After a hard reboot of Nucleus One some of the UI issues are gone. Slow but better now. Sonics - jplay still ahead of roon.
Since I haven’t heard from anyone here who compared the 2 and no one listed their system components, I’m going to close this out by concluding that the posters here
never tried jplay
Don’t have the system that resolves the sonic differences between various streaming methods
Roon is still a UI king and that’s without a doubt. There’s a very small but important difference in presentation. If you haven’t heard it, you’re missing out on squeezing the last bit of potential from your electronics.
If jplay did sound better than Roon, that would only mean that it’s not bit perfect and it’s doing something else (eq, character, amplitude…). If you filtered your understanding through the fact that the signal is the same (at least roon = qobuz = tidal) then maybe you wouldn’t be stating in public that one is “dull, anemic” which is the same as posting two identical blue rectangles, stating that you like red and one is redder than the other, and declaring that the “they are blue” brigade have closed minds as if observable and verifiable facts are a thing that can be disputed.
You know those optical illusions where two things are actually exactly the same but your brain can tell you that they are different colours? That’s kind of how this is.
I reboot my DAC/streamer after every Roon update. If the positive effect is placebo effect, at least it follows my requirement that a placebo works every time (lesser placebos work less than 50% of the time). The clock in the DAC takes some time to thermally stabilize. Then, I don’t hear a difference in Roon updates. If one posits it is all in my head – well, yeah. For interesting reading about the brain and music appreciation, see articles on musical anhedonia. Peace.
I tried and subscribed to JPlay. I believed the reviewer hype that JPlay sounds better than Roon. But then I discovered that JPlay sucks because if you try to stream from Tidal, and presumably Qobuz too, the stream doesn’t proceed through a NAS over Ethernet backhaul to your streamer, it streams through your iPhone or iPad over WiFi and then through the Network. That causes all sorts of issues, not least dropouts! I raised this issue with the administrator of JPlay, who confirmed that is how JPlay works with iOS.
So, I will stick with Roon, and after all, it’s about the quality of implementation at the Roon endpoint and DAC.
I disagree. Roon sends the stream through roon to your endpoint. Jplay sets up the path between Qobuz and your streamer, starts the stream direct between each and then waits to send the next comnand. I just started a long piece, immediately turned off the ipad and it kept playing to the end. BTW I find sound through jplay slightly more open but I rest assured all the bits arrive through both.
Please correct me if I’m wrong BUT so will any Control Point software , it sends a command to the server “Play Track x” then sits quiet until you chose another command is required by the user. Some servers work on moving un-decoded files into memory (even whole albums) eg JRiver so a long continuous play is possible after a single command say 40-60 mins even.
is @audphile1 talking about the JPlay Femto server (this shuts down lots of Windows things to cut noise etc) or the iPad app. As far as I can see the iPad app is simply a control point like say mConnect. Its a fancy one with lots of ways to adjust how it looks but bottom line is it sends commands to a server the server passes stream to streamer with no further involvement of JPlay iOS
I do have JPlay iOS working with Minim Server personally I spot no audible difference between that , JRiver and Roon through my Naim Uniti Atom HE and Sennheiser HD800 but my Golden Ears are long gone.
I’ve used extensively Jplay, Qobuz Connect and Roon. No difference in sound. Whenever I have the impression that I’m hearing “things”, this just vanishes when I switch back to the previous “source”. The good news is that they all sound superb when the recording is excellent, especially at night, when the room is so silent. The same with headphones. As for the argument “your system isn’t resolving enough”, I can only say that mine sounds really good to the point that sometimes I wonder what details could possibly be there that I’m not hearing. In any case, meaningful differences should be heard in any decent sound system.
On some albums I cannot hear any difference. On some I prefer Roon. On others I prefer the more open sound of Jplay.
Listening was done late at night when it’s very quiet.
One example where I preferred Roon is Art Pepper, album Straight Life, track Nature Boy. Roon has a bit more meat on the bone especially during the bass solo. Small differences but audible with jplay sounding slightly thinner and drier.
Example where I prefer Jplay - Cannonball Adderley, album Somethin’ Else(24/96), track is Love For Sale. Somehow on Roon this sounded wooly and recessed. Jplay sounded more detailed and open. Bigger difference here than on Art Pepper
Example where I did not hear any difference - Django Festival All Stars, Evolution, track name Around Toots.
I tried to make certain I am comparing same exact version of Qobuz album. Need to spend some more time with it.
One variable is that the roon nucleus one has a Wireworld Starlight 10 Twinax Ethernet cable on it. The network card in DAC is fed via Audience Hidden Treasure Ethernet cable. This could potentially cause the difference as the WW is a warmer sounding cable than the Audience. Next test - using only jplay compare WW and Aidience to confirm if the cable is the culprit.
There is no such thing as a warmer sounding ethernet cable. If anyone ever tells you that there is, treat them with absolute suspicion as they are either a scammer or genuinely don’t know how anything works (or, potentially as seen here, are simply trolling). Do we suppose other files lose integrity when sent over a network, or is it just audio files? If you knew how any of this worked you wouldn’t be able to contain either your laughter at, or your disdain for, such a concept.
But you don’t know how it works. We are just trying to provide realistic context for what you experience. Your experience is what it is but you will find nothing out in your tests without acknowledging the basic fact that the signal is the same and starting from there. Declaring oddly-worded difference between things that are absolutely the same is just lying about products pretty much. It’s not a very nice thing to do.
