It might very well be, however, that dCS upsampling algorithms are superior to HQ Player. In that case a dCS Rossini with its internal upsampling might be preferable to HQ Player + Vivaldi. A Vivaldi DAC + Vivaldi Upsampler is a different story, of course.
DCS Rossini
- Thread starter Barry2013
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It might very well be, however, that dCS upsampling algorithms are superior to HQ Player. In that case a dCS Rossini with its internal upsampling might be preferable to HQ Player + Vivaldi. A Vivaldi DAC + Vivaldi Upsampler is a different story, of course.
very true and i agree with you, I might also add to my statement above yours is that no guarantee up sampling via hq player is better than the Vivaldi dac alone. someone just has to test it and see...
The problem with roon for me is that it still requires a PC to be part of the playback chain. The DCS interface for playback via the Ethernet input is not that great, so I have continued to use my Aurender via USB to playback files from my NAS.
I have tried to get the Lumin and Linn apps with Minimserver for playback, but their are functionality limitations (like no dsd playback). I'm hoping DCS will develop their App to improve the UI or support full playback via other apps, or roon will develop a NAS package for playback.
Why is a computer a problem? You wouldn't have to have it in your listening room' like your NAS it could be elsewhere.
Personal preference. I've done the PC audio route before and I enjoy the simplicity of the Aurender / Auralic (yes, they are PC's inside) and the UI they provide.
I decommisioned a windows server box to a NAS setup to save space and operating cost. Note, wife pays the electric bill (which has all my gear on it) so if I can drop a few pennies on it she notices
.I sit in my office now with 4 PC/Mac's around me, so lets just say I like to "disconnect" from them every now and then as well
.
Adam,
What are the best foruns and threads to learn about Roon and how to install it?
Thanks for the link. Last I checked, only a Beta QNAP solution was available. Will have to give the Synology package a try, but reading the required specs it may be an issue (using a DS716+ with RAM upgraded).
My go to address for anything computer audio related is Computer Audiophile. Boot Roon has their own forum as well.
That is the problem. You need a really powerful NAS to run it (preferably with Intel i3-i5 processor family) with an SSD for cache.
It will run on slower machines as well, but the search times may be long (like 5s-10s long).
Synology recently also added the SSD support feature for their NAS drives, which also includes some older models. From what I've read a small SSD (128-256GB) for Roon cache is essential for good performance of the Roon on a NAS.
Hi
This could be germane to the present discussion. Rather than trying to shoehorn Roon in a NAS one could simply use a small footprint but full power PC such as the Lenovo m93p fitted with an SSD e.g Lenovo ThinkCentre M93P Tiny Desktop (Intel Core i7-4765T Processor 2.1GHz , 16 GB RAM, 256GB SSD,) available on Amazon for circa $800 or use an Intel NUC with an Inttel i5 Processor, SSD, +16 GB and
be done...
The Lenovo with i7 could well run HQPLayer too
I have successfully used both in professional applications that require much more horsepower than Roon, things like HD Surveillance and database.
This could be germane to the present discussion. Rather than trying to shoehorn Roon in a NAS one could simply use a small footprint but full power PC such as the Lenovo m93p fitted with an SSD e.g Lenovo ThinkCentre M93P Tiny Desktop (Intel Core i7-4765T Processor 2.1GHz , 16 GB RAM, 256GB SSD,) available on Amazon for circa $800 or use an Intel NUC with an Inttel i5 Processor, SSD, +16 GB and
be done...
The Lenovo with i7 could well run HQPLayer too
I have successfully used both in professional applications that require much more horsepower than Roon, things like HD Surveillance and database.
Hi Al,
That is quite a statement "dCS upsampling algorithms are superior to HQ Player"
Do you mean "in your opinion" or do you mean that quantitatively you have evidence to substantiate this? I am very interested in this subject so would be very grateful for the source of information.
I don't think Al is making that statement. He said it "might very well be". I don't know of anyone who has made that comparison. I know as an HQPlayer user myself, I would like to know and if I ever get a Rossini to audition I will make that comparison myself.
Ah - got you MadFloyd. I thought that someone somewhere had done some kind of formal assessment of the algorithms and compared. I would be very surprised indeed if they were such is the computationally intensive nature of some of Hqplayer algorithms done in 80 bit (as I have been informed) and requiring very hefty chips to run them. Particularly something like dsd512 or higher with the beta 512 modulators.
Cheers
It is very hard for you to make the comparison Mad Floyd because you won't be able to reduce the other critical confounders. You would need to get access to the dCS algorithms for use on your computer source or the Hqplayer filters on the dCS and compare that way.
Hi Frantz,
Once a full PC enters the equation, ease of use is thrown completely out the door... I just installed Roon Server in our local NAS (a QNAP 6-bay, older model, so no i3/i5/i7), with just 2Gb RAM. It took a few hours to scan all my 13Tb of music, but it's performing beautifully now, playing DSD and hi-res into an Auralic Aries (and then to an MSB DAC via USB).
Also, if you use a PC, you're at the mercy of network throughput. If it's in the NAS, it's accessing your music directly on the local FS. Much faster and generally more reliable.
Can you save oversampled files created by HQPlayer or can HQplayer directly play with a Vivaldi or Rossini?
I think that we can not separate the algorithm performance from the particular DAC - I expect designers to optimize their algorithms for their specific hardware.
You can't create an oversampled file in Hqplayer and save it but presumably you could do it with a USB interface and Pyramix?
You can feed either of the dCS dacs Hqplayer upsampled tracks via computer albeit "limited" to 24/384 or dsd128 DoP. I say "limited" only because Hqplayer will upsample far in excess of what the dCS can accept.
On another note, I personally feel that DoP sounds worse than native for dsd.
But we can critically appraise the computational power of the algorithms applied, right?
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