Jack
Active member
Nothing coming until CES.
Qobuz is Amazing
- Thread starter Kingrex
- Start date
It’s great that you like the sound of your current configuration and if so, you should stick with it. But trust me when I tell you that Roon integration with a properly configured network that includes a Roon Nucleus Plus is producing world class sound quality in my system. Based on Nicoff’s post it looks like Qobuz + Roon will become a reality soon.
Ken
It’s funny how some knucklehead on a site makes a generic statement that Roon doesn’t sound good and 9000 people pick up on it. That’s complete and utter nonsense. For the Lumin users, you can easily make a playlist in both the Lumin app and the Roon app and switch back and forth. I’m using a Nucleus+ and there is NO difference.
HOWEVER, if you have not optimized Roon (which admittedly likes its resources), then that may affect the sound. Running Roon on an old Windows or Mac? It may be affected sonically. Run Roon on a Nucleus/Nucleus+ and it’s superb and as good as any other control point sonically.
The future is DAC’s with built in Roon Renderer modules. Simplicity and ease of use, coupled with great sound.
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Kingrex
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- #25
Wait a second Mike. If you're talking about me, I never said I don't like the sound of a Roon. And I don't think I'm a knucklehead. I think we can all agree software impacts sound. It's been proven over and over again with operating systems and individual manufacturers proprietary code used to operate their equipment. My point was fairly simple. If Qobuz is integrated with Roon, Qobuz will voice as hqplayer passed through the Roon software. Driving both sets of software on my current server, I find I very much enjoy the way Qobuz software presents music. That's all I said. To combine them would eliminate the option of hearing Qobuz presented as such. Again, that's all I said.
I wasn’t talking about you. I said some knucklehead on a site. Not you, but people keep regurgitating the same nonsense bashing Roon, when in reality, it’s their own setup.
I, like others, hope Roon will add Qobuz (I just can’t see them not doing it.). To me, HQplayer is another unnecessary step. It can help a bad PC make Roon sound better, perhaps. But it’s a bandaid. A purposely built Roon Renderer card like the one from MSB and the new one from MBL (featured here: http://www.mbl.de/mbl_and_roon/?lang=en) is the future. People running Roon on a LUMIN U1 mini or U1 aren’t needing extra software, so what does that tell you? It’s about the implementation.
We are getting there, and Roon and Roon network cards (Running Linux) are the future. And to be fair, PS Audio and Ayre were early adopters. But the Roon network cards are getting better and better. Just look at the early cards in the Lampizator Pacific vs what’s shipping now. Night and day better. Just ask Alrainbow!
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Kingrex
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- Thread Author
- #27
My only point is I hear sonic differences in Roon Vs Qobuz. Sure the top 1%ers with big budgets are going to have gear with the least compromises and most cutting edge technology. I may have a few million but I'm sorry, I just cant spend $40K and up on front end gear. I have to play with compromised amps, speakers, servers, dacs, cables etc.
I do agree the one box solution is the future. Even Mojo Audio 2 weeks ago signed with Roon and will integrate a Roon card right into their DAC like everyone else. 1 box solutions are going to be a popular offerings. It might even end up being the best sonic offering. The MSB Select thread seems to be finding it to be the case.
I believe I am hearing Lumin owners with Qobuz really liking the sound their hearing. I don't know if they feel its better than the Roon/Tidal sound, but they are liking it. If they do hear a sonic difference and it works well in their system, integration to Roon may eliminate that functionality and everything will sound like Roon. Roon is good, but at what point do you eliminate your choices for ease of use. I had been saying I want Qobuz in my Roon, but I question that now. Would it be easier to catalog one library. Maybe. I do have to switch out of Qobuz to get to Roon to play one of my 1800 album on my NAS. Is that hard. Not really. I do it every day without issue.
I do agree the one box solution is the future. Even Mojo Audio 2 weeks ago signed with Roon and will integrate a Roon card right into their DAC like everyone else. 1 box solutions are going to be a popular offerings. It might even end up being the best sonic offering. The MSB Select thread seems to be finding it to be the case.
