Sound quality of Qobuz via Roon vs Qobuz direct

I’ve read similar things with the Bryston BDP players. Difference between:

  1. MPD (local playback…either NAS or USB drives) and Roon/RAAT.

  2. Qobuz/Tidal via RAAT vs. Tidal/Qobuz direct in the BDP player.

It sucks when functionally things go your way (Audeze headphone presets!!!), but the sound isn’t there. It can be an infuriating decision, but I typically choose to go the way of the SQ and/or where I enjoy consuming music the best.

Nowadays, that’s just Amazon Music Unlimited via desktop app. Amazon seems to buffer the whole track very quickly as playback starts.

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So does Roon to the core. Never had one track ever stop midway when internet goes it always plays the entire track and stops after the track.

Yeah the Roon core might store the entire file from streaming service as playback begins (I’ve only used local library with Roon, so can’t confirm, but its not a point of contention for me and I totally believe it does - no reason to think otherwise) BUT the endpoint only gets a few seconds of buffer. It’s more continuous transmission via RAAT to the endpoint. This is good for keeping things quick and possibly increases compatibility with many types of devices. However, whether this is the best method or not for SQ purposes with some audio endpoints…I don’t know?

My BDP-1 sounds different when the same file is played and delivered by RAAT vs. MPD.

Even MPD (Hard drives/SSD vs. NAS) sound different depending on the storage, but then you are introducing noise from these USB drives, so it becomes a bit complicated. With just network transmission solely of RAAT and MPD, then it’s just all on ethernet. No additional source of noise.

Yes, that is a good question. PCM is not bit perfect by design. PCM was designed by Sony and Philips and was the format they stored on CD. It was assumed PCM would be read optically from the CD without any errors and sent to the DAC inside the CD player. Most DACs still accept PCM, but the signal/pulse is sent vias a cable such as SPDIF, or USB, … WIth such mechanisms, jitter occurs.

So, in summary, digital is, in theory, a bit perfect until the streaming software changes the format to PCM and is sent to the DAC. How the software communicates with the DAC makes the difference in sound quality and the topology used by the DAC, including any interference and clocking issues. Do not forget the many connection drivers used.

:man_facepalming:

I am afraid you are woefully misinformed about what PCM is, what bitperfect means,whether PCM and bitpefect even are in some way related, and how modern DACs work.

Makes me wonder what do you think the original signal is, because unless you find a DSD track somewhere (you can get them from a few stores, like NativeDSD, but no streaming service uses them), it happens to be PCM…

Sorry you so wrong here . PCM is the only format apart from DSD that DACs of any kind accept. All formats going into a streamer/ DAC unless it supports DSD will be converted to PCM before the A/D process. PCM is as bit perfect as it comes.

I am a computer engineer, and my hobby is signal processing. I have equipment at home to measure PCM signals using oscilloscopes and spectrum analyzers.
Enjoy the music, my friend. Please spend time reading instead.

PCM is a synchronous connection and is not bit perfect.

PCM is not a connection. You seem deeply confused about the subject.

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What is the connection between the streamer and the DAC if using PCM?

Please stop this attitude of replies and stick to the subject. If you want to say something else, please say it.

Staying respectful of others is always important. Please read and terms of use of the Roon community.

This answer would fail you on a computer engineering job interview. All the conversions you describe are designed to be bit perfect. If they are not, that’s a bug or hardware malfunction.

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Comparing FLAC to FLAC? Respectfully, nothing you say makes sense.

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It can be USB, S/PDIF, AES, even I2S. None of those can be called PCM, and not all are synchronous.

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Ok gentleman, let’s keep it respectful here please and try to stay on subject topic.
A few deep breaths are possibly in order before posting.

Wow. Just wow.

Probably time to close this thread ,I don’t think anything else can be said here without going off the rails completely.

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Really helpful - thanks. I’ve been testing with single-blind randomized a/b tests with friends of all types (those who care and who don’t) and getting the same conclusion: Qobuz sounds better without Roon.

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Just as an aside, PCM has been around for a heck of a lot longer than CD. I recall working on well-established 24 & 30 channel PCM systems when I first started work in the early ‘seventies.

Michael

With what equipment Seth?