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Sq roon v jriver


Priaptor

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My opinion and my opinion only and not looking to stoke the flames. I am strictly referring to the SQ of Roon v. JRiver for those not using HQP, which I am currently not doing as my MSB does NOT benefit from HQP. I am also not using JPlay

 

My system consists of MSB Diamond Plus IV-->ARC REF10-->ARC GS150-->Nola Concert Grand Gold speakers, with all Vahalla 2 cabling and Silver Circle 5. I am using CAPS Zuma with JCAT card, both being fed by Core Technologies Kaia LPS. I have tried both Server 2012 R2 and Windows 10 optimized with AO. My USB cable is Light Harmonics Lightening.

 

I was really looking forward to Roons latest release with RAAT.

 

No matter how many times I use Roon I am left empty. My system becomes somewhat flat, congested, spatial cues (the real benefit of my system) are significantly reduced and I just lose that accurate timbre. I keep thinking it is some bias on my part, however, I have no real dog in this fight as I own both players including a lifetime subscription to Roon and I LOVE the Roon interface. I pretty much find myself not enjoying my system with Roon whether it be RoonServer on CAPS, RoonCore on CAPS and now most recently RAAT on CAPS with RoonServer sitting on my office machine. I get the thing that bits are just bits but something is different. Since Roon 1.2 came out I have been listening to it exclusively and yesterday while listening to Wynton Marsalis Magic Hour, without much enjoyment, I just said ENOUGH. I switched back to JRiver 21 and the magic was back. Speakers disappeared, bass sounded superb, Wynton's trumpet was spectacular and all my spatial cues which I absolutely love on my system was back.

 

I am running both pretty much plain vanilla, no DSP, just choosing my ASIO.

 

Just my perspective I thought I would share with the community.

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To have Roon 1.2 to sounds its best, one has to use HQ Player and a good DSD256 or DSD512 DAC. Then this combination can sing

 

Optimizing the OS for Roon and HQ Player working together is quite a task, but delivers big sonic rewards too

 

Roon 1.2 playing tracks from Tidal and passing the stream on to HQ Player sounds amazing, you can easily be fooled into thinking the music coming from a NAS

Sound Test, Monaco

Consultant to Sound Galleries Monaco, and Taiko Audio Holland

e-mail [email protected]

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I agree about needing HQPlayer for Roon to sound its best.

 

For my SDM DACs, I use Roon + HQPlayer so I can upsample everything to DSD (as EuroDriver alluded to).

 

But I also use Roon + HQPlayer with a Yggy (which doesn’t do DSD). I don’t even upsample to a higher PCM sample rate, or mess with filters and dither, when using the Yggy with Roon + HQPlayer (because to me, the Yggy sounds best when sent native files). I know this wasn’t really what HQPlayer was intended for, but to me it sounds better than outputting straight from Roon.

 

Priaptor, if you like the Roon interface maybe you should check out a trial version of HQPlayer. It’s really easy to set up Roon to work with it.

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I agree about needing HQPlayer for Roon to sound its best.

 

For my SDM DACs, I use Roon + HQPlayer so I can upsample everything to DSD (as EuroDriver alluded to).

 

But I also use Roon + HQPlayer with a Yggy (which doesn’t do DSD). I don’t even upsample to a higher PCM sample rate, or mess with filters and dither, when using the Yggy with Roon + HQPlayer (because to me, the Yggy sounds best when sent native files). I know this wasn’t really what HQPlayer was intended for, but to me it sounds better than outputting straight from Roon.

 

Priaptor, if you like the Roon interface maybe you should check out a trial version of HQPlayer. It’s really easy to set up Roon to work with it.

 

As I told Eurodriver I am getting a T&A to try. I know all about the benefits of Roon-->HQPlayer assuming the DAC is capable of benefitting from DSD upsampling. For the vast majority who cannot do DSD512 or DSD256 and are just looking for a "player" without HQP as I indicated in the OP JRiver to my ears is vastly superior to stand alone Roon

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As I told Eurodriver I am getting a T&A to try. I know all about the benefits of Roon-->HQPlayer assuming the DAC is capable of benefitting from DSD upsampling. For the vast majority who cannot do DSD512 or DSD256 and are just looking for a "player" without HQP as I indicated in the OP JRiver to my ears is vastly superior to stand alone Roon

 

 

Right, but what I was saying in my comment above is that, to me, Roon-->HQPlayer sounds better than just Roon even with a DAC that cannot benefit from DSD upsampling.

