Doesn’t matter what they have said as things can go awry with their code as it does with every release, they always say we make no changes to the playback chain but other areas do seem to affect it as the whole gapless thing on Qobuz showed and the slower playback some are getting. I suggest rtry it out yourself and see. It might be the act of switching itself but it’s a perceivable change none the less and I don’t recall noticing it myself before. But then it might have always been like this.
I do not know how to overlay them. (and they are aligned by eye)
But: first one headroom disabled
Second: Zero Headroom
Third: -3 headroom
The first two look the same to me
Just found the zoon tool (those app all with different shortcuts… who uses cmd + 1 and cmd + 3 for zoom in/zoom out)
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For some, not everybody, so probably rather related to system specific problems.
Which is a problem of DACs correctly recognizing the sample rate.
You probably didn’t read my post, as that’s what I did and neither saw nor heard a problem…
Even offered the idea to measure it to verify.
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I do not know if has any relevance but: I use HQP that can do apodization and correct some errors and also reports them. Highest I ever achieved was on some hip hop r&B 2K on a track. The Ever Present Past from Memory Almost Full did get 12 in 1 minute.
This is the first time I hear this. Sounds logical to be so. Maybe for some (Maybe not my case, after roon restarts all ok maybe 3 days or 5, then sluggish as the search)
Edit:
I did aligned them a little better and still see no difference
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Let me help you out…
Firstly, you can zoom in on a sample by sample level to align perfectly.
To show the difference between both trials for one channel, you need to first invert one trial’s track, then mix it with the other non-inverted trial’s track into a new track.
So “Select” a track (button in bottom left of track window).
Click “Effect” “Special” “Invert”.
Track phase should now be inverted.
Select inverted track and non-inverted track of same channel.
Click “Tracks” “Mix” “Mix and Render to New Track”.
Voilà, you should see the difference between both tracks…
Show us the screen shots, please!
EDIT:
Just seeing that you can probably do the same with the stereo track…
I had just quickly tested with mono tracks to give advice…
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Great, I’ll try.
It’s nothing to do with this at all. My dacs have never had any issues with any sample rates in 5 years of Roon, then started to get this issue intermittently at same time as the gapless problem popped up. I have an open ticket currently, they asked for a copy of my database. It affects skipping tracks on the same album or switching to play another album or track. And I will repeat it never used to do this and I don’t have any exotic setup.
If you play them back if there is no difference it should be completely mute as one cancels out the other. This is how I have tested stuff in the past. I don’t suspect there will be any difference as it’s likely just the act of switching causing our brains to think there is one. As it’s not a switch that happens instantly audible memory isn’t very reliable. I also tend to have the two recordings I am comparing on separate tracks and toggle between them as it’s instant with Audacity.
Yep. nothing there.
Playing and nothing comes on the speaker graph.
I guess for all who understand the science behind is a valid test. For me still is magic 
like the first time I saw Red added to Green and resulting Yellow. After years of painting and Red and Green result in a brown. Now after learned a bit nothing magical.
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Really helpful to see you all trying to investigate
For me it’s absolutely clear that there is a difference. I again blind tested and spottet 10 out of 10 times whether headroom is on or off.
But maybe its an issue which has nothing to do with the function itself but with a chain of other circumstances.
I have no other idea what to try anymore after several hours of changing software settings and hardware.
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When I’ll have a decent pair of headphones (not soon) I’ll return to this test. Maybe the difference is not so evident for me on speakers so I can suspect that I’m imagining. Also there is the idea about the recording quality and type.
So let’s happily change settings and hardware while enjoying music.
Record to measure the difference as @Traian_Boldea did to at least have comprehensible proof - it’s got to be specific to your set-up.
Do not overthink the testing regime with loopback captures or even acoustic recordings. Just run a bit perfect test. Turn on Headroom management and set to 0. Play an encoded file (DTS or MQA, for example) to an external processor or DAC. If decoding succeeds, then the signal path remains bit perfect, and no frequency dependent attenuation is possible.
AJ
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Well I just tested my RME DAC with its bit perfect test files and with headroom on but set to 0 it passed so puts this one to bed it’s not changing a thing and it’s in our head, well at least in one of my systems.
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I too experience a deterioration in sound quality when headroom management is enabled in Roon (at 0dB headroom adjustment). I use Roon Core on an Antipodes CX, which exports to an Antipodes EX with Roon player, and then to a Chord Qutest DAC.
Normally, audio is dithered when a file is exported to a lower bit depth. Perhaps the headroom management process in Roon is starting to dither the audio data, even though it is not necessary at a headroom setting of 0dB? The folks at Roon should be able to clarify this.
Roon’s number crunching is done in 64bit float. 0dB headroom adjustment will do nothing that’s audible. If you’re hearing differences, there’s something else at play. Have you checked that volume levelling isn’t enabled and that there are no speaker setup/convolution/parametric EQ settings enabled?
Quick headroom question… i used to have -3 db as headroom in roon enabled to be safe… but I never notice clipping in roon.
I also did simplify my roon setup a bit and I’m using my Cambridge CXN v2 for roon… the cxn v2 is fully roon supported.
I have the volume control set to „fixed“.
I just enabled the digital preamp of the CXN v2 and did set it to -3 (this would work for all sources and not only roon).
Would this essentially do the same as setting headroom in roon ?
No, not if you are employing any DSP within Roon. That requires digital headroom upstream of DSP.
AJ