I not sure I hear a difference in Roon 1.5. in my HiFi set.
I do know there is a dramatic difference in sound quality on my mobile phone/Audioquest Dragonfly Red/B&W P7 between Tidal via Roon Tidal via Tidal app. Tidal via Roon sounds harsh and lacks dynamic.
OK, after confirming today with fresh ears, the problem with sound quality was definitely down to the fact that the SDM Gain Adjustment had changed to 0db. I’ve never touched the setting, putting it to -3db (apparently what it was in previous versions) and everything is sounding great again!
It will be interesting to hear if others who use roon to upscale to DSD go looking and find the same thing.
Interesting that the default was changed to 0db a while back, as many people who don’t have full knowledge of all the settings might even try DSD upscaling then dismiss it for sounding worse when in fact some sort of clipping is what’s causing it.
Anyway, one happy customer again here. I actually feel like I’ve got my system back and have been listening to it for hours already today instead of turning it off within a few tracks.
I never take that kind of information as clear fact, done too much testing in my time. I’ve seen things in dropdowns which aren’t actually applied (not in Roon specifically). Software testing is a pain and it’s easy for a odd quirk to get through into a release.
Not saying they have, but I know I have not touched that setting before and now it’s sounding like it should again. I actually diary the settings changes I did so I could always know what I have changed.
It’s not finger pointing, or guesswork, just that I’ve done a lot of testing in my time and odd sequences of events can throw up quirks that developers haven’t spotted or accounted for. (Otherwise bug fixes wouldn’t come out all the time for most software!)
I’m happy anyway, my setup is sounding great again.
This sounds more like an anti-MQA diatribe and no it’s not going to unfold to 96khz without a renderer or full decode dac.
I’m finding MQA sounds great with my iFi DSD Nano as a renderer.
.
Ok I was the guy who started the thread Roon is brighter in its new guise. I just for the first time engaged Headroom Management. -2 eliminates most of the slight hard nature I originally described. Thanks for the input.
Which could possibly help the sound of an oversampling DAC that doesn’t do the equivalent internally. Digital music lacking head room dependent of course.
No red dot ever I use a Mytek Manhattan II with Roon card. The -2db seemed to help but I still think this version of Roon is brighter than before. Many years of careful listening to my pal David Cheaky’s recordings I have learnt to listen to a systems neutrality while being aware of my own preferences and biases. When you hear a live session then hear the recording you can instantly hear the shortcomings of your playback chain. Speaking for myself I tailor the system to be as faithful as I can to the live event without compromising my required “musicality”. Roon 1.5 is brighter than reality!