This thread is not for those who believe all music playback software sounds the same. I understand your position - I hear you - please do not turn this thread into that sort of debate. This is for the software sound quality believers.
I’m a long time owner of a lifetime Roon license bought in the $499 days. Once upon a time I used Roon on a daily basis. In those days, I always thought Amara and Audirvana sounded better, but Roon had the library management thing down. HQPlayer made Roon sound much better - along with various streamers/ USB re-clockers, etc. Fast forward I eventually bought an Aurender (one that’s not Roon compatible) and loved how it sounded compared to Roon/HQPlayer and drifted away from Roon, having not used it much in nearly 2 years. I did a sound quality comparison and the Aurender was better, and even though Conductor was light years behind Roon, I toughed it out for the team.
Last night I fired up Roon on my Mac Mini with my Marantz SACD 30n as a Roon Ready endpoint over the network. I did a few song comparisons with the Aurender, and while there were some differences, Roon sounded much much better than I ever remember it sounding. Marched through my reference playlist and where before it was meh, it now all sounded excellent.
Harman has owned Roon for over a year and a half. My impression of Roon prior to Harman is the Roon guys are extraordinary library management engineers, but less astute when it comes to sound quality. I’m wondering if perhaps the Harman team has been able to help Roon improve the sound quality element?
Has anyone else noticed a meaningful sound quality improvement since the Harman acquisition?
I realize having been away from Roon for 2 years gives me a unique vantage point. I was struck by how good Roon now sounds. It was very impressive, where before it was anything but.
Well it starts with trying to exclude posters based on a fabricated claim.
And surely I’m allowed to ask how „better“ is defined if the baseline is that all bits that arrive at the DAC are exactly the same bits that were saved in the file.
The purpose of the stipulation regarding believers vs non-believers was to avoid precisely what you guys are doing.
You guys sweep in with your heavy handed, absolutist ideology like a hit squad and create a discussion environment so distasteful that the only people who will participate are those who agree with you.
You essentially destroy the dialog in stasi like fashion. I’ve seen this over and over and over for years and years. But alas, the hit squad cannot resist even when asked not to.
Moderator, please close and delete this thread. The last thing we need is another mind-numbing debate. All of this reminds me of why, once a regular, I no longer participate in the Roon forums…
The thing is, more and more roon users in other forums are questioning it’s sound quality and many of those are switching to other platforms. I use roon to explore and for background music on several endpoints throughout our home but rarely use it for serious listening.
As to the OP question, I haven’t noticed a consistent improvement since the Harmon acquisition. I do notice quality changes with different builds.
At present I use Lyrion or Jplay/Hqplayer for serious listening.