Don't like the DSP function. Wait, what?

When I think about it, that’s exactly what someone else said. Convolution sounds good, but PEQ in Roon subtracts from sound quality (even if its empty but enabled). Maybe something the Roon devs can look into.

I am using convolution only right now (room correction with built in house curve).

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Thanks Anders,

I am not familiar with Acourate - had a quick look on the website but could not see how this would work with Meridian kit. Could you describe how you use this with your Meridian please?

No, I don’t use it with Meridian. Don’t think that is possible. I use Acourate to generate the convolution and then put that in Roon. Roon sends the corrected signal to the Meridian 818.

Thanks Anders - I will check Acourate out. Any specific soundcard/mic combo you would recommend for doing this? I have macs at home, would expect that most mainstream soundcards would work with my mac emulating windows through VM Ware - have never had a problem using windows emulated before. And lastly, which version of Acourate is the one to go for?

Thanks for your help, Chris

There is a lot of discussion of Acourate in these pages, do a search. This includes step by step descriptions — Acourate is not the easiest software to learn.

Acourate recommends a single sound device to handle both input (mic) and output (DAC) so they get consistent clocks, for improved accuracy. I didn’t do that, still pleased with the results. But you must use Asio4All, which has a quirky UI.

I don’t know anything about Acourate versions.

Hei Anders

I was thinking of REV, but now understand I must go the hard way and do Acourate. Made det German way :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye: Just like SAP !

However I’m also considering the Norwegian Audiolense SW. http://juicehifi.com

Nice review here at CA.

Do you have any knowledge if Audiolense is supported by Roon ? Or who to ask in the Roon team ?

Is convolution a standard format, so if a room correction SW can export convolution, then I’m good to go ?

Do implementation of Accurate require much extra power ?

Would you happen to know if Dirac is a dead end ?

Does implementation om convolution in Roon work with HQPLAYER ?

I’m not using a computer as an endpoint, and never will do, is it a requirement to use a Windows PC as endpoint ? (Roon is on SonicTransporter)

Is it OK to use endpoints like UltraRendu ?

Do convolution work with MQA ?

@Michael_Lowe
I think you have tried to figure out if Roon works with Audiolense, but you gave up due to lack of support or ?

EDIT
I think this post more or less confirm Roon has issues:

Good for you. Acourate is difficult not because there is anything wrong with it, but because it is a general tool kit, not a ready-made solution. (Yes, like SAP.) I recommend Mitch Barnett’s book, $10 on Kindle. And follow the procedure, don’t try to take shortcuts like I did.

As to your questions:

Do you have any knowledge if Audiolense is supported by Roon ? Or who to ask in the Roon team ?
A. I don’t know Audiolense. @Brian, do you know?

Is convolution a standard format, so if a room correction SW can export convolution, then I’m good to go ?
A. The convolution filters are defined in a PCM file, like an audio file. So I would imagine the odds are good that it is compatible, or at least translatable.
Note that you want to define a convolution file for each resolution (otherwise Roon has to up- or down-sample the filter).

Do implementation of Accurate require much extra power ?
A. No, Roon easily does it. Yes, perhaps more than PEQ, but it is not overly demanding. I have an i5 NUC, and it never gets beyond 10% CPU load.

Would you happen to know if Dirac is a dead end ?
A. Yeees, I think so. In the past, Dirac has been a closed system, cannot export filter definitions to Roon. But I read there is some work on releasing Dirac as an API, I don’t know what that means. But that appears to be runtime processing, so it would not address this question.

Does implementation om convolution in Roon work with HQPLAYER ?
A. Two answers: if you set up HQPlayer as an output device for Roon, which appears to be the normal way, I assume it would work. But I have no direct experience with it. Second, just today, @jussi_laako wrote that he uses Acourate to create convolution filters that are processed in HQPlayer, rather than in Roon.

I’m not using a computer as an endpoint, and never will do, is it a requirement to use a Windows PC as endpoint ? (Roon is on SonicTransporter)
A. Roon does the DSP convolution on the Core, and it works on all core platforms. Provided of course that the SonicTransporter has enough power, I think it does.

Is it OK to use endpoints like UltraRendu?
A. Yes — again, since the DSP is done on the Core, the result is just a standard signal, somewhat modified, sent to the endpoint. The endpoint doesn’t even know it has been modified.

