Roon 1.5 Feedback Thread

As you probably realize, those numbers are the original sample rates of the digital PCM incarnations of the master(s) which were subsequently MQA encoded. Analogue masters which have not already been digitized (or where the studio has chosen to go back to the original analogue tape) must be digitized, which can happen at any rate, but 192kHz seems to be the most common rate for material recorded in the analogue era.

In some cases, there may be more than master (e.g. original version and re-mastered version). Sometimes this may be obvious (e.g. Rudy van Gelder editions of certain Jazz classics seem to have original sample rates of 44.1kHz, but the originals are usually 192kHz).

In other cases (perhaps in the Norah Jones example you’ve posted), as has been mentioned, some studios do appear (unfortunately) to producing MQA encodes from different sample rates of a single master, probably to sell them at different price tiers. One has to hope that they are down-sampling a 192k master and not up-sampling a 96k master; according to MQA Ltd., the MQA encoding process does look for – and flag – any up-sampling, though I suppose it’s possible for the encoding supervisor to override such a warning. Personally, I go for the higher of the two numbers; I hope I’m not wrong to do so.

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2 posts were split to a new topic: What is the Clock Master Priority setting?

Hmm, i still dont get it. If the original file was a 44.1Khz digital file, what gets added to ”transform” the content into a 88.2Khz stream?

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Is it my imagination, or does normal Tidal PCM sound better in Roon 1.5? Or maybe it has something to with better configuration of transport and DAC (I use USBridge with Pro-Ject S2 Digital DAC).

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This is a very important feature for many. When will this be ready?

My understanding is that they employ a variety of techniques (which are not “just upsampling”) during encoding in order to extract as much quality as possible from the original master, and that there are sound quality advantages to distributing the output of that process at a higher bitrate than the original master.

At the same time, the file is honest about what the source material was, so you have that information to provide context.

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Alright, thanks for elaborating! Sorry for being thick! :wink: A big release like this will take a while to grasp and digest. Well done @RoonTeam!

3 posts were split to a new topic: Roon 1.5 Linn integration: remote control presses?

Thank you. I will have a look at the duplicates once I get back home…

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Also I think the other half is not going to understand why when she searches now there can be up to 3 versions of the same album.

Just a heads up, since we’ve been having to do a fair amount of moderation to keep this thread on topic.

This thread is for feedback about Roon 1.5, not the place to debate the merits of MQA as a format, discuss how MQA sounds, etc.

There are plenty of other threads on this site where the merits of MQA are being discussed in isolation–if that’s the discussion you’re looking for, please take it somewhere else.

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This is understood but can/should some MQA signal info still be carried through, in order to show ‘MQB’ on the Pro-Ject S2 DAC, even after Roon up-sampling?

Like this chap described yesterday:

No rendering instructions required after up-sampling obviously.

@brian Thanks for your help. One follow up regarding DSP settings.

On my Roon settings page my DSP engine is enabled. All the settings below it, the “DSP Presets” are disabled.

You wrote:

You don’t have to worry about the details unless you are trying to get a really specific outcome that is not in the category of “the way most people would want it to work”. A lot of effort/thought has gone into taking MQA (a very complex product/idea) and removing the need to understand it top to bottom in order to just listen to music.

With that in mind – because I DON’T want to worry about the details – are these Roon settings on my Meridian Explorer 2 DAC the ones I need?

No. That’s not possible

I suspect that he was mistaken, and that a screenshot of the signal path would tell the truth.

There’s nothing wrong with your settings, but I’m uncomfortable saying they are “the ones you need” because people will interpret that as a recommendation. You should be able to configure DSP however you like. If you have some, Roon will do the right thing. If you have it all turned off, it will do the right thing then too.

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Cool bananas, all good. I’ll ask him for some screenshots. It may (or not) help my old man sleep better at night.

Understood. Let me pose it another way. With my DSP enabled but all the DSP presets disabled will Roon give me any of the benefits of DSP?

No–this is what I was trying to explain before. All that switch does is act as an extra bypass on the filters in the list below. If all filters are turned off, then that switch is doing nothing but looking pretty.

So…to enjoy any benefits from DSP I need to enable some or all of the DSP presets?

If I understand you – VERY large “if” I know – you are saying DSP doesn’t matter much to someone like me who doesn’t want to fool around with it, when I am listening to MQA. Because as you also said:

A lot of effort/thought has gone into taking MQA (a very complex product/idea) and removing the need to understand it top to bottom in order to just listen to music.

But…I also listen to non-MQA files. So I might want to enable DSP and use its presets to improve that listening experience. Are you saying I can do that and those settings will not interfere in any way with my getting the best MQA sound that is available through my system when I play MQA files?

I’ve got to agree, setting my Project as a renderer only make a massive difference. I’m thinking that my nuc core is doing a better job of deciding the mqa.

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My feedback: I am thrilled to be able to, now at a glance, see the MQA logo in both the Album and Artist views. No longer will I have to go through the process of copy and pasting from the Meridian MQA spreadsheet into the search function within Roon, selecting 3 or 4 album covers before finding the MQA version, then tagging it as “MQA”.
I did however get up to 607 tagged MQA albums.

Wonderful work guys, much appreciated!

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