Roon Core & Endpoint Recommendations for Best Sound Quality

Hi everyone,

I’ve been using Roon for several years now and am a lifetime subscriber, so it’s definitely going to stay with me :slight_smile: I love the ease of integrating different playback zones, the recommendation algorithm of Roon Radio, and am also using the DSP functions, especially convolution filters for my headphones and my main speaker system. Roon ARC is the icing on the cake.

So far, I’ve been using an Innuos Zen Mk. II in Experimental Mode, so it runs both Roon Core and is connected via USB to my DAC in the main speaker system. Now I’m aware that Innuos products are generally considered underspecced by Roon, and that it’s recommended to separate core and endpoint. I’m not experiencing any dropouts, and even when using DSP and high sample rates (no upsampling, though), processing speed stays at 3x or 4x.

Still, I am wondering, whether a different configuration might yield improvements in sound quality. So I invite you to share your experiments, opinions, and preferred configurations here!

If you’re not experiencing any dropouts or any noise via your DAC - then I think it’s unlikely it will make any difference in sound quality.

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Thanks for your reply. I’m indeed not experiencing any dropouts. My DAC is an RME ADI-2 Pro FS, so there is no noise coming through that beast. Probably best to stick with the Innuos, then!

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The RME ADI-2 Pro isn’t galvanically isolated - so at one point when using unbalanced outputs I did have some computer noise coming through to the amp.

The founder of RME had a similar issue and recommended an Intona usb isolater which he’d used. It fixed my issue too.

But only worth fixing issues you actually have!