Shootout: Roon versus Plex, Qobuz versus Tidal: Who Won?

@mikelavigne I have 2 Roon ready devices now the Cambridge Evo 150 which has been a revelation in my main system and the new MXN10 in another.

My understanding from what I read is Roon certifies devices that are “Roon Ready” which probably involves meeting certain performance criteria one would think but I have no doubt each case of vendor Roon integration might vary with some heads and tails above others perhaps still on the grand scale of things.

@soarnatti Roon indicates upsampling is used and The Evo indicates Roon is streaming my CD res flac files to it at 44.1 kHz 32 bit PCM. I have strong WiFi connections and higher res steaming resolution has not been a problem.

I did not bypass MQA when streaming Tidal.

Also so far I have been very happy with the selection on Qobuz and the ability to buy and download is a bonus.

Roon handling of metadata relating to classical music in particular but overall as well is a major leap forward for me and greatly adds  to my enjoyment of the service overall.  

@audiom3 thats neat that lumin now natively supports Plex.  In my case I was running Plexamp on various devices and connecting to Cambridge Evo via USB2, Airplay and Chromecast.   I’m sure each case can be different.  
 

Also what sounds “best” is often a culmination of many factors some technical and some mere personal preference or both.  I preferred Roon over Plex on my setup. Speakers were mainly KEF ls50 meta + sub which is a very revealing setup.  Others could draw a different conclusion.  Plex is no slouch, especially when listening remotely via headphones. 

@willywonka Part of Roon is it’s digital streaming engine. The details of how the digital streaming is done certainly can and does determine the resulting sound. Roon’s DSP user functionality is simply an extension of that,  the part  that Roon Gives users control of. 

I did some remote LAN listening testing with Roon Arc.

Results were mixed. When the connection worked the sound was good. That was in the am. In the afternoon Roon arc indicated a weak connection and nothing much would stream. Meanwhile Plexamp worked perfectly as usual the whole time.

So looks like Roon still has work to do for remote streaming. The problem seems to be Roon Arc does not appear to downsample the music to match the bandwidth of a slower remote connection Plex does this well and delivers good sound via headphones at lower res with no problem. Plex is just better designed to deal with lower bandwidth network connections than Roon it seems. But at home, on the local LAN Roon sound quality rules.

Plexamp is also still more versatile when it comes to downloading music files so no network connection is needed. It handles downloads of playlists as well as albums . Roon Arc does not appear to handle download of playlists yet.

I use remote streaming from work quite a bit so looks like I will hold on to both Plex and Roon for now. Plex is inexpensive compared to Roon and still represents a good lower cost option overall or a good complement to Roon for remote streaming .

Only certain artists/albums streamed with good quality the rest of 99% just about same low-quality compressed stream that is maximum MP96.

The cheaper you go the less disappointed you will be. I use add-free YouTube and switch between YouTube cast and YouTube Music.

IF you only listen to newer popular music or do not care about having the best sound quality you can at all times, maybe so.

My experience to date is that CD resolution is as designed suitable for most all cases.

The verdict on value of higher than CD res recordings at best varies case by case. I might still be able to do without higher than CD resolution but I don’t mind having that capability for teh price of Qobuz, which is ballpark no different than Spotify.

BTW I have access to Spotify as well and to-date have used that to stream when looking to discover new music.

But its Roon that provides the ultimate user experience, sound quality aside. YOu can add Qobuz to that for ~ the same cost of Spotify, if I am not mistaken.

Spotify in most all cases falls short on sound quality compared to streaming my own CD resolution FLAC files using most any streaming technology at my disposal for Spotify: Airplay, Google Cast, USB 2 wired connection.

Roon’s built in streaming engine to me sounds like it is a cut above the others and consistently delivers the better sound with same thing playing via Roon than those other 3 I compared it with.

I have read many others also report that Roon seems to consistently deliver better sound than other comparable streaming technologies.

I find that to be true out of the can.....I have not even attempted to tweak the sound in a room using the DSP tools Roon provides users. I will be trying that soon in a different room in my home that could really benefit from some custom DSP.

Stay tuned in upcoming days for more on that.

Having a universe of music at my fingertips is something I never imagined just a few years ago.  

It's truly a wonderful thing!  What more could you ask for?

For those who already have a music library, digital or vinyl or both, and have any desire to expand effectively from there, Roon + Qobuz is the key.

Or if you are starting from scratch, you get a huge head start on people like me who have been collecting music of their own pretty much since the 33 1/3 lp first became available.

My pleasure.

I tested with only CD res files and above.

Roon sounded clearer and delivered with more authority than Plex regardless of source. Like a layer of haze removed and more to hear now. Yay!

Plex is also limited to CD resolution.

I need more time with Roon ARC still.

Plexamp is very good with Carplay.

I would account the high grade for Roon sound quality to its keen focus on music and a customer base of music lovers who want to get the most they can out of the music.

Whereas music is just a part of Plex. It’s focus is more audio/video with the prime focus on video.

Also Roon cost a good bit more than Plex. Don’t let that deter you if you are true music lover/audio enthusiast. It’s a very affordable high end audio component. You will be shocked to learn what you have been missing without it.

The Roon user experience is simply awesome It is like you are turned loose and can listen to anything in the world’s largest record store with plenty of tools provided to find your way around and discover new things about the music and the artists who make it. A music lovers paradise!