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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
debrajray's avatar
debrajray OP
65 posts
 

@dwette haha it’s no big deal, it was this from @rivinyl :

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.

dwette
572 posts
 

I see. I’m not so sure that relates to what I was testing. I compared the same tracks from Roon, where one is stored on the Roon server’s filesystem (as a CD I ripped or a 24-bit file I purchased and downloaded) vs streaming the same thing from Qobuz, but still using Roon. In both cases my Roon server is a dedicated appliance (i.e. Intel NUC running ROCK).

When I had my previous streamer I compared QC vs using Qobuz via Roon. I thought the QC stream was somewhat (but not significantly) better, but not better enough to suffer the inferior user experience using Qobuz’ own UI. I think I’ve noted that above already. I can’t use QC now anyway,

It stands to reason that QC might sound better, since the stream goes from Qobuz servers directly to the QC endpoint, bypassing any other servers (like Roon).

audphile1's avatar
audphile1
8,194 posts
 

@debrajray all things being equal, including the exact same network/Ethernet setup (cables, filters ,etc) feeding streamer and roon core, I’m pretty sure there will still be a difference but it is what it is - will boil down to what sounds best to you. 
Roon’s definitely got us by the ⚽️⚽️ with that awesome UI. 

jji666
666 posts
 

Qobuz Connect can (should) sound better. When using it the stream goes directly to the QC enabled streamer, instead of coming in from Qobuz and making another hop first from the Roon server to the Roon-enabled streamer.

Think about how many hops the bits take before they even get to your house!  

 

dwette
572 posts
 

Think about how many hops the bits take before they even get to your house!

That's all irrelevant when comparing QC to Qobuz via Roon, because it applies equally to both, and TCP/IP handles all that seamlessly. 

Maybe that's an argument for comparing UPnP streams from a local server to remote streaming, but it still might not matter. Even local streaming can take multiple hops over a LAN, depending on network architecture and configuration. It's all packet data that gets resolved by the streamer/DAC NIC on the receiving end.

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