Signalyst HQPlayer - Is it worth the upgrade?


I have been reading high praises in audio forums about HQPlayer rendering the best sound quality from Qobuz or Tidal. I realize best is subjective in the context of one’s system and end user’s personal preferences driven by choice of gear and budget. 

I have been a long time Aurender user and also been using Roon now for past 3 years. Those who have read my posts knows my take on Roon as not the best sounding renderer when directly compared with Aurender’s Conductor app. Others may disagree with my position on Roon but those are my findings within the context of my system. I do enjoy Roon interface for obvious reasons but not so much the sound. 

The purpose of my post is to explore the possibility of elevating the sound of my existing Roon player (Merging Technologies + player) by integrating HQPlayer as the final renderer. By doing so, Roon will pass along a stream of bits from my local stored files on SSD and stream from Qobuz. This configuration allows me to enjoy the benefits of HQPlayer SQ and the fabulous library management capabilities of Roon at the same time.

I am seeking opinions from those who have actually compared Roon vs HQPlayer or using HQPlayer exclusively. Did you find HQPlayer worth the upgrade? What hardware or device you’re using to enjoy HQPlayer in your system. 

Thank you! 

PS: Please refrain from posting if you’re in bits are bits, 1’s and 0’s camp or believe high end streamer/servers are over priced and waste of money. 

128x128lalitk

Did you try all possible filters? I have been following the AudiophileStyle forum too and understand that there are tons of filters you can apply. Might be you want to reach out in that forum and identify the one that might surpass your expectations. Now that you already invested so much, why not give it a shot? If there are folks here who have achieved what they like with HP Player, hope they read this thread and share their filter settings with you.

I am interested in trying this, sounds fun. What would my topology be?

considering: I have Roon Running on an SGC i5. I also have installed HQplayer on the i5. My Bryston BDP is the current Roon endpoint. Then My DAC.

I stream The Qobuz

 

Slowly figuring this out.  Got HQplayer added to Roon and it appears as an end point.  I suppose now I need to see if one of the USB ports on the Sonic transport has USB out?   

When I try to play a track roon says it can not connect to the HQplayer.  There is a note on the Roon help pages that indicate you have to configure HQP to "Allow control from network". But I dont see that setting in the embedded version I have on the SonicTransport?

@jbuhl that would be the small globe that you need to select. I'm sure you have this, but just in case, here's the link to the Roon HQ Player Knowledge Base, which briefly discusses this. I have to admit, it took me a while to navigate the setup process with HQ Player.