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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
newton_john's avatar
newton_john
591 posts
 

@audphile1 

Thank you.

AI tells me that Bubble UPnP Server won’t make a significant difference to sound quality because it does very little beyond making jPlay compatible with Linn’s protocol. Basically, it is just changing a small bit of code. I don’t think I’ve got anything to lose by trying it out. The worst thing that can happen is it may not be as stable as UPnP and the Linn App. If I don’t like it, I can easily uninstall it and get back to where I am now.
 

Have you taken a view on jPlay yet? Does it have most of the functionality of Roon.

audphile1's avatar
audphile1
8,140 posts
 

@newton_john jplay has a very nice UI. It’s similar to Roon but does not have every feature of Roon. Example of a few features I think would be nice to have -

1. When browsing artist/composer/band albums, the list is sorted by release year descending. Roon gives you an option to sort by popularity which how I would prefer to view it

2. Option to select albums in MQA format. I stream both Qobuz and Tidal. My DAC has full MQA capabilities and happens to sound amazing playing MQA. I think Jplay is a bit odd in this regard. For example Patricia Barber “Clique” album is available in MQA thru Roon. Jplay shows CD quality but plays track 1 as MQA and the rest is 44-16. Roon pulls the entire album in MQA.

3. A bit more info on format would be nice at album level 

However, as I said the interface is really nice and I am extremely happy with the sound quality. 

Marcin from jplay frequents the forums. He posted here https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/jplay-app/post?postid=2910160

phishhhhh4's avatar
phishhhhh4
179 posts
 

Roon is a terrible company with the worst tech support model on the planet 

tcutter's avatar
tcutter OP
430 posts
 

@phishhhhh4 

+ ∞

They alienate their customers and discourage loyalty.

newton_john's avatar
newton_john
591 posts
 

Thank you, @audphile1 

I have been trying all evening to get BubbleServer UPnP to create a OpenHome renderer from the Linn DSM, but jPlay for iOS just can’t see it. So sadly, I’ve had to give up on jPlay and make do with the Linn App. 
 

I did use jPlay briefly with the DSM direct and it sounded great. I know it shouldn’t make any difference, but I thought it sounded crisper than the Linn App.
 

Shame really as it’s a great control app. 

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