Roon Streaming Service actually Degrades the sound

Improved buffering and caching for streaming content

We’ve made changes to Roon’s buffering and caching infrastructure when playing streaming content. The new implementation is designed to use a lighter touch when interacting with your network and internet connection, making streaming less intensive for your Roon Core.

This could really help me because I notice some recent ROON stoppages in playback that is network related. I have a very busy home office network with at least 10 servers and PC's plus other family entertainment devices.

Tried Roon a couple of times, but found Audirvana on a stripped down NUC just sounds noticeably better. Roon does look better though, but then again I am not looking at the sound.

I can't definitively state that Roon sounds equal to/better than all the alternatives mentioned here as I simply haven't tried them all, but I have A/B'ed Roon against Audirvana playing both standard res and hi-res files on a M1 Mac Mini and found zero difference in SQ. I also once used a player called Pure Music that I picked over Audirvana for SQ and didn't consider Roon a downgrade at all when I switched. In fact, I wouldn't have switched if I had detected a lesser SQ.

I have tested SQ of Roon (hosted on remote Roon rock NUC) vs files or Qobuz streams played direct from the same local network bridge. Absolutely zero SQ difference.

I recently added a roon nucleus, switching from mconnectHD, streaming from Qobuz to my Bricasti DAC. There is no question that roon sounds different - and according to my sensibilities WORSE: muffled, with a loss of detail, ambiance, and nuance. I am not a happy camper.