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Roon vs. Squeezebox Server (Logitech)

Without regard to the extra cost of Roon, and ignoring the improved interface, album art, and cool factor provided by Roon - so on the basis of sound quality only - does Roon sound better, worse, or about the same as Squeezebox Server (Logitech) when played through a dedicated music server running Linux?
If you have experience with these players, I would appreciate your input. 
mitch2
4 responses Add your response
erik_squires
16,056 posts
 
I have not tried Roon, but I use LMS exclusively via USB 2.0 to a Mytek Brooklyn DAC and it's fabulous.

The current limitation is DSD is only via DoP, which is fine, but only does up to DSD 2x

More recent updates have added the ability to play through a Chromecast device as well as Tidal, though I usually go to Tidal via the web, add tracks to my favorites, and THEN use the LMS interface.

Best,

E
mitch2 OP
3,968 posts
 
Thanks Eric,
I am open to any good advice and new things to try that will move the ball forward sonically.  A lot of hype with Roon due to the cool interface, and rightly so.  I don't mind the cost but don't want to go backward wrt SQ.   Currently not playing DSD and mostly running CDs ripped to lossless FLAC.  Also not currently streaming but my upgraded Antipodes DX will facilitate streaming.  I have been ok with the LMS interface on my PC but unfortunately using iPeng with my iPad results in many tagging errors.
cymbop
315 posts
 
I went from LMS on a Vortexbox Appliance to Roon on a SmallGreen Sonicorbiter (with flac files on an attached USB drive).  DAC is a PS Audio Perfectwave II.

Sound quality improvement was impressive.  Akin to a DAC upgrade.  Relative to Roon, my LMS sound was fuzzy, flat, and unfocused -- and I thought it was pretty good until I switched.  

You'll never look back....
dgarretson
2,598 posts
 

I have lived several weeks with Roon 1.3 and have the Unix version of its core on an SSD in a QNAP NAS/RAID server with a i5 processor.  A Roon-ready Sonore microRendu Unix-based streamer does the conversion from Ethernet to USB into an Esoteric K-01X.  The Roon control software resides on a Windows 10 tablet.  I'm using the Roon DSP engine to upsample all PCM files to DSD128, which are fed to the K-01X DAC section without further filtering or upsampling performed inside the Esoteric.  Though slightly different in presentation, the sound of the Roon source is competitive with RBCD and SACD on the K-01X transport.

There are a few quiddities with Roon and its DSP engine.  To handle a DSD64 source file, Roon down-samples to 24/384 PCM and then upsamples to N x DSD.  Roon does not recognize .iso disk image files and some .DFF files.  You need a separate program to manually convert these to .DSF.   As far as I can see, Roon does not recognize PDF album art such as pages or booklets.  There are software glitches in capturing the artist into the metadata display.  None of these issues are serious problems that they will not eventually fix, and SQ is excellent.                          

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