A few clients reported me that new Roon update worsen sound quality in their system. Fortunately I have older Roon installer so it sounded fine in older build.
It seems changes in RAAT affected sound quality negativity. Should I release audio fix patch for Roon users until they resolve sound quality issue in future updates?
Regards,
Keetakawee
Every update has people saying it sounds worse or better depending on their ears/imagination.
Roon mostly say thatās odd as we didnāt touch the audio parts.
What exactly would you be patching anyway? To correct what measurable difference?
Normally sound signature changes are mostly subtle since 1.8 updates so I donāt find it really disturbing for subtle changes.
But current update 2.0 build 1202 significantly degraded sound quality in my system to the point that I wonder if something is wrong with in my system.
Days later, my friend who use Roon asked if I made any change on his system because it sounds really bad now. I told him I didnāt touch anything after last time I provided remote support.
So, I asked another Roon friend if he notices any change in sound. He told me he already bought JRiver license and moved on from Roon. His dad also complained how it sounded so bad too.
After having a few testimonials confirmed, I concluded itās not just my imagination alone. So I looked around Roon files and found that RAAT that maybe tampered to support new audio changes like Roon ARC in car audio.
I put RAAT files which handle audio transport part from older good sounding build and it works. It sounds good like previous version on current build 1202.
Iām not sure if thereāll be any functionality issue with any recent support but since I donāt use it myself so Iām happy with self patch solution for now.
Regards,
Keetakawee
I have no idea whatās going on here, but feels similar to the infamous Taiko thread claiming sound differences (including āmy customerās hamster heard it from the kitchenā kind of stuff) caused by Roon updates, which they later retracted.
Youād have to take it up with Roon/@Danny, I guess. The linked thread contains many posts by Danny where he explained what the would need from Taiko to understand what was going on, and to engage in an investigation. The details in your case may differ, but the general explanations may be helpful.
I wonder if Roon is OK with making a patch program to replace RAAT files with better sounding one as temporary solution for Roon user. User can reinstall with official installer at any time to recover too.
No RAAT changes in the release notes for 1202 and no changes to Roon bridge either. So do you have suggestion as to where these changes have happened?
I will withhold any statement on āaudio qualityā, but this one is easy to answer: no, you are not permitted to (re)distribute any copyrighted material of Roonlabs.
Note: I do not work for nor can speak for Roon.
I replaced RAAT files from older build and it makes Roon 2.0 build 1202 sounding OK now. I donāt know about internal changes but for now I get good sound back again with this trick.
I guess so. Thanks. Well, it seems most people arenāt affected by these issues then. Good for them.
Your diff suggests that all files are recompiled with every release whether there are functional code changes or not. So a binary difference would be expected due to versioning, signing etc. at least.
Yeah but changing those files seem to fix my problem.
Just a fellow user here but this is perplexing.
I am very susceptible to SQ changes in my rig, I waited a few days before updating to 1202 until I was home, relaxed and could analyze it carefully.
I heard zero difference at all, neither better or worse just more of the same good RAAT distribution.
Really not sure what else could be going on with yourself and your fellow compadres here.
Maybe Iām using $35k CD player with highly resolving roon core server so changes are more revealing here.
Nothing changed in this code. We rebuild everything on every build, and we will not be maintaining older build patching.
The Taiko situation mentioned above turned out to be something they did that was not at all innocent. Once I investigated and figured that out, they took back their statements to avoid me outing their wacky problem.
Iām not saying thatās the case here, but we donāt play these games. I suggest you figure out whatās wrong in your system with the new build files.
As for your $35k system. That type of investment into a CD player should warrant a team that can easily find the true cause of the situation. If you believe the data coming out of RAAT is different between the 2 builds, please let me know. Iāll spend my development resources chasing that down.
Thanks, you made my day 
This is not similar case as Taiko. Iām using RoonServer normally until 2.0 build 1182 which is the last build that I feel comfortable with.
Then I visited my parents, got back home and itās updated to build 1202 and it sounds so muddy and foggy making me feel like having massive veil added into my system.
I tried using XLO Reference CD to run some demagnetic and burnin tracks. It got a bit better but still not good as before. Then I tried JRiver and others. Viola! It sounds great so changes in Roon probably caused something.
I tracked back after 1182 and found thereās also build 1193 which I skipped. Maybe thereās some changes related to RAAT like improving gapless with Chromecast or Carplay support?
Anyway, I did reverted files back to 1202 again and found muddy sound as before and swapping back to build files from build 1182 seem to fix it.
Do you want me to ask my friends and other people who are using Roon and have sound issues to report their findings too? I posted about Roon sound issues in local Facebook group on another day and a few people also confirmed this. So this is not something related to specific case with my environment.
Regards,
Keetakawee
Neung Devone
Think Iām the only onePongpak Chotekhunapanit
I play and stop on Roon ready device too.Msound Pechponk
Thatās hahahaLavia DelCielo
Wowā¦At first I thought my friendās listening set was crazy. Where did Sir X confirm it himself?Supachai Charoenmanusvichit
Originally, it was dull. Itās already blunt, haha.
This is from local Facebook group. Those people use Roon with their own setup unrelated to me. Iād like to ask Roon team to verify if thereās any change of code related to RAAT part from build 1182 to 1202 that compiled these files below.
raatmanager.dll
RAATServerApp.dll
Roon.Audio.Raat.dll
At first I thought maybe something related to RAAT may affect sound so I replaced these files but didnāt expect it to actually resolve my issue. I tested swapping between versions a few times and thereās audible changes to clarity and resolution.
Regards,
Keetakawee
Are you using Chromecast? Are you using Bluetooth Audio w/ Carplay or Android Auto? If not, then no.
I am not asking about you or your friendsā opinions based on your ears. I can not act on that. Show me what changed in the data being output by RAAT.
Our tests show no changes, but maybe you see something we donāt.
Maybe you distributed a virus amongst your costumers? Affects the hearing amongst your herd ?
I donāt have a shy setup neither, but all ok here.
No. I use USB audio from my own server to Esoteric K1X Grandioso. I donāt know what other people in Facebook use but some of my friends also use server I built for them and they were happy since 1.8 until recently.
Is there any change of code related to RAAT with Chromecast and Carplay support? Can you verify if these features did not touch RAAT at all? I donāt get access to see your source code so I donāt know what I can do to show it but some customers are not happy with big sound quality degradation after build 1182.
