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Sound quality of Roon

I am considering trying Roon.  I have been using my Bluesound Node but I am going to upgrade as I do enjoy streaming more and more using Tidal.  It is quite an investment to get a NUC or Nucleus and then have a separate tablet to control it all.
 

But apart from the cost I have read some people say Roon does not sound good.  Their streamer by blah blah sounds better.  Is this true?  For all that is required to use Roon, the hardware, the subscription and all, would Roon be popular if it made digital streaming sound bad?


I would love to hear people who have experience comment on this.  There is info on the Roon Labs discussion site but as you can imagine it is saying this is BS Roon sounds great.  I guess Roon as a software also has had updates, so maybe this is a thing that might have been true in the past?  

troidelover1499

Showing 3 responses by jbuhl

jbuhl's avatar
jbuhl
1,020 posts
 

First started out with a Roon Core running on an iMAC and using a Bryston BDP as endpoint then into my DAC. Bryston Manic Moose uses MPD and it sounded better than Roon when I took Roon out of the system. Then I moved the Core to a SGC ST and hard wired that to a Velop Mesh node as well as the Bryston. Also upgraded the network cables now the Roon/Qobuz combo are so close to the Bryston/Qobuz combo I just run Roon. If I really want to listen critically I switch the Bryston to MPD mode but most of the time now I can not discern a difference. Same with playing FLAC files off attached storage on the BDP.  Its nice having an endpoint that can quickly switch between native and Roon ready.  BDP MPD switch is a snap.

jbuhl's avatar
jbuhl
1,020 posts
 

I agree with previous poster, do a trial of Roon.  It's what I did.  You got the BS Node and it can be an endpoint.  Just make sure you got all the piece parts in place so you can eval without having to mess with hardware config during eval period. 

jbuhl's avatar
jbuhl
1,020 posts
 

One of the unexpected benefits I discovered of ROON is that Old SONOS Zone players work as ROON endpoints. These are being aged out by SONOS and don’t work with their new eco system so they can be picked up for cheap. I have seen them on Craigs for a little as $50. I even saw one that had been moded by Wired4Sound for cheap. Of course this is midfi gear but they work great for spinning up systems in a garage, workshop etc. They only handle redbook CD quality but ROON will step the bit rate down if you are streaming higher resolution. Somebody gave me one that didn't work.  I discovered it was the network card was bad but worked fine if hard wired. Ran optical out to a Schiit Modi then to a pair of Audio Engine powered speakers and bad boom descent sounding music for non critical listening pleasure. 

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