I’ve run HQPlayer desktop on a Mac Mini (late 2014, 2.6 GHz, i5, 16GB RAM). It ran reasonably well on all but the most demanding HQP filters, although I could not make the system play higher than DSD128. That apparently was a limitation of my DAC/amp (Peachtree Nova 150), which reportedly can process DSD 256 but only if fed by a Windows machine with ASIO drivers.
If you’re already tied into the Apple ecosystem, then IMO a Mac can make for a pretty good Roon music server.
It’s hard to respond to this - you ‘upgraded’ to a 9 year old computer and are disappointed roon doesn’t work better on it or offer more support?
I hope they put energy behind more recent machines vs things that are near the end of their lifespan
While I certainly agree on that I sure hope for anyone who has spend $2500,- on a nucleus plus it will be working for the next 10 years at the very least.
Seeing it is acting purely as a server with no graphics capability it will work. What may need upgrading will be the devices we use for display and control.
IMO computing technologies are reaching a point of maturity where we should be able to expect a lifespan approaching what we expect from other appliances. Especially if we’re talking about a HiFi “appliance” like a music server. 9 years is less than I’d expect from a sophisticated new HVAC system or a dishwasher. It’s less than I expect from a new car. It’s much less than I’d expect from a kitchen range or refrigerator. If the appliance has no moving parts, with a “set and forget” user interface, 9 years isn’t all that long. (But then, I’m pretty old!)
I think there is relatively little chance of that if you run Windows or Mac OS’s. However the chance is better running ROCK as Roon won’t be using the OS to drive hardware evolution like the big players do.
Although this discussion is interesting from a technical standpoint, I wonder if it’s the best way to go if sound quality is your goal. Upsampling cq resampling is a lossy process. Depending on how wel it is done, the losses might be very small. That as such need not stop you from upsampling. Like a navigation system might choose a longer route since it knows it takes less time and you have told it to pick the fastest route. But do realise that upsampling DOES NEVER improve the audio quality; it - at best- keeps almost all of the audio quality available in the original. So why can upsampling sound better to our ears? Well, that is because it’s harder for your DAC to do the filtering on a 44.1 kHz signal than on a 192 kHz signal. On higher DSD rates the reconstruction filter can be (almost?) non existent. Given the price/performance ratio of current DAC’s, investing in a better DAC will often provide you with a higher sound quality per buck than buying more and more computing power. Especially when your DAC is connected directly to the computer since intensive processing produces lots of electric noise that might almost certainly leak into the DAC and degrade performance. I made a video on upsampling (https://youtu.be/h8X2QcRtWSI) and one on computer audio in general (https://youtu.be/G9EreotBL6c). Just my 2 cents, please don’t feel offended.