I have run HQPlayer on a 16GB headless M1 Mac Mini for a few years and with the improvements in the latest versions it happily runs DSD256 with the default settings really well, but it won’t do some of the harder filters like poly-sinc-ext3 and I don’t currently use DAC correction.
I may well move to an M4 mini later this year as well, but the M1 has run really well for me.
I used a couple of PC’s early on but with mobile processors that worked well for a few minutes, then would go into thermal throttling, and the Mac also does that if you push it too hard.
It could be worth trying a GMTek device as long as you can return it if it doesn’t quite perform. I have used a few of these mini pc brands for running Linux telephone systems and they tend to run really well for their needs. Not tried pushing something like HQPlayer though as I was unsure they would work well.
If you want to do high quality PCM then any of them is going to be great for it.
Anyone who successfully made DSD 1024 work, may I seek your advice how should I set mine?
My spec:
12900KF
32GB DDR5 @6000
RTX 3080
HQP Desktop latest version
HPQ operates remotely (Roon is on Nucleus One) on a dedicated PC on gigabit Ethernet
Holo May KTE
Holo Red NAA with latest HQP NAA OS
Dac Correction Enabled
I tried AHM7EC5L @48K x 1024 and really like the sound. This setup, however, almost worked, as I could get almost stutter free playback. However, sometimes (1-2 times per song) I got a short pause, indicating that my setup can’t quite make it.
Here are settings. I tried various different Blocks per cycle and pipelines settings but no avail.
Yeh in practical sense the Mac Mini’s (M-series) are silent. There is a fan but you will only hear it with your ear at the box. Once 2 ft away you can’t hear it.
So if you want your HQP server to be inside listening room, fan noise is an important factor.
If HQP server is outside listening room, maybe fan noise less critical
I just wanted to bump this and see if people had been able to successfully use mini pc’s like this GMKtec i9 with desktop (or embedded) without struggling on thermal management… or if I should stick with the MacMini M4. Full specs in linked post.
Quick question. Just subscribed to desktop, running it on my Mac 4 Mini - it’s chugging along doing great on 192 PCM while I wait for my Holo Cyan 2 to be built and arrive. I’m controlling it very happily with HQPDcontroller on my iPhone as well as Roon, and it’s terrific. All the usual playing with stuff.
But… I can’t get HQPDesktop client on my laptop to connect to the server with all the same details.
Here’s what I’ve done:
Started Client and typed the same exact address (tried both 192.168.1.5 and 192.168.1.5:4321 in the address bar. I know this works because both Roon and the iOS app connect just fine. The Mac Mini does have both ethernet (that’s the 192.168.1.5 address) and WiFi (doesn’t matter what it is I think) and I know it’s accessible.
I’ve run nc -zv 192.168.1.5 4321 on the laptop, works fine as expected
On the Mac Mini ran lsof -i :4321 and it’s listening on TCP and UDP on both the IPv4 and IPv6 address
Checked in System Settings on both computers that both are allowed access to the local network, which they must be for HQPDcontroller to work, which it does.
Input the IPv4 address with both the port (192.168.1.5:4321) and without the port (192.168.1.5)) in the top left drop-down looking area of the Client (see picture below). I also tried the IPv6 address listed in my with and without the port, and same behavior.
Whenever I type it in, and hit enter it disappears (the drop-down goes back into the same state it was in before). If I click somewhere else it’s persistent, but nothing happens.
Any ideas? I saw a thread on AudiophileStyle where someone had a similar problem. I have multicast enabled in my Unifi router, and all seems to work well on other applications I have.
I'm not sure if the HQPdesktop instance is supposed to be advertising itself and it should be visible in the drop-down, but the only thing in there is localhost, so if there's an advertising action going on it's not working.
Johnny are you using HQPDesktop or HQPClient.
I’m not at my desktop at the moment, but I think try the HQPClient which is an optional (but default) install option.
Also it sounds like you have enabled network support as you would not be able to connect from your phone
HQP Desktop (server) is running on my Mac 4 mini, and is streaming just fine if I use either Roon, the HQPDcontroller iOS app, or directly access it from the Mac 4 mini itself. So “control from network” is on and everything is hunky dory.
HQPD Client is running on my laptop, and I’m trying to use it to control HQPDesktop.
