Roon SQ vs CD in Oppo UDP-205

Audio Gear Talk OPPO
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Hi all, I just got a 205 as my endgame transport and DAC for Roon. Apart from a few times when the Oppo didn’t auto switch to the Roon feed coming in via ethernet it’s been quite good. Versus the dac in my mid-level marantz avr it was a step up.

I did want to test my Roon setup though and so switched between flacs from roon and 2 albums on CD. I was a little surprised to hear how much less spaciousness and clarity i was getting from my Roon source vs the CDs. The whole top end sounded muffled and withdrawn and there was no atmosphere. I was a bit taken aback. Later i power cycled everything and the roon setup sounded good again. I didn’t have time to A/B it with a CD but it wasn’t long after and I’m pretty sure it was back to where it should be (ie near the CD).

A few things potentially at play i guess and Roon may have been cataloging dara at the time of the low quality but keen to hear people’s thoughts on if poor quality from roon + oppo 205 is a common thing or if not, what else can i do beyond the standard best practice.

fwiw I’m running flacs in roon on a mbp in the study and then it’s all ethernet to the lounge room where the modem/router and oppo are. Oppo dedicated L/R (via audioquest rca’s) is feeding the pre-ins on a marantz sr6012.

Thanks. And to @dabassgoesboomboom for help already.

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Look into a microrendu or ultrarendu. I added one to my OPPO and the SQ difference was amazing.

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Hey George, thanks for that. Would you say though that the SQ is better as pure SQ or that it’s more consistent or both?

Thanks I’m just trying to understand the problem i’m facing before deciding on a solution. I was running an Allo DigiOne into my AVR before the Oppo and it was pretty solid. My focus is stereo music and i’m upgrading from the AVR to separate components and was hoping to the roon would be pulling both transport and DAC duties. Unfortunately from what i’m experiencing and reading now though the oppo might not be the transport i hoped.

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It is more pure as the Rendu cleans up the signal from the Ethernet cable before sending it to the asynchronous usb input on you receiver or Oppo or other DAC.

Roon is not a DAC.

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Ah sorry yes i meant Oppo instead of Roon so:

I was hoping the Oppo would be pulling both transport and DAC duties. Unfortunately from what i’m experiencing and reading now though it might not be the transport i hoped.

Thanks again.

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It can play music and photo files on your computer through the Ethernet port. It just doesn’t sound as good as going through the USB port after a renderer cleans up the Ethernet.

I use it to play multichannel flac files because the UltraRendu only outputs in stereo.

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Thanks, good to know regarding the ethernet cleaning.