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Aurender vs Roon

I’ve been testing Roon running on an older MacBook vs Aurender N100SC into the same DAC (Weiss 501). Absolutely same network, Ethernet cable, and switch.

When playing songs through Qobuz the two sources have distinctly different SQ. Roon warmer and a bit less dynamic than the Aurender which is cleaner, dryer, and possibly slightly better sound stage. Ultimately the Aurender is better strictly from a SQ perspective—Roon is superior for the interface.
 

This is in the 5% difference space, but definitely different. 


I assume the Aurender is partly better because of a linear power supply and being dedicated hifi computer.

Question: is there a way through hardware to bring Roon server closer to Aurender or is there software processing going on here that is mostly responsible for the SQ difference?

w123ale

Showing 1 response by jjss49

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jjss49
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Update: changed my Roon connection to fiber and now cannot hear much difference between the Aurender and my Roon core. Roon for me is a supior interface—out with Aurender! 

there was a fairly recent thread on the sound (or lack of sound) of roon itself - it is all about how it is implemented... i agree that optical cleansing of ethernet feed is a big contributor in making roon or any streamer sound really top notch

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