SQ comparison: Rock vs Windows OS on Roon

[dabassgoesboomboom]

3. separation of CPU and audio output device with distance and electrical isolation

On this one, I thought I saw Brian and Danny mention they’ve seen these experiments during their time at Meridian.

Roon Client/Server - Best Practice?

is having the media server away from the listening room really necessary, if we are using completely silent builds tailor-made to be in the listening room (such as the CAPS machines mentioned)? Electromagnetic and radio-frequency interference are the kind of “noise” I’m talking about, not the audible kind. We worked with Meridian for many years on these issues when building out the Sooloos product line, since the original Sooloos devices were fanless PCs in pretty boxes. They were fairly wel…

and

Computer Noise - Affect on Audio Quality

It could be there? How would I test for noise? Subjectively: ABX test between Computer->DAC and Computer->Network->Bridge->DAC. Objectively: Plug Computer->DAC and Computer->Network->Bridge->DAC into a scope with plenty of dynamic range, play the usual test signals, and analyze/understand the differences. The first one tells you if the difference matters to you personally. If you iterate the test over a population, you can determine whether it makes a difference to anyone. The second one t…

and

Roon Client/Server - Best Practice?

You really want Roon on the PC, and the DAC somewhere else. I know the “Computer Audiophiles” may not like that idea, but the computer is a pretty electrically noisy place. In an ideal situation, you’d want your DAC to be networked and far away, but if you can’t do that, you’d want a bridge of some sort. PS Audio makes one (that will run RoonSpeakers soon!), and you can also make one with RaspberryPi or maybe even an older Android phone. If it were me, I’d build kickass Roon library managing PC…

I really don’t know enough but I do trust that they trusted the experiments they saw at Meridian enough to make these recommendations.