That’s my understanding also.
Well, if I turn the levelling off, the Sound is again not really nice, then I have the same Status from the beginning of the threat.
I really wonder, if that Is so difficult. And I really ask, if I am alone with this Situation, no one in a nearly same Status?
Well I am not an expert, in fact I am a complete beginner, but if I were in your shoes I would try an Ethernet connection to your DAC using something cheap and easy bridge like a Raspberry Pi 3B+ with a HiFiBerry HAT running RoPieee, which only takes an hour to assemble and configure (software installation is completely automatic), and see what that sounds like to you. This would eliminate possible noise from the PC via the USB connection you currently have, if I have understood your setup correctly.
My equipment is a bit older than yours. I use older B&W 802’s and not a recent McIntosh DAC but a now discontinued April Eximus DP1 DAC. With a direct PC USB connection and volume leveling and all DSP switched off I cannot hear a difference between the Qobuz and roon apps. But maybe my ears are a bit older than yours as well.
I understand your reluctance to make further investments but at your level of equipment most here are using a dedicated PC rather than a laptop. For example, a NUC, Nucleus or a fanless selfbuild recommended by the likes of Computer Audiophile. It is also common to use USB isolators from the likes of SOtM and Raspberry and software filters from HQPlayer. They will all bring worthwhile improvements.
One thing you could try is enabling your laptop’s onboard Realtek ASIO and listening to the different players via headphones directly from your laptop. Again make sure that all volume leveling and DSP settings are switched off. If you still hear a difference then this is pointing to software and the next thing I would do would be to add HQPlayer (there is a trial). In the early days of roon this was a common solution for those who were not satisfied with roon SQ. If you don’t hear a difference then this is pointing to hardware and I would look at USB isolators and/or a dedicated PC as maybe the different players you are using generate different levels of USB noise.
In the early days of computer audio, all these sorts of tweaks were very common. Hence all the after market products. They are less so now as many of these tweaks were commoditised and consolidated by the mainstream vendors. It is possible with better equipment like yours that voicing the sound with these sorts of tweaks is still necessary just like many of us used to play around with cables and supports in the old analogue days.
I also have a one box laptop roon I use for travel. So I got curious about SQ optimizations in that scenario. A big difference between roon and the other players is that it is using OpenGL for graphics. Modern laptops have 2 GPU’s, one embedded and another discrete one, typically NVIDIA or AMD. I have a NVIDIA. Unless you control for which GPU is being used by the roon and the Qobuz app you may not necessarily be comparing the same hardware configuration, even on the same laptop.
The NVIDIA has a control panel that allows me to specify on an application by application basis which GPU to use. There are also a whole bunch of configurable optimizations, none of which I understand. But I experimented with roon configured either to use the Intel embedded or NVIDIA discrete. There was also a switch to force NVIDIA for OpenGL. Maybe it is my imagination but I thought forcing roon to use NVIDIA brought worthwhile improvements in SQ so I have left it like that. I preferred it to Qobuz using the embedded GPU. I also got general improvements in roon stability, the cutting off of text on various screens some have reported was cured, search seemed a little snappier.
This is the opposite of roon’s recommendations that others have found SQ improvements forcing the use of the embedded GPU. But your laptop may also be configurable and its worth a try which GPU works best for you.
If I remember rightly there have been others with McIntosh Amps having similar issues with its usb dac and Roon. I have to say this is the first one to say Qobuz app sounds better though. Personally always found the apps from Qobuz and Tidal to be quite poor in comparison. I wonder if the differences.come from a different route for flac to pcm conversion? Roon will.onky forward on pcm direct, whilst Qobuz app will output flac and the amp has to do the decode.?
First of all I would like to thank you.
Even the last few entries were quite interesting and I tested a few Things out.
Yes, you are Right, older People generally hear less than younger. But I am 43 years old, and my dad, who is 71 years old was wondering About the differences as well. This is not the Point.
I checked the Setup playing with NVIDIA a bit at my pc, which is not a Notebook, but a asus mini Desktop.
The nucleus and other products are basically the same as a pc, but not Windows just another OS. so there is no difference to my Computer, from technical purpose, I would say.
I also checked the idea with ASIO Realtek.
Whatever I did, the Sound was Always what I want to describe as filtered, not brilliant.
This evening, I uninstalled roon, and all of the components and installed audirvana for Windows.
AND NOW, if you believe or not, the Sound was 100% compareable to qobuz and tidal, Fresh, no filter, clear, with stage Sound, Instruments are clear, as they can be.
AND few times my Music Friends and me can realize a very Little better Sound. So for me it is clear, it is not a Point of Hardware, it seems to be roon Software.
Thanks again for the great support. I am a Little sad that Roon itself did not answer anything official.
Roon, for me, is out of Question. No way, under no circumstances, as Long as Qobuz or audirvana souds far better with good soundspeakers.
If someone likes to have 2 month Trial subscription for a friend, let me know it. I don’t use it anymore.
Thanks.
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