I just got Roon up and running on my synology nas, and the user platform is absolutely superb. And I was looking forward to playing with all the features, BUT the sound quality compared to the app I’m using with my LUMIN A1 streamer is really bad.
With roon it sounds as the Musik is played through a thick cotton blanket. And there is no details the same way as with my LUMIN app. Regardless if I use DSP or not.
Why can that be?
I installed roon on the m2.nvme ssd Disk, and all music is stored on the normal harddrives and passed on to my LUMIN A1 streamer.
There’s really no reason why Roon should sound much different to using the Lumin app – there’s a few differences in approach, but none should lead to the magnitudes of difference you describe.
From your current signal path, you’re playing at 7dB lower volume and applying four bands of PEQ. The first makes comparing hard; the second can easily create the ‘thick cotton blanket’ sound you describe, depending on the EQ applied.
Turn off the DSP Engine for now so you can do an apples to apples comparison between the two scenarios (your signal path will be all purple stars like in my example above). If you still think the sound is ‘really bad’, let’s ping @wklie from Lumin to see what could be the matter here.
I did try disable everything and still lumin app sounds Much more “real” og with more details…
That’s one thing, but roon imo shouldn’t sound like covered with a blanket just because the eq is enabled. Or should it?
I have a really good listening room and the only issue is a 10db dip between 40-70hz, and therefore I don’t need that much dsp/Eq.
But I’ll rather go with low bass then a “cotton blanket”…
Hope you can help me out here… and you have a superb platform.
Please show your parametric EQ filters. If you are attempting to fill a 10 dB bass response trough and applying -7 dB headroom adjustment, you may be running into some analog signal issues downstream.
If you hear a difference with sound quality as compared to Lumin app, since Lumin by itself cannot do EQ, it’s best to compare it with Roon EQ disabled.
If you have already disabled EQ and still notice a difference, I’d suggest, as an experiment, temporarily try using the Synology DS918+ as a Roon Core (with DSP Engine disabled), shutdown and unplug the power cord from the PC, and unplug all the power supplies of any attached peripherals such as USB HDD (if any) from the electricity outlets.
Please confirm your PC, Synology and Lumin A1 are all using wired Ethernet, i.e. not gone through any WiFi to Ethernet bridge / adapter, or HomePlug powerline network.
Hi,
I am using roon core from my ds918+ and I don’t use a pc. And I did of cause try to compare the two with everything turned off in roon.
Surely the difference is not as big as with the DSP turned on, but it’s big enough to have doubts about what roon actually does.
I spoke to 3 of my hifi (geeks) friends and they said that they experienced the same dann thing, So they had to get rid of roon even though the user experience (the platform) was superb.
Roon is installed on a (m2.nvme) SSD on my Synology, and everything in my system is wired.
I have the exact same NAS, running RoonServer on the 918+
I hear none of the things you’re experiencing.
I don’t say that to discredit your observations at all because I don’t at all doubt that something is not working right for you. I used to hear differences between older versions of Roon and other apps but that vanished with the latest v1.4 of Roon, maybe due to some of the optimisations mentioned in the release notes (or maybe not).
So with the same Core as you, I’m trying to think what could be wrong.
With all Roon DSP turned off you say the difference is not as big but still big enough.
How about Peter’s questions above - are you using a WiFi Bridge in the chain or powerline adapters? Or it’s all ethernet only?
And your Core and Lumin A1 are all up to date, software/firmware?
By the way, how did you install RoonServer on NVMe SSD’s? I recently spoke to Synology about using that for storage but they told me for now that’s only for SSD caching - they said a future update would allow storage but no timeline yet.
Can you try installing Roon Server on one of the NAS drives temporarily (for testing only)? Or a portable USB3.0 SSD drive.
I have RoonServer installed on a 256gb Samsung 850 PRO 2.5" SSD (overkill for Roon database but I have other things installed on there too).
There are some similar observations on this and other forums as well. If this observation is really true, then I wonder why Roon isn’t doing something to improve the situation.
I misunderstood your original configuration. If you have a computer, please try running Roon server (no GUI) there instead (and fetch the music from Synology) and see if there is any difference.
Hello!
I also think that Roon has a really first-class app / user interface.
But the sound is worse than the direct way.
I have no DSP, upsampling, or otherwise activated.
At first I thought, “Okay, sounds warmer, calmer, less high definition and more analog”. And that was better at first.
But the original sound of the Tidal app or the BluOS app is now much more detailed and clear for me personally.
I have the bluesound Node2.
Like I said, I like the Roon app.
But the sound does not convince me a bit.
A real shame.
I have no WiFi bridge what so ever, and everything is up to date.
And yes the NVMe is used for caching, but we did try the difference from install the core on my usb3 ssd and the “normal” hdd with the NVMe doing the caching, and there are NO difference in sound quality at all.
The only thing I can think of is the difference between my two programs is that lumin “Programme” is “build in” and my lumin has an linear psu, and Roon “program” is on my nas and has no linear psu right now, since synology has changed the 12v plug from my old ds212+ So it don’t fit min psu.
I know that a linear psu is a huge step up, but I’ll have to wait and see (I’ll ordered the 12v plug yesterday).
