I don’t understand. What will setting up another computer do for me?
Roon’s architecture is optimized when the core and the endpoint are not the same machine. For optimal DAC connection, you want a quiet, low electrical noise, not doing anything intense RAAT endpoint. That by definition isn’t the core because it is doing at least all the Roon processing, plus who knows whatever else?
Try it - you really cannot judge Roon quality until you’ve tried proper setup. Some will say it’s not necessary, and that’s fine, and some have specialized hardware that allows for it. But when you are talking about using Roon over general purpose computers, then you want to follow that separate endpoint recommendation, at least try it.
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I believe David is referring to the claims made on https://kb.roonlabs.com/Sound_Quality. See also https://kb.roonlabs.com/Sound_Quality_in_One_Computer and https://kb.roonlabs.com/DSP_Engine.
One thing that may have bitten you early on is that Roon spends a good deal of time crawling your local library for analysis when it is first configured. That may have been going on in the background when you first did your A/B comparison. I assume all that background work is done now. The links above provide much more info and explanation.
I’d suggest re-comparing against Audirvana with as much DSP turned off in both programs, with the goal of making each program behave as similarly as possible to each other. E.g. if one ends up playing as little as 1dB quieter the difference will be audible and the quieter one can often sound “worse.” More than once I’ve thought I was doing a close to apples/apples comparison but had instead made a dumb mistake with something like this.
You don’t mention your DAC, or how your PC is connected to it. A lot of the software techniques used by Audirvana are designed to reduce the jitter of the audio packets sent over USB, and even electronic noise sent over the wire (see https://audirvana.com/technology/). I suspect that with a modern DAC with a great USB implementation the sonic differences between Roon and Audirvana could be reduced (vs. using an older DAC with a crappy USB implementation that is highly susceptible to jitter and noise).
Roon’s basic architecture takes a different approach than Audirvana does. Roon is designed with the idea that a computer used for general purpose computing won’t ever produce the best sound, so there is no point in designing the software with that goal. Intead, Roon supports a solution where a purpose built, or at least otherwise idle, computer can accept audio over the network and feed it to a DAC. This separates all the “heavy lifting” processing well away from where it makes any sonic difference. With that approach, many of the techniques used by Audirvana become unnecessary/redundant.
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I’m going from my PC via USB to a Micromega MyDac then to my Jolida amp. The MyDac will be replaced next week with a Topping D70. Hopefully an improvement. 
EDIT: Forgot to mention USB goes through an Ifi IUSBPower before the DAC.
Essentially, HQPlayer replaces the Roon sound engine. HQPlayer is very advanced upsampling software, and is the only product that can supplant Roon’s sound engine. In my opinion, Roon is great for library management, and mediocre for sound quality. It’s simply not where the talents of the Roon programmers reside.
The bottom line is be prepared to spend more money to get Roon to sound as good as Audirvana, whether you spend on HQPlayer, or with hardware architecture improvements, all roads lead to more cash spent.
If you don’t went to spend, it’s best to simply to stick with Audirvana.
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What if I stream lossless w/o HQPlayer? Is it still sound worse than Audirvana in lossless mode?
Theoretically, lossless is losslees, please do not tell me if Audirvana sounds better Roon if we stream lossless.
I have been user of Audirvana since day one.
Three years ago I gave Roon a try and was not convinced.
Two years ago Roon Labs allowed me another trial and it was …well close enough to pull a trigger and went for lifetime.
Then what came next were fine tunings including purchase of Nucleus and LPS.
For me the final target is to make digital music sounds ANALOGUE as close as it is possible and this is exactly what you will achieve with Roon (if you are ready to invest) at the end of the road.
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That’s what we’re telling you.
Correction: That’s what I’m telling you. 
It’s definitely not what I’m saying or many of the other posts here. One aspect of what we are saying - actually to you as the OP – is that you are not optimizing Roon for best standard performance when you do this:
You need to try with a separate endpoint. Use your PC as the core. Use another quiet, low powered, not a lot of fans, not a lot of spinning hard drives, no other functions being run, PC as an endpoint, or a Raspberry PI, or a dedicated Roon-ready endpoint. Connect the DAC to that second device.
Then you have used Roon’s recommended configuration, and are ready to start tweaking and playing with it until you get the sound to your liking.