 

In fact, Roon-->HQPlayer even with a DAC that cannot benefit from DSD upsampling sounds better (to me) than does JRiver.

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I, too, heartily agree that JRiver outdoes stand-alone Roon in SQ, but of course HQPlayer, when combined with a front-end like Roon, is the king.

 

This begs the question: how much of Roon's footprint (and Roon's costs) are taken with its back-end, something many of us will never use. A Roon-lite (library manager and GUI) would be a nice option, but probably a poor business decision.

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I have both Roon and Jriver. I am one of the rare breed which my DAC does not benefit from HQP. Jriver outperforms Roon in terms of SQ. Although Roon has a pretty interface, Jriver is much more flexible in terms of library management views. With Jriver library views tools, I can configure how my classical music looks like which Roon fails miserably. With Jremote, I don't think Jriver loses to Roon in terms of interface.

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Right, but what I was saying in my comment above is that, to me, Roon-->HQPlayer sounds better than just Roon even with a DAC that cannot benefit from DSD upsampling.

 

In fact, Roon-->HQPlayer even with a DAC that cannot benefit from DSD upsampling sounds better (to me) than does JRiver.

 

Gotcha.

 

I misunderstood.

 

Will have to try that.

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Gotcha.

 

I misunderstood.

 

Will have to try that.

 

Cool.

 

If you wind up trying it, I'd love to know what you think.

 

I am always conscious that my own preferences might be due, in large part, to my particular equipment and setup.

 

It's great to learn about the results other people are getting.

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Cool.

 

If you wind up trying it, I'd love to know what you think.

 

I am always conscious that my own preferences might be due, in large part, to my particular equipment and setup.

 

It's great to learn about the results other people are getting.

 

I will try it. My main amp literally just blew last night as I was really enjoying my system so I am "stuck" listening to my headphones.

 

I have everything setup to play via NAA. Will definitely give you feedback.

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@Priaptor

 

This will be an interesting test. I just ordered a microRendu and will make the apples to apples comparison when it arrives. I am a new Roon user and have been using it on my iMac with Cambridge Audio DAC Magic Plus, or Bryston BDP-1 in squeeze lite mode via W4S DAC-2. Long time JRiver user, including the JRiver Id NUC with 2TB drive. Not seeing (hearing) what you're seeing so far, but we all hear and feel music differently. Roon interface is light years ahead. That's the big difference for me.

 

Think I'll look at HQ player too.

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I never did get the whole Roon thing. Guess some folks such as myself just want unencumbered playback with a fast to find indexed library. JRiver more than fits the bill and does the same for video. Am not interested in any other material about the artist or others. Just want to hear the music with a quick find. If I want information, a quick search on the internet will get it. Not willing to pay someone a heavy subscription fee for it and have all these restrictions on use. Need multiple system capability in different locations, sometimes without internet ability. For a one time fee of $50, JRiver does it all still. As far as HQP, it doesn't add any better SQ for my system.

(JRiver) Jetway barebones NUC (mod 3 sCLK-EX, Cybershaft OP 14)  (PH SR7) => mini pcie adapter to PCIe 1X => tXUSBexp PCIe card (mod sCLK-EX) (PH SR7) => (USPCB) Chord DAVE => Omega Super 8XRS/REL t5i  (All powered thru Topaz Isolation Transformer)

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My opinion and my opinion only and not looking to stoke the flames. I am strictly referring to the SQ of Roon v. JRiver for those not using HQP, which I am currently not doing as my MSB does NOT benefit from HQP..,

 

Interesting you have that too about HQP and MSB. Since this looks like you are using the USB (quad I assume as anything less is unbearable) input, if you are looking to purely improve sound quality, I can highly recommend the LAN input. My hypothesis is that USB hinders getting the best out of HQP, but it might just be that MSB's algos and filters just work better for the MSB.

 

If MSB adds the NAA to its LAN/Renderer input, that would be worth trying again.

 

I would also highly recommend something like a Regen, if not already in place, as that improved upon the Quad USB module in an immediate way.

 

Cheers

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