Aurender is not designed to work with ROON…two very different operating ecosystems just like Apple and Android. You can either accept Aurender for what it’s designed to do or move on to ROON compatible hardware :-)
Showing 7 responses by lalitk
“aurender sees roon as the enemy“ Not exactly since Aurender was founded in 2011, four years ahead of ROON’s launch in 2015. |
Aurender has committed considerable resources in developing a robust and intuitive app since their launch. I don’t think it’s fair to label Aurender as enemy of ROON just because they choose not to support ROON for philosophical reasons. As far as other streamers companies, some of them have already developed their own proprietary music management software which (based on the feedback) proving to be far more superior to ROON in terms of sound quality. Not to mention, majority of the streamers that support ROON can’t operate independently unless you pair them with an external device running a ROON Core. IMHO, Aurender decision to not support ROON is not only strategic but a wise one too. |
My reference to the timeline was to depict Aurender long term commitment to a closed loop robust software app that offers much superior integration with their hardware and cloud based streaming services like Tidal and Qobuz. They were already well positioned in the market when ROON launched so it makes little to no sense to adopt ROON for their streamers. My point is simple, why the likes of you see Aurender decision to not adopt ROON in negativity. And why does everything needs to be ROON compatible..what is the fun in that :-) A friendly competition usually leads to a win-win situation for end users. |
The respect is mutual as I always appreciated your point of view and contributions here. But I must disagree with you on couple of things, 1) roon is a software overlay, it does not have a sound - If you think ROON algorithm does not impact the data stream and final sound then you’re living in a bubble my friend. Let’s leave aside the fancy interface and its library management capabilities for a moment and focus on its impact on sound. Each of these software apps, ROON, XDMS, Sense and Conductor have a sound or sonic signature. There has been ongoing discussions about XDMS and Sense sounding better than ROON using the same hardware and implementation. I never said ROON sounds bad but as others have confirmed and what I’ve found by comparing ROON with Conductor, ROON is manipulating (altering) the data stream to a point where both Qobuz and local files sounds bit glossy or unnatural to my ears. This has been my conclusion after listening through ROON over 18 months now. In my system, both ROON and Aurender are implemented meticulously as far as hardware and cost goes, both connected to a very good DAC over Ethernet. 2) to say anything is done in this case is ’philosophical’ is rather bleary eyed and naive in my view - I suggest you read up on why Aurender chose to implement low-power high-efficiency Intel CPUs and what their software engineers are doing to specifically optimize playback performance. 3) Agreed 4) but why does roon have so many customers? - Let’s toss this into personal preferences, budget constraints, hardware options and biases. The landscape of streaming looks pretty darn good for everyone involved in developing hardware, software, streaming services and end users. It’s a perfect time to embrace streaming based on our budget and personal preferences. |
You’re spot on in your assessment of various players having unique sound characteristics. I have friends who swears by and prefers HQPlayer SQ over ROON by a wide margin where HQPlayer is the final arbiter. IMHO, this is by far probably the best configuration for those who prefer the ROON interface and library management. ROON can be configured to implement HQPlayer into a Zone, where HQPlayer takes the stream of bits from media files from ROON. This allows the end users to enjoy the benefits of HQPlayer SQ and the library management capabilities of Roon at the same time. |
“i think the to and fro thus far is useful for other readers who might review this thread and they can treat it as input for their own decisions about streamer selection, roon etc...” Agreed! Of course the intent was not to argue but engage in a meaningful dialogue and share our collective experiences. Happy Thanksgiving 🍁 |