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HQPlayer Embedded on a Raspberry Pi 5

5 min read

Checked on 2026-10-22 against Signalyst's download pages and packages. The package was installed on a Raspberry Pi 4 under Raspberry Pi OS, built on Debian 13 (version 6.0.2, 2026-09-22); what it does once installed was measured on an x86 box under Debian 13 in September 2026. The Pi 5's limits are Signalyst's, with their dates.

On this page5

Short answer: yes, HQPlayer Embedded runs on a Raspberry Pi 5, and Signalyst publishes it for that board in two forms. The Pi 5 suits stereo, not multichannel, and its USB output has a known problem at the highest rates. Whichever way you install it, HQPlayer Embedded needs a licence from Signalyst; without one, it runs for half an hour at a time.

Two ways to install it

  • A ready-made system image. You write it to a microSD card and the Pi starts as an HQPlayer machine: the image replaces the Pi's whole system with one built for HQPlayer. Version 6 images exist for the Pi 5 only; the only Pi 4 image is a 5.17.2.
  • A Debian package, hqplayerd, for Debian 13 on arm64, the same for a Pi 4 and a Pi 5. It installs like any other program, so HQPlayer sits beside your other players: MPD, Roon Bridge, AirPlay, a UPnP renderer.

The image is the simpler route if the Pi will do nothing else; the package, if the Pi is also your streamer.

Install the package on Raspberry Pi OS or Debian

The package needs Debian 13, or a Raspberry Pi OS built on it. To check:

grep VERSION_CODENAME /etc/os-release

It must answer VERSION_CODENAME=trixie. Then take the newest version in Signalyst's Debian 13 folder, 6.1.1 on 2026-10-22, a 127 MB download, and install it:

wget https://signalyst.com/bins/hqplayerd/trixie/hqplayerd_6.1.1-5_arm64.deb
sudo apt install ./hqplayerd_6.1.1-5_arm64.deb

Version 6 starts at once, and at every boot. Installed again after a removal, it stays off until you turn it on:

sudo systemctl enable --now hqplayerd

DietPi on Debian 13 takes the same commands: its software list does not offer HQPlayer Embedded (DietPi 9.20).

Version 5 does not install on Debian 13. It depends on libgmpris, which neither Debian nor Signalyst's Debian 13 folder provides, and apt stops with:

Unsatisfied dependencies:
 hqplayerd : Depends: libgmpris but it is not installable

A licence for version 5 calls for Signalyst's 5.17.2 image instead.

Then, by hand

  • Give its web page a password. The package installs it without one, so the settings pages turn everybody away, and each refused sign-in writes OnAuthRequest(): digest not set to its log. Set one with Signalyst's own command, then restart the service: HQPlayer reads it only when it starts.

    sudo hqplayerd -s hqplayer your-password
sudo systemctl restart hqplayerd

    Its web page is then at http://<the Pi's address>:8088: sign in as hqplayer. The password stays in your shell's history, and in the system journal, where sudo records each command it runs: choose one you use nowhere else.

  • Give it an output. It has none after installation, and plays nothing. On its web page, open Configuration and choose your DAC under ALSA backend → Device. A DAC another player is using is left off that list.

  • Keep an eye on its log. It writes to /tmp/hqplayerd.log, which is memory on Debian 13, adds to it at every start, never empties it, and has no setting for its size. Most of the time that is a few lines. During one fault, I saw it write 600 MB a minute. ls -lh /tmp/hqplayerd.log shows the size; restarting the Pi empties it.

  • The trial counts from the start of the service, not from the first note. Without a licence, HQPlayer stops taking commands about 32 minutes after it starts, whether or not it played meanwhile. It writes nothing about it in its log; it just stops answering. sudo systemctl restart hqplayerd gives you another half hour.

What a Pi 5 can handle

Jussi Laako, who writes HQPlayer, has answered this on the Roon forum:

  • Stereo, yes; multichannel, no. "It's only quad-core, so not great for multichannel (typically you'd have minimum one or two cores per channel)" (September 2023).
  • Its USB output fails at the highest rates. "There are some hardware/OS issues with RPi5 and 48k x512 and higher output rates" (March 2024). The issue "is specific to USB output": up to 44.1k × 512 or 705.6k PCM, "it should work" (May 2024). In February 2025, still: "native DSD256 output works on RPi5. On my testing issue appears on 768k PCM and 48k x512 DSD, and up". His way around it is a Raspberry Pi 4 as the NAA between the Pi 5 and the DAC, "that way you avoid the USB issues of RPi5". Of the Pi as an NAA, in June 2025: "Only RPi4 works properly, RPi3 and RPi5 don't (due to hardware bugs)."

I have not measured HQPlayer Embedded on a Pi 5 myself.

Two practical points:

  • Power it with a 5 A supply, such as the official 27 W one. With any other, the Pi 5 "restricts downstream USB devices to 600 mA of power", instead of 1.6 A: a DAC powered from USB may not get enough.
  • Set the DSD rate limit before the first play. HQPlayer Embedded comes set to DSD256. If your DAC stops lower, lower it on the web page, under Configuration → SDM settings → Rate limit: 2822400 for DSD64, 5644800 for DSD128. Some DACs accept a rate they cannot convert and hiss instead of playing.

With Audiogravity

In its Pro edition, and during its 30-day trial, Audiogravity installs Signalyst's package from its Audio Software tab. You choose the line your licence covers; it sets the password with Signalyst's command and restarts HQPlayer, keeps its log in 10 MB of memory of its own, lets you choose its output in the Config tab, and never moves an update to another major version.

The details are in the manual: Outputs & engines → HQPlayer Embedded, and Troubleshooting → HQPlayer Embedded stops after half an hour.

Sources