Sound quality of Roon

"I have read some people say Roon does not sound good." Piffle to that.

Done right it sounds fantastic with no difference between that and the native streamer app. @jjss49 said it all best. You need all the bells and whistles. 

My belief is that people subliminally convince themselves that the money they spent was worth it.

@tony1954

You’re right that often some of us swoon over our latest purchase or improvement because of our internal biases (untill we don’t).

On this roon SQ discussion I have a different take away.

@jjss49 is spot on saying

it seems that the emerging answer is no, not if implemented correctly and with all the needed ancillaries required... the ’trade’ is more relating to the fairly substantial monetary cost and time to learn and optimize its use, quite above and well beyond what one sees as the initial cost of implementing (or trying) roon on an extra computer laying around

I too had to dive in and up my game resulting in SQ on par with CD and shy of a vinyl system costing deep into five digits (not including the rest of a system).

Also my mate could care less and she thinks the sound excellent. Nothing subliminal about it from her  

Many roon users prefer a core not on a laptop or computer outputing via USB. I used an old lap top at first and quit roon for two years. Then I happened to hear Roon on a sytem with a nucleus and you can guess the rest.

@tony1954 Do you use roon and if so what’s your set up? The blue prints are to be found here on many levels of setup.

@blisshifi Dynamite summery.

@soix Spot on. Using airplay/blue tooth is tossing the baby out with the bathwater. Good olld hard wiriing best.

Great threat folks. I have reread several times.

One thing not mentioned is internet disruption. Simply put at times all internet service falters sending if you will a hick-up or quick pause in service. Obviously this will affect Roon and why it may go off/on. There’s only so much a buffer can guard against.

I live in a location with wretched internet service with 2 meg DSL or expensive 12-18 Meg dish being the norm. Fortunately we finally got Starlink and service on par with many other places. Point being you need a fast pipe as those in the business say.

I have gone back and forth countless times between the native Lumin app and  Roon and I can tell no difference in SQ. YMMV

What I did notice is an EtherRegen, clock, good cabling and serious linear PSU audibly improved SQ no matter what app was used. Clean up the noise floor and you shall be rewarded.

@fastfreight     So you switched from the ER to the Muon. I’m going to go whole hog in and get a M12 switch (let’s not tell my wife, Ok?). I’m just sorting what linear PSU to use. What a fun trip down the rabbit hole.

There’s an old saying that comes to mind with this hobby....."Every time I find it. it moves."

@blisshifi I see from your awesome system you are all in on Synergistic Research. They make great stuff for sure. Hope they send you a Christmas card.

For moi self I have determined rightly or wrongly that using a switch and a filter is too much in the feed. Pick one. Not all ethernet set ups will allow for this. In a closet upstairs I have an enterprise (Ubiquity) switch feeding into the wall a cat five runs and one run to my "stereo closet" and then from the closet wall cat five into the EtherRegen. The EtherRegen will get moved to a whole house system (if that helps that low-mid fi system ??). I'm still on the fence as to what PSU will power the M12.

@fastfreight I'm in NoCal

@fastfreight 
 

¿SwitcheS yOu SaY? A lot  here, there and everywhere. 

@fastfreight 

You’re referring to this. Yes?