Roon vs Qobuz Connect

 Has anyone experienced better sonics with "better" servers?

Not better sound, but Roon can need a pretty beefy server to reduce unreliability.  Roon server software can run tons of processes, need lots of memory, and grinds itself silly updating metadata sometimes.  A better machine can mitigate those effects. This all depends on size and nature of your Roon library, including unidentified albums and usage of lots of tags.

This is one reason I favor the 2-machine server-streamer configuration.  You can have a super beefy machine and still have a quiet endpoint serving to the DAC. 

This doesn't impact audio quality however...it is reliability...

I think if one is going to be serious about using Roon the best bet is to use it on a dedicated appliance, either running it on a Roon Nucleus (~$600) or building your own using a NUC with ROCK OS (which is what I did). I don't want to run Roon server on a computer – not optimized for it – that I use for other stuff, even if it's a more capable computer (like  my Mac Mini M4 Pro).

My subjective perception is, yes, Qobuz connect via a Wiim Ultra to my Linear Tube Audio Aero DAC sounds better than Roon nucleus to my LTA Aero DAC. 

No clue why. I'm convinced there's just more clarity. Of course, I could be wrong.  I don't care. I hear it so, therefore, it is!

 

My subjective perception is, yes, Qobuz connect via a Wiim Ultra to my Linear Tube Audio Aero DAC sounds better than Roon nucleus to my LTA Aero DAC. 

I have a WiiM Pro connected via coax to a Weiss DAC501-MK2. Using Qobuz via Roon (running ROCK on a NUC) using the Roon endpoint of the DAC (and bypassing the WiiM) sounds substantially better to me, than using Qobuz Connect to the WiiM Pro. I bought the WiiM Pro just for the occasional times I want to cast an Airplay2 stream to the DAC, but I am unimpressed with how it sounds for Qobuz Connect. Streaming via Roon directly to the DAC is superior in my case.

I think it all depends on what you have.