I recently switched my Antipodes server from Roon to Squeeze, a significant improvement in sound quality, all the characteristics you noted.
Roon changes the music
... at least on Qobuz on my system.
Listening with an audio buddy who has a very critical ear to both Roon and Qobuz Connect. We agreed that quick AB comparisons of the same song with matched levels per the iPhone DBx app and no DSP, volume leveling etc., yielded a difference. As some of the listeners in this thread (https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/does-roon-sound-different?highlight=Does%2Broon%2Bcolor%2Bthe%2Bmusic) found, "ROON has a certain "house sound" that blurs contours and softens treble." and "Roon is a bit softer in the upper midrange and images do not stand out in such relief as jplay". It was not subtle. Need to listen more to see if it’s an improvement or a step back. Too early to tell but there is certainly a difference.
Since I have been struggling with Qobuz connectivity, I am again considering going to Tidal, which is no biggie, but now I am also concerned that I may have to give up Roon. That would suck because I really like the Roon UI and the fact that all my music is organized there.
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@tcutter I have a term for this/ took me a few years to come up with it, percolating in various Roon-centric streaming setups- treble fungus. It creeps up, sometimes u hardly notice it then after a while, you wonder about things… where is that beautiful soaring top end I swear I had? Where is that expansive airy soundstage? Each and every-time I solved the problem, it came down to Roon as the root cause. Don’t believe the Roon forum bots. They will try to convince you that you are wrong- it can’t be Roon… and you are only imagining it. They are the digital equivalent of the ASR hardware “measurements above all else” weenies. I made streaming a secondary activity months ago and loving the simple life (physical media)! |
Roon suffers from two major issues - 1. Treble Fungus (copyright @audiopacer ) 2. Brain Farts - this is where it decides its had enough and goes super slow…basically just rides off into the sunset leaving you with a paperweight until you reboot the core My nucleus one has been off for little over a week and I’ve been using jplay. I have a large music library on SSD but honestly I rarely play any of the albums from it. It’s mounted inside nucleus. I will most likely cancel Roon. It’s not worth the hassle unless you prioritize convenience over sound quality. |
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