Roon Streaming Service actually Degrades the sound


The purpose of this post is to put pressure on the Roon engineers

to make Roon a better product. How do I know Roon is less than ideal?

From a streamer maker who has the highest standards and 

consequently refuses to go the Roon route. As he put it "I experiment with

my prototype and eliminate everything which holds the best sound back".

Sad to say he rejected Roon for exactly this reason.

I use Roon and do not want to learn a different, worse program.

Hence I want Roon to get better. Anyone listening Roon Folk?

 

 

chorus

Does this streamer maker have objective proof Roon degrades sound quality? Actual measurements that prove degredation of the signal? If not, I would not put so much faith in anecdotal evidence. What makes this streamer maker the barometer of excellence? Does he have the golden ears? Or is his hearing as flawed as everyone elses? Is his system perfect?

I won't make the case for Roon being the best sounding software ever. Assuming everything is bit perfect and there are no filters coloring the sound, there are many candidates for that title. If you personally like Roon, I would not let someone's subjective opinion sway your feelings. If you want to try something different, implement HQPlayer within Roon.

Innuos’s own Sense sounds better than Roon on my Zenith 3. Much better.  I also just learned Roon sounds just OK. I love the features and such of Roon, but the sound could be better. 

Roon folks firmly believe, or rather state, that they will not take sides in the Great Argument on SQ. However, for some reason, they keep tweaking their algorithm with most of new versions release. For example, the upcoming version of the 1.8 that is currently on Beta says among others:

 

Improved buffering and caching for streaming content

We’ve made changes to Roon’s buffering and caching infrastructure when playing streaming content. The new implementation is designed to use a lighter touch when interacting with your network and internet connection, making streaming less intensive for your Roon Core.