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.

tcutter

@emergingsoul , have you considered splitting your Roon log-in credentials between (or, maybe even better, among) different heirs, similar to the way you plan to separately bequeath left and right speakers?  Could be great for added post-mortem hi-jinx!

@kirkwallace 

roon definitely goes to the person who doesn't end up with both speakers. That would be cruel and makes me happy.     

Does anybody use DSP on roon.  I’ve never seen much of the point to use it and it’s so damn complicated and doesn’t it take away from the sound quality by putting the signal through a filter?

I use the parametric EQ. There is no penalty in sound quality with it. If I find the time, I will someday try to load a REW wav file in to Roon for the promise of better correction. Jplay does sound better than Roon, but I currently prefer Roon with equalization. 

I also use the parametric EQ, gently, lifting the bass and clipping excess. 

My speakers are tuned to be pretty neutral, which sounds great for movies but lacks bass for music at the levels I listen to.  Using Roon for EQ lets me have separate tuning for each.