Roon Streaming Service actually Degrades the sound

Used to just have a node 2i outputting to a mc2500 and mc 75 monoblocks, Sonus Faber speakers, and Rhythmic subwoofers.

Then decided to get a Small Green Machine transport for Roon core, a Sonore UltraRendu as a player and a Mytec Dac+...
...all I can say is the the sound quality took perceptive leaps in improvement.

I am a Roon fan.  Also I do not "mid" MQA.

Aclinic, thanks for your input. I was hoping someone would have a good suggestion.

I too love the way Roon works but I do not want sub par SQ in exchange

for a paid service.

As you can read most users are unaware of this situation.

It is not my place to use the name of the company owner who shared his methodology and reasoning with me. 

The reason for this post is to raise the user awareness so Roon feels

some pressure, responds and improves their product from a SQ point of view.

Everyone benefits.

According to several posters here on this thread, seems there’s "ROON for IMPROVEMENT" in its sound quality. I have not yet tried ROON, but I have good digital equipment to run it on: A MELCO Network Switch, their Model S100, for Audio Streaming (it is connected between my xfinity Comcast Cable Internet Modem and my MELCO N1 A EX High-Res Digital Music Library). The Melco N1 A EX music library is, in turn, connected to my Holo Audio MAY KTE DAC via USB. I’m using an iPad to control the MELCO LIBRARY, which incidentally DOES have provision for running ROON on it.

So, perhaps the quality of Internet Connection you have (mine is Comcast High-Speed) as well as the equipment you run ROON on may be the determining factor in Roon’s sound quality. With my present setup, I access Qobuz and Tidal directly, using my iPad, and the Melco streams it to my DAC. I am tempted to subscribe to Roon’s services, for its convenience - but I certainly don’t want the sound quality of my system to be degraded by Roon, if in fact that is a problem.

I have an eversolo A6ME with Pd Creative linear power supply. 2nd streamer is a bluesound Node N130 with external top of the line Pd Creative linear power supply. Preamp is Advance Paris Xp700 into an OAD power amp which is a very clean and musical power amp. All interconnects are Audioquest Colorado. I have 2 servers, 1 being a NAS and the other being an HP pc with dual Raid drives. 

I have hard drives on all devices and can access my library via roon, or onboard software such as blueos or eversolo depending on which device I wish to use. My main streaming software is Tidal. 

I'm a fiddler and tweaker. Also I'm a musician who's gone through the process of buying and selling over 50 acoustic guitars to get to the perfect dozen for my collection. I'm the guy who hears minor differences when changing cables etc. I'm not interested in an aguement or discussion around science disproving cables making any difference etc. This is about roon. 

I agree with a couple of posts here which state these characteristics of Roon. Having listened to Tidal connect for years I'd say it is a very large and warm sounding platform. Bass is full and the sense of space air and depth is very good. The Bluesound is a slightly plumper, warmer but less detailed presentation when compared to the Eversolo. The Eversolo informs you more but it's bass isn't quite as full as the Eversolo. The Bluesound sounds a touch more vinyl-like. Enter Roon into the picture. 

Roon sounds different when coming off the NAS or HP server. I've found the HP server is a bit fuller and warmer when playing my hard drive library. I have no idea why this is. Could be that the NAS goes through powerline adaptors to the network and the HP server uses high speed wifi. I'll get to my point about Roon's sound. 

When playing Tidal via roon, the sound is more focused with a slight push to the mids and highs, in essence, affecting the fullness of the bottom end, which sounds a tad leaner. It also sounds less warm or analogue having removed a sense of warmth and space from the presentation. 

I think people like the sound of Roon because it seems to " clean " up the sound a bit, defines it more and focuses the imagine a bit more. However when the bass is messed with, for me the magic can really be lost. For me I want the sense of atmosphere and space in my playback so when any component in my system diminishes that for the sake of more accuracy in presentation, I lose interest. Take a 9foot concert grand recording and clean it up and you'll lose a lot of the body of the sound of the instrument. Such an instrument will push a lot of sound into the air. Roon will tend to sterilize the body and atmosphere a bit. Going back to Tidal connect instantly brings back what Roon has moved. For Tidal in Roon it's still lacking all the features that one needs when using Roon. It has most but not all, so manipulating and accessing your library can be a bit cumbersome. I do like the way it handles my storage library though, which is why I've persevered with it up till now. I've found no other software, other than Plex that can do similar job. I don't think Plex can offer as good a sound though. They've just given us plex connect so that could be the way forward, without actually having to pay a fortune yearly for a subscription. 

Anyways, that's my 2 cents ( or 20 dollars ) worth. Many will disagree with my findings I'm sure. My limitation could still be my network, but I don't think so. Is Tidal coming via my HP server via wifi via Roon or are my Roon ready streamers handling it , thus bypassing the HP server? This I don't know. I just know Tidal connect, and onboard library access sounds warmer and less manipulated than with Roon.