Lots of time spent wading through the Roon community, but on reading the background information and the few picture slides in the introduction - maybe this is the right place !
In pursuit of sound quality, I am planning to replace my existing PC which is dedicated to running Roon core within my music system. Although there are now a number of high end solutions such as Taiko Extreme and TotalDac d1-player , few of us have the chance to experiment with or compare different computer host configurations, so I am looking for additional input based on peoples listening experience.
A direct question to Roon Support referred me to this from 5 years ago Suggested hardware Roon also said they are working on a better article about minimum requirements.
I am not looking for an “appliance” solution but rather to optimize sound quality in what Paul McGowan of PSAudio would call a highly resolving system, even though that will mean more maintenance tasks for me.
Here are my thoughts so far:
My assumptions about Roon (running as a headless core)
Roon is designed to “work” across many system configurations and will deliver a musical output once the minimum hardware requirements are met, but sound quality can be improved with the investment of time and money.
The Roon core is running several tasks including:
- Outputting digital music information to audio devices
- Receiving control signals from Roon apps
- Possibly doing some digital signal processing
- Dynamically managing its music information database (which can be very large as seen from backup sizes)
- Outputting information to Roon apps so that they display the engaging Roon interface
Hopefully Roon is designed to run at least some of these as different processor threads so they don’t interfere with each other , but Roon is reported as using few threads and Roon themselves provide no real information about this.
My assumptions about digital:
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Error correction is happening throughout the digital domain - it is beneficial to minimize the need for this. (Leaving aside Linus Torvalds comments on ECC memory in the consumer space as probably too expensive to address given the low level of errors. Memories of CD players delivering improved sound quality when error correction was operating at a minimum).
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Digital transmission involves an identification of bits of digital information in what is really an analogue waveform. Electromagnetic noise here has a chance of causing distortion or of hiding fine detail in the subsequently decoded digital signal.
So what does this mean should be driving my decision on a new dedicated server for Roon core?
For the database processing – high levels of CPU cache, fast RAM (DDR4 or DDR5) and fast SSD (with NVMe PCIe4) will be important. CPU speed itself is probably not a limiting factor once a certain level of performance is reached. Higher CPU models from AMD now seem comparable with Intel in how they use on-chip cache. SSD definitely makes an audible difference for me.
For DSP – CPU speed and possibly multiple cores and threads are going to be important if this is used. But lower CPU speed and less cores and threads needed if no DSP used.
For graphics – there will be minimal server requirements if Roon core is used in a headless configuration.
A “lighter” operating system should help focus resources on the music. (suggested by Roon ROCK and people’s experience of Audiophile Optimizer).
Minimize potential electromagnetic noise sources: computer power supply, cooling fans, LAN card and its power supply/ optical isolation, final LAN cable from computer to server/DAC.
Perhaps consider lower power CPU so that computer cooling fans are not needed. (more for the reduction in potential electromagnetic noise as it will be in a different room than the rest of my music system).
Interested to hear what others think I have missed or anything written here which doesn’t match with their practical listening experience.