Roon v Audirvana with NDS pt.2

Streaming Audio
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I’m a late comer to this discussion and I’ll start by saying there is definitely a sonic difference between the two software solutions.

However, Audirvana is set up on a Mac Mini rather than a NAS, and Roon lives and works on a dedicated server with Housecurve corrections. So perhaps it’s not fair comparison.

So far I have listened to three tracks for comparison; in general, Roon is more restrained, whilst Audirvāna sounds bright.
Test track 1: a walk across the rooftops, The Blue Nile. At first I thought A was revealing more in the recording (Qobuz). After going back and forwards it turned out it was in my imagination.

Test track 2: the Lonesome Boatman, The Fureys. I was going to use the original Finbar version, but I went for the augmented version with sounds of the sea. A was more forward with the bass sounding a bit rough, R was perhaps restrained.

Test track 3: Plunkett, Michael O’Sullivan. This was where A’ brightness was just too much for me.

I’ll listen to more test tracks this evening. Recommendations welcome. I suspect I’ll try some classical: Sibelius, Bach and Byrd or Tallis, before returning to Sandy Denny’s Banks of the Nile.

Test track 4: Rhosymedre, Vaughan Williams. This organ piece is very atmospheric but via A there is too much reverberation.

Test track 5: March for Queen Mary’s funeral, Purcel. Via R there is much more atmosphere. A is very clinical.

Test track 6: Finlandia, Sibelius. Again for atmosphere R is my preferred source.

I conclude that the MacMini is holding Audirvāna back. I shall perhaps see if I can get it added to my music server. Alternatively, I may just be used to the way R presents music to my system.

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I have both Audirvana Coreserver and Roon installed on the same SGC sonicTransporter i7 (Gen3) which runs a tweaked Linux-server and Samsung PM893 SSD.

With local files and setup to be bitperfect (and audirvana using its trackbuffering scheme) I prefer Audirvana which to my ears give better timing and better separation between the instruments. This with mostly contemporary (webern, xenakis) and some wagner.

But as you say, it probably depend on which boxes you use. So go with your ears and your system, sounds like you prefer Roon. I could happily use any of them.

I use the Audirvana Coreserver which has no local user-interface (using the Remote for this) which sound better with a more powerful CPU rather than the NAS I tried at first. Also I dont use Naim streamer or DAC, I run through an EtherREGEN switch, Mano Ultra 3.5 streamer and a Holo NOS ladder-type DAC via I2S.

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If Roon is applying a degree of room correction then that is very possibly the reason for it sounding preferable. You could always switch off the correction and do a comparison, then you’d know which sounds better to you natively. I understand it is possible to add room correction to Audirvana in the form of an “Audio Unit plug-in”, though whether that os only using direct output to DAC or also when using as UPnP server I don’t know. There are discussions on Audiophilestyle, though I haven’t delved into it for some time. (i trialled Dirac Live with Audirvana and wasn’t enamoured, but that was getting on for 10 years ago.)

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