Current quality of Rune

Use the sense app on the Innuos and you will be fine. 

Autocorrect changed Roon to Rune.  lol  Can that be fixed?

@gkelly Yeah, that's what I've been doing.  It works great.  I wanted to see how the streamer in the dac compares to the Innuos. 

Roon is rock solid. Great UI, great features. Sound quality is good but it almost never sounds as good as streaming via native app. 
Your Innuos will be better than the streamer in the dac but if you want to try Roon, go for it. 
One other option to stream with your DAC network card is Mconnect. Download the app and you can use Qobuz or Tidal with it. 

Audirvana has many audio settings. The issue of loud static when switching songs in Audirvana might be related to several factors. Here are some potential solutions:

1. Check Audio Settings: Ensure your audio settings in Audirvana are optimized. Try reducing the buffer size and adjusting sample rate settings.

2. Disable Gapless Playback: If enabled, try disabling gapless playback in the audio output settings to see if it resolves the issue.

3. Update Software and Drivers: Make sure both Audirvana and your DAC drivers are up-to-date.

I use Audirvana and like it very much.  I suggest you investigate further to see what is going on. And maybe post this question on the Audiovana Community forum.  

@audphile1 Does mconnect work on a tablet or would I need to use it on a laptop?

My dac appears to support AirPlay; Roon, UPnP/DLNA, HQPlayer, and Spotify.  I don't use Spotify, so that's not an option. 

@hgeifman Thanks for the reply.  I think I've tried all of those things, but I'll try again. I like the program. I installed the remote app so I can run it with my tablet. 

A few people claim Roon sound quality not up to par, most don't have issue. My argument is regardless of music player being used, streams should equal sound quality of cd's played via a quality cd transport, or rips on a hard drive. I've run Audirvana and Roon, both are capable of this.

I’ve been into computer based audio for over 15 years. I’ve tried pretty much all the software during that time; Pure Music (Channel D), Audirvana, JRiver, Bit Perfect, Roon, and probably others that I’ve since forgotten.

Based on my experiences, I purchased a lifetime Roon subscription when I first became available.

I periodically try other programs, but always come back to Roon for its sound quality, ease of use, and integration with Qobuz and HQ Player.

“Is it reliable? Good sound quality?

@sls883

The answer to your query, YES! Roon got the best UI (user interface) and streaming SQ greatly varies on the choice of hardware used as an endpoint (render) and server.

The preference between Audirvana vs Roon is clearly dominated by end user experience. You will find people in both camps swearing by its superiority, based on their experience. In both instances, the bottom line is implementation and choice of hardware. Both software are capable of good sound quality. I would suggest that you focus on your choice of hardware and allow yourself to get fully acclimated to Roon. There is a bit of learning curve with Roon, once you do familiarize yourself with Roon, you won’t be disappointed.

IME, Roon offers the best streaming experience! 

@lalitk I have Roon installed on my laptop and it's running. I installed the program on my tablet as well.

Are there any particular settings that I should check? 

I'll do some homework and get more familiar with the program. 

Quick listen, it sounds good. 

This static problem may not be related to Roon.  It's often a problem withe the DAC not syncing the right bit rate.  For instance, playing 96/24 and then switching to 44/16.  I've had some luck fixing this a couple of different ways. You can upsample everything to the same bit rate, for instance, 96/24.  Then your DAC never has to switch.  It's not a bad approach as some DACs simply perform better at higher sample rates. 

The other approach is to go into the advanced (I think) settings of your DAC and increase the inter song delay.  Also worth checking you have the correct maximum sample rates.

@sls883 

Running Roon on a laptop is what I consider a basic set up. A good way to determine if you can get used Roon app interface and its features. If you like the Roon user interface (UI) then you can look into commercially successful hardware to take full advantage of its potential. I would read up on @sns posts. He has pretty much laid out the road map for anyone who wants to learn, build a SOTA streaming experience using Roon. 

