HQ Player isn’t part of Emile’s desired design." That second part is important because it addresses the point that you (likely) don't feel it is necessary for optimal sound.
I hold HQ Player, and its creator Jussi, in very high regard. Jussi’s filter and modulator algorithms are in a league of their own. There is much more to Jussi then meets the eye. We may all be using algorithms, or parts of, he designed without even knowing it on a daily basis. It does provide a way to very high levels of playback fidelity without the need of very expensive DAC designs.
You can get remarkable results from a whole range of relatively affordable DACs by using HQ Player algorithms rivaling much more costly solutions.
We designed the original SGM 2015 to do exactly that, extract top level performance out of affordable DACs, using HQ Player algorithms. The value for money equation is beyond dispute.
The current upper market segment DACs all do a much better job at “bit perfect” playback then a few years ago, it’s just where the market demand is in this segment, so logically DAC development focuses on that. We are following suit with the Extreme, we do indeed primarily focus on improving “bit perfect” playback. But we are in no way suggesting nor implying HQ Player is an invalid approach. It can run on the Extreme, but the Extreme is just not partnered with DACs benefitting from this approach.
We had the SGM 2015 / EVO for that segment, unfortunately we cannot build it anymore, we will replace it, though priority is not high, as the market demand / interest is not there.