Build 99 HQP stopping and shrieking

Ditto to what Craig said. Lots of new test results on our end that bear some consideration on how Roon and HQ player on a Mac may be interacting particularly with DSD256 files.

Robert

Is the fact that I am using RoonServer rather than ā€˜normalā€™ Roon (on the same Mac Pro as HQPlayer) likely to be causing MORE of a problem?!

If anything, I would expect Roon to have more troubles than RoonServer, just on the basis of added complexity of including the graphics engine/UI.

Iā€™ve been monitoring that thread.

Ultimately, HQPlayer is responsible for delivering the bits to the sound card in time to play them without stuttering, because HQPlayer owns the relationship with the hardware.

It is theoretically possible that Roon is doing something to interfere with this (like not sending data quickly enough), but we lack the visibility into HQPlayer internals that would be required to determine this ourselves.

Iā€™ve reproduced this issue while watching our memory buffers and timing behavior, and it doesnā€™t look like we are having trouble delivering in timeā€“we have rather deep RAM-based buffering (when compared to HQPlayer), and HQPlayer is in charge of controlling the data flow. None of this is 100% conclusive (because again, we canā€™t see inside of HQPlayer), but it is suggestive that this problem isnā€™t within Roon.

Jussi and I have been in communication on this (off the forums). My understanding is that heā€™s investigating this. Iā€™m sure if he finds a reason to believe that Roon is holding up data transmission, heā€™ll get in touch.

Until then, I think the next important step is to help Jussi reproduce the issue himself under circumstances that definitively exclude possible interactions with system-level things like App Nap. If he finds an area where we need to improve, Iā€™m sure he wonā€™t be shy about letting us know.

Thanks. That was my thinking in opting for RoonServer.

In case anyone is not following the thread on the CA forum, Iā€™ve just posted this:

After further experiments with different setups, I agree with Robert that the crucial variable is whether Roon and HQPlayer are on the same machine.

My normal setup: RoonServer/HQPlayer on the same Mac Pro 3.5Ghz/6-core/32gb RAM > Ethernet > NAA > USB DAC.
Result: DSD256 playback (with all filters/modulators) starts almost immediately but stutters badly for usually at least 10-15 seconds. Same result with and without Pipeline SDM checked.

Changing to: RoonServer still on Mac Pro, but playing to HQPlayer on a distinctly less powerful MacBook Pro/i5 2.6Ghz/2-core/16gb RAM > Ethernet > NAA > USB DAC.
Result: Longer silent pause before playback but then plays very smoothly without stutters (for all filter/modulator/upsampling within same family).

Craig

Fingers crossed, but HQPlayer beta 7, just out, seems to have solved my problems with the DSD stutter.
Thank you to all.
Craig

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Ditto, try as I might I canā€™t make it crash. Way to go Brian and Jussi! Just listened to an entire DSD 256 album streaming through roon build 102 to hqplayer Beta 7 all on the same Mac.

Robert

Thankyou to everyone who has contributed to this thread and to Brian and the devs (and Jussi !) for implementing the fixes to date. Itā€™s been a remarkable effort by all involved.

I have set this thread to close in 24 hours to enable anyone to say anything relevant if they want.

Any continuing or new issues should be reported in this new Build 102 thread.

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