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Aurender vs Roon

I’ve been testing Roon running on an older MacBook vs Aurender N100SC into the same DAC (Weiss 501). Absolutely same network, Ethernet cable, and switch.

When playing songs through Qobuz the two sources have distinctly different SQ. Roon warmer and a bit less dynamic than the Aurender which is cleaner, dryer, and possibly slightly better sound stage. Ultimately the Aurender is better strictly from a SQ perspective—Roon is superior for the interface.
 

This is in the 5% difference space, but definitely different. 


I assume the Aurender is partly better because of a linear power supply and being dedicated hifi computer.

Question: is there a way through hardware to bring Roon server closer to Aurender or is there software processing going on here that is mostly responsible for the SQ difference?

w123ale
audiotroy's avatar
audiotroy
3,603 posts
 

op a dedicated server will beat any computer

as most pcs are not designed to eliminate digital noise.

we were an Aurender dealer until we heard an Innnous server that sounded significantly better

 

To  date we have tested aurender, an sotm server,lumin baetis laufer technik and the best we found was the 432evo servers from Belgium

Dave and Troy

audio intellect NJ

432Evo importers

jbuhl's avatar
jbuhl
900 posts
 

Has anyone had experience going from an old computer to a dedicated server?

Yes. Pretty much everyone involved in any decent level of commitment on this hobby has done that. Streaming from an "old computer" (as you say) general purpose noisy laptop or PC is not optimal for audio. It is not meant for audio.

 

Yep try to get Roon Core onto something like a Small Green computer to maximize the SQ.   I moved off an old MAC mini and it was best thing I did for my digital setup.

 

 

speedthrills
160 posts
 

Really? You think you can quantify the sound difference at 5% ? Remarkable. 

mapman's avatar
mapman
21,865 posts
 

Kate Upton is also 5% hotter than Whitney Carson by my estimate but Whitney is a better dancer.  I think. 

w123ale OP
101 posts
 

Update: changed my Roon connection to fiber and now cannot hear much difference between the Aurender and my Roon core. Roon for me is a supior interface—out with Aurender! 

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