Sound quality of Roon

@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,

Thanks all for the comments and suggestions. Airplay delivers Red Book spec. That’s what turned the corner for me since most of my 1500 or so CDs are “Regular” CDs. My small collection of SACDs I still spin in my Marantz Blu-ray player. 

Relative to the post, my AB tests were against CDs in my collection vs streamed by Roon. 

Agreed that poor remastering is what causes bad sound. Amazon is not the culprit- just the delivery method. 
 

Interesting post…

Amazon is not the culprit- just the delivery method.

@zgas-music No, Amazon’s not doing you any favors either. Steve Stone did a comparison of the major streaming services in TAS not all that long ago, and let’s just say Amazon did not fare well. Qobuz is your friend for sound quality.

I would not trust TAS to carry my lunch let alone evaluate something. That said, I don't remember anything negative about Amazon, just that he does not like Amazon (and others) as a company.  If he truly tested it, lets see the bit comparisons.