I can see there’s a related problem here:
I tried to find the logs on the Mac Mini running the server, and I went to ~/.hqplayer but the only contents were:
so I don’t know what to do to see if there’s anything reaching the server.
And wait a second… I just de-installed HQPDesktop Client and reinstalled it, and hey-presto it took the IP address just fine and it works now! Now I can’t see the spectral analyzer/spectrometer/whatever it’s called, but otherwise it seems to work!
Great to hear that and never had an issue like that myself. But at least it is working now. My devices are normally auto discovered, but if not I just use the IPV4 address.
I wonder if IPV6 was getting in the way
I have an Intel Core i7-12700F with ASUS PH-GTX1050TI-4G graphics and 32GB of RAM (MSI Mobo).
Would a current M4 MacMini with 16GB RAM have significantly better performance with HQPlayer?
A few questions, curiosity / maybe thoughts for future development. Bet someone else has brought these things up before but I couldn’t find them - and neither could ChatGPT.
Is there an architectural reason why HQPDesktop client / HQPD4controller cannot control the device / NAA selection? Is it just not exposed currently, or is it somehow different than other attributes like filter / dither? Because being able to access that without logging into VNC to remote desktop would be a big benefit. I realize embedded exposes this via web interface, but I’m a desktop person.
Is there a preferred reason to use NAA or NAA IPv6 if both work equally?
If I use HQP desktop on a Mac 4 mini, is it ok if I have a hqplayer user with a completely stripped down set of settings (black wallpaper, no login items other than HQPD, no background, never sleep, no notifications / do not disturb, no siri or apple intelligence, hide dock, low resolution, no icloud, etc) and also a personal account (all the regular stuff) and I log out of my personal account when I’m not using it, will Mac memory management take care of everything pretty cleanly? Or do I really truly need a fully dedicated machine to get full performance?
Thanks @jussi_laako
I think I will leave everything as it is for the time being.
I tried the HQPlayer in evaluation mode yesterday, controlling it through Roon. Fairly easy install and config. All running smoothly.
I tried CUDA offload with the 1050Ti, but (obviously) got stutters, that I didn’t get with CUDA offload turned off. The i7 12700F CPU alone seems powerful enough for ‘reasonable’ filters.
Thanks for a great product.
What do you need it for? Have you considered using the configuration profiles?
IPv6 has for example better QoS support, is more efficient, and usually the discovery also works better over IPv6. IPv4 is slowly being phased out on the internet too, quite large portion of important services on the internet support IPv6 already. IPv6 covers roughly 50% of the internet users at the moment.
IPv6 is also backwards compatible with IPv4 addresses, the whole IPv4 address space is mapped as a tiny special subregion of IPv6 address space for this purpose.
I have no issue running HQPlayer Desktop on stock macOS, I frequently do it while for example responding to the forum posts at the same time, or doing email.
Not sure about Apple Intelligence, as it is not available in my region (EU/Finland), so it is not even possible to have it turned on.
macOS keeps most of the low priority side things on E-cores, while it keeps HQPlayer mostly on P-cores. So there’s usually not much competition for the resources.
Ah, I hadn’t figured that out yet - duh, and appreciated! Now I just pick a profile and then modify filters. When I get my Holo Cyan 2, I can have multiple. I get it. This makes sense but wasn’t intuitive.
Super helpful. I’m going to try to keep things segregated by user, and I’ll let you know how it goes. Getting Screens5 and remote-ing in has actually been super useful for me (my office is great but it’s on the 3rd floor!) for a whole bunch of reasons. Knowing that it works pretty well in real life scenarios is great.
Just wanted to say thanks for your amazing support. I do feel like you get asked many of the same things over and over again, and I bet that an FAQ on your website with common questions and answers could save you a lot of time, but your support is incredible and it seems to work for you so… obviously it’s your business, I just want to save you some questions from n00■■ like me!
@jussi_laako, now that I have the configuration profiles working in HQPD, a follow up question. For both vinyl playback and Apple Spacial, I stream through HQP (independent of Roon) by setting content source at 2 channel 24/192 for vinyl and 8 channel 24/48. Then, I hit play to start the clock. In HQPD, “default” or “CD” are the only choices even when I select the particular configuration profile. What am I doing wrong? Thanks. JCR
