Hello and thank you for reading me, me new at roon! At the end of my trial period I decided to opt for a lifetime subscription, but I hesitated because beyond the great qualities of Roon, the most important is not yet completely there.
Indeed the sound quality, the pure transparency that we want on a high-end system, whether on a Lumin X1 on internal dac or with usb output, or on the roon ready network input of my Mola Mola Tambaqui, Roon (Raat) always causes a small systematic roundness and small loss of air, resolution, which makes listening a little less transparent, nuanced, than upnp reading from minimserver.
It’s a fact noted by all the crazy designers of high-end servers that I know who sometimes abandon roon because of the associated loss of transparency. My wish therefore is simple, to go further than the small gain in transparency obtained on the last version of roon to finally arrive at a transparency of the level of light solutions like upnp via minimserver, with identical server hardware.
I could have asked for more simple and important things also like the possibility of choosing between horizontal and vertical scrolling, or even the possibility of using roon with the 4 other streamers that I have at home and which are only upnp compatible (it’s still a shame to buy roon and not being able to just use it on upnp devices, it’s almost nasty for the buyer who loves music and choose roon for that reason! :)).
Thank you in advance for the attention you will pay to my request (s), shared by those who go far in the search for transparency in audio and all make this observation when fine comparisons are in the balance and tell the truth.
My lifetime roon choice is the proof I trust in Roon to solve this and make roon experience the best in all domains.
These things are very subjective. I imagine that if you told the programers there was a “small loss of air” in the music reproduction they would probably look at you in rather an odd way.
That’s right of course. But if programers listen to the result of their work and compare to an other software result in sound , on a 100000$ well implemented audio system in dedicated room, I am sure they will understand what I mean by a bit of loss in transparency, less defined sound, then that’s their job to understand why and solve it, not mine as mine is to pay 700$ and make the suggestion here. Of course there can be many other worse bottlenecks in the audio system… but if listening well suited audio gears and make a/b comparisons was not in the program for Roon people, I would be afraid because sound deviations between server softwares is not the illusion of a burning bush, sadly as I would prefer no deviation at all.
I bought Roon for what it delivers now and I am happy with What they have achieved. Improvements are subjective to the listener whether you are looking at UI or sound quality. As a general rule of life I wouldn’t invest in something (especially connected to a $100,000 system) if I wasn’t already 100% satisfied with functionality currently available, as further subjective sound or functionality improvements are by no means guaranteed Dont get me wrong, chasing dragons ala in audio can be fun, but they will remain ever elusive.
Well, don’t get me wrong too , I bought Roon only for what it does, not what it may do tomorrow, and the small roon color is not enough to make my Tambaqui less enjoyable than I would like, but we are in the features requests section of the forum so… I must ask for the little extra that brings the best
When many people in different audio systems make exactly the same observations, I think we are a little beyond subjectivity. I don’t think my french ears may have something special and the same people observed that the last roon version slightly improved this little transparency limitation, so I dare to believe that the wish is achievable, if the Roon team does not « turn a deaf ear » if i can say, with all my respect.
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Bill_Janssen
(Wigwam wool socks now on asymmetrical isolation feet!)
7
Let me join in wishing that Roon would achieve maximum server sound quality and transparency! Though I’m less sure they haven’t already done that. But if not, please increase it.
As an option, Roon works well feedingHQPlayer, and HQPlayer is regarded by many as being one of best pieces of software with respect to sound quality. Not everyone would agree of course, but many would, and you can try the trial version for free and decide for yourself.
Well, with the Tambaqui I think using the native audio stream is the goal to transparency, this dac have unique made in house n/a conversion and audio stream preparation that don’t need more upsampling / transcoding / tampered audio stream before it , hqplayer is the good choice to feed dacs that sound better with upsampling like some DSD dacs that don’t manage to make pcm sound correct, HQ player make a work to help dacs that don’t manage to do the job themself, and yes the sound quality may be better in these conditions, but HQPlayer have nothing to do with the small roon own color in my humble opinion, or if it worked it would be a Unnatural way to compensate for
I understand your points, although I would ask if you have tried it? It can be used PCM only, and upsampling is optional. If you try it and do not like it, that is fair enough of course.
I agree with that, but I didn’t notice until I used HQPlayer as the engine and play to a NAA. But in comparison, Roon is a little soft and calm. I noticed the same with the convolution engine, when using same filter from HQPlayer it was more crisp. But this might be deliberate, lots of people likes a little more laid-back sound.
Still, if you haven’t already, give HQPlayer a try. There are some excellent up-sampling filters, and it also gives better sound (in my opinion) just as a sound engine (or maybe its the NAA that is better than Roon bridge).
Linn use their own proprietary protocol to connect with Roon. In my judgment and that of the Linn dealer I’ve worked with extensively, we hear no difference between Roon-sourced or UPnP/DLNA-sourced content controlled by Linn Kazoo. High-end digital audio gear surfs on the very edge of accuracy (clocking, switching lag, rejection of high-frequency electrical noise) so different protocols or receiver software can make a difference. Bits are bits only until they have to be turned into exquisitely timed, highly vulnerable to noise, analog waveforms. Linn took control of that whole process, to my delight as a Linn Klimax DSM owner. Other brands may have taken the easier route of taking Roon’s reference RAAT receiver software, which may or may not be as refined as those brands’ custom digital stacks.
Before the “bits are just bits” dogmatists react, let me note that I’ve been a critical, intensive consumer of cutting-edge high-performance computing for my work or work I direct since the early 1990s, and I’ve seen many subtle problems from hardware-software interactions that would be “impossible” if the hardware was a perfect digital state machine rather than a physical system with many sources of variability. Anyway, those of you who have come across rowhammer and its cousins already know that digital is a great abstraction just until it breaks down.
One person loss of air is the next persons less top end harshness. One persons synthetic roundness is the next persons warmth. Etc etc
Even if possible, asking Roon to tune their software to what you want to hear in your system is just going to cause the next guy to bitch that they ruined the sound to their ears and system.
Roon is what it is either enjoy it or move back to your upnp system.
My point earlier is that people blame Roon for this but the critical ingredient for high-end system is the implementation of the digital streaming-to-analog transformation. Different high-end brands take different approaches to this. Just checking the “Roon Ready” box with an off-the-shelf implementation may not get the absolutely best results. A similar problem arises with USB audio receivers, which are supposedly all the same bit-wise but perform quite differently in practice.
How do you know that what you used before was transparent and not colouring the sound? It’s placing its own signature on playback. Where you there at the recording sessions of the music? How anybody can say playback is transparent is beyond me when we have never heard it as it was in the mastering studio so have no leg to stand on to say such things.
Either educate yourself, or decide that Roon is already “at a transparency of the level of light solutions like upnp via minimserver”. In all cases, stop listening to fake prophets who tell you otherwise. They’re either delusional, or want your money.
Nicolas, if you haven’t already done so look at network isolation. It is controversial but most decent suppliers should offer a 30 day return policy. I this doesn’t directly address the reasons why some software may sound better than others but I think it narrows the gap significantly. It is my view that Roon’s great advantage is its multi platform approach. But it is also what may prevent them from doing the work to really tighten Roon up in the way other people can when they are working on simpler platforms.
Dont get me wrong, chasing dragons ala in audio can be fun, but they will remain ever elusive.
, I bought Roon only for what it does, not what it may do tomorrow, and the small roon color is not enough to make my Tambaqui less enjoyable than I would like, but we are in the features requests section of the forum so… I must ask for the little extra that brings the best 
