But is there any proof? What Roon themselves recommend isn’t proof. The page you cite doesn’t actually say that a large processing footprint can affect SQ. It does allude to the urban myth with a bit of wink, wink, nudge, nudge indirection, though.
Interesting, if true. What’s the proportional split?
I think Roon just plays it safe and tries not to antagonize some of its users. Roon is after all a multi-room system, so a core plus separate audio zones is the main use case.
I don’t have time to go into detail but…
I’ve heard some absolutely awful USB DAC implementations that carry the 5v of the USB through the DAC. It is audible. And not just on “cheap” DACs. Even very expensive DACs can have a poor USB input. When this happens it requires your source is stable and a PC will never provide a stable / quiet 5v as it does not need to and there is too much else going on to make isolating this for the general public worth the cost. Now, you can improve things by cutting the power wires but most USB receivers won’t turn themselves on and do anything until they see this 5v.
It’s more DAC dependent, that is how clean is the USB input on the DAC, than a hard and fast rule to not plug the DAC into a PC. But, because of the large number of poor implementations, it is much easier to say “don’t do it” and use a digital transport designed for audio.
Also, the fact we’re debating should cause concern for anyone. Yes, noise on USB is a real thing. Yes, you can hear. Is it there for everyone? No. And, like most things in life, until you have something to compare it to (that is, a clean signal) you may not even realize it’s there and what it’s doing to the signal. So, go forth and spend some bucks and experiment. Most of this gear has return policies.
After owning a dedicated server (Auralic Aries) and checking out other dedicated servers (you know who they are), and using Roon or audirvana, I came to the conclusion that Roon and audirvana sounded better than the other alternatives. Because Roon is far superior in the UI and equal or better than audirvana, I am staying with Roon. Based on UI, Roon trounces all, but Auralic DS Lightning was very good.
Ditto Mostly did my testing on Tidal or Qobuz Sound plainly worse on roon installed on my pc playing cd or hi rez files Harder less full and warm, kind of uneven Orchestra esp a bit disjoined where via the native Naim software, clunky as it may be, the orchstra was full rich, spacious and evenly balanced I stopped my trial (with a lot of help from the good people at roon) I’ll try again some time if I discover somethign Im doing wrong with the config which was auto set by roon for my Naim ND5 XS2 streamer. but plainly at best the same sound on some rock and poorer sound on classical, but never was the roon sound better Great inter face Im very dissappointed I can’t use it.
Not to disqualify any opinions, whichever ‘side of the fence’ they come from, but I think there’s a lot of ‘psychosomatics’ when it comes to the SQ of RAAT vs UPnP via other apps.
Never noticed one bit of difference between Roon or using UPnP on my Naim. Even the main streaming engineer at Naim uses it as do lots of their staff. So I doubt it degrades anything at all.
That is all I need to have no doubts about the sound quality of the roon.
You can find further information in the RME ADI-2 DAC FS manual (page 65) about the test. The roon is a bit perfect if the signal path is not changed.
Has anyone noticed this is an old thread from two-years ago?
These ‘old chestnuts’ reoccur on this forum from time to time.
Wait, I thought it was the FCB figure.
Thankfully we have many users from all walks of life on this forum.
We may need to make allowances for those whose first language is not English.
I feel insulting, inflammatory remarks to a users post due to grammar, spelling and punctuation is way off-topic.
Ya no wot i meen bruv 
I have previously asked for all old threads to be locked for precisely this reason. A comment on SQ from 2 years ago is no longer relevant (if it ever was). Roon software has changed quite a bit since then and it was either bit perfect from the start (and still is) or changes with every release (which needs a new thread every release, not a rehashed zombie thread from 2 years ago). Newer threads get automatically closed but there must either be some technical issue in applying this to all older threads or Roon want it to be this way. I have seen 4 year old threads responded to…
Maybe the best way to let old threads die is to ignore them.
I presume people respond without realising the age of the thread? An online version of a newspaper I read has a banner over any article you search for telling you that ‘This article is over X months/years old’ to prevent you mistaking it for a current news item. The archive is there to read but not to take action on. Comments on news articles are always locked in a timely manner.
Totally possible. I think it happened to me before, so now I try to remember to always check the date. I don’t think it’s a big issue though.
How are you playing high resolution on Tidal when you don’t have the Tidal MAX upgrade from Roon? Or, were you playing CD quality on Tidal and high resolution on Qobuz?
Well, that was my thought, that it should sound the same …or better Many folks have mentioned anecdotally, like in a review of a piece that they tried the same track a couple of ways and preferred the Roon version. The sound for me became harder-edged. Lost some of the warmth and loveliness my system has that makes me want to keep listening Not the first time I’ve had an experience like that, I’ve tried a couple of very high-end power conditioners and did like the result Went with a lower-end one from the same company (Shunyata Venom) and was quite happy with the outcome. Go figure
I"ve had the same experience, canceled my scrip during the trial period I very much liked the functionality, but to my ears my system sound was less good I was very disappointed as I’d like to get off the Naim software its clunky and not great functionally My $150 Wiim steamer in my kitchen has better (much) software interface. I really like the Naim for its sound and was hoping roon would solve the software dificiencies But I didn’t want to keep listening via Roon and I have a hard time turning it off when go directly through the streamer. Oh well
Hi @gls747
I’m curious by your post.
Which WiiM do you have?
Were you using your WiiM as the Roon Ready endpoint?
Were you using the digital outputs to your Naim system or RCA?
Is the WiiMs firmware up to date?
I only ask, as yes I agree there was a difference in sound. I did find occasionally the WiiM Pro Plus (digital output) had a slight difference in sound from direct streaming via the WiiM Home app and that of Roon. I preferred the direct stream via the WiiM Home app
A recent WiiM update seemed to close the difference to not being noticeable.
The sound difference I feel is a personal preference rather than poor sound quality.
I have been playing a bit of DSD256, and the WiiM cannot do this unless converted to PCM. I now have my Roon Rock machine connected via USB to my DAC and it sounds fabulous. Maybe give that ago.
As a WiiM owner/user I feel qualified to say whilst as a budget streamer they are ok. YMMV
The difference is more likely to be sunspots and humidity level as it is any change in Roon’s sound engine.
