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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
troidelover1499 OP
253 posts
 

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.

soix
8,604 posts
 

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.

mikelavigne
2,134 posts
 

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.

 

fuzztone's avatar
fuzztone
5,496 posts
 

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.

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