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Roon vs Qobuz Connect

Yes the title is misleading because Qobuz is a server and Roon is an aggregator. But this question is for all those who stream Qobuz via Roon, or via Qobuz Connect (QC).

There is little doubt that QC sounds significantly better than Roon streaming Qobuz. Admittedly a subjective opinion, but for all of those who agree:

The advantages of Roon in integrating personal and external sources are obvious. To counter this, I can run a small local server and access my personal collection via Qobuz. But the aggregation sucks overall. 

What can I do to have my QC cake and eat it too? I’d love to hear about any clever tweaks to imitate Roon’s capabilities, while keeping QC quality. 

debrajray
dwette
572 posts
 

@boulder_bob yes, that’s right, and I mentioned in an earlier post  here that UPnP is also supported. I already used Roon for years though, and that’s by far my best option compared to UPnP.

I tried Audirvana briefly (I have a 3-month trial) and decided the user experience is terrible, compared to Roon. I found no advantage to using it otherwise anyway.

bassbuyer's avatar
bassbuyer
927 posts
 

I’ve tried both and use Qobuz Connect running through my Innuos Zen MK3.  I s as I also stream atmos mixes using Apple TV 4K into my AVR.  I find a lot of choices come down to personal preference.  I’m happy with my setup and hopefully you are too. 

hjdca's avatar
hjdca
258 posts
 

If it helps, I like Qobuz connect (QC) very much through my Rivo+.  I also stream Qobuz through Volumio on the same Rivo+.  I have the impression that the SQ is a little better on the lower frequencies with Volumio than QC, but, it is very, very close.  

glenmschneider
106 posts
 

When I used my Auralic g2.1, the proprietary lightning software sounded better to me than roon.

with my Grimm MU2, roon is fantastic. can’t assess the SQ compared to QC but I will when it becomes available. TC is available now but I don’t have tidal.

also, there is a clear difference between fixed and device volume settings via the MU2. Which you like better is personal preference. It’s very confusing to me as well because I can set fixed in roon which still allows volume contra the Grimm and then there’s fixed via Grimm which is truly fixed and what you would optimally use with an external preamp.

 

 

 

debrajray's avatar
debrajray OP
65 posts
 

Hi @glenmschneider are you using the preamp on the MU2 or bypassing to another preamp. If the former, then I am puzzled: isn’t "device volume" just controlling the analog volume control on the Grimm with no digital attenuation? OTOH with an external preamp I can see there would be a big difference and I would definitely choose fixed volume.  (BTW if you don’t use Tidal, turn all MQA settings off on Roon, made a difference for me though still an irritating tad below QC.)

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