I’m road testing Roon today. I have a dedicated PC music server storing FLAC files and outputting digitally through an Asus sound card. Switching back and forth between MediaMonkey and Roon, the sound quality through Roon is much worse. I can only think of three explanations: (1) I have a configuration problem, but where? (2) I’m wrong, and the sound is indeed the same (3) the Roon community doesn’t really care about, or notice, sound quality.
Anyone else conducted a similar test?
SukieInTheGraveyard
(This one time, at Bandcamp... I spent too much money!)
2
That’s the second time that you’ve made an inflammatory comment about Roon users. There are around 500,000 users enjoying Roon, many of whom are rather discerning when it comes to SQ issues.
Roon is accurate and MediaMonkey is applying some kind of filtering / DSP that you prefer.
There are lots of threads that address this issue. Many of us believe Roon is accurate and will reveal the transparency, good or bad, of the playback system.
AceRimmer
(Smoke me a kipper, I'll be back for breakfast!)
4
Im going to go with #1 here.
It could be #2 but I trust that You trust your own ears.
If it was #3 we could likely rename this the Spotify forum rather than the Roon forum.(Jk).
Give us a bit more system information so we ( the Roon community) can see if there’s a configuration issue somewhere.
You do understand that when you edit a post it has an “edited icon” so telling someone to read your post carefully after you have changed it is a tad sneaky.
AceRimmer
(Smoke me a kipper, I'll be back for breakfast!)
9
And you do know that it was edited WELL before the above poster replied…
Unless of course they are a very slow typer or has a very slow connection
Although I only “added” the Jk edit as it became apparent very quickly that nobody understood the attempted humour.
Oh well, I won’t give up my day job.
I never implied what you suggest. I said that if there was no configuration problem, and that if I was correct that the sound is inferior, then the only other explanation I could think of was that everyone else didn’t notice or care. I posted precisely because I don’t believe that to be the case. But I can tell you that, as I am setup at present, the accuracy is much worse through Roon. I’m testing with classical and jazz, so DSP doesn’t come into play,
I may have a compatibility problem with the driver and will keep testing. It helps to know Roon does have discerning listeners who are getting good results on their systems, because there are 5,000,000 teenagers out there who think the sound through their earbuds sounds great.
It’s quite possible that your setup is working properly and Roon has lower SQ compared to a smaller footprint player. Roon has a relatively large processing footprint, which can affect SQ with direct connection setups.The recommended setup for best Roon SQ is a network connection separating Core from Output.
First up, could you clarify what you mean by accuracy? Second, why is DSP not an issue with classical and jazz?
More importantly, @ipeverywhere’s suggestion is a good one. Post some more details about your setup, including Setting → Audio and your signal path, and it will be much easier to see if there’s anything odd going on that could be contributing.
Bill_Janssen
(Wigwam wool socks now on asymmetrical isolation feet!)
19
Is there any proof of this? It seems like another one of those “urban myths”. I doubt you’d see a difference in most cases. Perhaps if the machine is pressed to the gills with processing?
Considering Roon themselves state it’s best to be separate perhaps some truth to it. Most complaints against Roon and SQ come from users using core as player to DAC.