Make Roon Sound Better

I put Roon on my windows 10 computer.

Operating System
Windows 10 Pro 64-bit
CPU
AMD FX-8300 45 °C
Vishera 32nm Technology
RAM
24.0GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 669MHz (9-9-9-24)
Motherboard
Gigabyte Technology Co. Ltd. 990FXA-UD3 R5 (CPU 1) 35 °C
Graphics
SANYO LCD (1920x1080@60Hz)
2048MB ATI AMD Radeon R7 360 Series (XFX Pine Group) 41 °C
2048MB ATI AMD Radeon R7 360 Series (XFX Pine Group)
CrossFire Disabled
Storage
1863GB TOSHIBA DT01ACA200 (SATA ) 36 °C
1863GB Western Digital WDC WD20EFRX-68AX9N0 (SATA ) 31 °C
111GB KINGSTON SV300S37A120G (SATA-2 (SSD)) 28 °C
465GB TOSHIBA MKNSSDRE500GB (SATA (SSD)) 29 °C
1863GB Plugable USB3-SATA-UASP1 SCSI Disk Device (USB (SATA) ) 37 °C
Optical Drives
Optiarc DVD RW AD-7200S
HL-DT-ST BD-RE WH16NS40
Audio
AMD High Definition Audio Device
It’s running on one of my SSD drives, and I have no problems. My music is on a NAS, which I set up for Roon to find. I use my ipad pro as a remote. I have over 5000 albums in FLAC. I have AirPlay throughout my home and can play my music anywhere. I have a 50" Sanyo HD as my monitor. I use the optical out (optical cable) from the tv to the optical in on my Onkyo 5.1 receiver as my main unit. My speakers consist of JBL’s in the front, Yamaha center, Yamaha rears, and Monoprice sub. I have a much better setup in my livingroom, Bedroom, and even my kitchen. I keep reading about DAC, and other digital devices to make Roon sound better. Can I add anything to my main system for a better sound??? I think it sound great already.

Room correction perhaps?

https://kb.roonlabs.com/DSP_Engine:_Convolution

This is a tough one. Without any info about your audio system it’s hard to make recommendations. Most people will say ditch the AirPlay. You are limited to 16bit resolutions.

Hi Henry, welcome. The short answer is if it sounds great as is, then why change anything? That being said if you’re interested in playing with things there’s always something else to jump to-be warned it can be a slippery slope. As an example it looks like you’re using an Apple TV to send audio to your receiver. It might be worthwile to experiment with a different streaming device like a Raspberry Pi with a HAT board from HiFiBerry or Allo (if your receiver has USB input the HAT wouldn’t be 100% necessary). The HAT board would allow you to use the coaxial input on your receiver.This can be put together for relatively little cost, ~$200 and would provide a better output signal as well as the ability to use the RAAT protocol rather than Airplay.

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2 things -

  1. Speaker placement
  2. Room treatment

Then worry about the rest!

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If it sounds great to you, don’t do anything. If you really want to spend money chasing SQ, I would say speakers and a high quality DAC to replace your Onkyo DAC. Also, use ethernet instead of AirPlay.

If you have issues running Roon core on your computer, invest in a Roon Nucleus or build a NUC to run the Roon core.

Some have claimed when tying HQplayer with Roon that SQ is better, I have yet to compare this and am thinking about it lightly in the future.

Sorry about your wallet, in advance. hehe