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Roon Endpoint Streamers - Direct Comparisons between Current Offerings?

Have any of you directly compared sound quality between any of the current offerings of streamers when used solely as a Roon endpoint/streamer? This assumes Roon core and any local music file storage is being operated on a separate device (i.e., a separate server).

I have listed several of the current options below and while a few of those offer additional features, such as server capabilities, hosting of local file storage, or operating players unique to their manufacturers (i.e., other than Roon), I am interested in their performance solely as a Roon endpoint/streamer. Other suggestions not listed below are welcome, but please consider a $5K -$10K price range.

Streamers

  • Sonore Signature Rendu SE optical v3.0 - $5,350
  • Auralic Aries G2.2 - $6,099
  • Innuos Pulsar - $7,999

Server/Streamers

  • Aurender N200 - $6,300
  • Antipodes K22 - $9,000
mitch2
audphile1's avatar
audphile1
5,196 posts
 

@mitch2 Aurender isn’t Roon ready…not yet at least. Lumin is Roon ready though. 
I don’t have experience with Auralic G2.2 but when I had G1 it sounded better using Lightning DS. Lumin sounds smoother, to my ears, with Roon and I preferred the U1 Mini as a Roon endpoint. 
Aurender N200 with a music library loaded onto Samsung SSD mounted inside the streamer sounds awesome. But no Roon and it isn’t clear if and when it’s coming. 

mitch2 OP
4,011 posts
 

@audphile1 - Good points.  I thought I heard Aurender was, or was soon to be,  Roon ready.  I unintentionally left Lumin out.  What would be the the appropriate Lumin product (streamer only, $5-10K)?

audphile1's avatar
audphile1
5,196 posts
 

@mitch2 the Lumin U2 streamer only or the previous U1. 
I also heard Roon certification is being worked on by Aurender and I’m very curious how it will work vs the Aurender proprietary Conductor firmware responsible for processing the signal that entails caching to its internal SSD. Not sure if this will be the case with Roon and it may impact the sound quality. We’ll wait and see. I haven’t cancelled my Roon subscription yet though. 

jbuhl's avatar
jbuhl
990 posts
 

FWIW:

When I first delved into ROON. Th core was iMAC hosted with a BDP pi endpoint. The ROON soundstage was pancake flat vs the BDP/MPD standalone stream of Qobuz and RadioParadise @Redbook resolution. Then I Made a few improvements to the network and cabling but the big move was re-hosting the Core on SGC i5 running the Sonic Orbiter OS (Fedora Linux). Game changer now ROON sounds as good as the BDP/MPD streamer sans the most critical listening.

The Signature Rendu SE is based on the Sonic Orbiter OS.  So +1 for the Sonore.

mitch2 OP
4,011 posts
 

After looking a bit closer, the streamer market seems fluid with manufacturers revamping line-ups, frequently upgrading models, and increasing prices.  This may not be the time to put money into a newest model streamer.

In the Lumin line-up, the U2 at $5,000 would fit the range while the U1X at $9,200 seems to be the former U1 with a better outboard LPS.

Auralic continues to upgrade streamer models with the Aries G2.2 (that recently upgraded the G2.1) apparently being upgraded to a G3 at $10,899.

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