Thank you @fmzip or posting this image. I am unfamiliar with HQ player. Am I interpreting this correctly? Is the source file being “upsampled” in the signal path? Is this the equivalent of transcoding or, in photograph terms, stretching a small image into a bigger image?
Well, you are seeing the fact that volume leveling is being employed and this requires processing on Roon’s part hence the bit depth conversion. Then the volume leveled audio is streamed to HQPlayer. And HQPlayer is doing the upsampling to DSD512.
Personally, I dislike volume leveling and never use it.
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I thought volume leveling (and crossfade) was cool when I first got Roon, but if you are an album Listener then it’s easier just to change the volume between album’s if it is big differential.
With crossfade and volume leveling on (more likely crossfade) I had a lot of early endings and skips on tracks. Never had it since I turned it off.
I have no idea what will and won’t work, that’s why I mentioned “give it a try and report back” ! 
M1 can do ASDM7 (non-EC) to DSD512 - that is easy to confirm.
What it can do simultaneously as that, I have no idea.
Can it do that while doing full throttle import and background analysis at the same time? I would take a guess and say no but it’s just a guess, it MAY stutter.
Let us know if you try!
That’s a bit of a downer. Has anyone else similar experience.
Bearing in mind that a Nucleus is a NUC in a nice case, are there reliability issues?
Ray I have 2 Nucs that are both over 3 years of age. But given the size and the heat put out by Intel chips I would not find it that surprising to have a higher failure rate.
I think the M1 based Mac mini will easily have a 5-7 year lifetime (based ony experience). Personally I want to see what the next Model does especially if it can run Linux like a ROCK, that’s almost my perfect scenario.
Mike
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I run my Roon Server on a 2012 MAC Mini i7 2.6GHz 16 MB RAM 1TB SSD for Roon only ……and I run it on 12VDC. I also have 1TB HDD inside the same Mini for Backup. Runs 24/ 7……It’s never missed a beat since new almost 9 years ago!
I run my Roon Core in my office on a new M1 MAC Mini again runs flawlessly!
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Yep. I worry with ROCK in a fanless case, that that decision is shortening the lifespan of the device.
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There seem to be a growing number of cases suitable for this on the market and it should help improve the lifetime of these devices while still keeping them quiet.
My solution was to move the two Synology servers and the NUC back into my study and improve the networking. Everyone’s happy again now 
Oh absolutely. I upgraded from a 2018 Mini to an M1 and it absolutely smokes. I can serve up 2 4K streams from Plex while still having perfect Roon streaming quality.
I don’t even think comparing to other options at the moment makes sense until Roon is optimized for ARM. It will offer some serious performance benefits and it’s already fast. Needless to say, it will run circles around your 2015 iMac.
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Yep, the easiest, cheapest, and arguably best solution is sometimes just to have the server sit out of sight and sound with the other network gear.
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That’s correct, the source file is being upsampled. Instead of using Roon’s DSP software to upsample the source file, you can use HQplayer.
Roon’s upsampling software is equivalent to Microsoft’s Paint program, HQplayer…Photoshop in Expert mode 
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Funnily enough I have been trawling threads reading up on HQPlayer over the last hour.
Looks very interesting, but I assume that it’s not going to talk back to something like my Matrix Audio mini-I pro 3 without me running a Pi into it over USB?
Take a read/post here:
Thanks fmzip I found that in a Google search and is open in a browser waiting to be read
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Just got Mac Mini M1 8-Core CPU 16GB Unified RAM | 256GB SSD for $759 from Apple store. Will move my core SonicTransporter i7 (4500u), Crucial 8GB ram, Samsung 250GB SSD to Mini. Nothing wrong with my ST, very happy with ST. Just can not pass the deals from Apple $140 cheaper regular price. 
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If you are looking for a home for your SSD that matches your M1, I picked up one of these:
https://www.amazon.com/Enclosure-Hagibis-Docking-Station-MacBook/dp/B088B4DCF2
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I think the problem with the Mac Mini M1 is that Roon Core does not run as a native app, but under bloated, emulator Rosetta 2.
But will still lick the nuts off of a NUC and Danny has said native support will come
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For a native roon core on M1, realistically I would expect 2 years from now.