Compared various times:
No difference notable for me
Roon provides a magnificent user experience
Iver
It can be detrimental in the context of the Linn streamer. Now considering that you start with CD quality content–16bit, so If you play that without volume leveling turned on, there are the 16 bits of meaningful data there that will be sent down to your DAC.
Now, say we turn on volume leveling and do a big adjustment like -18dB, so three bits. After the adjustment, we have a signal that has zeroes in the most significant three bits, and the signal has moved down and it is in 4-19 instead of 1-16 like before. Roon will up 16 bit to 64 bit to do calculation and down to 24 bit or 32 bit before sending the data to your DAC.
So therein a problem with the Linn streamer or any DAC that can only take 24 bit when you play 24bit source material through volume leveling.
Yes, good summary and all correct Though one thing: volume leveling usually is max. +/- 6 dB, most often less. And for 24-bit DACs and 24-bit material, one should probably keep in mind that no DAC today can work with the full 24-bits, 2 of them are typically noise in any case
a digital level control is a multiplication and always to a larger accumulator. whenconverting down to, say, 24-bit after this you add a small amount of random data (white noise) to mask the effect of truncation whis may be audible (depends) even with a 24-bit destination (at 24 the noise itsekf is inaudible),
and beyond 20-21 bits the natural analog circuit noise will mask anything anyway.
I am not sure if this is true? Maybe you are right?
20-bit resolution is 120 dB dynamic range, beyond this the LSB is lost in the noise floor, certainly bits beyond 22. There’s a good discussion here:
It’s a choice, but probably not a bad one
I believe there are differences. No network expert but believe that it is at least three factors in play here (excluding any use of dsp etc.).
First the “carrier” raat vs upnp, I think there might be small differences here, at least I think the built in my Synology and minim sounded slightly different (possibly also slightly file format dependent) so why not raat vs upnp?
Second, the hardware, I now use a nuc w. Linear PS as roon core and believe the LPS bring a nice uplift in sound.
Third network and placement of music server in the network, w. Upnp I definitely preferred having the nas on the same dedicated switch just before the streamer vs further away. This was also true with the nuc and roon. However, right now I have the nuc by the router and first switch all connected to the same LPS (which have three dc outlets), I have not switched back to compare, but believe I enjoy streamed music more after the move. Local is still good! Have not used the Naim app for upnp streaming in many months but roon is now well on par with the Naim app for Qobuz streaming in my system.
I just came across ASR measurements of the Roon volume control in case you are interested:
Hoping this link is ok to post. If it gets removed, google for audiosciencereview whitepaper roon dsp volume measurements.
Roon volume leveling does actually impact the SQ of the Linn Klimax DSM/3! I listened it with on and off for a long time to make sure that I did not make any premature judgement, but I had to turn if off in the end because I felt that it made the music slightly duller, less dynamic, and weaker top-end attacks on some passages.
I don’t know how. You did compensate for the fact that it reduces volume for most tracks?
Yes, but I mean that the target volume level imposed by leveling means that the volume will be reduced for most albums because their default loudness is higher than the target volume. (Some, but usually fewer, albums will have increased volume by leveling because they were mastered with lower volume). You can see this in the signal path:
So, if you toggle the leveling on and off, you must compensate for this by upping the volume manually when the leveling is enabled. Else, it will sound worse simply because the volume is lower.
Thanks @Suedkiez, I know that, but for now I have decided turn if off, because different levels from each track does not cause too discomfort if I listen at some moderate level.
I just wanted to make sure because it is often forgotten Well if it makes a difference for you, you’ll have to do without. Not a huge problem anyway
If you use album level, as you should, and not track level, the levels between the tracks of an album are still different with leveling, anyway. Just sayin’
I was over on what’s best forum and they were discussing Roon versus a new player that is coming out exclusively for Taiko extreme server users.
One member said Roon users should delete the DSP filters completely for better sound. The few members that actually did it seemed to agree that it sounds better.
If you click on DSP, you have the option to disable them, but this takes it further, you can actually delete them. I have done this myself now, but have not had enough time to form an opinion.
Has anyone heard of, or tried this ?
They were saying the latest Roon releases were sonically a downgrade from older versions, but doing this is a big plus.
You can add the filters again if you want, so no harm trying…I am😀
What DSP filters are you on about here. If DSP isn’t active on your stream it won’t affect anything if mean removing them from the DSP tree if inactive that is a load of crock, makes no difference from being disabled or removing them as it’s not processing anything. Last version of Roon had a big memory leak they just fixed. Didn’t affect sq to me at all but it did make it inoperable at times. Taiko accused Roon of degrading sound once when 1.8 came out and they got burned by Rooms CEO , it ended up being an update Taiko had done and nothing to do with Roon.
Just repeating what I read, no need to cut my head off. Click the little speaker on the bottom right, delete them individually.
I’d only delete unwanted filters for tidiness.
This suggestion is akin to having Naim Jazz as a radio favourite improves SQ on the Naim App.