Some folks will make their case that running Roon render and server separately will yield the best SQ. That’s not my experIence. To my earlier comment, the devil is in the details. If you pick a component that has managed to carefully execute both functionalities (end point + server) in one box then running a Roon server remotely is not necessary and would also keep things simple. 

I am using a one box purpose Roon render/server + DAC that allows me to take full advantage of Roon features and renders amazing sound quality. 

@erik_squires Thanks for the reply. The static problem is with Audivarna. I had the same issue with my Gustard R26 dac. I did some internet searching, and it seems to happen to a number of people with no simple solution.

I have Roon working and it's pretty nice. No clicks or static between songs. The gui is great and I'm just getting familiar with it.  I can see why people like it.

Once I have Roon optimized, I'll do a comparison with it connected through my dac and compare to my Innuos Zen Mk3 streamer. 

@lalitk It's working well. I love the gui. 

At some point, I'll do a comparison with my Innuos streamer, but everything sounds good. If the Innuos streamer sounds better, I'll just use it. 

OK, correct menu items are "Device Setup" then "Resync Delay"

That will probably fix most problems. 

Under Show Avanced options however you should check the maximums to ensure that Roon doesn't think your DAC can do what it cannot, and also worth setting the buffer size to maximum.  This slightly increases the time to play the first track but also makes your DAC less sensitive to network issues.

@sls883 

Innuos + Sense App provides a very good streaming experience. Sense app is well laid out but lacks the bells and whistles of Roon. I don’t think you loose much of sound quality streaming through Sense + Innuos but once you implement Roon properly you will not like anything else. So take your time exploring options with Roon hardware.

Good luck and enjoy your journey! 

I prefer BubbleUPnP to mConnect after using them both. But neither are preferable to a decent native streaming app. If you don't have one try a different streamer.

I agree a one box solution can equal or surpass a two box solution. At issue is the quality of the output or interface (usb, I2S, spdif, etc) of streamer. For instance if one is using a laptop for Roon, no brainer to adopt a two box solution, this means adding usb isolation devices which also go by the name renderer, endpoint, streamer;  Sonore MicroRendu is one example of these devices, many other manufacturers as well. These devices isolate computer noise that travels along usb cable from contaminating dac. End result is lower noise floor, greater resolution.  This is exactly why Roon offers a two box solution, therefore, Roon Core on computer, Roon Endpoint on the outboard usb device, computer now goes by the name server, no longer a streamer since it only serves the core to the actual music player streamer which is the Roon Endpoint. Limitation of Audirvana is that it can only be a one box solution, has no separate Endpoint last time I looked. I'm not surprised people have glitches when using Roon with general purpose computers, Roon requires a relatively large measure of processor resources,having other apps and such running on computer can overtax processors leading to all kinds of issues. As these music players continue to evolve they only tax processors more greatly, the user interfaces, analysis of huge libraries, dsp use up resources, you best have a powerful processor, large RAM for a glitch free experience.

Moving into a dedicated streamer may or may not preclude the need for the above device, depends on quality of interface within streamer. Highest quality streamers go a step further by further optimizing these interfaces within the streamer, in this case no outboard devices likely needed. Everything determined by how far one wants to take it, streaming can be a complex or simple undertaking, optimization of streaming interfaces and many other streaming components extremely variable.

Example of taking things to the extreme, https://www.whatsbestforum.com/threads/introducing-olympus-olympus-i-o-a-new-perspective-on-modern-music-playback.37939/

Mconnect works on smartphones or tablets. It’s easy to use, functional but super basic. 

As to a one box Roon (core/streamer) solution that’s done properly, we’re talking Grimm MU1 and MU2, Merging Technologies stack, etc….all north of $15,000. 
You ate not achieving that level of performance with a home built nuc or even a Roon Nucleus…don’t bother….

Roon is functioning very well. No noise between songs, etc.  The GUI is great. I like it better than the Innuos Sense app. 

I'm running it on a dedicated laptop with good speed and memory.  No issues using it with Roon. 

