Roon vs Qobuz Connect

@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. 

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!  

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.

Audiophile1-your post doesn’t make sense. I use the same audio hardware and cables for both roon or Qobuz connections. There is no way that people are going to buy specific cables for roon and other cables for QC. I bypass my Linux roon server when using QC, but use every other piece of audio equipment. I have all the settings set as described above, Roon on a Linux (best sounding OS), with many high powered cores and 64g ram, and QC sounds better, to me, to my audio friends, but the interface is in the dark ages compared to Roon.

The last time I demoed Audirvana, it also sounded better than Roon, but again the interface can’t compete with Roon