other users.

Roon has a fantastic user interface and I took out a lifetime sub quite a while ago but it constantly traffics a high amount of info on the LAN and many claim this is the cause of the degraded sound quality.

My dealer, Elite, are going to ask Antipodes for me.

 

[andrewd01]

Fair enough. I have not experimented with other solutions since getting Roon, but am happy with the sound. I don’t think I could go back to a clunky old-school interface and missing out on discovering five or six new albums in a listening session just to eek out the last fraction of sound quality. The rest of my chain is probably not good enough to hear the full difference from different software solutions in any case.

 

[Whazzzup]

I’m sticking with roon, but I’m plug n play lazy. Plus it sounds good to me.

 

[Clive101]

Over the weekend I noticed the K50 was a little warm not cold (ish) as usual.
So I looked at the CPU load on the server with the user interface tab, the load was around 30% which is very high since nothing was playing.
I discovered it was Roon for some reason so after a reinstall the loading went down to 1%.
I guess K50 did an auto update any other users had the same problem ?
@Triode User it may explain the issue you are having with Roon as if it were running around 30% it may dent SQ ?
@Kapiti Has anyone else experienced this problem ?

 

[Uncle Monty]

I have come to the conclusion that Roon degrades the sound quality and this has been confirmed by other users.

Roon has a fantastic user interface and I took out a lifetime sub quite a while ago but it constantly traffics a high amount of info on the LAN and many claim this is the cause of the degraded sound quality.

My dealer, Elite, are going to ask Antipodes for me.

Will Roon degrade sound quality if listening from storage on Antipodes or only when streaming?

 

[Triode User]

Will Roon degrade sound quality if listening from storage on Antipodes or only when streaming?

My listening was using locally stored ripped or downloaded files. My experiences are not just me, there are a number of other Head-Fi members who have abandoned Roon for listening when sound quality is paramount. I will however continue to use Roon for our kitchen system where its interface and features such as Roon Radio are highly valued. For this, I have taken the Roon core off the K50 and put it on the iMac in my home office where it can chunter away in the background without causing any issues.

 

[Whazzzup]

I’m sticking with the kitchen sink system as I seem not to be one of the members who abandoned roon. Maybe my ability to listen for sound quality isn’t paramount enough.

 

[Progisus]

Roon does recommend not having the renderer on the same machine as the core. Antipodes recommends this as well with the 2 box solution. I’ve put the core on the EX and used it’s bridged network port 2 to feed directly to a USBridge Signature. I’ve left upsampling behind for the moment and used the Squeezelite support of roon and ropieee in the bridge. The improvement rivals hqplayer/mscaler and may even be better. I’ll see if extended listening leads to any fatigue.

 

[td19]

Help please with using HQPDcontrol on an ipad to control HQP on the Antipodes K50.

On the suggestion of some other Head-Fi members I have disabled Roon on the K50 server (which I had been using to control HQP) and instead I want to use HQPDcontrol on an ipad to control file selction and playing with HQP.

HQPDcontrol automatically discovers the K50 server but it does not display any albums and it seems to want the player port to be manually entered. Any ideas for what I am doing wrong or need to do?

On the HQPlayer Server Configuration screen click Library on the line at the bottom of the screen. In the Library screen that appears enter /storage/music at Path and then Scan. You should then sync the HQPlayer Library in HQPDControl, and maybe set Albums as the preferred display in Settings.
The HQ player does not have a port. Set Backend to 'Network Audio' in the HQP Config screen and set the HQP NAA as the active player in the Players section on the K50. The NAA should then be automatically discovered.

 

[andrewd01]

@Clive101 did you just trade in your CX/EX to Elite audio? I might be the new owner of your CX!