Roon End-point for Soulution 760 DAC

Mike said:
This is Aurender’s principle for best sound. Others need more power CPU’s for applications like Roon.

Until you’ve tried an Aurender N20 against your best home made server and really listen to how shitty Roon sounds A/B, you won’t know. On the flip side, TAS sounds amazing. So black the background and so natural. Both are tops.
Click to expand...

I would put it a tad differently :)

I would say how shitty a Roon Core (or server) is, compared to a nice Aurender. That is obviously true.

But.... we shouldn't connect a Roon Core to a DAC, as advised by Roon Labs.
 
Thoms said:
I would put that a tad differently :)

I would say how shitty a Roon Core (or server) is, compared to a nice Aurender. That obviously true.

But.... we shouldn't connect a Roon Core to a DAC, as advised by Roon Labs.
Click to expand...

I tend to agree, but we haven’t found it changes things much. Look, I won’t argue, Roon’s UI is a billion times better than the competition. My issue is that I hear folks fussing about fuses and wall outlets, but then don’t care that the server/software they use is having far more of a negative affect on sound than any insurmountable level of tweaks.

For fun, at home, I switch from my N20 to Roon last night on my NAIM music server and it was a big step down. I even turned off all other inputs but the network. The NAIM app sounds so much better, but it’s a little clunky.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
 
Mike said:
Would love to, but none to spare, sorry. We use them all. We also don’t do remote loaners any more.
Click to expand...

Obviously I was being facetious :). I would not expect nor seriously ask you to send me one of your machines.
 
Mike said:
I tend to agree, but we haven’t found it changes things much. Look, I won’t argue, Roon’s UI is a billion times better than the competition. My issue is that I hear folks fussing about fuses and wall outlets, but then don’t care that the server/software they use is having far more of a negative affect on sound than any insurmountable level of tweaks.

For fun, at home, I switch from my N20 to Roon last night on my NAIM music server and it was a big step down. I even turned off all other inputs but the network. The NAIM app sounds so much better, but it’s a little clunky.
Click to expand...

How is your setup?

Mine is like so : http://www.serra.se/setup.jpg

I couldn't hear a difference between Roon Core and the NAS-Minim. Using the Roon Endpoint of the ND555 or using Naim replay software.

But I didn't try an Aurender
 
Mike said:
I would have though if I could trust fedex and UPS!
Click to expand...

This is probably why The Music Room has started double boxing everything before sending it out, weather the manufacture does or not. They have these large Styrofoam panels that they surround the manufactures box and then put it all into a large outer box. Kind of over the top, but they have expressed the same thing.
 
Thoms said:
we shouldn't connect a Roon Core to a DAC, as advised by Roon Labs.
Click to expand...

Ok, I might be blind but I do not find any place that Roon advises you to not attach your Core to your DAC. They suggest separating them if the server is going to be doing a lot of other stuff, such as serving music to other people in other rooms, someone else adding music while you are listening, etc., etc. They do say to always use hard wire connections (not WiFi), agreed. They also say to keep controller and Core on separate machines (and WiFi to connect the Controller to the Core is fine). They actually talked with me about this back in their early days, shortly after they left developing for Meridian and started Roon. I was an early adopter. At that time it was being called Roon Server, not Roon Core. The idea is that the Controller is doing all the heavy lifting, meta data, etc., etc. and the Core really is not.

What they are saying is a couple things. It depends on your usage. If you are doing a lot of heavy lifting, and the Core machine is working hard servering multiple instances, ext., then keeping it in another room is recommended. Most important though is that the Controller is doing the main heavy lifting:
"Control and Output on separate devices. Roon's user interface is a GPU-accelerated OpenGL masterpiece. It works your GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) harder than any other audio app we're aware of. Do you really want that GPU to do its thing right next to your audio gear? Didn't think so." But more specifically the Controller does not interfere what so ever and it takes care of the heavy lifting:
"One great way to satisfy this rule is to use a tablet or phone to control Roon in the listening room. These devices are great control points--they wake up, do their thing over WiFi, and then go to sleep when you start listening, thus ending their ability to influence what you're hearing. Even better, they have no direct electrical connection to anything audio-related since they are battery-powered."

They also specifically say if the Roon Core is doing a lot DSP, volume matching, etc., then it is performing more heavy listing:
"Features like Volume Normalization, Crossfade, DSP volume controls, and DSP Engine all affect what you're hearing. If you have those things turned on, and you're not happy with what's coming out, it's worth experimenting with turning them off or changing their settings. Note that Roon's DSP volume control is a pass-through at 100% volume--so it should have no influence unless it's being used."

The Core itself, if not performing all these other functions, is actually quite lightweight and therefore does not have affect on the sound quality in a negative way, depending on how you use it.
 
Randy Myers said:
Ok, I might be blind but I do not find any place that Roon advises you to not attach your Core to your DAC.
Click to expand...


"Our Recommendations
Rule 1: Core and Output on separate devices
To get the best sound quality from Roon, plan for an ethernet cable between your Core and Output components. One way to accomplish this is with a Roon Ready hardware device."

Meaning :


Roon Core --------(switch)-------(Output Component - Roon Ready)----DAC
 
Again, read the whole text... they are talking about configuring an entire network setup with multiple output endpoints (playing music in multiple rooms, etc.), not for in single use setups.

I have talk to the guys at Roon on several occasions. I arranged to have my friends gear get its Roon Ready designation among other things such as verifying that his servers work perfect with Roon and are allowed to be advertised as such.

All of the stuff that you are referring to is in reference to large multi-end points, multi-room setups. Not a single one Core controlled by a single device to a single music listening room. All of the network components will add considerably more noise than a Core server being in the same room as the system. This I can tell you from direct discussions with the engineers at Roon.

If you are talking about a Core being used for a single music system and no other end points then this...

--(switch)-------(Output Component - Roon Ready)--

Will add more noise then a quality cable (in my case a AQ Coffee) going to the DAC.
 
Thoms said:
I couldn't hear a difference between Roon Core and the NAS-Minim. Using the Roon Endpoint of the ND555 or using Naim replay software.

But I didn't try an Aurender
Click to expand...

This has been my experience. With my Naim NDS at the time I could not hear a difference (all over ethernet with the same consumer-grade switch on my little server rack) between Naim UnitiServe, Synology and QNAP nas boxes running Minimserver or Asset, and Roon running on a Roon Nucleus. Now with my Naim ND555 I use the Roon Nucleus. It's many rooms away from my hi fi and the ethernet comes to the hi fi through an RJ-45 wall plate, into an Ansuz PowerSwitch, and then to the ND555. I did find that adding this switch as the final leg brought about the 'lower noise floor' that people look for with high end network gear. That last leg seems important.
 
I asked the folks at Aurender for a technical explanation on noise. They said:

“What it comes down to is that a more powerful CPU (or, more accurately a more power-HUNGRY CPU) is going to draw more current. With more current, you get larger/more significant spikes and aberrations in power. These spikes are measurable and defined as "noise." So, with higher power, you get higher spikes.

I hope this helps to understand and explain the reason why a lower-power CPU is preferable in an audio application.”


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top