HQPlayer Impressions and Settings Rolling Thread

[BShaw]

I also dropped Roon after installing Jplay ios, and disabled all of its (roon’s) activities on my mac mini. It’s very clean and clear. There are two things I miss about Roon though: first is album suggestions related to a currently playing track or album ( jplay suggests tracks only), and the second is Roon’s easy integration of external drives, where with JPlay I need to use a third party app to access them. It’s a real pain in the arse.

 

[dericchan1]

How can we use external hdd with flacs and dsd?

https://jplay.app/userguide Please see this guide for setting up MinimServer for local files. You set this up once then any new files you put on the drive will only need to be rescanned to add to jplay iOS.

Ever since I subscribed to Qobuz, I been mostly just streaming Qobuz and only have a 2TB nvme drive set up in minimserver for jplay iOS, mainly for stuff that are not available in Qobuz - i.e. my Cantopop collection and just those ultra hi-res collection from 2xhdd, one mic recording in DXD from Sound Liaison, DSD256/DSD512 collection from NativeDSD...

 

[L@eric]

You can use ASIO + Diretta instead of NAA to your RPi 4/10M OXCO clock by selecting it on the backend of HQPlayer

Thanks for your suggestion, but I have also practiced NAA+diretta target!

SQ has indeed improved!

 

[Patu]

Why not just combine the two! I use HQPlayer but instead of NAA, just use Diretta

Unfortunately HQPlayer's DAC correction doesn't work when streaming over Diretta to HQP. If DAC correction isn't needed then Diretta works nicely with HQP. To my ears, Diretta VS NAA the difference is extremely subtle. I've tested Diretta + HQP with T+A DAC200 and Mola Mola Tambaqui. With Tambaqui it's good since there's no DAC correction support for it. But then again, NAA works great also.

The difference with DAC correction on or off is massive though. At least with T+A DAC200. DAC correction might not suit everyone's taste though. It makes the sound more dynamic, live and sparkling, but also brings higher resolution and detail. I know some might prefer smoother sound signature.

 

[dericchan1]

Unfortunately HQPlayer's DAC correction doesn't work when streaming over Diretta to HQP. If DAC correction isn't needed then Diretta works nicely with HQP. To my ears, Diretta VS NAA the difference is extremely subtle. I've tested Diretta + HQP with T+A DAC200 and Mola Mola Tambaqui. With Tambaqui it's good since there's no DAC correction support for it. But then again, NAA works great also.

The difference with DAC correction on or off is massive though. At least with T+A DAC200. DAC correction might not suit everyone's taste though. It makes the sound more dynamic, live and sparkling, but also brings higher resolution and detail. I know some might prefer smoother sound signature.

Dac correction also made a pretty massive improvement in my experience with the Cyan 2 and the Spring 3 kte. In my opinion, if I still have the holo dacs I would not take dac correction off.

 

[Patu]

Dac correction also made a pretty massive improvement in my experience with the Cyan 2 and the Spring 3 kte. In my opinion, if I still have the holo dacs I would not take dac correction off.

I can imagine it works extremely well with Holo DACs, even better than T+A DAC200. I owned Spring 3 before DAC200 and it was much smoother sound signature, which surely benefits even more of the added dynamics and punch, which DAC correction brings.

 

[L@eric]

Unfortunately HQPlayer's DAC correction doesn't work when streaming over Diretta to HQP. If DAC correction isn't needed then Diretta works nicely with HQP. To my ears, Diretta VS NAA the difference is extremely subtle. I've tested Diretta + HQP with T+A DAC200 and Mola Mola Tambaqui. With Tambaqui it's good since there's no DAC correction support for it. But then again, NAA works great also.

The difference with DAC correction on or off is massive though. At least with T+A DAC200. DAC correction might not suit everyone's taste though. It makes the sound more dynamic, live and sparkling, but also brings higher resolution and detail. I know some might prefer smoother sound signature.

After testing, my situation is different from yours.

DAC Correction is effective; but I use HQPe + diretta + NAA

edit :
Filter : SDM (DSD)poly-sinc-gauss-xlaShaper : AHM7EC8BOutput : 45158400/1/2

DSD-1024 , DAC Correction also effective

 

[czervonk]

After testing, my situation is different from yours.

DAC Correction is effective; but I use HQPe + diretta + NAA

edit :
Filter : SDM (DSD)poly-sinc-gauss-xlaShaper : AHM7EC8BOutput : 45158400/1/2

DSD-1024 , DAC Correction also effective

Hi, I am just testing Gentoo player and Diretta, also I have HQPlayer and NAA. Could you describe your setup, how do you connect things in case of software end hardware to get both Diretta and NAA?

 

[Patu]

After testing, my situation is different from yours.

DAC Correction is effective; but I use HQPe + diretta + NAA

edit :
Filter : SDM (DSD)poly-sinc-gauss-xlaShaper : AHM7EC8BOutput : 45158400/1/2

DSD-1024 , DAC Correction also effective

Not sure how this could be possible since HQPlayer doesn't get the information of the DAC in use when you stream over Diretta. So HQP can't enable the DAC correction since it doesn't know which DAC is connected to the streamer. This is only possible with HQP's own NAA, which transfers this information. I've asked about this from the developer, Jussi Laako. Maybe HQP embedded is somehow different, I use HQP desktop for Windows.

