Can you share your HQP settings please so I can try them and compare to Squeeze? I would be very interested to hear what you are hearing.
I wonder if he’s comparing Roon/HQPlayer with Roon/Squeeze. I actually prefer the former method of Roon integration, but, as you know, my absolute favorite is LMS/Squeeze.
I’m using default HQplayer settings via Roon. I used to prefer Squeeze because it played music better but after a lot of comparisons I think HQP simply has a lower noisefloor. I’m not a believer in upscaling. I tried that many years ago and found it merely increased processing of the sound. HQP reduced noisefloor, that’s why I bought it.
Sorry I’m being a bit thick. Are you using Roon server alone with the HQPlayer NAA player or are you using Roon + HQP servers with the HQPlayer NAA player (in other words taking advantage of HQP upscaling?
And are you saying that you prefer the sound of Roon + HQP compared the Squeeze + Squeeze?
I’m using Antipodes auto setup for HQP+Roon. Roon server is installed on my K40 server. Roon audio zone is set for HQP.
I liked the sound of Squeeze/Squeeze but that software was doing a poor job of curating my music. I found HQP via Roon provided better sound by removing the ‘mist’ from Squeeze, and it gave me a better music interface.
I could live with Squeeze+Squeeze but in the longterm I could not live with the interface.
My HQP setup is default, if the sound didn’t work in default mode I would not have bought it.
That ‘mist’ could very well be something in your chain is generating and that you are sacrificing transparency to rid yourself of that. I don’t hear a ‘’mist’ with Squeeze/Squeeze. In fact I am hearing a mind-blowing low noise floor. It even got lower last night after making a change I would have never expected to be audible (I swapped the DC cable feeding my router).
I agree with you for sure that Roon is a better interface than LMS/Squeeze.
Everything is coloured. You are being presumptive about the setup of my system. You like Squeeze, fine, I also like Squeeze, but I don’t delude myself that the colorations I like are ‘accurate’.
I put a decent powercord on my Innous PhoenixNet recently and that reduced the noisefloor further. Lower noisefloor means better and fuller tone texture, not the reverse.
Logitech Squeezebox with Roon server is too brittle for my tastes, might suit some who like a drier sound.
I wasn’t being presumptive. I was speculating which is why I used the word “could”. It’s an obvious thing to wonder given how many have claimed that Squeeze is the best sounding option on Antipodes.
I also didn’t use the word “accurate”. My observations are based on the absence of a grain and noise that I hear when I use Roon/HQPlayer along with the fact that Squeeze allows me to hear incredibly deep into recordings.
Yes but that doesn’t mean that fuller tone is always the result of a lower noise floor. HQPlayer doesn’t have a pure passthrough mode. It’s always processing what it’s fed. That can alter the sound for the better in some cases but in my opinion it degrades transparency. Reports suggest that transparency improves in v5, but I’ve not heard it.
I recently had another listen to Squeeze and found I preferred it to HQP. Before switching back to Squeeze I decided to try some HQP settings. The upscaling left me unimpressed so I tried the filters. I eventually disabled the PCM filters and WOW the sound is like Squeeze but better. With the filters it sounds compressed. Disable the filters and it sounds natural, but you do have to turn up the volume because you lose gain with compression is removed. I attach a copy of my HQP settings.
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