If Roon is not presenting the sound that you prefer, I suggest you get familiar with the DSP capabilities of Roon and try a few tweaks. Since you seem to be hanging a lot on the intelagability of the lyrics by Mark Knopfler, then I think you might start in the mid range Boosting a little here and there until you zero in on your particular sweet spot. Before you dismiss this approach as “artificial“ consider the fact that swapping components, and cables, and software are really just roundabout ways, and very expensive ones at that, of doing this very thing, most of the time
Is there a ROON sound?
I finally had to give in and open a ROON account. I bought the highly recommended 432 EVO Aeon server, but it only works with ROON (as an endpoint) or the Logitech Media Server. The latter seemed a bit awkward to get going, so I started a ROON account (so far for a year). The server offers a plethora of filter and up-sampling choices, let alone the unique ability to change the orchestral pitch to 432 Hz down from the now common 440Hz (the way Mozart or even Verdi heard their music before 440 became the common recording standard for sounding "crisper"). [I have tried this option several times but was underwhelmed. But that's just my personal first take on the subject]
Up to now, I listened to most of my music either through Apple Music as ALAC files or Quobuz as FLAC; I also have a Native DSD library and another with YouTube downloads (FLAC as well). The latter go directly from my MacBook Air (M1 chip) to my MSB Discrete DAC, or through an Audirvana rinse cycle.
My first impression listening to the 432EVO/ROON combination on "Brothers in Arms" was like listening with lightly compressed cotton plugs in my ears. That was with the manufacturer-recommended upsampling rate and filter-choice. I could hardly understand any of Mark Knopfler's (admittedly mumbling) musings! I immediately switched back to my Apple Music version and at least heard things like "through the fields of destruction - baptism of fire" and other text bites. The overall presentation was sharper and more acoustically demanding, but with admittedly less-wide soundstage. I then switched back to the server/ROON combo and disabled all filters and upsampling, going into bit-perfect mode. But even then, the overall presentation, while admittedly more bass heavy and spacious, the singer's words were still hardly intelligible. I actually think that "Brothers in Arms" is a really good example to test for a component ability to shine light on sung or spoken words; another favorite example is Boz Scaggs' "Thanks to You", where the clearest presentation in my system comes from the LP (which is called "Dig"), followed by Quobuz.
I went back to the 2022 review of the Aeon server in Absolute Sound by Andrew Quint, where he extolls the sonic virtues of the instrument (but, like myself, did not like the lower pitch option). I trust that he could not detect the same flaws as I did, albeit streaming from ROON as well.
I understand that ROON emerged from the previous SONOS company. A good friend of ours was one of the first SONOS adopters some 30 years ago, but I never liked it in a musicality sense, especially the gooey bass. To me it always sounded like Musak. So, I might be a bit prejudiced here, because what I am hearing now from ROON is as "pleasing" as the old SONOS; kinda lounge character, but not really stirring or attention-grabbing.
So, I would like to hear the unvarnished truth from this illustrious audience, what their experience with ROON is in terms of musicality and neutral/natural presentation, especially if they can offer some kind of A/B comparison from their own listening experience. As I said, I have zero previous experience with ROON, and might just be a bit biased here.
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@reimarc The internet has it all. Here’s one. |
I often see comments that claim Roon sound quality changes as they institute the regular Roon upgrades, can't say that I've ever detected change in SQ. As for the SQ differences between music player apps, bits are bits, based on this all music player apps should sound alike. I'd suggest differences due to the apps use of processing power within streamer, greater use of streamer resources means self generated noise in streamer. Roon's relatively complex interfaces requires more processing vs some others which suggests one should use extremely fast processors with low latency to extract max SQ from Roon. I'd also suggest that's why some find Roon sounds best with two streamer setup. I'm using less than 1% usage on 8 core cpu for streamer running Roon Core, this means both low latency and minimal noise, Endpoint runs on streamer specifically designed for this exact purpose, again low noise, low latency. Bottom line, all music apps SQ dependent on one's streaming setup, you receive the exact same bit perfect stream from servers/cloud, its how those bits are processed that makes the difference. |
I don’t hear a difference. The easy way to check this if your DAC has multiple inputs. Play a CD on the S/PDIF input on your DAC and play the same track simultaneously on your DAC’s Streamer input (USB or whatever). On my PS Audio DirectStream DAC Sr. (MK1). I don’t hear a difference. I use a Matrix USB to I2S DDC for streaming, and the other I2S input has the PS Audio Perfectwave Universal Transport connected to it. No audible difference to my 55 1/2 yr. old ears ! Just sit back, relax , & "Enjoy The Music" |
B I N G O (Bango Bongo) @reimarc It’s the routers, switches, filters and cables that contribute to sound/noise along with streamier/DAC It’s the entire set up aka ‘the chain”
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