My son and I just did a comparison. He felt that the sq is similar, but I give the advantage to the Innuos streamer.  Things seem a little softer and less defined with Roon.  That could be the fault of the streamer built into my dac.  Idk. 

I really wanted to use Roon, but unless I have something set up incorrectly, I'll be using the Innuos Zen Mk3 streamer and it's Sense app. 

Things seem a little softer and less defined with Roon.

This is consistent with my findings as well. And this is with pretty much every Roon endpoint I’ve tried. 

@sns If I'm understanding correctly, my laptop is the Roon core. My dac has a built in bridge, or whatever it's called. They are both connected to the network, but there is no USB connection. It works well, but I could swear it's a little softer sounding than my Innuos streamer.

I think everything is set correctly. 

You can also configure roon to use your innuos as endpoint. Check that out as well. 

@sls883 

Apologies if I missed it, but how are you controlling volume?

@catastrofe The output on my dac is set to fixed.  I'm using the volume control on my preamp. 

@sls883 

Thanks. If you were using the digital volume control in Roon, I thought that might be contributing to the "softness" you're experiencing. Clearly not the case.

“I could swear it's a little softer sounding than my Innuos streamer.”
@sls883 

Rightfully so…your Innuos is a purpose built streamer designed to sound best with its proprietary Sense app. Just like Aurender is designed to sound best with its proprietary Conductor app. Roon functionality with Innuos, Aurender and Lumin is an added convenience. In contrast, if you listen to Grimm, Merging, Pink Faun, Taiko which are optimized for Roon experience, you will find Roon is anything but soft or recessed. My Merging Roon player competes favorably with any $50K Vinyl front end. 

@sls883  I have found the secret to great SQ in Roon is to turn off any equalization or volume control in Roon.  Don’t let it mess with the signal at all and it’s great.  IMHO.

@dougthebiker I changed the volume in Roon to fixed. It was set to "use device" which is fixed.

I don't find any equalization settings. 

@lalitk makes sense.  Given the gear that I have, I think I'm best off using the Innuos streamer. I do like the Roon GUI, but there's nothing wrong with the Sense app. 

I’m a big Roon fan, running the Nucleus + core. All digital media is on the internal hard drive, it is reliable, streams to my primary system and to any other system with a Roon compatible device attached. I use Roon Arc anywhere in the world to access my library plus Quboz, Tidal. Fantastic digital solution. 

@sls883 You're correct on everything, bridge in dac is endpoint or actual streamer. Agree with the others here, Innuos should be superior.

Also agree turning off many of these 'extras' with Roon is good, no volume leveling, throttle library analysis, no dsp. All these extras only add to work processor in streamer has to do, adds noise and may cause glitches if processor stressed. This also part of reason why general purpose computers not good as streamers, the operating systems alone take up far more processor resources than need be, dedicated streamers have operating systems optimized for streaming only, processor barely working which means low noise and no glitches. And I could go on and on about optimizing interfaces such as ethernet, usb, I2S, etc. general service computers don't give a crap about any of this, serious audio streamers pay great attention to all this.

@sns I'm learning that my laptop is playing a bigger role than I had thought. Makes sense, though. 

My son is kinda in the "bits are bits" camp. It took him a while to hear the difference because he had convinced himself that there wouldn't be any.  It was fairly obvious to me when I first tried Roon. It was confirmed when did the comparison.  Roon did sound really good, but the Innuos is better. I love the Roon interface, but the Sense app is good, too.  I'm sure Roon sounds great in other systems. 

@erock79 its an awesome program. Tons of features, but still very easy to navigate. 

Don't know if this still holds true for Innuos, but Innuos used to be in minimal processor low noise camp, other streamer manufacturers are in fast, powerful processor low latency camp. Roon requires more processor resources, works and sounds better with fast processor low latency camp streamers. Makes sense that sense app sounds better in Innuos streamer, that app designed specifically for their philosophy.

roon can sound magnificent it does depends on how you run it and how you connect it to your dac.

if you are connecting to your Dac via USB, then the quality of the server absolutely matters 

we were Importing the 432evo servers from Belgium which were designed to be a Roon core as well as delivering an ultra clean noise free Usb output to your Dac.

the 432evo servers combine a proprietary low latency operating system compartmentalized to run roon in its own cpu core with a state of the art clock  and USB cards and two outboard linear power supplies all designed to eliminate radiated noise,\.

the result is a much more analog sound from your Dac.

