The other day I bought a “new” CD-player… a Marantz CD6005 (played analog to my Yamaha-receiver). I was really really impress with the dynamic sound while playing my CDs now.
After that I went back to listen to the same album (Sophie Zelmani - Precious Burden) which I had ripped earlier. MacBook Pro -) Roon -) Meridian MS200 -) optical to my Yamaha receiver. Ripped in ALAC
Now to my question. The ALAC sounds good, no question about that. But… what unit decides how good the music should sound like? The MacBook, Roon Server, Meridian MS200 or perhaps the receiver? Can I improve the ALAC-sound quality somehow? It would be great if the ALAC ripped music sounds as great as on the Marantz CD6005
Out of the chain of components you’re describing, the hardware component that (most) decides the sound quality is the component that performs the conversion to analog and outputs the analog audio signal. So in your case, it would be the Marantz CD6005 (assuming you’re using the analog outputs) and the Yamaha receiver.
If you like the sound of the CD6005 better, you could look for another Marantz receiver or CD player with digital input, of similar or better quality.
Thank you. Would getting a Blusound “Node” and connect that analog to my Yamaha receiver improve the dynamic sound quality? Is the DAC in the “Node” ‘good enough’ ? So that the chain would be MacbookPro → Roon → Blusound Node → (analog) till Yamaha receiver HTR-4069.
It seems to me that, if you like the digital to analogue performance of the CD player, you might consider copying some of your digital files to a USB stick (I believe that the Marantz can handle WAV and AAC; not sure about ALAC) and playing through the USB port on the front of the machine. At least this would be a relatively low cost experiment.
BluOS and Roon are two competing ecosystems with less than perfect integration. Although there are lots of Bluesound Node fans here, I would not recommend going that route. For one, the internal DAC is not very good. Here are some measurements from ASR: Bluesound Node Review (Streamer) | Audio Science Review (ASR) Forum
The digital output on the Node is fine, but you’re still stuck straddling the Roon and BluOS ecosystems. I think you’ll be happier with a more Roon-focused solution.
Going back to your original question, here’s my understanding of the two signal paths:
Roon Server → {R.A.A.T.} → Meridian MS200 → {TOSLINK S/PDIF} → Yamaha receiver {DAC}
I’m making the perhaps false assumption that your receiver does an analog to digital conversion on the analog inputs so that it can perform bass management, channel timing, DSP, etc. If not, it’s possible that the first is a full analog path once the signal leaves the CD player.
There are a lot of differences in the signal paths, so it’s hard to say which bit is most significant. I’d start by carefully measuring and matching levels between the two. If the CD player is just a dB or two louder, it’s going to sound better.
If you’re able to get them matched to within 1/10th of a dB and you still have a preference, it could be that the DAC in the CD player is a bit nicer than what’s in your receiver. You could try comparing TOSLINK S/PDIF from the CD player to the Meridian MS200 to see if that sheds some light.
Amps, player, cables etc. all have an impact on SQ to various degrees, but a far cry from speakers in combination with the room. Did HAF room correction and this is the best investment in SQ I ever made.
Nothing wrong with the Node 2 when I had it worked faultlessly with Roon. Can’t say the DAC was bad either wasn’t the best nor the worst but from my experience it’s certainly didn’t sound drastically worse than my SMSL SU9 that Amir raves on about. The node 2i is a good value one box solution that does give flexibility to upgrade if one wants to add a better DAC and offer alternatives to the Roon experience. 2nd hand its extremely good value for money.
All components influence SQ, but to different extents. If your Yamaha AV receiver is an AV receiver, then the single best thing you could do to improve SQ is invest in a dedicated 2 channel amplifier. Even the best AV receivers do not produce as good 2 channel output as even a relatively modest stereo amp. There are many excellent 2 channel amps with built in DACs that would make a big difference to your setup.
No (as others already said). The analog part of Node (I have first hand experience with Node 2, Node 2i and Node) is mediocre.
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AceRimmer
(Smoke me a kipper, I'll be back for breakfast!)
13
Obviously everyone will have a slightly different journey.
I really liked the Bluesound gear at the time, I had a Vault2i, but absolutely the internal dac was by far it’s worst feature.
I used spdif out to the internal dac in my McIntosh at the time and it was a considerable uptick in sq.
They do say the latest Bluesound gear is supposed to have improved dac but have not heard one.
Thats quite a forceful statement?
Im my book, Roon and Bluesound have succeded in integrating two differing ecosystems in the best possible way. I can’t even remember if i have ever seen a failed handover between control or audio output?
(More than 5 years of having both)
This is an old post, but as a frequent reader of this forum, I see BluOS owners discussing countless issues like these:
I’m sure there are many exceptions, but BluOS users tend to be among the least satisfied with Roon for any number of reasons. Many claim that native TIDAL playback using the BluOS app sounds better than streaming through Roon. Others describe reliability issues. Honestly, if you are comfortable with BluOS and don’t care about Roon’s music discovery features, you’re probably better off without Roon.
If someone already owns BuOS devices and added Roon later, the integration is somewhat convenient (similar to SONOS). However, I’d never recommend that a Roon subscriber purchase BluOS products specifically for use with Roon for reasons described above and many more.
Sorry if I’ve offended anyone, but I’m tired of reading posts by BluOS users about their suboptimal experiences with Roon. My advice to Roon subscribers who do not yet own BluOS / Bluesound devices is to save yourselves the headaches and steer clear.
If you read down the latest comments page then you could assume that Roon is going down the pan too using the same reasoning.
You could look at it another way and assume that thousands don’t have a problem, like myself but haven’t felt the need to grind an axe.
Funnily enough I have also seen it with devialet and mojo poly. Guess I have just been lucky with all these and blu os.