HQ Player with Bridge II

Audio Components DACs
1

Hi

Is there anyone who is using Bridge II with HQ Player (preferably without Roon involved)? Does it work and is it easy to setup?

Are there any benefits to:

  1. using the HQ Player filter

  2. upsampling with HQ Player since the DS DAC maxes out double DSD?

Thanks

2

I came across this post as I was searching for a similar answer.

As I understand, the chain for files to follow would be:

Local HDD > Roon GUI for song selection > HQ Player for computing/playback > ?? > DSJr Bridge II

I really enjoy Roon but I don’t understand how to be able to output files over the network to the bridge when using HQPlayer. Is an additional piece of gear required for this?

3

HQPlayer doesn’t work with Bridge II as it doesn’t work with HQP network audio adaptor. Bridge uses UPnP protocol which is distinct and separate.

I used HQP for a while with my USB chain since it allowed LANRover to work while streaming from my Mac Mini via Roon. WIthout it Roon was dead in the water with LANRover on Mac Mini. I fiddled with the settings on HQP for a while but wasn’t able to improve on sound using DS Sr. Eventually I let DS Sr handle all upsampling. I have yet to hear from anyone on this forum that HQP via USB does a better job upsampling than DR Sr does on it’s own, with it’s passive filter. I will say my sound through Bridge II is superior than my USB LANRover chain, which is very very good.

4

amgradmd,

Hello neighbor (Mechanicsville VA), I use a Mac Mini with Roon to HQP, > out on ethernet bridge to SoTM200 > AQ Diamond USB to USB in on a PSA DS Jr. I also have ethernet > DS Jr. and A/B testing shows hands down that the HQP/SoTM200 path is the best sound I’ve heard from my system. Basic audio path is DS Jr. to Parasound A21 power amp > Magenpan 3.7 speakers. I tried the LANrover, it’s no match for the SoTM200, so I took it out of the system, I do however use the LANrover in my second system to good effect.

5

Thank you for the comments.

For this I’d really like to avoid USB if at all possible and finding an NAA compliant device which intakes ethernet and outputs AES, I2S or BNC is hard (I haven’t found one yet actually). Otherwise I’d likely use a MicroRendu + Singer SU-1. Here’s the kicker, ethernet connections are sonically fantastic and IMO superior to USB.

At the end of the day, at least on paper, it seems redundant to upsample to X bit rate to the DirectStream, only for it to perform its own upsampling internally. I suppose the only way to tell for myself will be buy/sell items which doesn’t seem that appealling either.

For those who use HQPlayer, which sample rate(s) do you use to upsample to the DirectStream? DSD128 for everything?

6

In fact, excepting for personal preference, it’s likely to be worse to upsample anything to DSD external to the DS. If you have to change the from double or quad rate DSD to a lower rate because of the limited bandwidth thru the bridge II I’d recommend to go to 24/176.4 not single rate DSD. The possible exception is if you know that your DSD to DSD sample rate converter does all of it’s math at the highest sample rate of the input and output. Most go to a lower rate PCM as an intermediate step to avoid filtering at the high DSD sample rate.

Of course, use whatever path sounds best to you.