2. digital
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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 5 responses by vonhelmholtz

vonhelmholtz
911 posts
 

I don’t directly stream from Qobuz. I use the Innuos Sense software. Using Sense with Innuos servers/streamers sounds best if you have a nicely resolved system. 

When using Roon, is the Roon Core server internal to your Innuos, or is it external and if external what hardware are you using?

vonhelmholtz
911 posts
 

Roon is for convenience. Vinyl is for when you want the best musical reproduction.

That said, I'm putting more time and money into components downstream of my NUC Roon Core.

vonhelmholtz
911 posts
 

Let's accept/assume that Roon streaming sounds inferior to directly streaming Qubuz, Tidal..etc..  Where, at what stage does this degradation take place?  I'm assuming that you have already turned off processing/modification within Roon.

vonhelmholtz
911 posts
 

jjss49

Excellent summary.  After reading your post and looking at your equipment, your opinion carries the force of experience.

vonhelmholtz
911 posts
 

I did not expect Roon to sound great during a trial.  I just wanted it to be responsive, so prior to my trial I installed a 10th gen i7/ssd NUC.  I'm now on the path to approach the listening experience of vinyl.  So, money sump, care with the little stuff..especially anything that reduces power and ethernet noise and improves the timing of the signal feeding my DAC.  Not an easy task when on a budget.  

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