NUC ROCK and Mac Book Pro with Roon/HQ Player sensible?

Roon Software Discussion
1

A good day,

I have two questions.
right now I have this setup:
Synology NAS (“old type”: DS213 j, Armada CPU) + Mac Book Pro running Roon/HQ Player,
connected to a Dante-enabled DAC (Lynx Hilo) via Ethernet/Dante virtual soundcard.
Everything is upsampled (via HQ Player) to PCM 192 Khz, running with Acourate Convolution filters (applied at 192 khz via HQ Player).
I have a pretty old Mac Book Pro (2011), so not all of the HQ Player filters work (i.e. Problems with closed form …).
To get rid of that issues I see 3 alternatives:

  1. newer Mac Book Pro
  2. newer NAS, running Roon Core (upsampling done there)
  3. NUC with ROCK - doing upsampling (and perhaps convolution) there
    As far as I have heard, especially upsampling via HQ Player draws a lot of CPU power.
    Would it be advantageous anyways moving upsampling to a Server (lower CPU load, lower noise, better sound)?
    In this respect solution 3 would be the cheapest.
    I should be very grateful for advices (P.S.: Maybe I don`t need the HQ Player at any case or would it be possible/sensible having upsampling done with ROCK and filters/convolution with HQ Player?)
    Thanks in advance and best wishes, Christian

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2

@Christian_Kirsch

Hello Christian

I use Hilo USB and considering buying the Dante card. Not much experience found online so would love to get your input.

My setup today:

PC#1: general purpose, powerful Win 10 running Roon core, sitting in another room, connected to switch through CAT6. In this PC I convolve in Roon and output 6 channels for an active 6-channel stereo setup, upsampled to PCM 192 or 176 kHz.
PC#2: audiophile grade, silent, originally running HQP but lately just a Roon endpoint connected to Hilo through USB.
Hilo USB connected to 6 amps, each driving a speaker directly.

I’m exploring Dante to do without PC#2. If I install a Dante card on Hilo, will Roon core in PC#1 see it as an endpoint?

Thank you in advance!

3

Hi Horatio,
sorry for my late reply - I was on vacation.
Unfortunately I can`t give you further information concerning your roon core - Dante-constellation. You need to install Dante virtual sound card on your roon server plus Dante controller which is not really straight forward.I have no experience with roon core whatsoever.
This is my constellation:
Hilo Dante
directly connected via Ethernet cable to a Mac Book Pro (Dante virtual soundcard and Danter controller software installed).
I do have Roon on my Mac Book running with HQ Player as well as Acourate Convolution filters (HQ preferences: Dante sound card)
Roon is controlled by an iPad.
So soundwise I think there was a significant improvement (compared to Hilo USB - connected to Artistic Fidelity USB and microRendu plus NAA (HQ Player) - more clarity, above all definition of room - instruments/voiced are “nailed” into the room.
But I have read in the “Aktives Hoeren Community” that optimization of the PC issue, above all power supply will deliver better results even though one should think that Ethernet isolation by itself should solve quite a bit of noise issues stemming from the PC.
So combination of Roon core and Dante might deliver some better results.
I suppose you should start a technical request in this coomunity (if not already done), maybe also at Computeraudiophile (I think I have read quite a bit of your comments there (?)).

Best wishes from Germany,

Christian

4

Thank you Christian.

Installing a Dante constellation, including a managed switch, probably kills my intent as I am also planning to use an etherRegen switch which will be non-manageable. I guess direct ethernet will have to wait until I replace the Hilo at some point.

BTW, interesting to note you used microRendu as NAA with Hilo. I was under the impression microRendu was a Linux machine and Hilo didn’t support it, but maybe Lynx now supports Linux? Back then I was considering an ultraRendu as NAA. Maybe time to revisit and do without PC#2 anyway!

That was probably me indeed over at computeraudiophile. I used to post quite a bit. Haven’t been so active lately there as running an active system through Hilo opened the gates to building active speakers which has been a great journey and been focusing more on other audio stuff. It’s surprising there aren’t more Hilo users, especially with the Dante card. I hope you try making your system active at some point - it’s a significant upgrade and you already have the Hilo!

Thanks for the input!!
cheers,
Horacio

5

Hello Horatio,

the mRendu is indeed not directly compatible with the Hilo (due to Linux) but I had this “USB Cleaner” in between (Artistic fidelity).
If you like I can refer you questions to our “Dante section” within the “Aktives Hoeren. de Community” (deals with active speakers) - one of the administrators loves Dante