media players - servers - music management

thejck

I have tried Roon and really liked it mainly for its ability to manage my music library and its multi room setup.
In the past I have tried Kodi, foobar, plex, jriver
I have set all these up for bit perfect playback of lossless audio stored on a file server.

I am wondering if anyone has done any A-B testing between these different media players and determined the sound quality differences?

If you know what you are doing and have setup these different players for bit-perfect playback does the player make any difference at all?

I have used Kodi and Foobar with the wasapi audio driver and have been been able to tell the difference.

I am just trying to make a determination if roon is worth the cost from a sound quality perspective only

thejck

Also maybe I have been out of the game for a bit. What is the advantage to up sampling your lossless source audio. I always thought that bit-perfect was the de-facto line in the sand.
To clarify. up sampling PCM to DSD? is this snake oil or actually worth something if you can afford a DSD dac?
99% of my source is flac (pcm)

tonyb

I haven't been able to tell much difference when those formats are used on a computer. The different dacs used make a difference, and stand alone music streamers make a difference, but computer audio is slight to my ears while the accompanying dacs make the majority of the differences audio wise.

thejck

that is what i am trying to determine.
on the same dac. is roon vs a properly setup jriver vs foobar or kodi going to make a difference?

vcwatkins

When Roon first came out, I compared with Media Monkey. JRiver, LMS, and Bryston's app. Roon was at least as good, if not slightly better, than those. Some or most will probably disagree, but IMO infrastructure (wifi/ethernet, isolation, power supplies, server, hard drive, cables , damping) is a bigger factor than the player software (at least wrt the ones I was using - can't speak to Foobar, Kodi, Plex). Given the huge leap in UI, I stayed with Roon.

I usually do not upsample if the gear provides a choice. However, I do like the sound of the PSAudio Directstream Jr; so I guess I'm not solidly in any upsampling camp.

thejck

so no realy advantage in roon sq vs a properly setup bitperfect playback solution?

i would rather spend the money on a better dac and deal with the work cleaning up my library and give up the UI.d

gudnoyez

That's what a lot of people say about roon is that managing your library is where it shines. I use foobar sloppy interface and navigation at first but foobar and a good Dac is fine by me. I think your leaning in the right direction.

DaveHo

Briefly looked at Roon. They lost me with the yearly subscription fee. I must be missing something. I can navigate my own library and Tidal just fine with bubble, mconnect, or my streamers app.

thejck

anyone have any thoughts over the PCM and DSD debate? If i got this right. you can use a software player like jriver to convert your PCM flac files into a DSD output if your dac supports it?
Some people say its great and some not when doing a A-B comparison between the 2?

sbb2112

I have roon on 2 different systems and the office rig runs thru a musical fidelity m6s which upsamples to 768 unless you turn it off. The other system runs thru an oppo 203. I haven’t took the mf unit home to compare but the difference is noticeable. I am not sure that is the the difference but the mf setup seems less cluttered musically. Granted we are splitting hairs but it is there. So at arms length, the dac is the difference. The dsd really is noticeable. Both roon feeds come from a mac mini on a gigabit router. Most of the files are flac with some dsd in there

invalid

You mean you can pick out each instrument better, And it isnt just a wall of sound?

sbb2112

No, more of a level of clarity, quieter background. From what I have read, the upsampling moves artifacts into the higher frequency ranges that are above the audible range.