Sound quality of Roon

This is a great thread especially for someone like me who is new to streaming. 
I do have a question about Roon. I understand the organization and the added value of Meta data, but how can Roon improve the sound from Tidal or Qobuz? Isn’t that what the hardware in our streamers do?

BTW, I put a USB “Y” adapter on my Node N130 and have a 4 TB hard drive and my output to the DAC on the other and The Bluesound software see’s the hard drive and I can play from it or whatever services I want. Easy Peasy.

Roon is pretty well unrivaled in terms of options, interface, and usability. It is, however, a very heavy software. Roon prioritizes features and end user experience over sound quality (although it has improved over time).

There is a tremendous amount of network activity occurring within Roon. High amounts of network activity can contribute to the "harsh" sound often attributed to digital audio. Minimizing network activity within the server can net positive gains. I believe this is a major reason why alternatives such as Sense, Lightning DS, and Stylus are reported to sound better. Taiko set out to mitigate the impact of network activity on sound quality in their proprietary TAS software. This was a major focal point for them, and many SGM Extreme users report that streaming from Qobuz/Tidal now sounds indistinguishable from playing local files.

OK.  First post.  Everybody's musical journey is different.  We all have different setups in different rooms.  It's about you.  We learn from each other but it's about you. I am not trying to over complicate things, although I might be past that point.  I use 2 Roon Nucleus devices, (one a Nucleus Plus) with a lifetime subscription.  The other is just as a streamer into a Massdrop Airist R2R dac (yup).  The other (Plus) is the core.  I also use a Lumin X1.    Was going to sell the Nucleus but decided to try it on the Airist dac.  Well now the Airist sounds as good as the Lumin.  Different but just as good.  Roon is no joke.  Get a Nucleus and a great dac and you will be done.  All updates are automatic.  Features out the wazoo.  I believe that once you reach a certain plateau, a lot of the things we buy in this hobby are just different, not necessarily better.  The thing is trying to find out what works for you.  For me Roon is possibly the most important cog in my machine.  

In my system (high resolution, with electrostatic speakers), I've compared Roon to a simple DLNA setup, both running through an Auralic Aries G1. I get excellent sound either way.

Years ago, Auralic made firmware improvements that put Roon on parity with their own software in playback through their equipment. There is no intrinisic reason that Roon can't sound great.

Many audiophile reports of "noise" turn out to mean simply that one thing is preferred to another. This is almost always with sighted comparisons and not attempted blind. Preference may be due to expectation bias, heightened attention, or favoring something already owned. I would be wary of subtle differences (even if reported as "major") that have zero objective measurable component. Not to say that they can't exist; just that as humans, we fool ourselves easily and often.

Roon has a free trial, What's your ear say?