DEVIALET now Roon Ready.

[PeppaPig]

Hey David,

I emailed Roon, he asked my account if and then they told me to restart the Roon Server, he might pushed some changes to my Roon Server.

My version is 1.6 build 401.

After I restarted the Roon Server, the uncertified logo gone.

I did many restart before contacting Roon and has no effect. So I think might be best for you to contact Roon.

[BatEars]

Hey David,

I emailed Roon, he asked my account if and then they told me to restart the Roon Server, he might pushed some changes to my Roon Server.

My version is 1.6 build 401.

After I restarted the Roon Server, the uncertified logo gone.

I did many restart before contacting Roon and has no effect. So I think might be best for you to contact Roon.

Don't think they can do that on an individual basis.

Loads of people have pointed out the 140 issue, no reports of it being fixed yet.

[PeppaPig]

I suggest email Roon, they response very quick. During the conversation they said this is a known issue that some models is not identified. I believe they are working on them.

[BatEars]

I suggest email Roon, they response very quick. During the conversation they said this is a known issue that some models is not identified. I believe they are working on them.

Have been in touch with Roon, I know they are aware of issue. As per usual they will just fix it and won't say anything until it's done. *Waits patiently*

[David A]

I suggest email Roon, they response very quick. During the conversation they said this is a known issue that some models is not identified. I believe they are working on them.

I know they're aware of it and looking at i, and I have provided them with details in a Roon community forum thread they're monitoring. I have no need to add another email to the information I and others have provided when I know they're looking at it and there's no information I can provide which I haven't already provided.

[Snoopy8]

2 part question:
1. Does the quality of the Roon Core affect sound quality? (assume no up-sampling)
2. Has anyone tested up-sampling from Roon and feeding into Phantom Golds? Did it improve things?

[David A]

1. What do you mean by "the quality of the Roon Core"? The Roon Core is a software application. It's quality is the same regardless of what it runs on. The computer it's running on can affect things, for example if you're going to use a lot of Roon's DSP functions you need a computer that's fast enough and has enough memory to do the DSP processing or you'll run into problems but you could run Roon on the same computer and have no problems at all provided you didn't perform any DSP functions. There are other things which can affect sound quality, for example I hear differences between output from Roon to my 140 depending on whether I use USB or ethernet, and whether I use RAAT or AIR when I use ethernet but that's got nothing to do with the Roon Core and everything to do with the output choices I make. What are you trying to ask here?

2. I don't have Phantoms so no comment.

[Snoopy8]

1. What do you mean by "the quality of the Roon Core"?  The Roon Core is a software application. It's quality is the same regardless of what it runs on. The computer it's running on can affect things, for example if you're going to use a lot of Roon's DSP functions you need a computer that's fast enough and has enough memory to do the DSP processing or you'll run into problems but you could run Roon on the same computer and have no problems at all provided you didn't perform any DSP functions. There are other things which can affect sound quality, for example I hear differences between output from Roon to my 140 depending on whether I use USB or ethernet, and whether I use RAAT or AIR when I use ethernet but that's got nothing to do with the Roon Core and everything to do with the output choices I make. What are you trying to ask here?

Is there a difference between say an NUC with i7 chip, a PC with same i7 chip running Linux, a PC with same i7 chip running Windows to run as Roon Rock (sorry, got my terminology wrong!   , newbie here)?   Assume they have same ram, disk storage and doing the same thing with a mid sized library, no DSP, no upsampling.   Is the sound quality affected by using a slightly difference platform?  Will adding a linear power supply to the hardware improve sound quality?

[BatEars]

1. What do you mean by "the quality of the Roon Core"?  The Roon Core is a software application. It's quality is the same regardless of what it runs on. The computer it's running on can affect things, for example if you're going to use a lot of Roon's DSP functions you need a computer that's fast enough and has enough memory to do the DSP processing or you'll run into problems but you could run Roon on the same computer and have no problems at all provided you didn't perform any DSP functions. There are other things which can affect sound quality, for example I hear differences between output from Roon to my 140 depending on whether I use USB or ethernet, and whether I use RAAT or AIR when I use ethernet but that's got nothing to do with the Roon Core and everything to do with the output choices I make. What are you trying to ask here?

