mapman
I generally really appreciate your posts (for years actually) and honestly never make it a habit to disagree with folks on the forums. But you just could not be more wrong here.
Having built custom PC based servers for my system over the last 10 years, I must have gone through more than 100 permutations of hardware and software. In my current build every component change and software change effects the sound quality. There is simply no way anyone can openly and honestly experiment with this and not find the same. For those looking for genuine answers to this question, it is very confusing and misleading to suggest otherwise. If you have tried various server solutions of different quality and have a resolving system and cannot tell the difference then something else is wrong. It’s just unequivocal.
Just one small example that I have repeated literally dozens of times: I love the Roon interface. I have a subscription. I REALLY want Roon to work in my system. But in every recent iteration of my server, Euphony sounds significantly better. The difference is not subtle. And that is a shame because Euphony’s interface is vastly inferior to that of Roon. (I am aware that in many systems this may be the reverse. But this is consistently what happens in MY specific system.) I bring this up only to illustrate just how important each component of the server seems to be for playback quality. This is one example I could give of dozens. I have no dog in this fight. None at all. I just want newcomers to have an accurate picture of the enterprise. Believe me, I really wish it were otherwise. But every component of a server, down to the OS and playback software, will tend to affect the sound.
I generally really appreciate your posts (for years actually) and honestly never make it a habit to disagree with folks on the forums. But you just could not be more wrong here.
Having built custom PC based servers for my system over the last 10 years, I must have gone through more than 100 permutations of hardware and software. In my current build every component change and software change effects the sound quality. There is simply no way anyone can openly and honestly experiment with this and not find the same. For those looking for genuine answers to this question, it is very confusing and misleading to suggest otherwise. If you have tried various server solutions of different quality and have a resolving system and cannot tell the difference then something else is wrong. It’s just unequivocal.
Just one small example that I have repeated literally dozens of times: I love the Roon interface. I have a subscription. I REALLY want Roon to work in my system. But in every recent iteration of my server, Euphony sounds significantly better. The difference is not subtle. And that is a shame because Euphony’s interface is vastly inferior to that of Roon. (I am aware that in many systems this may be the reverse. But this is consistently what happens in MY specific system.) I bring this up only to illustrate just how important each component of the server seems to be for playback quality. This is one example I could give of dozens. I have no dog in this fight. None at all. I just want newcomers to have an accurate picture of the enterprise. Believe me, I really wish it were otherwise. But every component of a server, down to the OS and playback software, will tend to affect the sound.