I believe I am hearing Lumin owners with Qobuz really liking the sound their hearing. I don't know if they feel its better than the Roon/Tidal sound, but they are liking it. If they do hear a sonic difference and it works well in their system, integration to Roon may eliminate that functionality and everything will sound like Roon. Roon is good, but at what point do you eliminate your choices for ease of use. I had been saying I want Qobuz in my Roon, but I question that now. Would it be easier to catalog one library. Maybe. I do have to switch out of Qobuz to get to Roon to play one of my 1800 album on my NAS. Is that hard. Not really. I do it every day without issue.
I'm still ignorant - not yet a Roon user - and might be mistaken, but I thought Roon doesn't touch/affect the sound quality.
Isn't it just a brilliant tool to get much easier access to your libraries, in whatever quality they are on your harddrives/streaming service?
Isn't it just a brilliant tool to get much easier access to your libraries, in whatever quality they are on your harddrives/streaming service?
still-one
Active member
Bart
Even many of us Roon users either do not know about or use all of the capabilities of Roon. It does have built in DSP capabilities and you can integrate it with HQPlayer if you desire. I mainly use it for combining my (stored) music and that from Tidal.
I have absolutely no issues with either Roon's or Tidal's SQ. I may test out Qobuz when it is available to see if any SQ differences with Tidal are worth worrying about. What I like about Tidal are the +10,000 MQA titles of all types of music including new releases. Not "just" mainly the SOS releases we often see from other Hi Rez sites.
It doesn’t have to cost big bucks to optimize the performance of Roon. Just run Roon through a Nucleus/Nucleus+ on a DAC with a built in Roon Renderer Module. To quote Mike, “Simplicity and ease of use, coupled with great sound”. Not rocket science, heck, if I could do it, anybody can!
Ken
kzhtoo
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- Nov 27, 2014
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It doesn’t have to cost big bucks to optimize the performance of Roon. Just run Roon through a Nucleus/Nucleus+ on a DAC with a built in Roon Renderer Module. To quote Mike, “Simplicity and ease of use, coupled with great sound”. Not rocket science, heck, if I could do it, anybody can!
Ken
I threw a dart a few weeks ago and hit the bull’s eye [emoji457]. Thanks, Ken for the affirmation. Discrete + Renderer module are on their way to meet the already arrived Nucleus.
kzhtoo
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If you have a few millions, yes you definitely can spend $40K and up on front end gear. Or else I will have to question your audiophilia.
Of course, this is just kidding.
Kingrex
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- Thread Author
- #33
Chasing digital can be an endless trail. If you sought out the latest and greatest, you would end up frustrated and burned out by the process. It's a rapidly churning market. Very hot with lots of tech changes obsoleting your cherished purchase in maybe a year. I do like the idea of updatable software and inter changable hardware cards. Keeps from having to crapcan the whole shebang every year. Just watch what you listen to from the crowd. They all want to tell you how bad your setup is and how great theirs. At some point you just have to dive in and play. Get your feat wet and learn what works for you.
I picked my route because I am excited about the selection streaming services available. How about Primephonic. Anyone listen to them. There good too. I like my server because I'm not limited to what is in the box. I stream Primephonic, Local Radio Stations, Pandora, Spotify, Tidal, Qobuz. I like each for different reasons. I like Pandora as I can play the David Bowie channel and a band will come on I never heard before. Then I go to some other service, find the band and follow where it goes. Its all about finding new music. Not how technologically advanced and wonderful my setup is. If it was just about the sound, I would get a tape machine.
I picked my route because I am excited about the selection streaming services available. How about Primephonic. Anyone listen to them. There good too. I like my server because I'm not limited to what is in the box. I stream Primephonic, Local Radio Stations, Pandora, Spotify, Tidal, Qobuz. I like each for different reasons. I like Pandora as I can play the David Bowie channel and a band will come on I never heard before. Then I go to some other service, find the band and follow where it goes. Its all about finding new music. Not how technologically advanced and wonderful my setup is. If it was just about the sound, I would get a tape machine.