Dave and Troy

audio intellect NJ

Roon specialists and $#2evo dealers

I’ve subscribed to ROON with Tidal and Qobuz for around 18 months and I’m never going back…

Sound quality is excellent and “ROON Radio” new music discovery algorithm is in my opinion the best I e experienced yet.

Lifetime subscription is looming!

In my experience, the Innuous and Aurender apps sound better than Roon, but with Roon I can use the DSP function to correct for room/speaker interactions which results in a better sound.

I also think Roon has a much better UI and discovery mode.

Out of curiosity, what is your DAC?

@pourdecisions and others using Roon dsp, you can do far better dsp with HQPlayer. One of my streamers allows 1/2 hour auditions of HQPlayer, so this compared to Roon no contest, Roon opaque, artificial sound quality. One has to be aware using dsp requires tons of processor resources which may stress processor,result noise, glitches.

Pour we were Aurender dealers and found that a superior server running Roon far outperformed the Aurenders Roon servers can all sound different we went from Aurenderer to innous to the 432evo servers and each step brought improvements

to date we have tested Aurender, Auralic ,sotm, Baetis, Innous and finally 432EVO

Dave and Troy

Audio Intellect NJ

432EVO dealers

@pinball101 Gustard X-30.

I'm very happy with the performance of the dac.  I upgraded from a Gustard R-26 dac. 

There was a thread like this awhile back.  I picked out a few features in the ROON interface that I found really helpful and that I liked. I ask the question what other streamer apps have these features......Crickets.

I have a lifetime roon subscription. I guess it will continue when I die for the rest of my family.

I don’t like the file Manager system, it’s difficult to work with. Communication with a PC dermatologyfrom the nucleus Device is really difficult and the interface for this is requiring very sophisticated PC skills. Also the organization of albums I wish were more flexible rather than just throwing them all out there in one massive Collection of album cover pictures

I love commentary on so many individual albums and is blown away by the extent of information available. And it’s really quite good content.

Love to know how those with 1000 albums organize all this stuff Beyond just alphabetical.

If you never need Roon support them it's great

If you do you will discover it is the worst support model that has ever existed for a service that you pay for .

Thankfully I found Innuos Sense.

Everything Room should be with amazing support 

Roon support sent me on a 2 yr wild goose chase only to then tell me Room could not handle my library ...

This after I purchased a nucleus at their suggestion. They then refused to refund my $$$$ 

Terrible company 

Canceled my Rune, I mean Roon, free trial. I really like the program, but I don't think I could get it to sound as good as my Innuos streamer and Sense software 

I did see that my Innuos streamer has an experimental mode that would use Roon software, but use the Innuos player software.  Might get good sound quality that way, but I'm good with the Sense software, so I see no reason to try it. 

It's not only Roon that has a sound type, in my experience it's the OS type and setup that Roon operates in that affects Roon's final sound.

Until recently, Pink Faun used Euphony as their OS. This OS offers many playback setups including Euphony's own Stylus and Roon. Roon didn't sound nearly as good as Stylus in this setup.

Recently Pink Faun wrote their own OS with dedicated drivers to talk directly to their output cards and set it up so the heavy requirements of Roon search and playback were managed properly. Now Roon sounds better than Euphony/Stylus and will be their standard for their streamers going forward.

Roon is really the pinnacle of music discovery and management, it is acknowledged as the best there is with many hifi brands licensing or pre-installing it into their machines. The main problem with Roon is that it usually sounds only mediocre for higher end hifi enthusiasts. But it can be made to sound good if it is setup well in the correct OS, something difficult but worth doing.