Release 1202<1211<1182 in terms of sound quality. Anyone agree?

Tinkering
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Hi all

I have been a long time listener to roon and am a lifetime member and I have been very happy with it. I think it’s miles ahead of other music players and have recommended it to a few mates to try.

I have noticed recently after a few updates the music wasn’t flowing or sound as good.

Build 1202 it was really noticeable. I upgraded tonight to 1211 tonight and noticed it had improved!

I had some back ups and re installed 1182 just to test and noticed the sound was dramatically improved again!

I notice this 1182 release was before car play with arc. I loved that roon was going mobile and impressed with Android play ajd Arc and it works pretty well. however I noticed the home system suffered a bit in raw audio quality terms.

1202 was the worst. Less clear, music less flowing etc. 1211 was better. More clear, better soundstage. However going back to 1182 I feel the magic has returned. Everything more in focus and clearer etc.

Hard to explain but I have heard it and used the same sample of songs as a base line.

I looked at the release notes and I cant see any changes with things that should impact the sound but could there be something else at play here ?

Could the carplay integration be impacting this ?

Im not a techie by any means but I do have a decent system and I could tell a difference.

Anyone else notice this? Happy to see if there are any others here who feel the same way

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I suspect that Roon hasn’t touched the music player bit for years , so unlikely any real as oppoed to perceived improvement

RAAT has been around for 6 7 years

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I agree with the 1211 does sound better than the previous 1202.

I didn’t even notice 1202 sounded not so good before I updated to 1211.
I logged on here just to see if anyone else had the same feeling .

Keep up the good work, Roon.

And hopefully we can get the sound quality back or better than before ARC.
And possibly if people like me who don’t use ARC, we can turn off the functionality completely ， that would be welcome too.

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Same as always for me, meaning it never changes, why would it the audio engine isn’t being touched.

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It definitely is changing,at least on my system.

Raat may not be changing but adding new features and functionality is making an impact for sure

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David above and I arnt making this up. It is happening

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While it is, theoretically, possible that if the DSP engine was updated and you are actually using some processing, there could be some changes to the sound, barring some glaring bugs that should not have made it through unit tests, no, there is no change to sound quality.

“Features and functionality” do not affect digital output.

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I wonder if they know what that is, since they’re not doing anything about SQ.

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Without wanting to sound dismissive how are you measuring the changes that you are hearing?

I don’t mean the production of graphs etc based on acoustic measurements, but rather what scale are you using? Treble/bass feel, reverberations around the room, enjoyment of a regular favourite piece of music?

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No differences here. It sounds just as good as ever.

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In my experience, sound quality hasn’t made any noticeable change in the latest releases since the Introduction of roon 2.0.
I stream music via a RoPieee Endpoint with an AlloDigiOne HAT going SPDIF into the DAC. No changes in RoonBridge since Roon 1.8. So no reason for change in SoundQuality either.

Maybe the OP could state the kind of connection between Core and DAC and the Usage of DSP (yes/no).

a) Is it via a streamer and how does the streamer connect to the DAC?
b) Is the DAC a RoonReady device (i.e. connected via LAN).
c) Does the Core connect directly to the DAC via USB?

Scenario c) might make a difference with software changes at the Core. Scenarios a) and b) highly unlikely unless Updates to RoonBridge or RAAT code for RoonReady Devices are being made.

To my understanding, CarPlay is a thing inside the Roon ARC app connecting to your car.
So I’m puzzled, how the introduction of CarPlay should have any influence on sound quality of Roon at your home. It’s two different things. Maybe just a coincidence?

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You are correct and no it wouldn’t

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The wife just came in from the kitchen and asked “Have you changed something because it sounds really different now?”

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Who needs so many washing machines?
Oh wait….:grinning:

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How did you get a picture of my kitchen?

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:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

Kitchen Rock Princess?

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Now this is clearly photoshopped, look at her smooth skin…

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As mentioned all, I am not too techhy,so no measurements. All the same settings though. No dsp. Nothing changed.

There was a difference between 1202 to 1211. Much more open. Going back to 1182 and its even better. Its the enjoyment of music and the flow which is much better. More open and clear

Hard to explain but something is going on as Im not the only one who is hearing it. Sorry if thats not helpful

Either way I would be happy if a new release sounded like 1182 with the added functionality of carplay because I think thats a cool feature !

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I agree with the more open feeling.
It just feels like the core just has less things to do.
Might be quiet a few lines of programing that they have optimised.
And it’s helping the core to work less harder.

I am going to leave now before this escalates to digital is just 1 and 0.
That conversation leads to nowhere.

Just want to come on and say Thank you to the Roon team.
Whatever you did in this release , it made my music better.
You guys have a tough job, and it shouldn’t always just be criticism.

Thank you for the hard work. :+1:

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