No one is suggesting that you should change your system. You have a system that provides the sound quality and flexibility that you enjoy, this is a great thing! My comments were only relative to your implication that there is a sonic penalty for integrating with Roon. When Roon’s performance is properly optimized, this couldn’t be further from the truth.
Enjoy and Happy Holidays,
Ken
It doesn’t have to cost big bucks to optimize the performance of Roon. Just run Roon through a Nucleus/Nucleus+ on a DAC with a built in Roon Renderer Module. To quote Mike, “Simplicity and ease of use, coupled with great sound”. Not rocket science, heck, if I could do it, anybody can!
Ken
You and I have very different ideas on the definition of "big bucks".
The most basic Nucleus costs about 1500euro. The plus version is 2600euro. Add to that the $119 yearly costs of Roon.
To me that is big bucks money. Also Lumin, Aurender, Auralic all come with their own software. So I cant see the point of Roon at all.
Since about a month I have Qobus Studio. While there is very little hires content it sounds decent. But the overall content is rather limited. When I look up some artists like Kari Rueslaten and Einsturzende Neubauten most releases are not in Qobus. I have to see what they do have but if the content stay this limited I might cancel my subscription.
Kingrex
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- Thread Author
- #36
I was just musing on another thread that Roon is really not necessary in my setup. I like the Qobuz sound as is. I have no problem opening just HQ player and finding my 1800 album on my NAS. The only real difference would be Tidal would sound as Tidal. It would not be through HQ player and I'm not sure If I would get the first 2 unfolds or not.
Roons big selling point when I got it was it's search function. As in looking at all the associated artist, producers etc that might be related to a song I am playing. I have not used that feature in ages. If I'm searching in Tidal, I find I get little benefit using either the Tidal search vs Roon search.
I think I need to try something. I currently have Roon on my core machine running as Server. No GUI. All you see is the little Roon icon in the bottom right of the screen. This is suppose to provide superior sound (and does on my machine) as it reduces the amount of software process on the machine sending a signal to the DAC and has that processes done on your laptop or tablet controlling the core. Again, it sounds better on my machine. What if I took that a step further and eliminated Roon altogether and just played the files direct with HQ player? I don't really need Roon. I already output through HQ player in Roon. Am I not eliminating even more processing noise by turning Roon off completely. That would save me another $119 a year in subscription cost.
We shall see.
If you are not using Roon features, I can see your point of letting it go.
However, your experience with Roon is the exact opposite from mine. The GUI of Roon is much better than Tidal or HQP. I refuse to use the search feature of Tidal. I can use Roon to search Tidsl library and it does it faster and more intuitive than Tidal. The data management of Roon are amazing. Using Focus and bookmarks I can control my library in ways not possible with any other software I know of. And Roon with HQP are a marriage made in heaven. Again, if you are not taking advantage of all the Roon features, I can understand why you don't need it. In my case, I bought the lifetime subscription and never looked back.
Kingrex
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- Thread Author
- #38
I don't use Roon to it's fullest. I have read the Roon literature which is limited at best. They seem to direct you to their forums where fiding what I'm looking for is not always easy. I assume they have some employee responding to help request there, but it seems to be a lot of users throwing out there thoughts and solutions. I am a little disapointed in their failing to provide a comprehensive user guide. It leaves you to stumble upon someting good or having a fellow forum member mention something such as "Focus" What the heck is that?
P.S. The Roon search, and "others" bother me when I try to find an album such as "The Beatles", but I get a totally different response if I just Type "Beatles". The Roon search function actually irritates me quite often. For an organization that toutes its virtues on such, it should have a better understanding of what I am looking for when I enter tchaikovskey instead of Tchaikovsky. The prior get me nothing.
P.S. The Roon search, and "others" bother me when I try to find an album such as "The Beatles", but I get a totally different response if I just Type "Beatles". The Roon search function actually irritates me quite often. For an organization that toutes its virtues on such, it should have a better understanding of what I am looking for when I enter tchaikovskey instead of Tchaikovsky. The prior get me nothing.
still-one
Active member
Did you miss this or do you feel this is not sufficient enough for your Roon Guide needs. (I am not trying to sound sarcastic)
https://kb.roonlabs.com