Wireworld Starlight 7 HDMI (the one with the red jacket that looks like this).
I called my Wireworld dealer to inquire about the Silver Starlight 7 and Platinum Starlight 7 HDMI cables, but he recommended the red-colored Starlight 7 as sonically identical to the Silver and Platinum for less $$.
Unfortunately, the now-discontinued Starlight 7 HDMI has become almost impossible to find in standard lengths (1.0m and 2.0m).
I am glad I donāt use your dealer.
Me too. 
I know this thread is dated, but it seemed like a good place to ask this:
I normally run Roon Core on a Mac Mini, networking over to an etherRegen/ultraRendu/Matrix/DS DAC.
How do I set up HQPlayer (desktop and/or client) on the Mac Mini to interface with Roon? Iāve skimmed through the HQPlayer manual, but it was not intuitively obvious how to set things up, though Iāll look again. Are there any KBs out there that would be helpful?
Can it even be done that way?
Iāll re-learn the different types of filtering and such, but Iād like to just get the bits communicating first.
I used to use HQP in conjunction with PureMusic/iTunes, so I have some experience, but itās been quite a while.
Thanks!
How far have you gotten?
HQPlayer will live at the endpoint, not the core (unless your core is the endpoint).
Once you install hqp on the Mac, this Roon knowledge base page is pretty good:
Not terribly far, thanks. I think the issue might be that my endpoint is an UltraRendu. Core runs on a Mac Mini that is in another room.
I set the ultraRendu to HQP mode instead of Roon Ready mode. This sets up an NAA, I think. HQP desktop on the Mini could then see the ultraRendu, so I set that as backend. Selected HQPlayer as the endpoint in Roon.
From there, when I start a track, it seems to work as far as playing, and HQP on the Mini shows an active scrubber, so something is happening.
However, no sound off the main system.
Am I missing something? Is it the case where HQP has to be run on the endpoint?
terzinator has it backwards. HQPlayer never runs on the Endpoint unless the Endpoint is also the Core. HQPlayer can run on the Core or some other computer on the same network.
It would appear you have something setup wrong with Roon or HQPlayer. The Roon community is the best place to seek help on this.
Yah, Iāll have some time today to chase down settings, which is where my problem lies, Iām sure.
Over on the Roon forum, it seems that many people have trouble getting set up. Weāll seeā¦
Hereās a thread on the Roon forum that might help:
Sorry? Maybe Iām misunderstanding the terminology.
I have a Mac mini Roon core. HQPlayer has NOT been installed on that machine.
I have several other Mac endpoints. HQPlayer HAS been installed on those machines.
As everyone already knows. I feel Foobar setup correctly with all the correct plugins is best and lightest. You will need Kernel Windows+Audiophile Optimizer+Fidelizer too. Depending on yourself the learning curve can be very steep or it can be a breeze to some. The correct plugins and setup procedure is key. I am not going to provide a tutorial here. I feel that done right it can easily best HQPlayer. YMMV. I Said YMMV so please do not hound me! If you look for something much more plug 'n play then yes, HQPlayer. At that point I would not waste your money on further optimization software. This is Windows only.
Fixed my setup issues, thanks to Jussi on the Roon forum.
It was a simple matter of having my volume settings too low. Once I got that sorted, the rest was easy.
Well, instead of saying that āHQPlayer never runs on the Endpoint unless the Endpoint is also the Coreā, I should have said that "HQPlayer is intended to run on the Core or a separate computer other than the Endpoint. In the Roon/HQPlayer environment, the Endpoint is supposed to be a lightweight and low electrical noise device. Using a device that has the power to run the CPU and memory intensive HQPlayer is diametrically opposed to the purpose of Core/Endpoint model.
In your setup, running HQPlayer on the Endpoint means the Endpoint needs to be more powerful than the Core. That is bass ackwardsā¦
Alrighty then.
I have several mac miniās that Iāve decommissioned from my office, so I figured I might just use them for audio. The core mini runs Roon Core, and the endpoint miniās run Roon Bridge (as well as HQPlayer).
Seems to work fine for me, but iām sure there are far less bass-ackward solutions out there.
Again, the whole idea of the Core/Endpoint model is to have the Core do the heavy lifting and Endpoint do almost nothing. You are turning that model on its head and defeating its purpose. Just because you can do something does not mean it is a good idea sonicallyā¦
Donāt assume one is going to upsample with HQP(e). I run it on my endpoint and not on my Roon Core simply to separate it and I feel it sounds nicer than Roon Bridge on the same endpoint.
I do upsample mostly but not always and not to DSD so the load is negligible.
My point is there are many ways to skin a cat with HQP(e) - embedded in my case.
@brett66, you can do whatever you want. But, if you are using the Endpoint to run HQPlayer Embedded, you are using an endpoint that makes a lot more electrical noise than an HQPlayer Network Audio Adapter (NAA) which is intended to be a very lightweight computing device. Even if you do no upsampling you must use a more heavy duty computing device to run HQPlayer Embedded on the endpoint and that hurts sound quality.
I wasnāt aware that Jussi makes NAA as a bootable image. Iāll try it. Will Roon send to NAA without HQP running somewhere on the network?
Edit: It still requires HQP to be running somewhere as Roon canāt send directly to NAA. I might try it on a Ubuntuā¦
I run HQPlayer Embedded and Roon Core on a sonicTransporter i9 and use an ultraRendu as a HQPlayer NAA.
I am very happy with the ultraRendu. But, if I had to do it again I think I would try one of the NAA bootable images on something like this:
I still think the ultraRendu would be better as it is far simpler to manage and it is about as minimal hardware-wise as you can get. Even the RaspberryPi solutions are far more of a computer than the ultraRendu.
Iām not TRYING to turn the model on its head, but this is how I interpreted how it should work, and itās what seems logical.
If you have multiple endpoints, and HQPlayer resides only on the core, how do you specify what device HQPlayer should send the audio to?
For example, in HQPlayerās ādeviceā dropdown, one specifies the DAC (or X-SPDIF 2 if applicable). If HQPlayer is on the core, what device gets the signal?
And then, what if different HQPlayer filters/bitrates work better with different DACs/systems? Like, letās say you have one DAC that is happy with DSD, and another that only processes 24/192 PCM?
Maybe all this can be dealt with if HQPlayer is on the core, but I donāt know how to do it. It would seem all settings need to be global.
(Iām sure I will have other questions as more are answered.)