Hardware and system for “Roon + HQP” —> NAA

Audio Gear Talk HQ Player
1

I am preparing to setup a server with “Roon + HQP” (NAA is separated to connect to DAC). The stream to DAC is only 192/24 PCM.
The content locates on USB drives attached to the server.
The content include 44.1, 88.2, 192, DSD64 to DSD128 files.

In this case:

  1. Is the NUC BEH8i5 with 8G memory suitable for this? Or higher?
  2. Which system is better for this setup? Windows or Linux?
  3. How to configure HQP to stream 192/24 to NAA ?

Thanks a lot.

2

On the Roon side, library size will matter, on the HQPlayer side, it all depends on your filter choices.

Whichever you are more comfortable with is the answer. If you do not know Linux I’d go Windows. But, double check, I think that HQPlayer, unlike Roon, is a separate purchase per OS (or a Master license that works for all 3 OS’s).

3

You set output backend to Network Audio and select the wanted NAA+DAC combination from the list. And then configure wanted filter/dither and output 192/24.

HQPlayer 4 Desktop license covers all supported OS. HQPlayer 4 Embedded is Linux-only anyway.

4

Did not know. When I purchased HQPlayer 3, I had to buy the different OS. I still haven’t upgraded to 4, although I need to…

5

Thank you Daniel and Jussi. :grin:

My library is about 4K albums. And the filters I learned from Jussi’s advice in this forum are poly-sinc and NS9, 192k/24bit. (PCM output only)

So NUC BEH8i5 and Windows 10 could be fine?

Thanks again :grinning:

6

I would assume it to be fine for such PCM rate. Heaviest case would be converting DSD256 to 192/24 PCM output. PCM-to-PCM operation doesn’t really tax such CPUs to notable extent.

7

:clap::clap::clap:Great!

The heaviest job here may be translate dsd128 to PCM192.

Thanks so much!

:grinning: