What features of Roon are worth the price? Compensate for Roon’s poorer sound quality?

[the sound of Tao]

Same here Christoph... it’s a leap of faith that they’ve got all things right with the new release and a good balance on performance and use-ability. The kind of experience that Roon has become is for me addictive. I couldn’t go back to anything that doesn’t deliver this kind of intuitive flow to navigate through the stream in a way that has win win win in a listening session. The less successful part has always been in classical music, but to be fair everyone else has been worse still at this.

My system is genuinely not short of resolution, the new horns in their early iteration are making music more real and present and natural and effortless than ever, the players main task for me now is to keep the music flow going and natural and real... the SET, the big horns and rest of the system keep resolution and all the moments of realness and music engagement happening. I’m not sitting here thinking about what I need to change or how I need to change, the room is energised and the scale of the presentation is on point and emerges easily and changes from recording to recording. Rightness is a quality that we all can recognise... so I hope they do just get Roon 1.8 right now, especially with classical browsing...

 

[christoph]

the new horns in their early iteration are making music more real and present and natural and effortless than ever,

You brought this upon thee yourself
Please write something about that in your horn system thread

 

[the sound of Tao]

Ha, yes I am again my own undoing
Am just settling things in Christoph and just getting a few hours up on the woofers and the xover... will update soon but it is in a very good place. Still a work in progress but I’m the happiest I’ve ever been with where the system is heading.

 

[christoph]

Ha, yes I am again my own undoing
Am just setting things in Christoph and just getting a few hours up on the woofers and the xover... will update soon but it is in a very good place. Still a work in progress but I’m the happiest I’ve ever been with where the system is heading.

That is very pleasant news and I'm looking forward to reading about it more in depth when you find the time
Sorry for my little OT excursion here

 

[Kal Rubinson]

it puts a night and day gap between it and other players in the area of connecting people with the music they love.

What, exactly, does this mean?

 

[the sound of Tao]

What, exactly, does this mean?

The way different library systems organise and then interface through display and also the sample of metadata available as well as the design of the algorithms used to then offer suggestions varies greatly and for me that makes a great difference in the summative outcome of our experience. It’s like a best organised library that’s easy to navigate and also has a librarian that points you to the most relevant and valuable resources for you.

Roon (for me) has been considerably better at this than any of the other library systems I’ve used. Roon 1.8 apparently notably improves in this area again and especially in terms of how then we can search, locate or be recommended music and particularly in classical music which has always been lacklustre when it comes to search mode.

If it improves my access and connection to the music that I love and that clearly reflects in the experience this is my main criteria when evaluating then the way a library can be fundamental in the whole experience of music listening. Not just how much you’ve got access to but how accessible it actually is and then how well you are led or assisted in discovery.

If it delivers better in this regard (as a couple of the beta testers have started to feed back) then it will make this increasingly the best library system for me in terms of a summative experience. Obviously this is a qualitative assessment and also a holistic call on a subjective experience so exactness on that night and day difference threshold might be more in the eyes of the beholder though Kal.

Also the reviewers hadn’t mentioned any negative impacts or perceived change in terms of sound in the new iteration... but we will find out in a few days either way.

 

[Kal Rubinson]

The way different library systems organise and then interface through display and also the sample of metadata available as well as the design of the algorithms used to then offer suggestions varies greatly and for me that makes a great difference in the summative outcome of our experience. It’s like a best organised library that’s easy to navigate and also has a librarian that points you to the most relevant and valuable resources for you.

Roon (for me) has been considerably better at this than any of the other library systems I’ve used. Roon 1.8 apparently notably improves in this area again and especially in terms of how then we can search, locate or be recommended music and particularly in classical music which has always been lacklustre when it comes to search mode.

If it improves my access and connection to the music that I love and that clearly reflects in the experience this is my main criteria when evaluating then the way a library can be fundamental in the whole experience of music listening. Not just how much you’ve got access to but how accessible it actually is and then how well you are led or assisted in discovery.

If it delivers better in this regard (as a couple of the beta testers have started to feed back) then it will make this increasingly the best library system for me in terms of a summative experience. Obviously this is a qualitative assessment and also a holistic call on a subjective experience so exactness on that night and day difference threshold might be more in the eyes of the beholder though Kal.

Also the reviewers hadn’t mentioned any negative impacts or perceived change in terms of sound in the new iteration... but we will find out in a few days either way.

Thanks but I am familiar with Roon and with the announcement. I certainly hope it is improved in practice. However, I was commenting on the quoted line which seems trite.

 

[the sound of Tao]

Thanks but I am familiar with Roon and with the announcement. I certainly hope it is improved in practice. However, I was commenting on the quoted line which seems trite.

Apologies, you asked and I thought you wanted to understand my perspective. So I went to some effort to respond to what I thought was a fairly self evident comment. I shouldn’t have.

