Roon vs Qobuz Connect

Hi Debraj,

It’s an interesting and frustrating conundrum. Many, certainly not all, have experienced a similar sonic penalty from Roon. Myself included. Likewise, no one I know of disputes the superior UI of Roon. 

Roon seems complex and needs to work on many different hardware and software platforms. I lack the technical understanding of how it all works together but want to ask this group to opine on the following:

Taiko (maker of the Extreme and Olympus units which are extremely well regarded) has done much work on getting Roon to sound good on their servers. While they largely succeeded, they still developed their own software which reportedly sounds significantly better. Likewise, it’s my understanding (though I’m not entirely sure), Pink Faun (also a maker of extremely well regarded high end streamer/servers uses a modified/streamlined version of Roon for library management but a separate OS for delivering the data to your DAC. It seems as if both mfgs seem to be pursuing a path of fast processing, while reducing resource utilization in the unit. Taiko even measures and discusses this in detail over on WBF.

Without going to such extreme lengths, might Debraj benefit from running a separate Roon optimized core - where its only function is to run Roon - rather than the Mac, even though the Mac has been streamlined for this task?

I’m grasping at straws here, but there are many who’ve experienced the sonic penalty. Might this be a path to close the gap? Have any of you tried this? Personally, I’m skeptical the gap can be fully closed, but perhaps it can be narrowed.  

Thoughts?

I have noticed a similar sonic experience when streaming Tidal Connect ( directly to my streamer/DAC ) vs streaming Tidal via Roon on my SGC sonictransporter.

I realize I could manipulate the Roon settings to get a better output as detailed above, but wonder why should I have to go through all that effort.

It does also raise the question as to whether the server ( in my case the SGC ) is degrading the sound rather than Roon being the culprit. It would make sense to my analogue brain, that removing one component ie the server, might enhance the signal and decrease the noise my dac gets.

@rivinyl 

I realize I could manipulate the Roon settings to get a better output as detailed above, but wonder why should I have to go through all that effort.

Well, you know why. It’s because Roon has such a good UI, and it integrates your own music. (Plus us crazies love manipulating the hell out of our systems...) But as Mark @mgrif104 said, it’s frustrating to knock up against an irreducible penalty. I like your "analogue brain" hypothesis. One way of testing it is to use QC and Roon to play your local music. I haven’t tried that... it’s a good question.

My last message was incorrect: AFAIK there is no way to use QC on local files. Maybe one can test Roon on a local file versus the same file streamed directly from the Qobuz server via Roon.

Maybe one can test Roon on a local file versus the same file streamed directly from the Qobuz server via Roon

I’ve done that before, with both ripped CD files and purchased hi-res files. I don’t hear much – if any at all – difference between them. In Roon I used fixed volume and disable all the DSP features, for minimal processing of the stream before it hits my DAC.