Allan F

(Above verse starting at 6:51)

Sounds like an oxymoron to me. 🙂

Agreed. You appropriately draw a distinction between redundancy provided by a NAS and backup. There are those who do not understand the difference between the two, e.g. if you were to accidentally delete files, they would be deleted on both drives (assuming a two bay NAS), requiring backup to restore them. Of far greater concern, of course, would be the lack of backup in the case of a catastrophic failure of a NAS impacting all connected drives.

Perhaps it is, but the limitations I previously described by not operating with a network is a non-starter for many, including me. So, I do updates on my music server PC but I connect it to the internet infrequently and access only a very limited number of sites.

Which may be fine if you are content with being limited to that stand-alone PC and its dedicated music library. However, if you want to share your library among devices, e.g. by using a NAS (Network Attached Storage) as many do, by definition you need to operate an active network.

Roon, as an interface, contributes no beneficial influence on the SQ provided by HQPlayer. OTOH, the experience of others indicates that HQPlayer running without Roon may provide superior SQ.

As I don't stream, that made Roon especially difficult to justify in my situation. Given the significant negatives you describe, I am glad that I bailed on it before being exposed to and frustrated by them.

FWIW, after using the trial version of Roon, I could see no justification for its high cost. Moreover, I was not particularly enamoured of its display interface. After acquiring HQPlayer years ago, which provided a significant improvement in SQ, I have been more than satisfied using HQPD Control, Ales Prochazka's free Android app. Not only does it address my need for a user friendly HQPlayer interface, support from Ales has always been both prompt and helpful.

Is there a voltage SR offer too?

Not if they are replying to a thread posted in the objective forum by an individual citing his experience as "proof" that confirmation or expectation bias explains "differences" heard by individuals who "trust their ears".

Well, Labs are known to chew on just about anything. 🙂

As the Love Continues - Mogwai

Before joining Harmon, Floyd Toole was Senior Research Officer of the Acoustics and Signal Processing Group at Canada's National Research Council, where he used the facility's anechoic chamber to measure speakers.

Do I assume correctly that you are referring to this? Harman's How to Listen