Sonic differences between servers

Though it doesn’t intuitively make sense, my own experience is that servers do sound different.  Of course, there are plenty of forum participants who claim otherwise, so YMMV.  Like Fuzztone noted, they’re not big differences, but better systems will definitely be rewarded.

What do I hear as those differences? In A/B comparisons of units I own(ed), the better units offer more spatial information - i.e. depth and width.  Others talk about a lower noise floor and more musical detail.  

Fyi: I own the Auralic Aries G2.  During home audition, I compared it against an Aurender N100H which I owned and a Bluesound Node.   I’ve also directly compared the Auralic feeding a Simaudio 390 Preamp/DAC with a built in MiND streaming function. That audition was quite revealing as I was able to run both streamers parallel and merely switch inputs on the preamp w/ the remote. I was impressed with the Sim 390’s preamp and DAC for the price - it’s quite good.  However, the Auralic server easily bested the MiND server built into the Sim unit.

Then again - regardless of what I or others say - the only way for you to really know is to audition a unit (a fully broken in unit) in your system. 

Let us know how it goes.   

My mistake in the use of the term server instead of streamer. That said, the OP was asking about variations in sound between Innuos, Antipodes, etc - which I believe are streamers.  And, so the question was posed about the differences in sound quality between such units and I was attempting to be helpful by sharing my direct experience.

@Ironlung makes good points and provides useful clarification, too.

And, I would agree with the last sentiment he/she shares: “Personally, I would avoid Roon altogether if SQ is actually your ultimate goal.  

I have direct experience w/ Roon vs other software going into the same hardware.  Files streamed via Auralic’s lighting DS application sounded significantly better than the same via Roon.  I dropped my subscription.  As an interface - Roon is great.  As for sound quality - not so much.

Ironlung

At the time, I was running Roon Core on an optimized Mac mini and using the Auralic Aries G2 streamer. I had (at the time) both Tidal and Qobuz though I’ve since dropped Tidal as Qobuz sounds better and their library is satisfactory.  

I honestly don’t recall if I compared files off of my Mac Mini hard drive over Roon and Lightning DS (“LDS”), but music streamed from Qobuz sounded significantly better on LDS than via Roon.

I haven’t an explanation, but have theorized that LDS manages the substantial buffer in the Auralic better than does Roon.  In usage, I don’t really care why as even though Roon as a library management system is better, LDS is plenty good enough.