This seems to be the debate of the moment. So why not have a poll? I suspect that we will not get enough votes for this to be statistically significant, after all, this only applies to those that use Roon and have CI equipped Pro's, but it should be a bit of fun and may reveal an interesting result.
Please note that the vote relates to sound quality only, any considerations with respect to functionality, or early stability issues, should not be considered in your vote.
So which do you prefer?
As stated in an earlier post, I think there is an improvement with Roon RAAT over the previous implementation of Roon Air. It could be that there is no difference between Roon RAAT and the current implementation of Roon Air. I have not tested whether this is the case and for me, life is too short to bother doing this!
Blind tested as best as I can (easy with the digione as it keeps playing, but the RoonReady direct deliberately stalls when moving off its input).
Can’t detect any difference, despite thinking maybe there was one when not done blind.
But this was 15 minutes.
Roon RAAT without any doubt! The improvement was immediate and obvious to us. Am baffled by the uncertainties expressed by others...but then this is a very subjective hobby!
Interesting that three of the four positive endorsements for RAAT, at this point in the survey, are by Magico owners! Magico rules!
I initially thought Roon RAAT was better, but the volume levelling was set differently.
When the settings are the same they both sound good, not convinced I can distinguish any difference.
I must admit that I originally thought that RAAT offered an improved SQ over ROON/AIR, but having now spent some time listening to both, I now can not honestly tell the difference - maybe expectation bias was in play initially. They both sound excellent to me and I am happy to listen to either, so I have ceased bothering about it and just enjoy the music.
David
It might be interesting if people also note their source. Mine is a Mac mini over shielded Cat.6 via a Ubiquity switch.
(17-Feb-2019, 19:47)Graham Wrote: [ -> ]I initially thought Roon RAAT was better, but the volume levelling was set differently.
When the settings are the same they both sound good, not convinced I can distinguish any difference.
This is a great point. I don’t have a newer ci version, so I can’t tell if raat is better than air myself, but I have noticed that with different inputs, that one volume level can be louder than the other and this will give the initial impression that it’s “better”, but if you get out your dB reader and ensure both inputs are at the same level, you might change your mind.
(18-Feb-2019, 01:27)mmorrison55 Wrote: [ -> ] (17-Feb-2019, 19:47)Graham Wrote: [ -> ]I initially thought Roon RAAT was better, but the volume levelling was set differently.
When the settings are the same they both sound good, not convinced I can distinguish any difference.
This is a great point. I don’t have a newer ci version, so I can’t tell if raat is better than air myself, but I have noticed that with different inputs, that one volume level can be louder than the other and this will give the initial impression that it’s “better”, but if you get out your dB reader and ensure both inputs are at the same level, you might change your mind.
If you haven't played with volume levelling, RAAT and AIR are the same. If you think about it, all digital inputs get some sort of bit perfect input. Unless there's some kind of DSP going on, there shouldn't be any difference.
(18-Feb-2019, 08:16)Pim Wrote: [ -> ] (18-Feb-2019, 01:27)mmorrison55 Wrote: [ -> ] (17-Feb-2019, 19:47)Graham Wrote: [ -> ]I initially thought Roon RAAT was better, but the volume levelling was set differently.
When the settings are the same they both sound good, not convinced I can distinguish any difference.
This is a great point. I don’t have a newer ci version, so I can’t tell if raat is better than air myself, but I have noticed that with different inputs, that one volume level can be louder than the other and this will give the initial impression that it’s “better”, but if you get out your dB reader and ensure both inputs are at the same level, you might change your mind.
If you haven't played with volume levelling, RAAT and AIR are the same. If you think about it, all digital inputs get some sort of bit perfect input. Unless there's some kind of DSP going on, there shouldn't be any difference.
Air without a doubt, more natural sounding than Roon, improved boogie factor compared to Roon. In my set-up after the firmaware update, the sound is perfect via AIR.