Do convolution work with MQA ?
A. At this point, no. Anything that modifies the signal, even volume leveling, breaks MQA done in a DAC. However, once Roon does MQA processing in software, it is possible they can organize the processing so it does MQA first, and then DSP on the decoded signal. But this is speculation, we know little about Roon’s coming MQA processing. (I have MQA processing in my Meridian equipment, doesn’t work with DSP, I give up MQA for the much greater benefits of room correction (yes, I tested MQA extensively with DSP disabled, the effects are much smaller).

Have fun.

Edit: andybob here. Since Anders wrote this post Roon has released it’s MQA implementation which does work with room convolution.

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I haven’t used Audiolense, but my understanding is that it generates impulses for convolution just like Acourate/REW. I believe that there are quite a few people using it with Roon.

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Thanks for a very nice answer. This seems like it may be a good time to start testing Audiolense.

If I understood support answer here, they are working on a fix in order to utilize Audiolense in Roon.

What I don’t know of cause is if there are some main differences in those two applications, or if one is “better” than the other. Whatever better means :grinning:

If both applications can do the same at equal quality (and SQ), it seems as Audiolense is a easier (and more expensive?) way to do achieve room correction.
I guess I would need the XO version ?

By reading Mitch book I may understand what I’m doing :grinning:

But Roon will automatically pick the correct file then ?

Does this also mean I can have more than one filter for the same resolution, and choose which filter Roon should use ?

(We may see a future where we add multichannel sound from movies / TV into Roon, and we then would like to use different files)

Yes. Roon chooses the filter that matches best based on sample rate, channel layout, etc. If you only provide very general filters, Roon will do conversions. If you provide exact matches for every channel layout, sample rate, etc, then it will choose from amongst them very specifically.

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The runtime processing with the convolution filter in Roon is the same in all cases.

But designing good filters requires skill. It is certainly possible to generate horrible sounding filters and give them to Roon.

I cannot guide you based on personal experience, I have used only Acourate. It was recommended to me by an experienced friend, and online commentary was positive. (And @jussi_laako of HQPlayer fame uses it :slightly_smiling_face: .)

If you don’t want to go the step learning curve Accurate/Audiolense way you could try HAF (home audio fidelity) https://www.homeaudiofidelity.com
You make your own mesurements in REV and mail them to HAF they then create Roon compatible filters for you. There is a thread about HAF here on the forum Roon & Home Audio Fidelity (Room Correction / convolution filter creation)

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This seems as a very attractive option.

Would you happen to know what SW these guys are using ?

I believe its proprietary, but I can tell you from personal experience its fantastic. Best $$$ I’ve spent in awhile for my system. I do have a challenging room, and its worked wonders for me. Huge and I mean huge soundstage.

No I don’t know the software but I agree that it was well worth the investment for me too.

Seems like we can call this a no brainer :grinning:

I will do.

As a start I will have to figure out the difference between standard and excellence option.

“Standard” option : 109€ = filters w/o cross talk cancellation (including sampling frequencies from 44.1 to 384 kHz)

“Excellence” option : 159€ = filters with & w/o cross talk correction

Send an email to Thierry(HAF) for an explanation. I’m using the “Excellence” option and love it. Naturally some recordings sound better than others.

Hi Anders,

I really envy you for the stunningly beautiful view you can enjoy every time you listen to music in your own four walls (you posted some absolutely amazing photos in the “Showing [off] your Roon equipment” thread!). However, from my own personal experience I can tell you that having a dedicated listening room doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to spend lots of time there all by yourself. On the contrary, when my wife and I decided to hire a team of acoustical engineers to design and build our acoustically optimized sound room, we did that because we wanted to enjoy the music we love together and to spend quality time together. We both agree the whole project was definitely worth the money. We simply love the acoustics in this room and our kids do, too. As musicians and music teachers, we never get tired of telling people they should go to live concerts as often as possible. Live music is the real thing! But we can’t go out every night, can we?

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Thanks for sharing your thoughtful exploration. Today I’m going to pull the trigger and purchase a dCS Network Bridge and Roon Nucleus. I was going for the i3 but if DSP has the potential to improve SQ in my room (and every room is different and I agree, the room is the most important element of any system) then I will go with i7/ Nucleus Plus. I usually prefer to plug things in and forget about them, but for all the money I’ve poured into this crazy venture, perhaps I will plug, tweak and then forget? Best

Did that come to something? As far as I am aware, the crossfeed is the same as first released. Or did I miss something?

I would love a crossfeed transparent enough to use with my dCS/Stax setup…