Roon 1.8 - a sonic success!

Mike

Mike

Audioshark
Staff member
Joined
Apr 2, 2013
Messages
30,488
Location
Sarasota, FL
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We’ve made changes to Roon’s buffering and caching infrastructure when playing streaming content. The new implementation is designed to use a lighter touch when interacting with your network and internet connection, making streaming less intensive for your Roon Core.

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Well, Craig suggested I give the new Roon 1.8 listen as they’ve (quietly) made some great strides to improve sound quality (cough, cough).

Well, I decided to upgrade my Nucleus+ at home and do a shootout with the NAIM app.

I had done this shootout before and the NAIM app always sounded far better.

I have to say, this version 1.8 is a game changer. This latest version of Roon puts it back in top. Well done Roon guys, glad to see them finally paying attention to sound. Keep it going.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
 
I didn't notice much of a sonic change, but I used to have a lot of hanging (spinning death star). This release fixed all my problems with that!

Sent from my SM-N986U1 using Tapatalk
 
Mike said:
**********************
We’ve made changes to Roon’s buffering and caching infrastructure when playing streaming content. The new implementation is designed to use a lighter touch when interacting with your network and internet connection, making streaming less intensive for your Roon Core.

********************
Well, Craig suggested I give the new Roon 1.8 listen as they’ve (quietly) made some great strides to improve sound quality (cough, cough).

Well, I decided to upgrade my Nucleus+ at home and do a shootout with the NAIM app.

I had done this shootout before and the NAIM app always sounded far better.

I have to say, this version 1.8 is a game changer. This latest version of Roon puts it back in top. Well done Roon guys, glad to see them finally paying attention to sound. Keep it going.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
Click to expand...

How does Roon now compare to your Aurender N20?
 
I really want to figure out how to incorporate Roon - I like the interface and have a lifetime sub - but I can't yet figure out how it would improve on “just play music efficiently" from the Lumin L1 and Qobuz (and eventually NAS).

super hard to tell, and any difference is probably very minor or in my head, but I feel like SQ is better using the Lumin app.
 
I don’t want to disagree with Mike, but I have to. To my ears, the Taiko with ROON, sounds better than the Aurender. BUT, it is splitting hairs.





Maybe it’s because I have already spent $500 on ROON???
 
Was this using the same DAC and interconnects for both the Taiko and Aurender?

crwilli said:
I don’t want to disagree with Mike, but I have to. To my ears, the Taiko with ROON, sounds better than the Aurender. BUT, it is splitting hairs.





Maybe it’s because I have already spent $500 on ROON???
Click to expand...
 
nc42acc said:
Was this using the same DAC and interconnects for both the Taiko and Aurender?
Click to expand...

I don’t know what each cable was but the Taiko was connected via USB and the Aurender N30SA via SPDIF - both the Esoteric N-05XD. I think the SPDIF was a Nordost Valhalla???
 
jmusica said:
I really want to figure out how to incorporate Roon - I like the interface and have a lifetime sub - but I can't yet figure out how it would improve on “just play music efficiently" from the Lumin L1 and Qobuz (and eventually NAS).

super hard to tell, and any difference is probably very minor or in my head, but I feel like SQ is better using the Lumin app.
Click to expand...

Roon is much more than a one-trick pony. Yes, it is a music player, but it also has the best music data management capabilities on the market today. If you have a big library, using Focus together with tags and bookmarks give you enormous flexibilities (very useful for any type of music, but specially great for jazz and classical music). Add Roon’s digital signal processing (DSP) capabilities that allow you to add powerful FIR and room correction filters, and you have a product with an unbeatable combination of features.

Folks who are not using Roon’s full capabilities are missing out big time.
 
I have a SonicOrbiter i7 running Roon and a Aurender N20. I am using a MSB Premier with the pro usb and renderer modules so it makes it super easy to switch and compare. So far the N20 is ranking king in my system to my ears. I haven’t added the gigafoil yet. I will say Roon does sound much better than the last time I put any time listening to it.
 
I can agree 1000%. I like the Roon experience much more than the Aurender app. Roon handles metadata so much better. If only it had folder view.

nicoff said:
Roon is much more than a one-trick pony. Yes, it is a music player, but it also has the best music data management capabilities on the market today. If you have a big library, using Focus together with tags and bookmarks give you enormous flexibilities (very useful for any type of music, but specially great for jazz and classical music). Add Roon’s digital signal processing (DSP) capabilities that allow you to add powerful FIR and room correction filters, and you have a product with an unbeatable combination of features.

Folks who are not using Roon’s full capabilities are missing out big time.
Click to expand...
 
nc42acc said:
I can agree 1000%. I like the Roon experience much more than the Aurender app. Roon handles metadata so much better. If only it had folder view.
Click to expand...

Initially I was a bit apprehensive about Roon’s method because (like you) I was used to using a folder structure for my ripped CDs (I spent lots of time creating it too!). But Once I got used to Roon and saw how well it worked, I came to the conclusion that Roon’s method works better.
With Roon you can simply dump all your ripped music in one big folder and Roon can figure out all your artists and albums plus make relational connections (which is great for jazz and classical) that the user probably did not know existed.
Plus if you stream, any Qobuz or Tidal album that you add to your library is seamlessly integrated with your own library.
I still have all my ripped music in folder view (artist, album, tracks), and Roon uses it as-is.
 
If only Roon could get its sound quality to Aurender level. I will keep using it as a backup until they do.


nicoff said:
Initially I was a bit apprehensive about Roon’s method because (like you) I was used to using a folder structure for my ripped CDs (I spent lots of time creating it too!). But Once I got used to Roon and saw how well it worked, I came to the conclusion that Roon’s method works better.
With Roon you can simply dump all your ripped music in one big folder and Roon can figure out all your artists and albums plus make relational connections (which is great for jazz and classical) that the user probably did not know existed.
Plus if you stream, any Qobuz or Tidal album that you add to your library is seamlessly integrated with your own library.
I still have all my ripped music in folder view (artist, album, tracks), and Roon uses it as-is.
Click to expand...
 
nc42acc said:
If only Roon could get its sound quality to Aurender level. I will keep using it as a backup until they do.
Click to expand...

How do you know it isn't? Since you can't run Roon on an Aurender is there anyway to actually compare them? It seems like you are comparing Roon and the Aurender/Conductor using different hardware.
 
Please see post #11 for my setup.

dminches said:
How do you know it isn't? Since you can't run Roon on an Aurender is there anyway to actually compare them? It seems like you are comparing Roon and the Aurender/Conductor using different hardware.
Click to expand...
 
Great to read that the Roon Rel 1.8 is a game changer in terms of audio quality. I had Roon for a year ended up cancelling the subscription. Will try out the new release at Mike’s.
 
Perhaps I should stay out of this but I feel I upset or confused people with my comments.

I agree with Mike that the latest version of ROON seems to have improved its intrinsic SQ. You can ONLY make that comparison with one ROON core setup - in this case me on my system and with Mikes Taiko system running ROON. It’s not a scientific conclusion.

It cannot be extrapolated to mean it is better than any other software players.

I did feel the Taiko with ROON had a slight advantage over the Aurender N30SA as I did hear them both side by side. BUT it was slight and that is comparing two equipment setups not the software they use. Also, if I had an Aurender N30SA, I would not likely move to the Taiko and vice versa. It was not a contest, only a comparison. Both the Taiko and the N30SA are at the top of digital server mountain.
 
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