Roon vs Qobuz Connect

1. Use fixed volume in Roon, bypassing Roon’s software volume control;

2. Disable normalization or ’Volume Leveling’ feature;

3. Disable any sample rate conversion by setting "MAX PCM" in Device Setup; and

4. Turn off the DSP engine in Roon.

These steps are applicable to Roon or any third-party app to achieve bit-perfect playback comparable to the native QC app. However, they do not guarantee that Roon or other third-party apps will sound better than QC. In practice, the sonic outcome is device-dependent. I’ve found that QC sounds better on some platforms—such as Cambridge Audio, WiiM, Eversolo, and iFi (via mConnect)—while the opposite is true on others, for example the Volumio Rivo+ via Volumio app.  Bit perfect is a necessary condition not a sufficient one.

 

1. Use fixed volume in Roon, bypassing Roon’s software volume control;
2. Disable normalization or ’Volume Leveling’ feature;
3. Disable any sample rate conversion by setting "MAX PCM" in Device Setup; and
4.Turn off the DSP engine in Roon.

Now I have no choice but to use Roon. I replaced my streamer with a ethernet-enabled DAC that exposes a Roon endpoint (or UPnP) but doesn't have streaming capabilities built-in otherwise. 

I also do as suggested above. When I had a streamer I tried Qobuz Connect: it was marginally better than using Roon with the above suggestions. I had a problem with the user experience with Qobuz' controller anyway, and went back to using Roon for Qobuz. In any case, my new DAC with Roon sounds better than my old streamer with QC.

Hi @lanx0003 you’re right, of course, and I have already done those things a while ago, including the disabling of all mqa decoding and rendering, as I don’t have any mqa sources. All to reduce overhead. I don’t believe that fixed volume vs device volume makes any appreciable difference though. It’s not that Roon is sending a digitally attenuated signal with its volume control; it’s just controlling the hardware directly. Switching to Fixed Volume would only remove Roon’s participation in volume control messaging, not change the signal path. Any sonic difference there would have to come from control-plane behavior rather than sample processing, and it’s hard to see how that alone would account for a consistent QC vs Roon difference.

At this point it seems more accurate to say we’re comparing RAAT to Qobuz Connect’s native implementation on a given platform. That’s why I was hoping for some smart tweaks from “Qobuz connectors”. I don’t see how anything else can be done on the roon side. I should have said all this in the first place :-)

@dwette slightly confused; what is doing the streaming for you now? The rabbit hole that awaits you is a standalone streamer plus your new dac plus QC …

@debrajray I have a Weiss DAC501-MK2. It has an ethernet input that exposes a Roon endpoint (or UPnP if one prefers). It has no streaming capabilities otherwise, but Roon is all I really need. 

On very rare occasion I have – in the past – used AirPlay2 to stream Youtube audio from my laptop browser over WiFi. Just yesterday, I bought a WiiM Mini for just that purpose; i.e., to support AirPlay2. I don’t plan to use it otherwise, and I also don’t plan to get a separate streaming transport. I have what I need.