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I broke down and downloaded ROON...


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I am using it on my iMac at the moment, listening to TIDAL while it analyzes my music collection.  Is there a consensus on the quality of build and sound, ease of use, and any other criteria, of the ROON Nucleus and Plus?

 

I will of course, have a better idea of ROON when it is finished analyzing my library, but I figured what the hell, I may as well get this thread going while I listen.

No electron left behind.

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The Roon-badged devices are good but not what I would say “high value”. I looked them and the sonicTransporter servers and the later are much less expensive and offer more flexibility. I ended up with a sonicTransporter i5 and could not be happier with it and the support I receive. If you think you will need a lot of DSP power at some point, get the i7 version instead. 

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I am liking it a lot so far.  I also love Kat Edmonson.

 

I usually upsample to 88 or 96.  I am still deciding which filter I prefer with this. Using Precise, Minimum Phase right now. However, I am liking the sound once I set it all up properly and found all the settings.

 

Screen Shot 2018-07-19 at 10.31.33 PM.png

No electron left behind.

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I see the green dot on your screenshot, which indicates a “high quality” signal path. This often occurs when a lossless file is run through the OS mixer before output.  You may want to set exclusive mode for bit perfect playback (or enhanced, as it referred to when upsampling.) This can be set under the little gear menu for individual devices in the “audio” tab. 

 

 If you need audio output from other programs on the machine, or figured this out already, disregard. Cheers! 

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35 minutes ago, arglebargle said:

I see the green dot on your screenshot, which indicates a “high quality” signal path. This often occurs when a lossless file is run through the OS mixer before output.  You may want to set exclusive mode for bit perfect playback (or enhanced, as it referred to when upsampling.) This can be set under the little gear menu for individual devices in the “audio” tab. 

 

 If you need audio output from other programs on the machine, or figured this out already, disregard. Cheers! 

 

 

Thanks, I did figure it out. Eventually. I have what looks like a shining star now.  Ha.

 

Love your username by the way.

No electron left behind.

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4 minutes ago, mjb said:

 

I gave Roon a try last weekend, but decided it wasn't for me for a couple of reasons. I prefer to just choose an album and play it, and my Aurender does that just fine.

 

I have an Aurender in my main system, and love it. But when I am sitting at my computer, like I am now, its nice to have some stuff to look at.  Also, amazingly, Roon sounds significantly better than both Jriver and A+ on my iMac.

 

I am not sure if I will get a ROON device rather than using the computer as I am now though.  It almost seems it would be a waste of money.

No electron left behind.

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1 hour ago, AudioDoctor said:

This is what I am looking at now. Is this too much?  There is also a standard album page.

 

 

Screen Shot 2018-07-20 at 1.23.50 AM.png

 

 

That is the queue view. It looks like a lot of redundant info when playing an album but imagine all of those tracks come from different albums. Then that amount of information makes sense.

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8 hours ago, Ralf11 said:

I don't think that anyone who has entered the Roonosphere has ever exited.

That depends on what you mean by "entered."  There have been many who have tried it and found good reason not to purchase/subscribe.  I read about them almost daily on the Roon community.

Kal Rubinson

Senior Contributing Editor, Stereophile

 

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52 minutes ago, Kal Rubinson said:

That depends on what you mean by "entered."  There have been many who have tried it and found good reason not to purchase/subscribe.  I read about them almost daily on the Roon community.

 

I gave it a spin in the early days and decided against subscribing or purchasing. Tidal usually gives me all the info I need/want, otherwise I use Google.

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i am getting close to trying Roon.  I am currently using foobar 2000 for library management and playing from my PC (which I do a lot of) and Asset UPnP for networked audio.  I subscribe to Apple Music (mostly for the wife/kids but I love that it has all of my music too stored in the cloud), Amazon Music (for the wife and kids / all of our Amazon Echos - and also has to option to store my music in their cloud along side) and now trying a 3 month free Tidal that came with my phone (which oddly supports MQA).  I find that I use Apple Music for occasional listening (e.g. to listen to something new and to listening to something from an earlier period in my life) - but a lot of times if I really like something I buy it.  My ideal would be something actually integrates with Apple (or Amazon music) - so I don't have to get Tidal.  (If Tidal integrated with the Amazon echo, then I could drop Amazon Music, plus Tidal seems to work on about everything).  (I'll stop now on the fragmentation of all of the different music services)

 

Foobar is OK.  It is very flexible, but at the same time very kluged together.  For simply playing and organizing a library it is pretty good.  As you start looking at DSD (I don't have a lot, but I have enough) and trying things like upsampling everything to DSD 512 there are lots of different pieces and parts and it does not do (can only do PCM to DSD512 - and also have to use an ASIO pass through to convert DoP to DSD instead of just sending native DSD).   But not sure if converting to DSD512 will be a long term need or not (just want to try it out and decide).  It doesn't have integration with any streaming.  At least it is "free"

 

I tried Audirvana - it's just not there yet on Windows.  I do have a MacMini - so maybe I should try it on there to see what it aspires to be.  In short, It was OK, but it didn't seem very flexible on arranging the music library (I just read somewhere what it is using to sort, so might quickly retag and give another shot).  I like that is had integrations with streaming services (like Tidal/Qobuz) - but didn't like that it doesn't allow for an integrated playlist between tidal and my local library which surprised me a bit.  I mostly listen to albums, but there are times when I want to listen to a mix tape.  Also still doesn't work well with one of my DACs on DSD (but I am sure that is something that eventually can be fixed).  Damien is active and it seems like he listens to requests so that is a positive.  Looks like it is a perpetual license with a discounted upgrade on new major versions - that seems like a reasonable model.

 

I tried HQPlayer (I've got a PC that can do non 2s upsampling to DSD512 for what it's worth).  The library features and UI are OK, but not very flexible (and from seeing some of Jussi comments, its not an area where he is going to put in work - which probably means I won't buy the software).  Also no streaming integration.  Also is a perpetual license - haven't checked if upgrades cost $.  If HQplayer had a plug-in to foobar 2000, that would get me closer to buying.

 

Tried JRiver a long time ago.  I don't see too much of reason to go there instead of foobar.  I don't need a CD ripper and already have a UPnP.  It also uses PCM for any DSD conversion (again not sure if that matters for me long term, but still trying to do upconverting to DSD512).  

 

So now down to Roon.  I'd much rather spend $499 on hardware than software (i don't mind paying for things - but the value needs to be there).   Also haven't checked if it will do all what I want.  I don't need the artist info - so that is not a big draw.  But will probably try soon ... maybe even today ...

 

 

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