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Roon for high end audio?

I have been listening almost exclusively to CDs but want to start to get into music streaming.  Sound quality is very high on my list, and I am interested in streaming for 2 reasons; broad selection and hopefully better sound.  I am using a dbx Venue 360 with a Jeff Roland Concerto Preamp and Roland Power amp.  I have a Savant system that allows music playback in multiple rooms, controls video etc.  My Savant integrator suggested Roon. Since I am not currently into streaming, I can’t figure out if Roon is the right thing to do.  It seems like a great music server service with the ability to manage very high quality digital files, but the downstream handling of the files and conversion to analog (DAC) seems lacking.  It seems most people are using it for playback in less than audiophile situations, and compatible equipment is very limited.  Quality wise, am I better off with something like Bluenote and a high quality DAC like say, Denafrips?
kingofgix
chorus
976 posts
 
I chose streaming as my exclusive source for many reasons.
Most  will say a TT will give you a better sound but along with that
is the fact that vinyl choices of music are limited. Streaming is growing
every year. I use Roon and Qobuz. My Innuos Streamer is DACless
as I think it should be. It does burn and store. A good DAC is quite important as is something like the Uptone Etheregen unit.
Some people say files sound better than the actual CD. Unproven I believe.
I made a choice between what is the Current heavyweight of SQ- Turntables/ R2R and the ability to find new music every day and put it on my playlist. Quite pleased I must say.
yyzsantabarbara
4,810 posts
 
ROON is great and very much hi-end. Send me DM if you want to dive deeper on some approaches to setup ROON.
rsf507
2,313 posts
 
OP "It seems most people are using it for playback in less than audiophile situations,...."

I would venture to guess that very few non-audiophiles are using Roon. As others have stated Roon's sound quality is wonderful but you have to have all the pieces. Like a Roon Nucleus or something similar. I originally used a MacBook Pro then when I switched to a Roon Nucleus the SQ vastly improved. Then adding a LPS to the Nucleus was another huge bump in SQ. Get it right and you will a happy camper. 
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mastering92
870 posts
 
Better sound is a subjective opinion. Same thing with sound quality.

It can support the same formats, so why not?

If you want equal performance to a good CD player, download Jriver and enable SoX for resampling, load file into memory (before being played) and play as HDCD.

I have a music library on my laptop and files either open in foobar or Jriver.

Regarding DACs - they sound different. Buy one that claims to be accurate/neutral.

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