I just started using Roon and it felt like the time I changed my phone from Nokia to iPhone in 2007.
The UI is amazing! There’s no doubt that this is the future of digital in my audiophile life.
There’s only one thing that is bothering me and it is the relative SQ. If you only listen from Roon the SQ is just fine. But when you listen to an alternative…
I am using dCS Rossini as DAC and Synology 918+ NAS as source (Roon’s Core is inside the NAS).
Minimserver with it’s lousy, ugly and slow UI sounds just better. More detail, air, depth… 3 of my audiophile friends think exactly the same.
I am using Roon with dsp off and lossless settings.
I can’t understand how 2 different direct, bitperfect operation have change in SQ.
Roon is the future but I still use minimserver for critical listenning and Roon for discovering new music.
Does Roon team acknowledge this? If yes, we have no problem. We’ll see an update eventually.
I have a feeling it is your Synology that is the weak point in your setup. It works but Synology NAS units are better off used as servers. They tend to run out of computing power when running applications like Roon Core.
Consider a ROCK or any other machine like a NUC to run Roon Core. Leave your data as it is on your NAS.
I do not think my Synology is the problem with the SQ.
The reasons are:
It’s the latest model 918+. I have all the music on Seagate Ironwolf Pro and the Roon Core is on a separate SSD. The Roon works lightning fast, like instant fast. I keep an eye on the RAM and CPU usage of the NAS while using Roon and it doesn’t get over 25%.
My audiophile friends also use NAS for sources and they have their Roon Cores on their Mac minis or iMacs. The result is the same, minim server or Twonky just give the better SQ. All of my friends I mentioned and I have relatively hiend systems so even minor differences are heard clearly.
I talked with a very nice person from one of the biggest, if not the best, DAC company in hiend and he confirmed my results. He also added that Roon is a very serious company and he believes that they’ll sort this relative SQ problem ASAP.
I would like to repeat this again, I have no intentions to negatively criticize Roon. I am so excited by the software that I want it to be perfect. Even if I still use minimserver for my critical listenings I’ll still purchase Roon after my trial period ends to support them to overcome these problems.
I’ve just have my dCS NB for a month, using it with my existing NUC (fanless / LPS) running Roon core, the SQ improvement is very noticeable.
As I store my music on NAS, and have installed MinimServer on NAS long ago, but switched to my NUC / Roon core about 1 year ago. Out of curiosity, I turn on the MinimServer on NAS and play music from the dCS apps. I was surprised that the SQ with MinimServer is even better, more relax and less digital harshness. So I’ve to concur with your finding.
When i swtich to Roon, I was using MinimServer / JPlayStreamer on NUC, and the swtich is an improvement that justify the price. But now my system has changed a lot, and I wonder there is magic between dCS and MinimServer,