Roon SQ vs DLNA
Posted by: T38.45 on 10 February 2018
Hi folks,
this drives me nuts... I'm running a NAS + macmini (2012 i5) +roon + rendu on one LAN switch. In this setup, I'm able to run DLNA/UPNP on NAS ('qnap) instead of roon/mac so I can compare directly in the same setup the SQ without changing HW.
The SQ of the DLNA is so much better...more focus, more colour, bigger image compared to roon. Even running hqp for upsampling this can't touch DLNA playing native music.
So it seems that there are two potential problems:
- sending data/music packages around the network kills music or
- macmini is the limiting factor
Any one here got same results?
thanks!!!!
Ralf
I have 8gb of ram - maybe that is the difference (2gb is standard)? Did it when I first got the NAS before any thought of Roon, £30 and a few minutes easy installation.
Pev posted:[@mention:1566878603990528] which QNAP do you have? - I am running Roon on my QNAP TS251 and it's totally fine if you don't want to use a lot of DSP. Just hang a 120gb SSD off the back and you're good to go.
Any DSP will change thecsound (isn’t that the point?), so comparison of Roon with direct from NAS is only valid if all DSP is avoided. Could this possibly be the issue? Is Roon doing some DSP, maybe even not known to the OP?
I switched off DSP and equalization etc so there was nothing enabled when comparing the two ... at least nothing I was aware of...
Auralic G2 sounds more fluid than sonore+sbooster, no doubt. but i5 was much better than mac....so I would really start with an i5+sonore+good power supply if I had to do it again! Guess if you can handle roon on NAS you may have other results ... but give it a try! Maybe you don’t need i5.
Pev posted:I have 8gb of ram - maybe that is the difference (2gb is standard)? Did it when I first got the NAS before any thought of Roon, £30 and a few minutes easy installation.
You are right- i have only 2GB!
T38.45 posted:Auralic G2 sounds more fluid than sonore+sbooster, no doubt. but i5 was much better than mac....so I would really start with an i5+sonore+good power supply if I had to do it again! Guess if you can handle roon on NAS you may have other results ... but give it a try! Maybe you don’t need i5.
Thanks for the clarification! Have fun with the new G2 and i5! Best, nbpf
T38.45 posted:just pulled the trigger for a dedicated roon server based on i5 to see if the mac is the problem....keep you inform as soon as I'll have it...
Out of interest what “dedicated Roon server” did you buy?
Sonictransporter i5, the origin roon server Nucleus is too expensive imho.. they have an i3 and i7...
Hi I have been looking at a blizzard of posts .... on this interesting topic. My position is I have Roon core on an i7 Nuc and was intending to buy a Rasp PI with a decent PSU for an endpoint .... this feeding my NDS directly via digital coaxial..... will the sound quality of this combo be close to the NDS streaming directly from NAS???
Richieroo, I don't know how close this set-up comes BUT you'll have roon with this:-) I think the roon+i7+psu/endpoint combi is near the best setup you may find! I don't know rasp pi as and endpoint though, but I learned that is not too expensive when failing the test. Apart from that, how is the SQ via digital coax in NDS?
Richieroo posted:Hi I have been looking at a blizzard of posts .... on this interesting topic. My position is I have Roon core on an i7 Nuc and was intending to buy a Rasp PI with a decent PSU for an endpoint .... this feeding my NDS directly via digital coaxial..... will the sound quality of this combo be close to the NDS streaming directly from NAS???
You will have to insert a USB to SPDIF interface between an RPi endpoint and your NDS to get a S/PDIF stream and to isolate the NSD from the RPi. This could be an Allo DigiOne, a Schiit Eitr, a Mutec MC-3+ USB or something similar. There is a thread on this forum about the differences between these options and much more information on the CA forums. You could start with an RPi + Digione for about 130 Pounds and make a first comparison with streaming directly from NAS. If you do so, please report your findings!
If using a Pi for Roon I highly recommend to use Ropieee as the software end. It's a dedicated Roon bridge, simple to setup and supports most DACs and Pi HATs / Digi boards. I use a few around the house with HifiBerry boards and very happy with them.
did someone test usb vs aes digital out? If so, please could you tell your impressions? I did this last night, it makes my wonder...could it be that a cheap xlr cable i had over sounds better than a crazy expensive usb cable? More focused, better soundstage, not fuzzy grey? Will do more tests but this seems strange to me...
ralf