Is Roon The Best Sounding Option For Us?

@neonknight Processing within dacs and streamers are two entirely  different things. Streamers have to process both the music player apps and all the other functions of a computer/processor, this is entirely different from dac processing of data/music signal. Music player apps use varying levels of processor resources, Roon with it's extensive user interface may require greater processor resources than other music apps. Processors within streamers are one source of noise within streamers, greater processor usage means more noise. Streamer also use optimized operating systems, these disable many functions  motherboards capable of, again this is to lesson processor work load, meaning less noise. Use of LPS in streamers is another means to lesson noise. Noise in streaming components is the enemy of resolution/transparency, high end streamers excel in eliminating noise. I went through three iterations of Mac Minis, paying much attention to lessoning noise in each subsequent version. Final mini used dual ssd, fastest I7 processor, 16gb RAM, Uptone MMk power supply with Uptone JS-2 choke based linear power supply, extensive modified operating system. Going through three levels of Mac Minis provided direct empirical evidence of how lower noise floors in streamers provides greater resolution/transparency.

Not all streamers  or music apps created equal, best integration of the two may take some experimentation. 

I use a Cen.Grand DSDeluxe 1.0 DAC which does all the upconverting at the DAC level. I have been through my options and selected DSD256 non-rising as my playback configuration. So this means there is no processing being done at the computer level. All controls are turned off, its just a player.

When I boot up I can open Roon and then Audirvana 3.5 at the same time. I have one opportunity to play tracks on Roon and I can directly switch to Audirvana and relisten to those tracks. When i try to switch back to Roon it says "device in use", so I have to close Audirvana to continue the comparison. So I can go A/B/A at best. But even with those limited comparisons the differences are easily apparent.

There are significant differences. This morning I used Chant by the Benedictine monks of Santo Domingo de Silos. In Roon the vocal passages were more precise, the phrases are noticeably more defined. But the cathedral is missing. In Audirvana you can hear the venue with reverb and decay. The sound is spacious in a way Roon does not present. I am no computer guru, and what the difference is I have no idea, but it is clearly there. The Mac Mini I use is a late 2014 with i5 processor and 8 GB RAM. It should be sufficient to run any of these programs. The chain is router/ethernet cable/Mac Mini/USB cable to DAC.

This whole process is what is making me consider a dedicated streamer. I just have not come to any firm ideas of whose streamer, or if I want to invest in a Roon core running Rock in a headless configuration or stick with proprietary software on the streamer.

Get Roon BEHIND a fibre optic cable and you can then run Roon on any decent computer. I use a $500 DELL micro-computer that has no monitor | keyboard | mouse. I just RDP into the machine on the rare time I need to do something on the Roon Core server.

Digital packets are not all the same. The 1's and 0's are represented by analog signals. Using fibre alleviates a lot of the network (Ethernet) gremlins that make various streaming components sound different.

I also use a Sonore OpticalRendu as the poster above. Actually, I have 3 of them and can sell 1 since I now have finalized on 2 DACs.

BTW - streamers do not sound the same. I had 3 tops of the line streamers in the house at one time and compared 

• Lumin X1
• Sonore OpticalRendu
• PlayBack Designs STREAM-IF

When my opticaRendu dies I will get a Lumin U2 streamer.

Per @mapman Its quite logical to assume Roon may not be best music player app for every streamer. Roon requires more intensive use of streamer processor vs some other music player apps, speed/low latency which means more powerful processors likely needed. And then steamers also may have unique RAM, OS, LPS, etc, all which affect sound quality.

@neonknight I'm running custom build streamer on windows platform using Euphony operating system, using this as server only. Euphony OS specifically designed to use Roon or own proprietary music player called Stylus. Best sound quality for me is Roon core on this server, this in turn feeds Sonore OpticalRendu streamer via optical conversion, Sonore also runs Roon core. Euphony allows this two streamer setup via something called 'Bridged' mode, the idea is lower noise in each streamer via minimal use of processor resources. So this rather complex setup optimized for Roon has provided wonderful analog like digital streaming. It would be nice to have capability of integrating Audirvana, perhaps someday Euphony will develop a relationship with Audrivana.

Lots of settings in Roon that shape the sound.  Also Roon not necessarily  the same on all devices.   
 

I compared Tidal on Roon versus Tidal on Plex.  Roon was much better.  Plex might sound better to some in some cases.

The devil is in details.   Roon done well is awesome for sure. 

mini tax that should be expected Aurenders servers were never designed to run roon

g kelly we have had roon servers, from several companies and Innous servers and Aurender. Roons sound quality is directly proportional to the device   running roon 

the Innous server running roon sounded better then Aurender as per sense sounding better didn't find that to be better and Roons interface is far superior to sense

if your roon isn't sounding great try a different server.

Dave and Troy

Audio Intellect NJ

server specialists

Have not seen a single person on this site that likes roon over the conductor or sense app for sound quality. 
If one was into conspiracies, they would have to believe that Aurender and Innuos purposely does so to push their own product. 
Kind of hard to register a complaint, once the music gets playing. It gets lost in the weeds, along with all those notes flying around the room. 

I have an Aurender N200 and I can listen to a Qobuz HR track either using Roon or using the Qobuz connection on the Aurender Conductor app. The track played via Conductor sounds noticeably "better" (clearer, etc) than using Roon. I've made sure DSP is off on Roon and as far as I can tell, the comparison is apples to apples except for Conductor vs Roon. 

Roon doesn't have a sound. Roon Labs themselves will tell you that

@sns Any chance you would share what digital rig you are running now? 

I ran a highly modified Mac Mini as my streamer some years ago, I heard pretty much same thing you heard when comparing Audirvana to Roon, Audirvana sound a bit more analog like vs Roon. Moving on to today, now running much different streaming setup with Roon, my setup doesn't allow Audirvana integration. In any case Roon with present setup is easily superior to that previous setup, can't say I have any problem with Roon. I achieve best sq with Roon by disabling things like volume leveling, library analysis, no dsp.