dCS Mosaic Vs Roon Nucleus Plus - Titan

Like @audphile1 , I found the native app (Lightning DS) to sound significantly better on my Auralic gear than Roon. I wasn’t initially expecting that result, but it was clear. While i greatly preferred the UI of Roon, I also preferred the sound of LDS - and it didn’t cost anything to use the native app. 

The question of why is worth exploring. As has been discussed exhaustively elsewhere, a streamer/server is really a specialized computer - optimized for the task. There are both caches and buffers to route the signal.

Roon, like Windows, must operate across many machines. Even though Roon certified, the hardware architecture is different. And, there is software that must interface. Even if you’re running Roon - it is parallel to the operating system running on the hardware.  Roon is also complex software with lots of options for processing.

While I would guess that you can tweak a system and settings to make Roon close - perhaps even equal in sound to the native software, that is not guaranteed. Auralic has even restructured some of their updates to make Roon closer in sound - because users like the UI. It still sonically falls short (not bad - just short) of LDS and I have grown very comfortable with LDS as my library management system.

However, it’s also true that for most of us - you can run both systems. Use Roon for general listening and native for critical listening if so inclined. 

Everyone should wish a happy day to the dCS legal staff who are monitoring this thread and waiting to threaten any negativity with legal proceedings 

I agree, Roon can sound just as good as anything else when done right. A lot of people I know default to an attitude where something that is more trouble to use sounds better to them. Sort of like vinyl where the ritual outshines the actual sound. People seem to feel like the sacrifice in usability compared to Roon makes some other streaming platforms sound better. I disagree but to each their own. 

If you put all the right components in the chain ROON can still match the SQ.

On my Nucleus Plus I first used an ifi Lan iSilencer which increased the performance but later replaced it with a SmoothLAN network filter which took it to another level   After breaking in detail, soundstage and clarity was at another level 

I don’t have experience with Mosaic but I compared Roon to several native apps   While Roon is unbeatable when it comes to UI/UX, it falls short sonically in most cases when compared to streamer apps and proprietary processing. 

I also highly doubt there’s a sonic difference between Roon Nucleus models if you only use those as Roon Core without leveraging Roon DSP (that’s when processing power comes into play and you can benefit from an upper tier model).
To do Roon the right way I’d look into streamers that were also designed with a music server/Roon Core functionality in mind. Grimm MU1 is one example.

I totally agree with geardaddie.  I have no experience with the Mosiac app, but I  absolutely love my Roon Nucleus Plus with no plans on replacing it with the new Titan.  One thing I did do that was extremely effective in making my Roon Nucleus Plus quieter, therefore raising it's level of performance, was to add a neat little tweak called called, ifi Lan iSilencer.  I actually put one of the iSilencers on all three of the ethernet cables in my audio system to great effect.  Happy listening. 

I haven’t tried the new Titan model, but comparing the Roon Nucleus vs the Mosiac app I think the Mosiac app is slightly better. Quieter, with a more natural tone. However, I have closed the gap a bit by using an Innuous switch feeding the nucleus and Rossini. For me the convenience/user interface of Roon far outweigh the small sonic gains that Mosaic provides and so I only occasionally use Mosiac to play music…mostly just to compare to Roon and to make sure my Roon setup is not wildly out of whack.