@zgas-music I think you’re leaving a lot of performance potential on the table using a computer and Air Play. I just bought a relatively affordable iFi Zen Stream for only $399 (along with their iPowerX power supply to further suppress noise) and my streaming sound quality now surpasses the performance of spinning CDs. Also, I think Air Play may limit resolution to 24/96, which seems like an unnecessary limitation to have these days. Last, if you haven’t already by all means do a free trial of Qobuz as it has by many accounts/reviews the best streaming sound quality and the most hi-res content available. My $0.02 FWIW.
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?
- ...
- 155 posts total
@zgas-music on Amazon, if the remastered sounds like crap it because the remastering is crap. |
@cleeds Thanks, you’re probably right and if so is a ridiculous limitation no audiophile should accept given all the other viable alternatives with no such handicap. I think I confused Air Play with the lightning connection. |
The OP poses a good question. Before I offer my experience - I want to challenge those who share their experiences ending with “and it sounds great”. Yes - Roon sounds great. But can it sound better? Unless you’ve actually done direct comparison on your system and found no discernible difference, you may not be optimizing the sound of your system - if indeed that is the goal. (It isn’t for everyone). My experience? I paid for Roon for a year. Loved the interface - it is without peer. But curiosity called and I compared a Qobuz sourced track I know well vs the same track using my gear’s native app. No upsampling - just a direct straight up comparison. I was surpised at the result but accepted and decided to drop Roon because it did not sound as good. I would never have known had I not actually done the comparison. Now, I have more invested in digital than the average so am I benefiting in ways that others may not? Perhaps. Or, are the differences more universal than some may wish to believe? I don’t know the answer to that either. That there are differences actually makes complete sense - even for this non-techie. Roon must run on all certified machines (clearly Windows does not run equally well on all machines). Different hardware, specs, processing speed, memory cache, memory addresses, etc. Regardless, for me, my gear, my ears, my room - no contest. That does not invalidate Roon. Doesn’t mean it sounds bad or even that it doesn’t sound as good on some gear. But, going back to the “and it sounds great” comment. The only way to know - is to do an actual comparison on your gear, your ears, your room. Maybe you’ll be one of the lucky ones for whom Roon both optimizes the sound and the interface. Best,
|
- 155 posts total