is there a reason you are holding off from going to version 4.
Wow! This is an evergreen topic. I’ll weigh in again after many months using Roon in a stable configuration. In the olden days, we used to adjust the sound in a system by fiddling with EQ options–sometimes with a bass/treble control, sometimes with an equalizer. It was just messing with filters. Real stone age stuff.
In our new digital reality, you have control of a stream of bits from the instant its read from its source until it hits a DAC and gets converted to an analog output . . . (see frequencies above). Why mess with the analog end when we have real master-of-the-universe power over the digital stream with HQPlayer? It does about 1,000 more things than a tone control, and frees the last stages of the signal chain to do what they do best–send all those frequencies down a wire to move air.
In terms of the money spent in a typical system, the cost of a preamp is ridiculous compared to HQPlayer because the preamp has a few switches, an attenuator labeled “volume,” and a couple of tone controls. HQPlayer takes the ability to control tone/sound to the next level.
I haven’t been using it for some time because I don’t want to fret about sound at that level of detail until I’ve gotten used to listening to music with the current configuration and a new DAC. That said, I might get myself something nice for xmas . . .
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is there a reason you are holding off from going to version 4.
Hi
I put version 4 on today (trial mode) and will eventually do some A-B comparison
But first I will be doing a complete refresh - Windows server 2019, AO3 and the latest Fidelizer
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Hi,doesn’t dac n dac by name and my usb to spdif compatible whit HQPlayer ?
If yes I’d like to give it a try but I need somebody help me ,I’m a beginner and i don’t found all the instrctions i need on the forum to start…
Giovanni.
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Too gritty on a Mac? Is it still true now @jussi_laako? I know there have been many improvements and bug fixes lately.
so weird when these zombie threads get resurrected. Nothing wrong with it, but I get soooo confused!
What’s weird about zombie threads being resurrected?
Halloween 
I use macOS NAA.
Nothing gritty sounding at my end.
Can be a system dependant thing. Systems can vary wildly. Interactions between different gear varies etc
was gonna post a dire pull-my-hair-out thread, as I also run NAA with a mac and HQPlayer and RoPieeeXL… I have a few of them going with Roon, separate zones/systems.
I moved some cables around on one, and unplugged the Pi, and when I plugged it back in, I could not get HQP to find it. Nothing I did worked. Retraced my steps. Restarted everything.
Only thing that worked was to reflash the microSD card and reconfigure RoPieeeXL.
LET THAT BE A LESSON TO YOU ZOMBIES
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No the lesson is for NAA on RPi, replace RoPieeeXL with NAA OS ! Jussi’s custom RPi image made to do only one thing.
I pulled my hair out many times with RoPieee XL NAA !!
Zombie out 
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HQPlayer install is a breeze for me, works first time and sounds great! That is why I am curious that someone said it sounded too gritty on a Mac?
My setup is very simple (no NAA):
Nucleus (Roon) → 2012 MacMini (HQPlayer Desktop) → sinc-Mx LNS15 → MacOS Core Audio (USB 384/24) → Linn Klimax DSM/3 USB input socket
hmmm i’ll have to look into that.
currently I have several zones; and I have several cast-off mac minis from work. Their only task is to be the HQPlayer NAA drone for each RoPieeeXL zone. Overkill, but not sure how else to do it.
Would running NAA OS mean I don’t need all those minis?
I also like RoPieeeXL’s ability to do airplay and spotify connect for those times I’m not using roon. (Guest users, podcasts, playing stuff on spotify I can’t find on Tidal/Qobuz, etc…)
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Absolutely !
Just burn Jussi’s custom RPi4 OS to SD card.
Are these RPi3s or RPi4s ?
RPi4 is best.
Yeh that’s a fair reason to use RoPieee XL. I don’t just use Roon either.
But I feed HQPlayer from Spotify and HQPlayer plays to all NAAs in the house.
Check out my thread about it ! No need for RoPieee XL drama with updates etc.
checked it out, and it’s got lots of stuff in there…
maybe I missed it, but is there a step-by-step for a novice to start up an install/config of HQP NAA on a mac?
There’s nothing much to do. It is just one executable you start from terminal. Mostly useful environment variable is NETWORKAUDIOD_NAME for setting name of the NAA (since it must be unique). Name defaults to computer’s hostname anyway.
Due to Apple’s security system and the executable being command line utility, you need to run it through “sudo”, because terminal applications cannot popup permission prompts.
What? Why? It is as simple as eating a potato! NAA is just a simple binary, you just need to unzip it and then run it as sudo ./networkaudiod
I think lots of people give a misconception on how difficult it is to install and run HQPplayer, it is not.
Actually, it is not entirely correct @jussi_laako, even I know you are the developer
I can run it w/o sudo with a non-root account, but for simplicity maybe with sudo as recommended (just in case some people come across some sort of permission errors).
I suppose, similarly, if one was given a potato, one might wonder how one eats a potato. Eating it raw might not be the best tactic.
So, do you boil it? Bake it? Fry it?
Cube it? Mash it? Julienne it?
Depends on the OS and platform. But on Big Sur and so on, for example input side didn’t work without. And also in some cases listening for incoming network connections didn’t work without.
Ok, that makes sense generally. I am on a 2012 Mac Mini (Catalina).
But I have found out that I do not even need to run it - The Roon Core on my Nucleus connects directly to the HQPlayer Desktop on my Mac Mini, and everything works great, I am impressed with the SQ !!! I am using sinc-Mx LNS15 because my Linn streamer does not support DSD via USB input.
From your below post I thought you already had macOS NAA running? On multiple Mac Minis?
So RPi4 NAA OS can replace those Mac Mini NAAs.
I must have misunderstood yesterdays convo