Is there a difference between say an NUC with i7 chip, a PC with same i7 chip running Linux, a PC with same i7 chip running Windows to run as Roon Rock (sorry, got my terminology wrong!   , newbie here)?   Assume they have same ram, disk storage and doing the same thing with a mid sized library, no DSP, no upsampling.   Is the sound quality affected by using a slightly difference platform?  Will adding a linear power supply to the hardware improve sound quality?

What you run Roon Core on (Linux, Windows, ROCK, MacOS) will have less impact than the quality of the hardware and the method of connection.

A fan-less solution will most likely have more impact than a linear power supply will. 

Connecting directly to your DAC endpoint using high quality screened cables will have more impact.

Upsampling to your DACs 'native' sample rate will have more impact.

All of these things will bring marginal gains.

The quality of your DAC, amp, speakers etc will have far more impact.

The beauty of running Roon ROCK on a NUC is that you know it is doing nothing other than running Roon. With other OS options the OS is doing all kinds of things in addition to running Roon and therefore needs more care and attention. ROCK needs virtually none. Whether it sound 'better' is not really the main point.

Once you get beyond basics sound quality is a completely subjective experience. There is no right or wrong. If you find something that works for you, go with it.

[David A]

Is there a difference between say an NUC with i7 chip, a PC with same i7 chip running Linux, a PC with same i7 chip running Windows to run as Roon Rock (sorry, got my terminology wrong!   , newbie here)?   Assume they have same ram, disk storage and doing the same thing with a mid sized library, no DSP, no upsampling.   Is the sound quality affected by using a slightly difference platform?  Will adding a linear power supply to the hardware improve sound quality?

OK. I think the answer to your question is yes, there can be a difference. One of the reasons is simply that the PC is often going to be doing a lot more stuff than the NUC. For a start the PC is going to be processing video output whereas a lot of the NUCs or similar servers run headless,  no video card, and you use an app and/or a browser based interface on a tablet or another computer for control. The PC will also often be doing other tasks such as regular email checks, etc, while also serving up music. I think it's safe to say that the general feeling of those of us running dedicated servers of some kind or other rather than running Roon on our regular computers is that there are benefits to running a dedicated server because it's usually doing one task only, serving music, and that reduces problems arising from other tasks running in the background, or even the foreground at times while you're relegating music playback to a background role. With a mid sized library, no DSP and no upsampling you could probably get by  comfortably with an i3 which is what Roon's own basic Nucleus uses.

But then, if you're running Roon on your normal PC and you choose to use an iOS or Android tablet to run the Roon app to control things, you can turn your monitor off, shut down all of the other apps you're running on your PC when you listen to music, and you're probably not going to be much worse off in theory than you would be running Roon on a NUC dedicated to just running Roon.

Adding a linear power supply may improve sound quality, but only if it's a better quality power supply than the one it's replacing. Not all linear power supplies are equally good, not all switched mode power supplies are equally bad. Just because something has a theoretical advantage doesn't mean that advantage will be realised in practice. How well something is implemented can often be more important than whether it's theoretically the best way to go.

How big a difference you will notice can depend on a range of factors including others that you didn't mention.  Then there's the issue of whether the increase in sound quality you get by going down the path of using a NUC or a dedicated server and perhaps replacing the power supply with a better power supply and perhaps doing various other things is worth the cost of doing those things. Only you can answer the value for money questions. I can say that I think you can get improvements by doing some or all of those things you've mentioned but if you make the wrong choices in what you buy you may get little or no improvement. I can't tell you how big an improvement you will get or whether you're going to think you've got value for money out of it. There are some things in audio you can only find out the hard way, by trying them yourself.