Hi Everyone,
Thanks for the great advice so far.
Having been playing with Roon for the last 2 days, I think I have decided that the amazing UI and the fact that I keep discovering new music has convinced me to keep Roon over Lightning DS, even though I do believe DS has better sound quality. Perhaps its better by 10-20%, although difficult to quantify.
For clarity, I am using my MacBook Pro as the Roon Core, as I found the NAS really struggled (low CPU power). I am running the latest version of OSX.
So if anyone has further tips or tricks to improve SQ I would love to hear it. Hereās my system:
Synology 916+ NAS
Asus RT-AC88u Router
Macbook Pro
Auralic Aries LE
Chord 2qute
Gieseler Linear PSU for Auralic and Chord
Marantz SR7008 AVR / Pre
Anthem MCA20
Focal Scala Utopia
Analysis Plus Solo Crystal I/C and spkr cable
Curiouscables USB (Aries to DAC)
Here is a summary of the differences I have observed:
I find the sound with Roon to be āwarmā but not in a particularly pleasant way - seems the warmth is robbing the high end detail.
Dynamics - good with both, probably equal
Bass - Slight edge probably goes to roon here acutally. Seems to dig a little deeper
Transparency - definately better with DS - just seems more āairyā
Stage - Wider with DS, likely a result of the high end detail and subtle aural queues
Image - good with both, probably equal. DS is a little more 3 dimensional.
Sibilance - interestingly Roon seems to have slightly more sibilance despite having less overall detail. Cant explain this one