"All bits are perfect but some bits are more perfect than others." - George Orwell
I am still working through my Roon vs. MPD listening observations... I took some time out to transcode my MPD library back to FLAC, and to update all of the multi-disc albums with the "right" set of tags to be completely compatible with Manic Moose.
It's been fascinating to read the many threads on the Roon community asking about sound quality - all of them from the point of view that something is amiss, but they can't put their finger on exactly what the issue is. Many comments that mirror the above about flat, lifeless sound, etc.
Perfect! Using it like that from now on. Thanks.
Yes, I only found out about Roon's community forums a few days and have just been extensively reading the ones concerned with the SQ, and a lot of them use HQplayer and JRiver, few Audirvana Plus and Amarra. Some don't like Roon's SQ in comparison to others. Other people find Roon to be better than their previous players. A bunch of them find them "close enough" to their previous players. A very few select can tell no difference...The important conclusion IMO being Roon still sounds different from other software and hardware players, for better or worse. I'm talking about a group of 100+ people here.
I mentioned this to Roon in the past year and they said the same thing about the "bit perfect stream" when I compared it against Audirvana Plus, which is also bit-perfect. They said it should not be happening and that the audio stream is perfect, and there should be no difference in sound. Since then, they started using Exclusive Mode and a few others optimizations that were not previously available in Roon...so going by their own reasoning...why bother??? Wasn't it already bit perfect and thus perfect?
Roon (same goes for Bryston) does seem very active and hospitable on their forums and always willing to respond, so I don't know if they genuinely cannot replicate the "problem" or hear the sound difference that so many of use are experiencing on plethora of system combinations, or they know about it, but are working on it.
Reading some of the material from the early beta threads over there, one of their representatives said:
As for Bryston's SQ: My understanding is that that issue has been resolved internally within Bryston. They did not contact us for technical help on this point, so we never learned the details. I know that the SQ stuff was the subject of a rumor mill, but I wouldn't read into it too much. All it says to me is that a product was made available to the public before it was ready. I don't think it really provides insight into what is going on within Bryston or within Roon.Not trying to start something, but just got me curious. I will say that I do have faith in both Roon and Bryston to continue to listen to their customers and try to see if anything can be done about it. I know manufacturers strongly avoid to negatively comment on other companies when collaborating or in general, but I would love to hear if Bryston thinks MPD sounds the same as Roon or not when playing the same file through a Bryston BDP-1/2. Not whether it's bit perfect or not and all that, but their own subjective audio interpretations.
Again not concerned with whether MPD or Roon sounds better, but simply whether they (Roon or Bryston) actually can or cannot hear the difference. Not much else to say. I have repeated myself a few times already.
