Firstly, Iâm not a Roon employee, Iâm a user like you and a volunteer moderator. The âCommunityâ designation in the titles indicates user members of the Community as distinct from Roon staff. (Donât let my ârealâ jellyfish fool you !). I think your questions and points warrant a response from someone who will know as distinct from guess (like me) and letâs flag @brian to see if he can tell us anything in that regard.
Having said that I can clarify my guesses a little more so you can see my reasoning.
Firstly, ROCK isnât a version of Roon, it is a stripped back Linux that does nothing but run Roon Server. The only control surface accessible to users will be a very simple Ethernet/Wi-Fi configuration. The Roon Server it runs is the ordinary Linux Roon Server. It will have no greater or lesser functionality than Roon Server because it is Roon Server.
The purpose of ROCK is turnkey operation on a limited set of hardware (Intel NUCs) for folk (like me) who are unfamiliar with Linux. Thatâs it. It is likely that there will be improved SQ for those who connect a DAC directly to their computers, but that is not the recommended architecture for Roon. The recommended architecture is a server/renderer configuration where the signal is sent firstly to a Roon Ready or Roon Bridge device and then to the DAC. ROCK is unlikely to result in any SQ improvement with that recommended architecture because the things it improves are already taken care of in that architecture.
ROCKâs simplicity depends on sticking to its design parameters. As soon as ANY expansion beyond Roon Server is contemplated the number of variables expands to the point where it requires a far greater development and testing effort than the purpose warrants. The testing required for even the simple case resulted in deferral of ROCK beyond 1.3 and is ongoing.
That is why I feel confident in guessing that we wonât be seeing ROCK support other programs, including HQP. Users who are adept enough to have an appetite for their OS to run something else can use a Linux distro.
The hardware point is that ROCK has been announced as supporting i5 configurations, but i7 are on a âlets see if it worksâ basis. In relation to DSD 512 my personal experience is that an i7 by itself may not have the grunt to oversample Redbook to DSD 512. My i7 7700 stutters at DSD 512 without CUDA GPU assistance in HQP. CUDA requires a CUDA capable graphics card. ROCK will not support external graphics cards.
I donât know if it is technically feasible to bring more HQP control within Roon. What I am saying is that it seems more likely to me that development resources will be spent improving Roonâs own DSP in preference to a closer integration with HQP.
Iâm a fervent HQP fan. I currently have to control my stereo through an iPad using:
I would dearly love to see some of all of the above in a single interface. But for the reasons set out above I think it is unlikely.