I stream from my server machine (HQP desktop on Atlas OS which runs on top of Win 11 Pro) to Holo Red (which runs GentooPlayer OS and works as Diretta endpoint) and from Holo Red with USB to T+A DAC200.

 

[L@eric]

Hi, I am just testing Gentoo player and Diretta, also I have HQPlayer and NAA. Could you describe your setup, how do you connect things in case of software end hardware to get both Diretta and NAA?

I don't use GP so I can't answer your question about software settings.

I use Audiolinux V3 headless unlimited time support & RPi 1/year license.

All settings are set according to the menu in the software!

As for the hardware, my playback route is: i9 12900H mini PC in USB flash drive (at least 32GB), install Audiolinux V3 headless → wired network (switch) → wired network (RPi 4B/2GB /w OCXO 10M clock -→ Holo Cyan2 DAC

I hope the above description can help you.

Not sure how this could be possible since HQPlayer doesn't get the information of the DAC in use when you stream over Diretta. So HQP can't enable the DAC correction since it doesn't know which DAC is connected to the streamer. This is only possible with HQP's own NAA, which transfers this information. I've asked about this from the developer, Jussi Laako. Maybe HQP embedded is somehow different, I use HQP desktop for Windows.

I stream from my server machine (HQP desktop on Atlas OS which runs on top of Win 11 Pro) to Holo Red (which runs GentooPlayer OS and works as Diretta endpoint) and from Holo Red with USB to T+A DAC200.

In my opinion, HQP playback through Windows uses the ASIO driver, but playback through NAA uses Linux's alsa. Perhaps if you install the diretta target in NAA as well, you will be able to solve the DAC correction problem.

edit：
And I've read reports that diretta currently only supports 4 playback software through Windows,

Jriver, fb2000, Roon & Audirvana, etc., so HQP should not support it.

 

[theveterans]

Diretta in Windows is just an ASIO driver so it’s supported by HQPlayer heck I stream through the SOtM through Diretta as backend of HQPlayer. I don’t have a DAC that’s on the DAC correction list so I don’t have issues with playback

 

[Patu]

Diretta in Windows is just an ASIO driver so it’s supported by HQPlayer heck I stream through the SOtM through Diretta as backend of HQPlayer. I don’t have a DAC that’s on the DAC correction list so I don’t have issues with playback

Yeah, works fine without DAC correction.

I don't use GP so I can't answer your question about software settings.

I use Audiolinux V3 headless unlimited time support & RPi 1/year license.

All settings are set according to the menu in the software!

As for the hardware, my playback route is: i9 12900H mini PC in USB flash drive (at least 32GB), install Audiolinux V3 headless → wired network (switch) → wired network (RPi 4B/2GB /w OCXO 10M clock -→ Holo Cyan2 DAC

I hope the above description can help you.

Interesting, indeed. I use Diretta ASIO driver on Windows 11 as described above. I guess if HQP server is running on Linux machine, it can somehow get the information of the DAC even when streaming over Diretta.

In my opinion, HQP playback through Windows uses the ASIO driver, but playback through NAA uses Linux's alsa. Perhaps if you install the diretta target in NAA as well, you will be able to solve the DAC correction problem.

My Diretta target runs on Gentooplayer (highly customised Linux OS optimised for audio use) which I run on Holo Red (Rpi4 based streamer). Gentooplayer can also run HQP NAA so I can switch between the two when needed.

edit：
And I've read reports that diretta currently only supports 4 playback software through Windows,

Jriver, fb2000, Roon & Audirvana, etc., so HQP should not support it.

I use Roon + HQPlayer for playback.

 

[dericchan1]

So here is a question re: Diretta. I run hqplayer desktop on Ubuntu desktop. What do I need to set up for my NAA to try Diretta? I don’t need dac correction

So currently I have network switch -> SFP to Fitlet3 (NAA) usb to dac

 

[theveterans]

So here is a question re: Diretta. I run hqplayer desktop on Ubuntu desktop. What do I need to set up for my NAA to try Diretta? I don’t need dac correction

So currently I have network switch -> SFP to Fitlet3 (NAA) usb to dac

Not 100% sure on this setup since I've never setup a Linux HQPlayer myself (but I think Ubuntu does not support Diretta? but Audiolinux does)

With AudioLinux, it's just a matter of enabling Diretta host and target (your other RPi streamer)

 

[dericchan1]

Not 100% sure on this setup since I've never setup a Linux HQPlayer myself (but I think Ubuntu does not support Diretta? but Audiolinux does)

With AudioLinux, it's just a matter of enabling Diretta host and target (your other RPi streamer)

The last thing I want is having to go back to windows for hqplayer. Linux variants like Ubuntu or Linux mint, bookworm for my rpi5 are all rock solid in comparison