NDS & MinimServer vs. NDS & Roon

Streaming Audio
1

Hello, I normally stream FLAC files from a Mac using MinimServer. Sound quality is excellent but the interface is terrible! I recently started using Roon via a Sonore UPnP Bridge. Sound quality is noticeably worse compared to MinimServer but the interface is excellent.

Is there a way to use Roon but with the MinimServer sound quality? This has been covered in the forum before but I’m looking for non-technical suggestions and perhaps there’s a new hardware solution of some sort that’s become available.

I appreciate the NDS isn’t a Roon endpoint and the most obvious solution would be to change it. However, I’m happy with the NDS when using MinimServer, so I know it’s able to produce great sound.

2

I use an Innuos Zen mk3. with my nds. The Sense app is superb, no issues with SQ.

3

RooUPnP has much better SQ than the Sonore Bridge IME. Very noticeable IME when I moved to Roo from Sonore.
I run my Roo on a RasPi.

4

I use the Sonore bridge and have compared this to Asset, USB memory key directly into the NDS, RooUPNP and they all sound the same to me.

I’m wondering if your settings are not optiomal in Roon/Sonore, I ensure that I don’t send FLAC to the NDS as it’s well known that this sounds worse than WAV/PCM

Here are my settings.

image
image960×999 57.3 KB

image
image922×453 21.9 KB

image
image1428×770 44 KB

5

The only difference I had was that I had the output format set to WAV on the Sonore which was the recommended setting.

I now have FLAC enabled on Roon and RooUPnP converts to FLAC. This sounded much better than the Sonore comparing back-to-back.

6

Thanks for your posts. I was thinking about getting an Innuos Zen mk3 but eventually decided to use my Mac as a Roon server instead.

My settings were different to trickydickie’s and the sound quality has certainly improved since I’ve changed them. Now it’s the character of the sound, or the way that the music is presented (if that makes sense) that’s slightly different between Roon and MinimServer. I really appreciate the time you took providing me with those settings!

My son has a Raspberry Pi he’s not using so, if I get the time and have the patience, I’ll give that a try just to see how it affects the sound.

2 Likes
7

I too use SonoreUPnP Bridge (running on an UltraRendu with UltraCap LPS 1.0) with WAV output to my NDS used with Roon, and I too find the SQ is the same as Asset running on a RPi2, with the output transcoded to WAV output.
I also have the native LMS2UPNP code running on the RPi2 and this doesn’t have the WAV output and the SQ is reduced (but it serves a redundant backup).

I haven’t tried RooUPNP, however I believe this is also based on the LMS2UPNP code.
I also haven’t tried MinimServer, as I understood that the SQ was equivalent to Asset UPnP server.

Simon

8

This topic was automatically closed 60 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.