This is what I find so natural about the renderer and computer separation. Having both in one box means you have to go to huge lengths to make that computer both powerful, cool, and electrically silent.
Conisder for example HQP upsampling to DSD512: It is (almost) a must to use a CUDA card to do this reliably. You cannot put a CUDA card in an audiophile PC and expect it to be silent.
So the best configuration I can think of is:
1- A powerful computer in a different room, with a CUDA card, the ability to mount gobs of hard drives, rip, etc. This computer can be ugly and made of plastic - doesnât matter - for just $2000 you can blow everything else out of the water in terms of performance.
2- A high quality renderer to which you stream the data to be played.
Want to upgrade the ass-ugly computer with more power, more drives, more powerful CUDA card, etc? No problem! This makes sense to me.
So more OT for this: I will try Roon over RoonReady vs Roon+HQPlayer over NAA when v1.3 comes out.
If you set HQPlayer to NOT upsample, then it will send a bit-perfect stream to the DAC. What this means is that the DAC itself will upsample - except for NOS (No Over Sampling) DACs. If you set HQPlayer to upsample then it will NOT be bit perfect by construction since it is increasing sample rate and bit depth.
A few questions in case you knowâŠ
1- Is the playback engine itself re-written?
2- Who wrote the upsampling engine? A+ uses iZotope for PCM, mansrâs for DSD, HQP their ownâŠ
3- All of these DSP operations are done in the core correct? Will they work with whatever endpoint I choose if it is supported by that endpoint?
I was pleasantly surprised but havenât given it a scientific comparison with HQP. In particular the levels I was using were nowhere near matched, Roon being slightly louder. Understandably I perceived Roon as being more âdirectâ, but I suspect most of that is due to the level mismatch.
Iâm reading on other sites that ROON 1.3 will have improved SQ? Is this true? Now I believe that ROON is 4th after Amarra for Tidal, Audirvana, and Pure Music. Lets hope 1.3 will improve SQ.
1.3 will sport a number of DSP options (think upsampling, EQ, convolution, updated volume levelling) if thatâs your thing. Apart from that, donât expect changes to the playback engine. Letâs just say that if you are using Roon to play to a DAC connected to a PC, youâre doing it wrong.
AC power, ethernet cables, DC power supplies, air humidity, it all maters, we all wish for the mythical âwire with gainâ but given everything else stays the same it is valid to swap paticular divices/ software to see if ther is a difference in SQ. Try it, all these software âbit perfectâ options have free trials. See for yourself.
This comment intrigues me because that is essentially what Iâm doing (albeit with the recent addition of HQPlayer); PC/Roon to HQPlayer to my audioengine d1 DAC (which is mainly serving as an amp for my Senn 598s). Three months ago I was listening to mp3âs straight from the motherboard sound system, so Iâm in a pretty good place but I know I can get better. Later this year Iâll be moving to a bigger space with a moderate budget to upgrade my DAC and add an amp and some decent speakers. Is there a thread/blog that explains, generically and understandably, what the elements of an optimum topography should look like? For example, do I need a renderer?; Is there any benefit to stand-alone storage?; what are the pro/cons of integrated amps or active speakers? Iâm not looking (yet) for why Schiit is better than NAD, but more a discussion of what are the essential pieces and what are the maybe nice to havesâŠ
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Looking forward to this feature in 1.3. What are your sound quality impressions using the Roon upsampling/filtering?
