HQPlayer Desktop thread

Yep got the key loaded. Thx

Replying to your other post in the ‘what filters’ thread.

It’s more appropriate to discuss that nitty gritty here

That’s all you need to stick with.

Roon plays to HQPlayer (desktop in your case) and then HQPlayer will output to whatever backends you choose.

You need to give each RPi NAA image a unique name, so that you can select them from the dropdown menu. If you don’t rename them, they are all called ‘naa’ and it won’t work.

Hookup the Pi to a screen and keyboard.

Type:

  1. root (at login)
  2. nano /etc/hostname
  3. It should be an empty file.
  4. Type whatever name you want (like Living Room) in this empty file
  5. Control + X keys to exit and make sure you say yes to saving
  6. reboot

Wait for the Pi to reboot then open HQPlayer and you should see the new NAA name.

Now you can have a dozen RPi’s around the house with unique names and you choose them in HQPlayer , not in Roon.

You can just keep one keyboard and monitor hooked to one Pi and do this hostname naming procedure with different SD cards (for doing this with multiple Pi’s). Just make sure you label each SD card or know exactly which name you’ve given it.

There’s another way as per Jussi’s comment below but I find the hostname method easy enough.

Give it a crack !

Stick to RPi4’s by the way (if you can even find any !). RPi3’s are no longer supported.

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Gold!! Thanks.

Next step😃

Another step closer to becoming a HQPlayer Jedi

Jussi is Yoda

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I’m just a stormtrooper atm

Hi together,
I also have a question.

Every time I turn off my DAC, and later turn it on again, the playback via the HQPlayer does not work anymore.
I have to go to the preference menu of the HQPlayer, there is then my DAC, I click on OK, and then it works again.

So far so good, but if I now want to run my Mac Mini M1 headless as HQPlayer server, it’s a problem.

Can anyone say something about this?

System:
Roon Rock
RPi4 with RooopieXL (with jussis NAA image I have the same problem)
ifi Pro iDSD
Mac Mini M1 & HQPlayer Desktop 4.19.2

Yes it’s normal.

You will have to keep your DAC on.

Thank you for your reply.
That’s a pity, then after my conversion at the new listening place HQPlayer probably falls away, since I then no longer have a PC there, and to leave my DAC always switched on is not an option - is a DAC with tubes.

If you’re using it with hqplayer desktop, in macOS, enable Remote Management (System Preferences > Sharing). Use the ScreenSharing app on your other Mac and/or there are RemoteManagement clients that work on iOS and Android that you can use.

If you have or want to use an iOS or Android app that only supports vnc, the vnc protocol can be enabled in macOS by clicking ‘Computer Settings’ (found in area when you selected remote management) and selecting the vnc checkbox and supplying a password for vnc connections.

Also you can use HQPDcontrol on iOS and Android to change hqplayer settings. But as of now, you cannot use it to enable the dac at power on.

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When you turn off DAC while it is in use (HQPlayer is running), depending on how DAC’s USB interface is implemented, it will just suddenly disappear.

This causes various problems and sometimes confuses the OS drivers as well. For example last nigh I changed one setting on one of my SMSL DACs which caused USB disconnect. As a result the USB interface and OS stack got so confused that I had to power off both DAC and NAA and restart both to make it work again.

Another option here, instead of turning off HQPlayer each time, turn off also NAA if you turn off DAC.

To power off, first turn off NAA then DAC. To power on, first turn on DAC and then NAA. NAA takes couple of seconds to boot up. HQPlayer will automatically reconnect to the NAA. At least on PC based hardware devices, short press of power button triggers proper OS shutdown procedure on both NAA OS and HQPlayer OS. This is what I do with my headless HQPlayer Embedded servers. Shutdown takes 2 seconds. Boot up takes 5 - 10 seconds. But NAA OS shouldn’t get broken even if you just pull the plug. If it one day happens to fail, it takes couple of minutes to rewrite the microSD card for RPi.

If first play attempt fails, just press play second time, in some failure cases it triggers reconnection.

I have 2 usb DAC’s connected to my NAA. HQPlayer has always been defaulting to the DAC I use 95% of the time with HQPlayer… which is a good thing.


