I must admit to not taking much notice of this when i switched from a Naim streamer to Linn a few years back. @sean86 mentioned that he thought that Roon sounded inferior to UPnP so i did try UPnP after installing Asset on my Macbook and copying some of my music files on my Roon Nucleus across to it.
I did find that UPnP did sound slightly ‘better’ but not enough to make a move away from Roon. Linn released the full RAAT implementation and i found that levelled the field between the two - good news as i rather like the Roon GUI and it’s aggregation of my streaming and local music.
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Fans of Roon point to its rich metadata handling and music information feature. It also integrates different end-points into a unified system, with now playing screen on suitable TV screens. Claims that sound quality is improved are as ever a subjective judgement.
Not sure whether this justifies the 180 usd annual sub, when most of the above can be matched & exceeded by the free open source Lyrion Music Server.
Both Roon & LMS require installation on a server PC. LMS is installable on Linux, iOS, Windows & Android devices. Roon runs on Linux or Windows.
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Hi James. Yes agreed. I spent no time really trying to compare the older Roon implementation with asset. I am not surprised however as it was not quite a clean implementation - I suspect the design choices and especially existing code in the catalyst era dac processor made it difficult to implement raat easily otherwise it would have been a full raat implementation from the start. Anyway they got there eventually. I hope naim manage the same quality implementation. As I have said elsewhere we are in trouble when different media servers sound different on our systems. - they are supposed to be asynchronous bit perfect streams. What I heard yesterday was no more or less than I expect! Bfn.
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Chuckle
You should have been around in the days with the Naim first gen streamers - there you could clearly hear differences between different servers. So much so I could tell which of my servers was playing based on the sound when using my NDX as a digital streamer feeding a Hugo mk1.
I analysed it objectively and saw some characteristics with the servers on the network that correlated to a sonic signature, (nothing to to do with ‘bit perfect’ payload sample data). I shared with Naim engineering when they were developing the new streamers and was advised that they had now worked around these considerations, and indeed on the current streamers I hear no reliable difference between servers.
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I can believe it simon! In my experience so much goes on and frequently does go wrong in the infrastructure and networking stacks and I have lost track of the number of technology systems I have reviewed where that is happening! 
The impacts can be far from predictable and obvious.
Thanks for your many contributions to the forum over the years - its great to have people around who can chime in with deep experience in that domain. It’s an area of which I have little deep experience relatively speaking and it’s great to get a light shined on that domain from time to time! Thanks 
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If you remember there was a SQ signature associated with different firmware versions.
At one point, there was multiple versions being evaluated to determine which was favoured. After much listening by the Beta evaluators and back at Naim HQ, we have the 4.x firmware versions.
This was an interesting learning process for all and optimizes the classic streamers for UPnP from a local library, which nicely supports the ‘off-board server’ approach for Roon, internet streaming services etc.
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Hi Simon, with the newer streamers there is still an audio signature with the firmware. ISTR when Phil H was at Naim him telling me how they had nearly perfected the firmware coding so as to effectively provide a subtle eq control as a consequence of the interaction of the noise shaping from the code execution on the analogue circuitry.
However yes, that nicely supports the idea, to my mind, of an off board DAC from the digital streamer.
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Yes NDX2 into nDAC makes perfect sense 
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It sure might do… the NDX into the nDAC/555PS was a fantastic combo. The nDAC has a more refined DAC than the NDX2… effectively setting the architecture for the NDS and ND555 that followed… each one providing progressive refinement.
I was rather fond of my nDAC.
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Hi Simon,
I am using a raspberry pi, Installed with the Logitech media server, to stream standard UPNP from Roon to my NDS. I preferred this sound to straight UPNP.
It might be worth a try?
Paul
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possibly - rather liking Roon with the beta firmware - but can’t say too much
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Roon Beta firmware with Naim or
Naim Beta firmware with Roon?
The latter
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Interesting, so improvements in the RAAT implementation?
I don’t think so, perhaps firmware because the way it executes just sounds better. It’s not necessarily limited to Roon. Anyway let’s wait and see.
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Tantalising!
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Don’t know if you got the answers you’re looking for. A lot of comments make sense, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that those comments pave the way for the perfect solution for your ears.
I chose Audirvãna over Roon. In my set up, and to my ears it just sounds better. It’s cheaper as well.
And I prefer it over other options. Does it sound better than the Naim native app, or Bubble UPnP? I don’t know if it’s really better where it comes to detail and separation. But to my ears it sounds ‘friendlier’, and not as harsh. The Qobuz app only supports Chromecast at the moment. And that is simply not as good.
My advice would be just to trial the several options. And choose what sounds best to you. The native Naim app is ofcourse the cheapest way, which may not be unimportant.
I agree with you on Audirvana vs. Roon.
I used Roon for a while and the sound quality went up and down depending on version.
Now I’m using the JPLAY for iOS app to control UPnP (Minim/SongKong on a Melco) and it makes UPnP the clear leader in sound quality. I havent tried JPLAY with Naims Uniti Core but it should work and it should improve the sound and it certainly improves the speed and quality of the user interface!!
So now we have three very nice software-systems for local music libraries. Just pick the one you like!
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I will trial JPlay for sure.
I tried Jplay and it was completely unstable. Freezes and other weird behaviours.
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