I have a CX / EX / P2 (not upgraded) running 3.12.
I have successfully set up HQP as a Roon Zone (Roon Core > HQPlayer (CX) > HQP NAA (EX); I really want to maintain the Roon UI for playback), and I am successfully upsampling various PCM content (streaming and local) to either DXD PCM, or to SDM DSD128 (using ASDMv2EC, etc). Upsampling to DSD256 works too, but the CX can’t keep up and there are dropouts in the playback – but no weird crashes.
The weird problem I have is: although I can upsample PCM to DSD128, I cannot natively play back DSD 128 (reliably) or 256 (ever), even with the ‘SDM Direct’ setting enabled in HQP. Whenever I try to play back a DSD256 file in Roon, Roon remote (running on a Mac laptop) loses contact with the CX Roon Core, and I have to restart the service on the CX, or sometimes reboot the whole CX, to get Roon back. During this time the CX is still responsive, and I can access the Server Dashboard, HQP Configuration, etc. But the Roon Core is unresponsive.
Anyone else having this issue?
DSD256 & 128 playback of the same files works perfectly through Squeeze Server (CX) / Squeeze Player (EX).
Hi there. I have the same setup as you (minus the P2). I have Roon Core on my CX, with HQPlayer NAA on my EX, connected to my DAC via USB, and using an iPad Pro for Roon Remote. I can play native DSD256 no problem. What DAC do you have? Can you post a screenshot of your HQPlayer NAA settings on the EX?
Here is an image of playback of a DSD64 file with those settings. You can see that ‘SDM Direct’ appears to be working: the track is playing back in DSD 64 and not getting upsampled to 128.
Here is playback of PCM 352 with same settings. Any local PCM playback is fine.
I do sometimes get issues with streaming PCM (Qobuz 24/192) with these settings. But instead of a simple gap in playback, the Roon UI (the remote running on a new MacBook laptop) loses connection to the Core.
Hi. You can highlight the HQPlayer Server box under Roon Player Special Option, and then click on Open to access the HQPlayer settings. By the way, did you apply the HQPlayer license to the CX or EX?
It’s best to keep the processing on the CX and have the EX run only the lightweight HQplayer NAA. The license in this case would only get applied to the CX.
Yes I agree. In Roon Remote the Roon Core is the CX, and under Settings - Setup, the EX has been added as the HQPlayer. In my case only the EX HQplayer settings take affect, and I have no issues playing DSD up to 512.
@mreid Could you provide equivalent screenshots to mine just to clarify? It sound like you are NOT running HQPlayer (the orange button in the dashbaord) on the CX and you are instead using the “HQPlayer Server” functionality (the orange button on the EX dashboard) to render DSD files.
As per @kennyb123’s point that definitely gives you less processing power, but I guess you are only playing DSD 256, and not upsampling to it.
… Anyway, this is a novel configuration (to me). I will try it and report back.
My license is on the CX, where I am running HQP. HQPlayer (which is the HQP NAA endpoint) is the only thing running on my EX.
I have tried selecting the “HQPLayer Server” option on the EX (and set up a new HQP Zone in Roon pointed to the EX’s IP address) but I seem to have 2 issues:
1 - When I click the ‘launch the App’ button next to EX “HQPLayer Server” I get prompted for a user / password. It would appear only Antipodes can configure this?
2 - I can see the Zone, in Roon, and start playback, but I get the behaviour where the Roon Signal Path box where the signal path is shown but actual playback never starts; the cursor is stuck at the beginning of the track and nothing plays.
And I guess @mreid what is your Antipodes OS version?
