@audphile1
In the past couple of days, I’ve finally got my streaming setup sounding the way I want. The final piece of the jigsaw was taking out my Roon ROCK NUC and replacing it with a Windows NUC running dBpoweramp Asset, a UPnP server. In many ways that should have been a backwards step, yet it seems have given me the digital sound I’ve been craving for the past few years. Some of the difficult albums that sounded most harsh in places now sound great all the way through. Albums that I’d been underwhelmed by are now enjoyable.
Two years ago, I returned to vinyl because I was so dissatisfied with streaming. Then earlier this year, I discovered that moving my NUC and its switch away from a Sky Q satellite TV box gave significant improvement in sound. That set me off on an obsessive quest to try to get the best from streaming.
I have made whole series of tweaks in cabling, position of components, linear power supplies, etc. I had some success, but disappointingly the digital nasties that spoilt my listening always returned. It got better though the nasties were never quite eliminated completely - mitigation but not a solution. Yet now I have bitten the bullet and gone back to a simpler UPnP server and ditched Roon, I seem to have cracked the problem.
What I’ve done so far is little more than a proof of concept, using an inferior NUC and data from a backup ReadyNAS in the garage. I have still to install Windows on my main NUC, reformat its internal SSD and copy back the music files. I probably won’t get all this done before I go on holiday tomorrow. Hopefully, it will be even better when I’ve finished. Nevertheless, I am happy that I’m on the right track at last.
Sadly, notwithstanding its many advantages, it appears that Roon was holding my system back. Ironically, it has been an enforced rest from vinyl due to a faulty phono stage that prompted me to make the critical change. Also, I must thank Google Gemini for helping me to plan everything and providing clarity.
