Hi there, new user here. I noticed that the output colour is green. If I select a dedicated port it goes blue. Working as intended, I know.
I use my pc for multiple audio sources, games, videos, and sometimes all together. Do I understand correctly Roon identifies system output as ‘high quality’ because it can’t determine what happens to the signal? Yes my pc changes the volume and the balance, but it’s hardly a degradation of quality. I know, I know, it is, but inaudible.
I much rather have a symbol for the source quality, and maybe this is already built in? What Roon calls lossless (16bit, 44100Hz), Tidal considers High quality.
Once again, new user. I’m trying to grasp the logic, but failing at the moment.
System audio is at the mercy of the OS mixer which mixes in system sounds such as notification etc and resamples all audio to what the soundcard is set to. Roon designates this high quality.
Using USB and exclusive modes bypasses this, allows bit perfect playback and you get a pure audio signal of the music no additional sounds. This Roon designates lossless.
Which you use is up to you but there is a big difference to those that want uninterrupted music.
@Frank_Marcus, welcome to the Community. I moved this from Support to the Roon Software Discussion category as this is not a technical support request to Roon staff. Other users may be able to join in to this thread with their ideas and views also.
@Simon_Arnold3 is correct regarding the use of Exclusive mode (recommended, unless you need to hear system notification sounds from your PC through the selected Roon endpoint.
The other component is the quality of the audio files. 44.1KHz/16-bit CD or better is deemed High Quality from Roon’s standpoint. Downsampling or changing the bitrate via AirPlay, Chromecast, or other endpoint configurations may reduce the quality seen by Roon and change the color of the stream.
Thank you for your answers. My point is more whether system output modus always messes with the quality of the digital code. The user knows what gear he/she uses, and thus how the signal transmits. Wouldn’t it be more logical if the program indicates the quality of the source instead of the output? Or have the option to select one or the other.
At least for me, the ability for Roon to show the entire signal chain, from source to endpoint, and where changes may occur is valuable. The endstate is what is represented because that is what you are heaing. This obviously is a Roon decision, but it’s nice to have options to see the entire chain.
System Output is the one area where, at least for PCs and Macs, the system mixer for each platform has some effect on the signal. When I play a high resolution file to my MacBook Pro System Output (typically the MBPro’s speakers), the signal is green; however when I play natively to the MBPro’s speakers, the signal stays blue as it has not passed through the OS’s mixer.
For me, it’s best to avoid the System Output option if possible; although there are some use cases where it is a helpful output option.
You would be surprised at how many have no idea about how system audio messes with the audio, what exclusive mode is and an awful lot of MAC users have not a clue it doesn’t support native DSD playback and still ask why Roon isn’t playing native DSD to their DACs. So no I would say most do not and Roon is showing you exactly what is happening in the audio chain, it’s this transparency that is one of the things that’s sets it apart from other applications. It already shows you the quality of the files it’s playing in the signal path on the now playing screen and on the album/track you choose to play if you have those items turned on in the settings menu.
Just an FYI based on very recent experience. There can be a huge amount of noise on the audio output from a PC. My amp is in my office with my desktop PC. I use a NUC for the Roon Core and the amp is connected to the NUC through a RPi running Ropieee connected to a Chord DAC. The Roon input goes through Line 1 of my preamp and is dead quiet. Listening on headphones there’s barely a hum at near max volume. Line 2 of my preamp is connected to the audio out from my PC so I can listen to videos and so forth. There is a huge amount of noise and interference generated by the PC and clearly audible at normal listening levels. Bottom line, for critical music listening I highly recommend an external DAC to isolate your audio system from PC noise.
This is not going to be the same for every PC. For example, I have a high end Audio card in my main rig, it is dead silent out to an amp. Another example, there are motherboards with higher end audio circuitry and the audio layer is electrically isolated from the rest of the motherboard. These motherboards are also dead silent. So, it all depends on the hardware in use.
Without a doubt. But I think it’s rare to have an audiophile quality sound card or motherboard. I’ve had top of the line soundcards and I could still hear the high pitched whine of the hard drive motor and actuator. Not a problem anymore with SSDs, but there’s still a lot of RFI whizzing around inside a PC.
Line? I tried line once, I was horrified by the sound! The best soundcards can’t beat a decent amplifier. But I’m not using my soundcard, I send it digitally via hdmi.
