Best sounding streaming service so far?

Mike and Ed. Are you guys using HQ player as the output on Roon?

I like the Qobuz sound too, but my setup does not play FLAC neatly as well as WAV. I have noticed the sound quality of Qobuz is significantly better when you download songs to your personal library. I wonder if it is unpacking the FLAC file to WAV. Then again, I have not tried that since adding a linear power supply to my modem and router.
 
Kingrex said:
Mike and Ed. Are you guys using HQ player as the output on Roon?

I like the Qobuz sound too, but my setup does not play FLAC neatly as well as WAV. I have noticed the sound quality of Qobuz is significantly better when you download songs to your personal library. I wonder if it is unpacking the FLAC file to WAV. Then again, I have not tried that since adding a linear power supply to my modem and router.
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in my case, the MSB Select II works best with 'bit perfect'......so no HQ Player in my process. everything is native (to the dac) all the way through.

I can't yet comment on Qobuz files sent to my library on my local PCIe drives. not yet got that far. my server designer (for my new Extreme server) is writing me a tutorial on loading files which I don't yet have.
 
Is the extreme server another version of the Sound Galleries?
When I download files from Qobuz to my local library, it selects the drive and location on its own. I can point at where I want but on its own it goes to the operating system drive as it assumes that is the shortest path back out of the server and to the DAC.
 
Kingrex said:
Is the extreme server another version of the Sound Galleries?
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short answer; yes. here is a thread on another forum that get's into details on the Extreme.

https://whatsbestforum.com/threads/taiko-audio-sgm-extreme-the-crème-de-la-crème.27433/

other than my Select II, it's the most exceptional piece of digital hardware I have encountered and really took things up a few notches in my digital listening.

When I download files from Qobuz to my local library, it selects the drive and location on its own. I can point at where I want but on its own it goes to the operating system drive as it assumes that is the shortest path back out of the server and to the DAC.
Click to expand...

I look forward to getting that file loading protocol all set up. right now I have 32tb of local PCIe drives on my Extreme server (with 17tb's of files), and a NAS on my network with those same files. the local PCIe drives sound much better than my NAS files so that is all I'm using. but I'm only a few weeks into using this new server.
 
Herewith my experiences so far:

Since some years I use a Trinnov Altitude32 as UPnP-renderer. As soon as this option became available on the Trinnov I bought a NAS and for about two years I used BubbleUPnP in combination with a Samsung tablet. I tweaked my whole system on this combination and as soon as Roon and Trinnov announced their cooperation I tried Roon. At that time, I preferred BubbleUpnP over Roon from a musical perspective. For me it was clear that they did something different with the same file viat he same hardware and via the same input on my Trinnov. Not a difference of night and day, but sufficient to keep using BubbleUPnP when I really wanted to have the best musical experience. The UI of Roon is of course superior over BubbleUPnP so these programs coincided for a long time on my Tablet. When my tablet reached its end of life, I decided to purchase an IPad, having the knowledge thatBubbleUPnP is not available for the iPad so I switched 100% to Roon.

Using the flexibility of the Trinnov I tweaked again my system but know for Roon as dedicated endpoint. Never regretted this decision. It only took some time.

I also have experience with Tidal vs Qobuz. I used Tidal for almost two years until Qobuz decided also to cooperate together with Roon. I used both for a month and compared many similar tracks from both Tidal and Qobuz and for me the winner is Qobuz. Without an exception, always Qobuz gave a more into the music experience. Currently I have a subscription to Sublime+. Playing the same track via Qobuz or directly via my NAS, always (without any exception) the directly via NAS route gives a more musical experience, but also more dynamics and details. So when Ireally like the music I download the tracks and but these on my NAS.

Best regards, Jan
 
Kingrex said:
Mike and Ed. Are you guys using HQ player as the output on Roon?

I like the Qobuz sound too, but my setup does not play FLAC neatly as well as WAV. I have noticed the sound quality of Qobuz is significantly better when you download songs to your personal library. I wonder if it is unpacking the FLAC file to WAV. Then again, I have not tried that since adding a linear power supply to my modem and router.
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Hey Rex, I don’t use Roon anymore since the Aurender is a much better platform in my system than the Mac Mini.

I can hear the quality difference by swapping streaming services back and forth when tracks are loaded in the queue in Aurenders Conductor interface.

I do prefer Roon over Aurenders Conductor but it’s a small price to pay.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
 
Kingrex said:
Darn nice looking server. Pretty soon your gonna be a pariah when you say your digital is besting all else.
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Just when you think your close to as near perfection things like this come out of the woods.

Gotta have a listen Mike, I’ll tow up Rex and Joe.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
 
I agree with mep re the Tidal & Roon combo

The crazy thing about Roon, if you read that late 2018 article (like 9 or 10 pages) about the dCS Rossini DAC and player, and then the Tidal and Roon Primer as the last 3 or 4 pages. in Absolute Sound I believe, they give a really detailed plug on why Roon is so good and how it actually has their own module that sits on the dCS Rossini Dac/player that enables u to use dCS rendering or Roon. The latest on that I just now saw in the Stereophile May 28 article this year about the "Roon Sound" itself, aside from being a database & zone management system n software. Worth reading.

See the article here: "dCS Rossini v2.0 firmware upgrade"Jason Victor Serinus | May 28, 2019



Excerpt is interesting: >>>Given that the Roon module is part of the Rossini v2.0 upgrade and cannot be evaluated separately, I first evaluated the Roon upgrade in a different context. I used Roon to play the beginning of my go-to track for dynamics, transparency, massed forces, huge and deep soundstage, pounding bass and tinkling triangles—Iván Fischer and the Budapest Festival Orchestra's performance of Mahler's Symphony 3 (DSD64/Channel Classics CCS SA 38817)—through Network Bridge/Vivaldi v2.11 before and immediately after performing the latest Network Bridge 406 firmware upgrade. This comparison revealed that the new module enables Roon to deliver fuller and more naturally color-saturated sound.
<<<

That said, most of the real world isn't listening to dCS & D'Agostino and Wilson Audio Alexia 2 systems, but, when using Roon and Tidal to play MQA over a $800 Powernode 2i by Bluesound, having Roon to build your listening exposure is amazing. The combo is really special.

The writeup of each artist, and all the connections to other artists is so incredible for exposing yourself to so many more artists thru using Roon. I never used the Aurender app here, once in a while the Bluesound app, but mostly Roon because it is so clearly organized in bring your external drives and gear into one nice music libary, and is forcing me to expand my artist library because of their artist writeups.

The Roon primer article is a good read bluegrassphile , (the last part of the dCS article at Absolute Sound, made for normal budget audiphiles :) , shows the Roon interface and what I was talking about how it gives you detailed artist info, and also gives you a rabbit trail to see who they have played and recorded with , see the article "A Roon Primer Blog"by Alan Taffel | Nov 19th, 2018
 
I have both Tidal and Qobuz and in terms of sound quality alone, they're pretty much the same. If someone held a gun to my head, I'd probably chose Qobuz, but it's really a toss up. There are other things I like about each service though. Tidal has a lot of selections that you wont find on Qobuz but with Qobuz, it's easier to select which genre(s) you want to listen to.

Edit: I should have mentioned that I'm using Roon with both.
 
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