Roon Endpoint Streamers - Direct Comparisons between Current Offerings?

You don’t need to start with expensive high end streamer options to get top notch sound with Roon. I do it with many Roon endpoints ranging in cost to $0 on existing computers, tablets, smartphones to a newer $500 streamer to another that cost way more. THEY ALL SOUND REALLY REALLY GOOD, no obvious flaws!!! Toss in smart use of Roon DSP and you can have it all on most any reputable Roon endpoint.

I run Roon on at least 6 or 7 different devices in my house as needed and RoonArc remotely. WHich Roon is best? I have no clue. It’s the rest of teh system Roon is running on at the moment that really matters. Maybe some day I will attempt some kind of unbiased direct a/b comparison but frankly I really don’t care. IT’s not rocket science! Start with a computer tablet or smart phone for not much. Add to that from there as needed. I’m sure the reliable high end Roon devices sound great as well. They better considering the systems they are most likely running on.

The fact that Roon runs on all these different endpoints from commercial computer up to high end streamers is one of its most valuable features....no hardware lock-in!!!  The others are sound quality, User experience and extremely powerful and flexible DSP.  Roon is perhaps the single best investment a 21th century audiophile and music lover can make IMHO.

So I am a big Roon fan, eh?

Cheers!

There are many options in Roon that determine how it sounds. Not all are categorized under DSP (which is optional to use).

My point is, if one really must, before comparing Roons, one better have a good handle on all the ways how you configure Roon that can affect the sound, in order to be able to truly compare apples/apples.

Roon is very powerful and flexible in regards to how the user can impact the resulting sound depending on settings. It can be a little overwhelming frankly at first. So lots of ways to use or abuse Roon merely based on what settings are in play. Start with default settings and tweak from there as desired.

Personally I would not worry about what other Roons sound like until I have used teh one I have to full potential for best results.

Learning and understanding what all those optional settings actually do and which might help versus hurt may seem like a somewhat daunting task, but one that is most worthwhile mastering.

It can also be fun and educational just changing settings one at a time and comparing. You can always reverse each step along the way as desired.

Doing room correction correctly with DSP alone is a total game changer in many cases, but doing it right takes some learning, time and effort.

I’d recommend best practice of first adjust for the room (often good sound public enemy #1) , then you can layer other filters on top of that to tweak the sound as desired to personal preferences. Roon users have documented how to do this using Room EQ Wizard freeware. Just google search Roon room correction

My experiences for optimizing Roon Sound:

-I am a lifetime Roon subscriber for some time and love the features.

-avoid all DSP as much as possible as to me it adds noise.  You don't hear noise     per say, but it destroys the soundstage and ambiance.

-for critical listening only run one Roon endpoint at a time.  This is easily heard if you turn other endpoints on and off while critically listening.

-for the above reason, I have moved away from having 4 Roon endpoints in my home.  Now my bedroom and master bathroom (hardly critical areas) are now the new Sonos ERA 300 speakers which are really good.  They are extremely stable and sound just fine in my bathroom and bedroom. It is easy to add playlists from Qobuz onto your Sonos system.  The Sonos ARC is also excellent, better than my Marantz AVR with a passive soundbar.

-I am not saying Roon sounds better than Innuos Sense or Aurender Conductor.  But the features, ease of use and music discovery of Roon are better and it still can sound amazing.

-I would not buy a high end streamer that is not Roon Certified as an endpoint. (come on Aurender!!!).

-the main place I NEEDED DSP was the master bathroom.  the Sonos ERA 300 easily adjusts its frequency response to the glass and tile environment.

We carry all (3) brands and happy to answer any questions on how these sound and operate. The Antipodes is a special unit! I think it depends on preferences using Roon vs. Conductor app as well. 

-avoid all DSP as much as possible as to me it adds noise. You don’t hear noise per say, but it destroys the soundstage and ambiance.

My findings do not support this assertion. I have custom DSP settings for 4 pair of headphones and 4 rooms and the results are all positive..

There are many ways to use DSP, but you have to do it right to reap the benefits.

DSP can easily make things worse done wrong.

The devil is always in the detail.

-for critical listening only run one Roon endpoint at a time. This is easily heard if you turn other endpoints on and off while critically listening.

I only run 1 at a time for critical listening and only multiple at once on a few occasions for background music. I could see where sound quality might be lowered by design if needed because load on Roon is higher if streaming to a group of multiple devices concurrently, especially in case of high res streaming, but have never attempted a comparison. I do suspect even if so, the differences might only be clearly heard in a "higher end" system.

In any case, another nice feature of Roon is it shows you each step along the digital processing pipeline from source to end, so any difference should show there. I’ll give it a shot next time I stream to a group versus single device and see.