About ready to give up on Roon and my streamer
Last December I started a thread to address the question of whether a true AES/EBU cable would sound better than a standard XLR when connecting my Sonnet Morpheus DAC to a Sonnet Hermes streamer. As the discussion evolved, (and in the end I abandoned both connections in favor of I2S via ethernet cable) I began sharing my trials and tribulations setting up Roon and getting it to work. Though I was finally successful and did get to spend some quality time streaming favorite music through Qobuz on the Roon platform, I've never been entirely happy with the sound. Apart from the headaches of getting everything to connect together every time I turn it on, I've also experienced some bizarre intermittent sound quality issues with Roon that I'm becoming very frustrated with. Sometimes it sounds pretty good, and sometimes it sounds tinny, shrill, and no stereo image. I haven't changed any settings anywhere, but something's clearly not getting processed correctly. At this point I'm tired of fighting with it.
What I'd really like to do is take Roon out of the equation entirely and connect directly to Qobuz through a streamer, but the Sonnet Hermes is designed to be a Roon endpoint and as far as I can tell, nothing more. If there's a way to get it to connect directly to Qobuz, I'd surely like to know about it.
Meanwhile, I'm happy to take suggestions for a streamer in the $1K to 1.5K range (new or used, happy with either) that can do this. I really don't want anything with a built-in DAC, as I'm really happy with mine, despite some minor shortcomings in its array of input connections.
Advice greatly appreciated. Thanks!
Magna Mano (configurable with i2s) miniDSP AHD Studio (all but USB and i2s) Allo USBridge Pro-Ject S2 Ultra
The last two are USB out The trick to buying a streamer is: 1 The OS plays the service you want. The one with the most options is BlueSound, inferior to choices above and no version available without their DAC. 2 Useable outputs for your DAC. If USB, a DDC can be inserted to change it. |
I remember your posts and you finally getting to into the adjustment details of the software. What dac are you currently using? There are many options out there for quality streaming but if I were to recommend a dac less streamer it would be a Lumin U2 Mini. If the new cost is a problem check out the used market for one or even the previous model (U1 Mini). |
What @erik_squires said about checking the Roon processing stream. Not familiar with that streamer but could be an incompatibility with the resolution somewhere in the system. Also make sure no unwanted Roon DSP processing is in play. That can wreck total havoc on the sound if not done right. I am a techie and a big Roon fan. It always sounds fabulous when playing. It is also very flexible on how it does its processing and somewhat complex, so it does not surprise me that it might be difficult for some to get a handle on that or that it might work better on some Roon ready devices than others. |
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