Not sure I understand that one comment.
I personally measure the distance between Roon and iTunes on airport streaming. Both have been progressing but Roon is ahead, clearly.
Ah OK I understand… Is it a comparison done only on MQA stuff ?
Just a comment that I don’t know if it is relevant if there is only an harshness issue in Roon 1.5 specific to MQA as I am myself convinced there is none in regular PCM format - in association with HQplayer latest version… Roon 1.5 appears better than its predecessor, it brings even more differenciation between textures of sounds : of course in the process of assessing a global result, you have to be sure of the neutrality of the input material - the recording - in the first place. Real system neutrality is a subtle thing, my experience is that one needs a suite of known clean recordings that cover the whole spectrum of timbric balance and features to be reproduced.
This is only an a priori but on a new format like MQA not sure one has all the consensual long experience of high quality recordings that has developed over the years on vynil then on CD.
@Robin_Wyatt @oneofmany …good to hear you agree. I was wondering whether it was worth posting. My enjoyment of my system is reduced so much that whereas I was listening for about 3 or 4 hours a day, since Roon 1.5 upgraded I go to listen and hardly bother. As soon as I listen and realise it sounds that bad then after confirming by listening to a couple more tracks I know well (to confirm), I turn it off.
It’s such a shame.
I keep notes on my system so I know what changes. My roon is run with a fanless Roon Rock NUC with LPSU. In fact mains supply across my whole system is from LPSUs powered from mains regeneration and has done for a long time. My power amp is the only thing plugged directly into a mains socket. My CD transport still sounds great too. So, no problem with anything else, it’s Roon 1.5. When listening to 1.4 the system was completely addictive, with 1.5 it’s disappointing and the opposite, I just don’t enjoy listening to it like before.
Whatever the magic was, it has gone. Digital and harsh, a touch forward and the reality to instruments is not there anymore. It’s brighter too, can’t turn it up as much.
I hope Roon fix this as a major priority, I worry they will just look at adding more functionality though 
same thing here. actually, i have noticed that the sound became really digital, less natural.
I wish I could come back to version 1.4
Just as a balance, I have not noticed any drop in sound quality. The reverse with MQA first unfold, it sounds lovely on my Meridian G61 R and Trifield. My Bluesound devices sound amazing.
Has Roon @Not_Roon chimed in on this? All this speculation and opinion. I think it would be useful to hear if anything did change in the software that could affect sound quality. If so, something about what?
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Nothing I have seen.
I agree, there is a upper-mid/treble brightness in 1.5 that 1.4 didn’t have. 1.4 was very fluid but not ‘too smooth’. 1.5 is a step back in overall engagement of sound for me.
I notice this mostly with non-MQA material. I wonder if the MQA engine addition compromised the overall timing that was so right in 1.4.
Roon, please allow us to revert versions even if it means restoring DB because of structure changes.
Roon aside, I recall someone once saying that their late-night listening was always of better quality. That person lived in NYC and it was suggested that – because of lighter use of the power grid during the night – the quality of the power, thus the SQ quality, was enhanced. At the end of the day, there are so many variables for each one of us in the listening experience, especially when it comes to computer audio, that I think it’s rather difficult to ascribe a single firmware update as having a significant difference. Just my two cents…
I can’t check vs 1.4 because I don’t have it but I checked against vinyl and I agree with those who say Roon got brighter with 1.5. My vinyl is just how it used to sound - nice and balanced. Roon is now a little bright. I don’t hear any digital glare but brightness - as if the treble was boosted. Odd because I have ALL Roon processing turned OFF!!!
I suspect MQA implementation has rogered something.
For anyone claiming you need a better setup for Roon 1.5 to sound good - I already have a professional reference system used by professionals to mix and master most of the music you are listening to currently. Roon sounded great before.
UPDATE - The above conjecture regarding vinyl vs a Roon is wrong headed. I checked 16 bit 44.1 Roon 1.5 vs iTunes engine and there is no audible difference - see other posts. My Bad! All I can say is that for sure MQA files sound brighter than regular files but this could be just the way MQA is filtered or mastered differently.
Let me explain how this works–
- Before playback starts, either during audio analysis or “just in time”, we sniff the audio file to determine if it is MQA or not (this sniffing has been in place, unchanged, since 1.3)
- If it is not MQA, no MQA-related processing is engaged
- If it is MQA, then the MQA authentication/decoding/etc stuff is engaged as appropriate based on the content, settings, and DAC capabilities
In that scheme, there is (deliberately) no way for “MQA stuff” to impact non-MQA playback. This was a conscious decision. We could have done it differently in ways that left non-MQA content more exposed to MQA IP, but we were careful to wall it off like we have.
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Thank you, Brian, for that reassuring part of the explanation. What about so many here claiming that 1.5 has negatively affected sound quality by increasing high freq, and some claiming “edge” or “digital glare”, etc.? Was there any change that would make sense of this?
This is exactly what I hear!
There were no “general” sound quality related changes in 1.5, just support for new stuff (MQA decoding, FLAC Internet Radio channels). It’s difficult to see how the new stuff would have any impact on things which we supported before.
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This has happened with many Roon releases with some claiming sound improvements and some claiming it is worse and most of the time Brian ends up reporting that Roon has done nothing that would directly impact sound quality. What this means I’m not sure.
Do you provide a way to revert to 1.4 or earlier to allow us to confirm our experiences?
I have DB backups, and could use another SSD for ROCK but need access to the installer/update allowing it to stop at 1.4.
MQA sounds pretty good to me, but this could simply be better masters were used for the release and I had no access to mqa prior to 1.5. But my local FLAC and Tidal non-mqa took a fluidity hit post 1.5.
Thanks Brian. That was what I was hoping is the case. With DSP completely off and with non MQA files, I would hope the software would be as transparent as possible. I have not heard differences between redbook files played through Roon with DSP off and through BubbleUPnP (and, yes, I have a high quality system). Sound differences are very difficult to reliably detect. It may be that placebo is most, if not all, of the detected change. I’m sure some will maintain conviction, but I’m not sure how to solve the differences in various perceptions. Perhaps going back and forth between 1.4 and 1.5 for those interested in testing it that way.