UPnP Sound Quality

[ada]

First off I want to say, LOVE your avatar!!! RUSH fans are a rare breed....

Thanks! It is the band of my life. Doesn't matter how much they are respected or cared, it is a personal philosophy and opinion. They guided me very well to find a meaning in this life. I will keep being appreciated because of that forever. And their 70s era is something that keeps make me cry when I listen. It is really giving a meaning to my personal journey in this life.

Now, I am very curious about this thread you started, but right off the bat, I would like to know what version of AIR are you running?

I ask, because I had major SQ issues with 3.0.4. Absolutely hate it!! Shrill, Flat, unfocused.

I use 3.0.2 RC. Leaps and bounds better in all aspects.

I have never tried 3.0.2 RC as it is a RC and even 3.0.4 has never been worked perfectly with a direct ethernet connection. I will try to give a try to it but honestly, the difference keeps me happy in UPnP setup. The only problem is the stability issues that I am having with UPnP nowadays. Less than AIR problems but still random pauses and crashes are happening with UPnP.

Bit surprised with your findings. For me the latest releases of AIR had such a good quality that I prefer this over any other combination I've tried.

I was literally shocked when I discovered this as UPnP is a format that cares firstly the be generic and be a common standard than being audiophile solution. But here is the reality that I am facing.

Hello from overheated France,
I have exactly the same feeling. My setup is LE120 connected to an ALLO DIGIONE (Spdif) via router (Digione and router on LPS HDPlex) with Audirvana on a optimized Mac mini. For about 9 months, I played music through Roon (roonbridge on the Digione) but every time I was back to Audirvana via Air, I was really impressed by it. But because Roon is so much easier to live with, I stayed with it for that long. 2 weeks ago, with a bit of time ahead, I compared precisely the same files (Radiohead - In Rainbows 16/44.1 - Handel Messiah 24/192), on the same storage between Roon + AirRoon, Audirvana+Air and Audirvana+Upnp. My wife and I were stunned how the Audirvana UPNP configurations sounded : definitely a more accurate bass, lot of details and more density in the music (the meat around the bones). I am now staying with this configuration and I will end up my one year subscription to Roon next October.

Sebastien

Hi Sebastien,

I don't know how much I can say more over your comment. I exactly experienced the same thing. It is not loudness, it is not higher volume, there is something related with resolution and the sound quality. I hope more people will try and comment on this.

I am not a fan of UPnP, I was planning to go with USB solutions in the very near future but seems like all the audiophile grade solutions that we pay are kind of gimmick. As I have a software engineering background, I am planning to do some readings and research related with RAAT and UPnP. We all know the major problems of the USB but seems like some of these problems have already been solved in modern streaming formats. (Or we are failing in somewhere likely on our ears ) Anyone can guide me to extra technical documentation of these protocols will be really helpful.