Can't get HQPlayer discovered, Bonjour seems to not be working

Audio Gear Talk HQ Player
1

I have been working with Claude AI to move my Roon Core to my Mac Studio and leave the HQPlayer running on a Mac Mini.

I seem to be close but am frustrated by the fact that Roon on the Mac Studio is not discovering the HQPLayer on the Mac mini, even though I can pin the Mac Mini.

This on the studio does not return anything…

dns-sd -B _raat._tcp

Browsing for _raat._tcp
DATE: —Thu 25 Dec 2025—
15:40:59.404 …STARTING…
^C

I have restarted everything multiple times and I cannot get the HQPlayer back under the Audio section of Settings, It was there but could not stream to it so I removed it.

HQPlayer used to show a globe to enable connections but now it shows some confusing icon with two boxes connected together and I cannot figure out which is on and which is off. I have tried it both ways.

I am getting a renewed appreciation for acoustic instruments, lol.

Any ideas?

I think my problem is that only the Mac Mini has a wired connection to the Router but the Mac Studio is running on Wifi because it is on the second floor and it would not be easy to run a cable.

Is there any way to make this work with both WiFi or only one WiFi and one hard wired?

I got them both on ethernet but HQPlayer can still not be discovered by the Mac Studio.
The Ethernet on the Mac Studio is supplied by a router extender.
Perhaps it won’t work that way.

I have run

dns-sd -B _raat._tcp

on both my Mac Studio and Mac Mini and nothing is found.

HQPlayer does not seem to be broadcasting from the Mini even to itself.

I can ping the Mac Mini from the Mac Studio.

I must say that this is all extremely frustrating.

2

AI will be very misleading…

There is no HQPlayer auto-discovery in Roon. You need to manually add it using IP address of the HQPlayer server. In HQPlayer’s toolbar, the right-most button (Allow network control) must be pressed down.

You may also need to check that firewall is not blocking incoming connections on either Mac.

I recommend to first check that you can play music with HQPlayer natively, without Roon to check that your audio output is working properly. Because if it is not, then Roon won’t be able to play anything through HQPlayer either. So it is easier to work things out in steps from output towards source side.

Official instructions can be found here:

Also pay attention to the last bullet point on the page, as that is most common reason for Roon+HQPlayer issues.

P.S. HQPlayer auto-discovery doesn’t use Bonjour. It uses a similar method, but custom one built for HQPlayer purposes.

3

Thanks a lot, much appreciated!

I have been playing music with Roon through HQPlayer from my Mac Mini into my Aqua Formula DAC for years without trouble.

It is only when I tried to move the Roon Core to my faster Mac Studio that everything fell apart. Maybe I should give up but it seems like it should work.

I will spend more time this afternoon trying to get it to work.

Do you think I can get it to work if my Mac Studio is on WiFi and the Mac Mini running HQPlayer is on a wired connection?

I have checked the firewall settings many times but perhaps only for the Roon processes.

The documentation still shows a globe icon but I see two boxes.

4

This may help …

macOS Sequoia (version 15), has tighter (and more obfuscated) network security settings than preceding MacOS versions.

Can you please navigate to macOS System Settings > Privacy & Security > Local Network, and make sure Roon and Roon Server are allowed.

If it is already enabled, toggle it off and on again. Then reboot your Mac, and see if the same issue persists.

6

Roon is in Local Network and is allowed.

Roon Server is not in the list and I see no way to add it.

7

I’d recommend reinstalling Roon / Roon Server on Mac, don’t uninstall anything to reinstall over the top of current.

Then check those settings again.

8

I got it!!!

Well, Claude AI telling me about Auto Discovery of HQPlayer tricked me into not looking to add the IP address in Roon.

It all works now.

The Mac Studio is on Wifi because I can’t easily get it a cable.
The Mac Mini is on a wired connection from the router.

The latest version of HQPlayer is working.

Heaven. Thanks everybody!

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9

In this case, HQPlayer is no longer on “localhost” / 127.0.0.1, but instead elsewhere. So this needs to be updated.

Yes, certainly. WiFi is fine.

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10

So, the streaming works great but every hour or so, one track will repeatedly skip. It plays 2 seconds, goes silent, repeats.

I stop that track and start another album and it does not skip.

Any idea what might be causing that issue?

11

Is it perhaps some specific source format causing this? As the CPU load depends on the source / output rate combination.

It could be also some network streaming hiccup.

12

I’m streaming lossless from Tidal and Qobuz.

I never had this hiccup when HQPlayer and the Roon Core were running on the same Mac mini.

Perhaps it is a WiFi issue from the Mac Studio to the Mini. I wish I had an easy way to hardwire the Mac Studio.

Should I try a different upsampler to see if it is related to CPU load on the Mini?

13

Mac Mini should do fine the default settings to DSD256, so you could try with those:
1x = poly-sinc-gauss-long
Nx = poly-sinc-gauss-hires-lp
Modulator = ASDM7EC-fast

Alternatively you can also use these filters, as they pose exactly same load:
1x = poly-sinc-ext2-long
Nx = poly-sinc-ext2-hires-lp

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