RoonServer or RoonBridge

Roon Software Discussion
1

I am interested to know if anyone has found a benefit to using RoonBridge on a separate PC as opposed to connecting a DAC directly to a RoonServer output, aside from the fact that the server and DAC can be physically distant.

I have been a long time advocate of “dual PC” architectures, as I was under the impression that having as little processing as possible close to the DAC was beneficial. However, due to technical constraints, I recently switched back to a direct connection from the server in my main system, and it seems like the SQ has not suffered.

What are your thoughts?

2

It’s completely dependent on the DAC in all honesty. Some are so well designed they are virtually immune to any noise pollution that could originate from the attached computer.

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3

That would makes sense.

I use an ifi SPDIF purifier connected to my DAC, which is fed through a toslink cable from a Teradak x2 interface (old, but works fine). My DAC is a wadia x32, with some modifications. It is rather sensitive to the quality of the incoming signal, and can only synch when the spdif purifier is used. So I guess that little gizmo works as advertised, and maybe i do not need to worry about getting an extra board in the loop to further enhance the SQ.

With so much marketing and hype surrounding Audiophile SBC (single board computers - a la MicroRendu and others) and fancy signal “reconditioners” it makes one wonder…

4

And that’s my whole problem, Specially with that… There is so much snake oil in this industry, One has to carry a mongoose to keep them away…

5

Toslink is perfect isolation.

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6

Thank you for your advice. Will stick to what I have, which works well.

7

I have tried both directly connecting my Naim DAC-V1 to RoonServer and to a separate (but identical) machine running remote RoonBridge and could not detect any differences in SQ.

Regardless of this I still use the remote RoonBridge setup as I had two machines anyway so why not.