SQ Comparison of 3 streamers

@mdalton thanks for starting and curating this thread, as it has further enhanced my understanding of some additional nuances associated with streamers.

I want to extend my appreciation for your insights on this additional subject. Your contribution has certainly shed more light and helped me gain a better understanding.

@sls883  Thank you for being the third owner and for sharing your thoughts and articulating your digital front-end setup. I had planned to do the similar, but later chose the simpler route and focused on taming and smoothing the system’s tonal balance by experimenting with cables.

@mdalton I’m with you there on Roon. Best UI, amazing amounts of information on artists and albums.

I used to run Roon Core on 2018 mac mini and thought it was good. But when I got a Roon Nucleus One to see what it’s all about, I heard an improvement in sound quality. It was subtle but there was no going back to Mac Mini. Tuning and cleaning up the network feeding the Nucleus resulted in further improvements. Nothing fancy there. But I’m pretty happy with it and Roon is a pleasure to use. 

+1 on the value of roon

there is a separate, active post on ’musical enjoyment’ here

i commented there, as i will echo here --- that roon materially enhances my own musical enjoyment via its ability to suggest new music and artists based on what the user has been listening to -- this has led me to discover so much music, so many artists that i would have been unlikely to stumble onto on my own

... roon materially enhances my own musical enjoyment via its ability to suggest new music and artists based on what the user has been listening to ...

Qobuz does something similar, though I’m not sure to what extent compared with Roon. It enhances and complements human curation through its algorithmic recommendations. I find their suggestions in ‘Discover,’ such as ‘Editor’s Picks’ and ‘For You,’ to be quite well tailored to my tastes. Even more impressively, the ‘Filters’ under ‘Library’ allow users to refine selections to suit their listening preferences. The automatic track generation (autoplay) at the end of each album or playlist is also very inviting, not jarringly random, and usually aligns well with my preferences. This is something many other playback apps lack, and I enjoy it very much. One could possibly regard it as a poor man’s Roon BUT I believe Roon still has the deepest exploration and library intelligence.

https://community.qobuz.com/press-en/qobuz-unveils-its-new-discover-page?utm_source=chatgpt.com

@lanx0003 

I agree with your assessment of the Volumio Rivo+.   I own a Rivo+ with a LPS for about one year, and I went from streaming from an old IPAD to streaming with the Rivo+ using the same DAC.   Compared to the IPAD, the Rivo+ was thicker, better bass, full Bodied, better imaging, etc...  Essentially, exactly what you reported.  I am using Qobuz.  The Rivo+ also presented my SACD & CD ripped lossless music files on a 1TB MicroSD similarly.   I have been ecstatic with the sound.  It happens to be the type of sound I look for.