On the other hand, if high-quality dithering and upsampling requires a bunch of sophisticated filters and noise-shapers … clearly that’s what HQP is trying to provide, so it might be good if Roon didn’t contend with that directly.
For me the best “simple” high-quality standalone volume-control in Roon would be just add 8-bits of volume to 16-bit redbook audio (archived cd’s, Tidal flac, etc) - and output the resulting 24-bit/44.1khz to the DAC. (“Music + volume”)
As a user-selectable option, of course - most people with full volume-control downstream wouldn’t want this.
I think this can be done by simply folding (multiplying) the 8-bit volume setting into the 16-bit signal- with no loss of resolution, no sophisticated filters, etc, so this would be very simple. (But maybe someone will correct me…)
If the option was general enough, it could easily do the same with 24-bit audio and a 32-bit DAC, etc. In any case, 16-bit (redbook) audio case is the main one for me, and might be the “90% case” for Roon users. (I have a 24-bit DAC, so when I play one of the very few 24-bit recordings I own, I would not want this volume control in Roon. That’s fine.)
My only reason for using HQP once it’s integrated with Roon is so that I can have a dithered volume control–I wouldn’t want to use the upsampling or filters.
Can you give us any idea if there’s a dithered volume control coming for Roon?If soon, I’ll hold off for that instead of purchasing and setting up HQP.
I realize you’ve been working on a lot of other things, but I am now down to 11 days remaining on my Roon trial–can you give me any idea of how much longer the wait will be for Roon to add a dithered digital volume control?
It’s coming out with 1.2. I am hoping sometime next month, but the schedule for that release is a bit fluid right now because of the volume of RoonReady integration work we’re doing.
Thanks for the update Brian. I keep checking back in and waiting for the 1.2 to drop. Dithered volume is a show stopper for me Cant really use my dacs and avr without it,