  • Is there a rhyme or reason as to which DAC hqplayer will choose on restart? (Both DACs are always on)

To answer the question as to why 2 dacs on the same NAA…
One dac has a roonready ethernet connection and a usb connection and I mostly use it with the ethernet connection… but occasionally I use it with HQPlayer to get to DSD256. So I just remote desktop in and select it.

Yes, device selection in HQPlayer stores device id which to use. For NAA endpoints this is always combination of two things - NAA name and device id of the DAC behind it. This is also reason why each NAA must have a unique name, otherwise HQPlayer will get confused.

It is normal to have multiple DACs behind a single NAA, or have multiple NAAs with one or more DACs behind each. I do it too.

It can now with new firmware update

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Wow - did they really do it?! Or its just a marketing nonsense that no one in iFi understands but it sounds so freaking fancy though !?!?

Anecdote #1 my ticked with iFi about Go Bar DSDx48 rates is still open - precisely two months with no single indication of an answer. Front line has apologised a month ago for “delayed” response. I personally find that pathetic, but, hey, this is the level of service you must expect with iFi. Pure nonsense… I have returned their devices weeks ago.

Now for the Gryphon I’m very sure its a different animal to a nonsense-dongle and if this can really perform fully fledged it may actually be something!!!

Anecdote #2 I have been very excited to prepare my “summer break” HQP station, and am very happy as I really got impressive desktop setup, but… At the end I was so freaking tired before the break that I did not take any sound source/music device with me. However now i have fully immersive 3D audio of Cote d"Azure hot breeze 24/7 instead and I find this exactly what I need right now blended with good chilled wines or better - Pastis :slight_smile: Because back at home there are plans of changing cooling system on my HQP 129k server and making a final assault at 7ECv2@1024 ! :))) May be those extra 5-6C i count on will make a difference??? Igorski - it is really a time for a break! hahaha!!!

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apologies if this has already been answered elsewhere, but for an M1 Mac Mini, is 8gb of ram sufficient for HQPlayer? Or does it need 16gb?

thanks!

For simpler use cases it is sufficient. For complex ones maybe not.

But even without HQPlayer, 8GB models suffer from early flash (SSD) wear out due to increased swapping.

Good afternoon everyone. as I said before, I like the work of hq player, now I have a Gustard x26 pro DAC, as a source a laptop with an intel i5 processor, in the player settings is adaptive output rate, sin-m filters, dsd 48 × 256 conversion , and asdm7 modulator

Jussi, could you please explain roughly what you see as a simple use case and where it is going to be a complex use case?

Thx

P.S. I am obviously also a MacMiniM1/8GB user. :smiley:

Due to the fact that I want to use more advanced regulators, I plan to change my computer, but I don’t know which processor and video card to buy specifically, because of this I experimented with my friend’s hq player. He has an Intel Core i7-9750H and GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER 8G. So that’s interesting without connecting cuda, his laptop could only reproduce the settings as much as possible on my i5, the music stuttered on more complex modulators, although in the task manager window the CPU load did not exceed 35 percent, but when I connected the video card, it had GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER 8G , then the maximum that I could get was asdm7 , sin-m and 48x512 . In this regard, I have a question, what is more important when assembling a new PC for hq player? processor or video card?

what do I do next - I take my DAC and go to a friend who has a Processor - Intel Core i7-11700K 3.6(5.0)GHz 16MB s1200 Box (BX8070811700K)

Video card - Asus TUF GeForce RTX 3060 Gaming OC 12288MB (TUF-RTX3060-O12G-V2-GAMING). So, asdm5ec 5ecv2, 7ec, 7ecv2 modulators work only when cuda is enabled, sin-m filters, 48×256 conversion, adaptive output rate .(48×512 stutters) , CPU usage 33 percent. That is, again it turns out that there is no way without a cool video card, or am I wrong? I just wanted to give all the work to the processor, so as not to buy an expensive video card …Jussi please advise processor and video card for asdm5ec , 5ecv2 , 7ec , 7ec2 modulators and 48x256, 48x512 conversions.