Roon Streaming Service actually Degrades the sound

I think they already are addressing it. There is a beta that lifetime subscribers have been invited to try. Most of it is cosmetic or has to do with the UI, but one paragraph in the notes says this;

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.

Most folks running Roon cant compare it to something else so they wont know how if affects SQ.  Roon on an Innuos server in Experimental mode easily bests Roon.

My experience is Innuos Sense is much better than Experimental mode, big drop  in noise floor.

I do miss Roons functionality but not its 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.