Just upgrading hardware to a different DAC may help, but it could also just be spending money where you do not need to.
Consider that you have a sporty 4-door car and then purchase a Corvette, but you put winter tires on the Corvette contrary to the dealer’s recommendations, then complain that the Corvette doesn’t drive as well as your sporty 4-door. Or course it doesn’t - you haven’t yet put the right tires on for optimal car performance. Put on the right tires, then compare it to your 4-door. That’s the point here - you are not using Roon as designed for best audio performance until you disconnect the DAC from the core and put it on an electrically quiet, not doing anything else, endpoint.
Good luck!
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I hear what you are saying. I’m not sure that Corvette analogy quite works but let me use it:
I went shopping and bought a Roon Corvette and a Audirvana Camaro. Both get me from A to B and both go fast. What the sales guy didn’t tell me is that the Roon Corvette requires special gas, special tires, special oil and I need to buy another machine or it won’t perform as expected. Or I can just drive the Camaro. It won’t look as good as the Corvette but it will be faster and perform better without the extra cost and time.
I’m not knocking Roon. It’s a great product. I just didn’t realize there was so much more to it than just installing and playing music.
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Actually, the sales guy did tell you. This is all over the forum and very clear in the knowledge base. You just needed to have read up before you bought.
Plus Roon doesn’t “need” any of it…it works without it, just not optimally, and only potentially so, depending on what you’re doing with the core.
Of course you’re free to use it however you’d like. You posted a question which is in essence “how can I make Roon sound better” and that is, for this product, one of the standard methods.
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That’s the great thing about trial periods. We get to learn all about the product that we downloaded without reading the directions.
Sure, can’t argue with that. I’d just suggest it’s not a “fair trial” until you try it how it sounds best, or at least theoretically so.
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Ok. To give it a proper trial what’s the most economical way to build or buy a Roon server? Say $500 or so?
Just to be clear on terminology, I view your current PC as the Roon server. So is your plan to buy another machine to take over that role, or is your plan to build the machine on the other end of the network connection - i.e. what we typically call a RAAT endpoint?
To my knowledge, other than when “Roon Ready” comes bundled in a device, the best value is to use a Raspberry PI. I have not done that myself, so I will defer to the others here to help instruct on that.
You can also use an old PC that you have sitting around. Take out as many spinning hard drives and fans as you can but still leave it functional, and try that out first. Not optimal but also no investment just to give it a try.
Ultimately, what I have been using, are the media PC builds that are recommended over at AudiophileStyle (FKA ComputerAudiophile). They have some build designs there for attractive cases, low power usage, no moving parts, all solid state, very quite machines. But a PI is quite similar, and definitely a ton cheaper.
Have fun!
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I think I need to learn some of the proper terminology. I think I’m talking about building a Roon server. Whatever will make Roon sound the best. I don’t have any old PCs but I have several laptops. Or I could just buy an Intel NUC or something like that. Is Pi powerful enough?
To me Roon server=Roon core, the machine that is doing the processing. Your PC is doing that now. What I am suggesting is you disconnect the DAC from that machine and then connect the DAC to a quiet, lower powered networked endpoint. Pi is good for that.
Laptop, not as good. Plenty of power, but electrically noisy.
A NUC will run your Core, the Pi will be for an endpoint, you can’t run Roon Core (server) on a Pi.
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You could do this:
Simply install RoonBridge on a laptop that has a USB output. Plug the USB into the DAC. Hook that PC up to your network via ethernet. (it might also work fine via Wifi)
When you run Roon on your other PC (presumably another laptop), it will find the RoonBridge on the network. It will communicate with the RoonBridge over the network. The core is now galvanically separated from the endpoint (the laptop running RoonBridge).
A few different outcomes can be anticipated:
- if the reason for the sonic difference is noise from the PC running Roon entering your DAC via the USB, you may notice an improvement in how Roon sounds.
- You may not notice any change in how things sound because the other laptop (running RoonBridge) is noisy. But one does need to ask, how finicky is Roon then?
- You may not notice any change in how things sound because Roon just sounds worse than Audivarna.
This is an experiment that will only cost your time, and probably not much of it. RoonBridge is very easy to install.
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