Well, at least you can revel in the fact it’s probably the best quality most upsampled pop anyone’s ever heard. 
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Hi there,
I am new to HQP and Roon. I’d like to confirm that, do I need to buy the Roon membership in order to run HQP+Roon?
Thanks
Yes, you need a Roon license of some description.
It’s technically Roon+HQPlayer
Thanks Steve,
So, if I just want to play music stored in my NAS using Roon as frontend. I need a Roon license for Roon Core in addition to the HQP license. Is there a “lite” version or is there any channel that I can purchase the Roon license cheaper?
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If you don’t want to buy a Roon license you could use HQPlayer as a front end 
The Roon website is the only place you can buy it as far as I know, unless you’re getting a timed free membership as part of a hardware purchase - there were some deals around but I don’t recall what hardware. I think the only ‘light’ version that exists came with the Elac discovery.
I am getting a bit overwhelmed with the above specs and mentions of CUDA. I had to Google that. Here is the deal. It sounds like:
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The Simple Solution: is to run Roon Server and HQPlayer Desktop on a NUC10i7 with overclocking enabled, 32 GB RAM and a 250 GB M.2 SSD in an Akasa Turing fanless case with a linear power supply with high quality Ethernet cable into my audiophile switch. My LUMIN U1 Mini is also Ethernet connected to the same switch. OR
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The Best SQ, lowest EMI Solution: is to use the above NUC to run ROCK and make a dusplicate unit but with Ubuntu Linux and install HQPlayer desktop on that, and Ethernet that to the same audiophile switch.
Did I understand that correctly or does anyone have edits to the above or other suggestion? Please keep in mind that what ever put together I want it to be fanless so it can be kept in the listening room. Thanks!
What upsampling are you planning on doing. That matters. Different modulators require different processing power.
Playing high bit rate ie 24/96 or 24/192 Qobuz files via Roon. No NAS here. Only streaming via Roon. I also have upsampling DACs such as the Terminator Plus. Thanks.
I mean, what are you thinking about using HQPlayer to upsample to? Example, the incoming 24/96 stream from Qobuz, are you planning on going to DSD128, PCM 768? Higher?
I assume you are going to run the Terminator Plus in NOS mode.
Yes. DSD128.
Yes. DAC in NOS mode.
Thanks.
Can I use HQ Player with my Nucleus? It’s the original version, and not the +.
The Nucleus is connected to a little Pro-Ject USB DAC which handles DSD256 via DoP. Currently I just upsample all files to DSD256 which seems to sound very good. In the next few days I’ll be receiving a Marantz SA8005 SACD player with USB input which I think will handle up to DSD128 DoP.
You need another machine to run HQP on as RoonOS is Locked down.
HQP will not support connecting to the USB on your Nucleus so you will need something like a Raspberry Pi to run the free Raspberry Pi runtime that give you the right endpoint to send the output to. That or an NAA compliant streamer like the Zen Stream which works perfectly as a Roon/HQP endpoint but struggle’s with other protocols.
It can be a complicated topic, so I hope I have not muddied the water even more for you.
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Oh that does sound complicated.
I don’t really follow you, are you saying I need to connect a Raspberry Pi to my Nucleus via USB, then the Pi to an endpoint in some way?
No you need a separate machine to run HQP on and either that machine or a Pi (or a streamer that supports HQP streaming protocol like the Zen Stream) to connect to the project USB Dac.
Then you will have beautiful music
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Or you can just connect DAC directly to your HQPlayer server… You don’t need to have a network endpoint, that is just optional extra. For most of my DACs I don’t have such. All of my HQPlayer Embedded servers have DACs directly connected to the server.
Interesting. How you connect your DAC directly to your HQPlayer server?
The same way you would connect it to the endpoint, USB?
So a simple USB to USB between MacMini and USBridge (=Raspberry Pi) should work? Actual I’m using Ethernet-Router-Ethernet.
What he means is a USB cable directly from the HQP server to your USB DAC.
He uses this direct USB cable HQP Embedded (Linux) server.
There may be benefits to using a HQP endpoint (called NAA, like with Roon Bridge) but you don’t necessarily have to.
Someone can have Roon Nucleus and have a USB cable directly to their USB DAC.
Maybe specify the models of the actual devices in use and how they connect together.
Makes it easier to follow and give advice.
Ok, understand, thanks. Then I’ll keep my NAA connection to USBridge via Ethernet, because I want to switch between clean USB and SPDif output on the USBridge.
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