DSD playback with ROON/HQPlayer [Solved]

[John_Donaldson]

@bibo01

I think in Settings/Setup you have to remove devices Connected To This PC, otherwise Roon gets confused,

As a test I disabled all devices attached to my computer in Settings/Setup and played back thru HQP. Roon still converted DSD to PCM.

[RBM (René)]

Could you please post a screenshot of your main HQP window while playing from Roon – and of the DSDIFF/DSF settings window (File > DSDIFF/DSF)?

[John_Donaldson]

@RBM

Could you please post a screenshot of your main HQP window while playing from Roon – and of the DSDIFF/DSF settings window (File > DSDIFF/DSF)?

HQP window playing DSD128 in Roon

[bibo01 (Gianluca Jandelli - HQPlayer Reseller)]

In the HQP window you posted, HQP is not playing DSD128.
If you look at Format on top right, HQP is receiving a signal at 706.4/24 and downsampling it at 384 (output).

In the drop down lists in the center of HQP please try to set:

1. poly-sinc-short-mp
2. DSD7
3. 5644800
4. SDM

If it works, in Format you should have ->5.6448M as output.

Please try to playback from Roon a DSD64 file and show us what your setting is in Settings/Audio.

[andybob (Andrew Cox)]

Gianluca’s suggestions about the drop down menus in HQP main page seem right to me. NS9 is a dither setting appropriate for PCM. If you select SDM in the ouput menu on the far right instead of Auto then the DSD selections you have made in HQP settings should be applied and the Format details will change accordingly.

[John_Donaldson]

@bibo01

In the HQP window you posted, HQP is not playing DSD128. If you look at Format on top right, HQP is receiving a signal at 706.4/24 and downsampling it at 384 (output).

Understand this. I meant that Roon was playing a DSD128 file not that HQP was playing DSD128. In Roon the audio chain shows a DSD to PCM conversion before outputting to HQP.

When I play a DSD file with Roon and output direct to my DAC the output is DSD, no problem there.

Also, HQP outputs DSD correctly to my DAC if I do not send it thru Roon first.

The only problem I am having with DSD is getting Roon to send DSD to HQP and not convert it to PCM first.

@bibo01

In the drop down lists in the center of HQP please try to set:

1. poly-sinc-short-mp
2. DSD7
3. 5644800
4. SDM

I made changes 1-3 and that did not help. I am not sure what you want me to do with 4.

Thanks for all your help!

[bibo01 (Gianluca Jandelli - HQPlayer Reseller)]

Try to uninstall Roon and reinstall it. Afterwards, be sure that in your Roon Audio setup you have only HQPlayer.

[andybob (Andrew Cox)]

@John_Donaldson

I made changes 1-3 and that did not help. I am not sure what you want me to do with 4.

Change your output (far right drop down menu, main screen) to SDM (DSD) instead of Auto, see below:

[John_Donaldson]

@andybob

Change your output (far right drop down menu, main screen) to SDM (DSD) instead of Auto, see below:

OK. HQP now outputs DSD but… Roon still converts DSD to PCM and HQP must reconvert back to DSD. Also, all PCM get outputted from HQP as DSD. I was hoping to have DSD stay as DSD all the way from Roon to my DAC and PCM stay as PCM all the way to my DAC without having to switch HQP between DSD/PCM/AUTO.

Is there no way to get ROON to send HQP DSD as DSD and PCM as PCM without making a change to setup for each type of output?

I really appreciate all the help I have received in this Category but I think that question may now be more appropriate for the Support Category where Roon Employees hang out.

Thanks again!

[bibo01 (Gianluca Jandelli - HQPlayer Reseller)]

John,
I gave you answers and suggestions to all your matters.
To keep PCM and DSD as they are, you find my answer above.
However, as it seems your Roon installation is not behaving properly, I gave you a suggestion for that too,

[andybob (Andrew Cox)]

I’ll shift this to Support and drop a flag for @Support.

Roon usually converts because it’s being told by the device that it can’t handle DSD.

[mike (Mike Fass)]

I know the thread was linked above, but by any chance do you have volume leveling or cross-fading enabled, as described near the end of the thread:

https://community.roonlabs.com/t/my-dac-supports-dsd-so-why-is-roon-converting-to-pcm/1657/9?u=mike

Just double-checking before we dig deeper. We’ll make sure we get this working @John_Donaldson – thanks for your patience.

[John_Donaldson]

@mike

My DAC supports DSD, so why is Roon converting to PCM?

OOPS! Very red faced here, cross feed was the problem. I don’t know how I missed that in the first response. Sorry to have spun everyone up. I do appreciate your efforts to help me.

[ncpl (Nick)]

No worry. Good you got to the bottom of it.

[tboooe]

I am very grateful for this thread because I was toying with the idea of using the cross fade feature. Glad to know it would have “broken” playback with HQP.