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

@troidelover1499 

Roon sounds better than ever and IMHE unless you compare to a rare very high cost SOTA streamer with proprietary software(e.g. DCS or Aurender), Roon SQ is going to be equal for you. The user experience is fantastic. Few who try the free monthly trial choose not to subscribe.

Roon is run by guys who came from Meridian and care about SQ. They get it and will continue to make improvements. New products & companies are getting added to Roon Ready all the time. This benefits us all for a few reasons:

  • Incompatible hardware issues impact their response to software issues
  • Wide adoption supports longevity
  • Competition among hardware makers supports innovation & quality/value

I am a vinyl lover who runs digital for musical diversity. I run Roon Core on a Sonictransporter, keep 4TB of music on a NAS, and feed both to an OpticalRendu streamer into Denafrips Pontus II DAC. I stream Qobuz via Roon. Compared to using Lumin, Linn and other DLNA/UPNP apps and Minimserver on the NAS, sound quality is equal. Reliable connectivity is better by far with Roon.  Roon also integrates room correction if your're interested in that.

The integration of my personal library along w/Qobuz in Roon is hard to beat. You can use phones, tablets or laptops as remote...you may not need to buy a tablet. It looks and runs great on both my Macbook and iPhone. 

I agree that Bluesound is okay, but a better streamer with a good linear power supply will definitely give you better SQ for not much investment. For Roon Core, you can trial with most computers and if you decide to stick w/Roon then add dedicated core (e.g. NUC or Sonictransporter) when you can afford that step. Cheers,

Spencer

Thanks for the comments. The replies are interesting but still kind of confusing. I see that the Innuos Zen Mini Mk3 can work as a Roon core computer and also has a DAC built in, so maybe that is a pretty reasonably priced option to get started. For now I am discounting the few voices who insist their streamer sounds better than Roon as it seems to me like they like something so much better because they just spent several thousand dollars to buy it. This happens alot maybe too often.

If you get the Zen Mini it’s pretty much mandatory you get their upgraded LPS as it significantly increases performance. The DAC in the Mini is nothing special so plan to upgrade that asap. The thing is, once you add the LPS to the Mini you’re knocking on the door at the price of the Zen Mk3, so that’s definitely something to consider.

not sure how relevant my viewpoint is here; but the Wadax Reference Server and Dac have Roon hard wired into the operating system, including automatic upgrades, and it sounds fantastic. easily the best digital music reproduction i have heard.

Wadax fully embraces Roon, and so gets the most out of it.

 

All five streamers I've acquired after BlueSound sound better. There is that.

And their OSs make browsing and playing tracks easier than BluOS.

No I never got a Lumin but reports say that their OS is clunky.