 

[howiebrou]

Thanks but I am familiar with Roon and with the announcement. I certainly hope it is improved in practice. However, I was commenting on the quoted line which seems trite.

 

[Kal Rubinson]

Apologies, you asked and I thought you wanted to understand my perspective. So I went to some effort to respond to what I thought was a fairly self evident comment. I shouldn’t have.

My comment (not really a question) was not really directed at you. It was directed (in absentia) to John Darko. His statement, which I took as a quote, bothers me because it is broad but not informing. It is the kind of thing that is too easy to write. Your comments, otoh, were appreciated.

 

[jespera]

Fwiw, I think the new roon 1.8 sounds better than the previous version...

Jesper

 

[dwhistance]

Fwiw, I think the new roon 1.8 sounds better than the previous version...

Jesper

Yes I agree so far.

 

[gadawg58]

I’ll give Roon 1.8 a shot For sure. Have not used my subscription much for a couple of reasons ... one when I try and run it on my MacBook Pro it works good with pcm but won’t play dsd tracks without a significant number of dropouts. For that reason on my laptop I use Audirvana which works great. I recently tried a more involved build using a roon core server and then another pc (connected to the server via Ethernet) to connect to my Dac. Had better luck with dropouts but still had a few with dsd tracks but to my ear(my opinion only) ... roon still sounded a little lean compared to either Audirvana on a laptop or my Aurender streamer. I love the roon interface for sure but am not willing to compromise on reliability or sound quality to get it. Hopefully 1.8 is a step forward all the way around. Will try it this week for sure.

George

 

[Pb Blimp]

Any new updates on the SQ of 1.8 versus prior versions? In reviewing the release I see nothing of substance re sound quality which is a huge disappointment.

 

[bryans]

What features of Roon are you guys using ? do they compensate for Roo?s poorer sound quality?

If sound quality is your number one priority and you feel Roon's sound quality is poor, there isn't a feature that will satisfy you. My suggestion would be to find a different management software. You might love the way Roon gives you access to your music but chances are you will always feel it can sound better.

Just my thought.

 

[hi5harry]

I know we all have our opinion, but I just LOVE Roon. I have from their first launch. I think their sound quality is fantastic. Now we have companies like Small Green Computer, Uptone, Sonore, Qobuz,Tidal, and a bunch more making the whole digital experience just incredible. I am also learning about who sung back up on certain cuts, other albums I should listen to, etc, all why I am listening. It's true that every new launch had a few bugs, and they always fix them really quick, but I'll probably never buy another silver disc. Just my opinion.

 

[sbo6]

I'm with you all in that ROON is hands down the best interface available. However WRT sound quality HQPlayer is better, hands down. One way to somewhat bridge the gap is to use ROON as the front end interface and HQplayer as the playback engine. The next step is HQplayer alone which, with whatever app you use to control it doesn't get close to ROON's intuitiveness and capability but it sounds even better. The ultimate IMO is HQPlayer installed in memory (RAM Drive) and playing local songs from the RAM Drive via HQplayer. If you compare ROON alone versus this last setup, you may never go back to ROON for critical listening and optimal sonic enjoyment again. Yes, it's a more clunky way to listen, but then there's the effort required to play vinyl and that hasn't seemed to slow down.

 

[vintageaxeman]

Gentlemen , appreciate the replies so far.

soundwise, dCS app, for one, sounds better than roon. Hands down. My in unnous friends say the same thing.

And will the dCS app work with Lumin streamers too?

 

[Ianderson]

Roon can do sound satisfying.
To get the best out of my Antipodes K50 and Roon:

- use the Squeezelite Player
- set "Flac compression" to NO (than Antipodes will do, not the DAC)
- if Tidal: Let the Musikserver do the MQA bit, set MQA capabilities to "decoder and renderer)

at least, my personal experience, in other set ups, it might be different.

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I have an Innuos Zenith. Based on your comment are you saying you can have Roon run the front end library management and Squeezlight doing the rendering? If true I’d need to learn how to do the configurations - I’d love to see if I can increase the SQ.

 

[Pb Blimp]

I'm with you all in that ROON is hands down the best interface available. However WRT sound quality HQPlayer is better, hands down. One way to somewhat bridge the gap is to use ROON as the front end interface and HQplayer as the playback engine. The next step is HQplayer alone which, with whatever app you use to control it doesn't get close to ROON's intuitiveness and capability but it sounds even better. The ultimate IMO is HQPlayer installed in memory (RAM Drive) and playing local songs from the RAM Drive via HQplayer. If you compare ROON alone versus this last setup, you may never go back to ROON for critical listening and optimal sonic enjoyment again. Yes, it's a more clunky way to listen, but then there's the effort required to play vinyl and that hasn't seemed to slow down.

I am curious if your view changes when no upsampling or filtering is preformed by either roon or hqp in playback? In other words, would your findings be as true if you have a DAC like MSB that does not prefer upsampling.