Current quality of Rune

@sls883 You're correct on everything, bridge in dac is endpoint or actual streamer. Agree with the others here, Innuos should be superior.

Also agree turning off many of these 'extras' with Roon is good, no volume leveling, throttle library analysis, no dsp. All these extras only add to work processor in streamer has to do, adds noise and may cause glitches if processor stressed. This also part of reason why general purpose computers not good as streamers, the operating systems alone take up far more processor resources than need be, dedicated streamers have operating systems optimized for streaming only, processor barely working which means low noise and no glitches. And I could go on and on about optimizing interfaces such as ethernet, usb, I2S, etc. general service computers don't give a crap about any of this, serious audio streamers pay great attention to all this.

@sns I'm learning that my laptop is playing a bigger role than I had thought. Makes sense, though. 

My son is kinda in the "bits are bits" camp. It took him a while to hear the difference because he had convinced himself that there wouldn't be any.  It was fairly obvious to me when I first tried Roon. It was confirmed when did the comparison.  Roon did sound really good, but the Innuos is better. I love the Roon interface, but the Sense app is good, too.  I'm sure Roon sounds great in other systems. 

@erock79 its an awesome program. Tons of features, but still very easy to navigate. 

Don't know if this still holds true for Innuos, but Innuos used to be in minimal processor low noise camp, other streamer manufacturers are in fast, powerful processor low latency camp. Roon requires more processor resources, works and sounds better with fast processor low latency camp streamers. Makes sense that sense app sounds better in Innuos streamer, that app designed specifically for their philosophy.

roon can sound magnificent it does depends on how you run it and how you connect it to your dac.

if you are connecting to your Dac via USB, then the quality of the server absolutely matters 

we were Importing the 432evo servers from Belgium which were designed to be a Roon core as well as delivering an ultra clean noise free Usb output to your Dac.

the 432evo servers combine a proprietary low latency operating system compartmentalized to run roon in its own cpu core with a state of the art clock  and USB cards and two outboard linear power supplies all designed to eliminate radiated noise,\.

the result is a much more analog sound from your Dac.

Dave and Troy

audio intellect NJ

Roon specialists and $#2evo dealers