Randy Myers
Well-known member
All of which is very cool... however, you are talking about $30,000... so that is completely out of the realm for many, dare I say most of us.
Introducing Roon 1.8 - COMING SOON
- Thread starter joeinid
- Start date
All of which is very cool... however, you are talking about $30,000... so that is completely out of the realm for many, dare I say most of us.
For the price it better gone a be better.....!
Randy Myers
Well-known member
One thing about 1.8 that is a very nice change, they made it much easier to compare playing Roon directly versus HQPlayer. It used to be finicky and not easy. Now it is a piece of cake.
While Roon is very good up-sampling to DSD512 HQPlayer is better to my ears. It seems more noticeably better now but that may very well be that it is so much easier to switch back and forth.
While Roon is very good up-sampling to DSD512 HQPlayer is better to my ears. It seems more noticeably better now but that may very well be that it is so much easier to switch back and forth.
nc42acc
New member
Well hell I didn’t get the folder view I wanted. Jury is out on the new interface. Like Fisher Price and Apple had a baby.
MRJAZZ
Member
- Joined
- Nov 19, 2013
- Messages
- 206
A
Edgy and fatiguing?......interesting.....I’ve always found Roon, in all it’s incarnations to be somewhat soft and laid back, to varying degrees....Some might find it a bit veiled.....I personally like the overall presentation, and don’t remotely find it fatiguing or edgy.....Not at all suggesting that’s not what you observed.....Just wondering if something else might be contributing to that observation......
Anyway, enjoy the music, regardless of what format it comes from......
Cheers.....
Edgy and fatiguing?......interesting.....I’ve always found Roon, in all it’s incarnations to be somewhat soft and laid back, to varying degrees....Some might find it a bit veiled.....I personally like the overall presentation, and don’t remotely find it fatiguing or edgy.....Not at all suggesting that’s not what you observed.....Just wondering if something else might be contributing to that observation......
Anyway, enjoy the music, regardless of what format it comes from......
Cheers.....
I think this leads to the question, how does Roon 1.8 sound through the Nucleus Plus compared to the Taiko Extreme? Since Mike has both, perhaps he will comment. We know the Taiko Extreme sounds top notch with its own software.
Ken
Ken
I don't really see how this is an apples to apples comparison. You are trying to compare a $2.5k device only meant to run Roon core in conjunction to other streaming devices versus a $35k premium server designed for a very different purpose and software (OS and TAS) specifically tuned to run on a very specific hardware (Extreme). Forget TAS, even Roon will perform better on Extreme than Nucleus+. There are many servers which sounds better with their own software and that is not really surprising.
There were issues, at least initially, with Roon 1.8’s performance on TAS, leading some to say that Roon 1.8’s sound quality was not too good. However, on the Roon Nucleus Plus, many said Roon 1.8’s sound quality was as good or better than before. That’s why this is a relevant discussion.
Ken
Randy Myers
Well-known member
I always felt that Roon sounded very good on its own, but being able to directly compare to HQPlayer was a bit of an eye opener. With prior versions I thought HQPlayer was better but it was cumbersome to directly compare and therefore the comparisons I always felt were a bit compromised since the switch back and forth was not always smooth. With 1.8 the switch is quick, easy and smooth allowing for true direct comparisons.
During this comparison at first I felt that Roon might be so close that using HQPlayer might no longer be needed. But with more comparisons it became obvious that HQPlayer was smoother with more air, more definition of individual instruments. I felt that Roon was a tad edgy in comparison to HQPlayer. But it was very close and probably both acceptable.
I did the comparison using my Moon NEO 430HA headphone amp and my Abyss Diana Phi headphones so I felt it was a completely fair and honest comparison. I feel 1.8 is fantastic and allowed the tremendous playback engine of HQPlayer to really shine!
During this comparison at first I felt that Roon might be so close that using HQPlayer might no longer be needed. But with more comparisons it became obvious that HQPlayer was smoother with more air, more definition of individual instruments. I felt that Roon was a tad edgy in comparison to HQPlayer. But it was very close and probably both acceptable.
I did the comparison using my Moon NEO 430HA headphone amp and my Abyss Diana Phi headphones so I felt it was a completely fair and honest comparison. I feel 1.8 is fantastic and allowed the tremendous playback engine of HQPlayer to really shine!
Just to clarity, TAS is Taiko’s audio software. On the Extreme, Roon doesn’t run on TAS. Extreme owners have the ability to listen to TAS or Roon.
Assuming you meant running Roon on the Extreme, the Taiko support team tweaks the settings in the Extreme in order to maximize the audio quality of Roon. I would assume that Roon on an Extreme would sound much better than Roon on a Roon Nucleus but that is just my guess.
It does.
The sonic improvement of TAS over Roon is not subtle. Most people were blown away with the differences in the first 5 seconds.
Randy Myers
Well-known member
But again, it requires hardware that could run to $30,000 to use... I assume if you are developing your own software for a $30,000 piece of gear it had better be something pretty special. For 99% of Roon users weather 1.8 sounds better or worse on the Extreme is really not a consideration. Does it sound better or worse on a vast majority of the customers systems is what actually matters, and the consensus that I am seeing is it does.
What’s the point of your response? No one is disputing that the Extreme is expensive. I was merely responding to and clarifying Ken’s post. Did you not see that? And, even in my response I did not definitely say it sounded better.
I think the question was more of did Roon 1.8 sounded better or worse or same than 1.7 on the same environment (OS and hardware). In order to get a realistic answer if Roon sounded better or worse in Extreme vs Nucleus+, you need to test it in the same environment, meaning in Extreme you need to run further optimized Rock or on Nucleus+ you need to run the version of Windows that runs on Extreme - both the options aren’t possible.
I can’t stress the importance of any audio application running in an optimized environment will always yield better result. You can’t judge Roon alone. Similarly you can’t run TAS (assuming you can) on any other hardware and expect it to perform equally as Extreme, heck they have even improve the USB chipset driver for many DACs to work with TAS better. They have further optimized Windows to mitigate the bad sound quality of Roon. I would give a nod to Roon in that they have more challenges than others since they need to run a wide variety of hardware and operating environment. Similar to Windows versus OSX. So an improvement in sound in 1.8 is really a big win for many. On a better hardware, better power supply, and a tuned OS/environment, any audio software is bound to sound good.
If you have not yet updated to 1.8 and if you are a user of the bookmarks function, you may want to hold off upgrading to 1.8 until Roon releases a fix. Right now, the bookmarks function is not working properly. Roon Labs is supposed to be working on a fix.
This link shows Roon Labs’s responses to several of the fixes/requests made by users of the new 1.8 version.
List of updates from Roon on 1.8 issues - Roon Software - Roon Labs Community
List of updates from Roon on 1.8 issues - Roon Software - Roon Labs Community
Randy Myers
Well-known member
I guess my point was that for most people it is irrelevant if it sounds better or worse on the Extreme. The question is does it sound better, the same, or worse on gear that they might actually use. It was not so much directed at you as it is directed at comparing Roon in regards to the Extreme.
