I don’t understand this statement. A storage device, e.g., Roon, that delivers bits to a dCS buffer, does not have a “sound quality.” It’s like a person saying they changed their hard drive and now everything sounds better.
If the bits are delivered accurately to the buffer–and the Ethernet protocol ensures that they are–the sound, as we perceive it, is created by the DSP of the DAC, and then through the DAC–>speaker chain.
Many on this forum use Roon to Bartok, Rossini and Vivaldi. If you prefer another server, as many do, that’s great and enjoy.
it’s just my finding- roon SQ is crap vs upnp in my setup. Apart from this, if one is not hearing a difference: try a dedicated audio NAS system vs roon. Even stereophile confiremed that when testing Innuos Statement.
Fun: changing the hard drive and now it sounds better…Melco demo’ed exactly that: Melco with their SSD vs Melco with standard SSD. The SQ improvements were quite obvious
add on: apart from that, in that demo they showed the SQ improvements of a better USB cable just for ripping (CD ripper to NAS)…that was awesome! After that demo I used a Tellurium Q Silver for ripping (had to rip my CD again of course…)
Ethernet cables: Correct. dCS is also on the record stating there is no difference in SQ with Ethernet cables, provided they are unshielded spec cables.
Also this discussion of comparison of upnp versus Roon is rather hilarious. Given they work in totally different ways.
upnp typically (at least on dCS and Naim) pulls the entire track immediately to local buffer within the player. You can check this easily – start playing a upnp track, and then pull out the ethernet cable half way through the track. Now if you think the ethernet cable changes the sound, ponder how this can be when it is unplugged from the player… unless it is mechanical coupling of vibration onto the motherboard via the socket, or ongoing RF interference injection – both of which would indicate weak design
Roon does real-time streaming of the data, because it has clock information required to keep multiple end-points in sync playing the same track. Which is obviously an entirely different data pattern.
The wrong type or out of spec Ethernet cabling can impact sound quality. CAT5e or unshielded CAT6 is what we need. These two isolate the host and client and prevent ground noise between devices.
Ethernet TCP is designed to deliver bit perfect data (and error correct if there is an issue) - our entire digital society would collapse if it didn’t!
I really do like the look and convenience of the Melco products.
I don’t want to bash roon here or some roon users- it’s just my suggestion to try different options and see if you get the best SQ! I use roon too - so no prob!
“I really do like the look and connivence of the Melco products.”
Connivence…
dictionary.cambridge.org defines connivance as “the act of conniving, especially by knowing that something bad is happening and allowing it to continue”
Was going to PM you to keep this on topic, but realised that it’s your post and it’s already veering off in other directions
Without digging too much into how the FiOS stuff works, the eeros create a mesh network rather than extend another wireless network. My system:
Fibre
|
eero Pro )))
|
Cisco CBS110-8T-D
|
GigaFoil v4
|
Rossini
))) other eeros that are in turn attached to other Ethernet devices, such as a NAS.
So while my system above has wires between the Fibre and the DAC, you could flip things around and have all that in another room — as if I swapped my NAS and my Rossini. I ran my system this way for a while, but wiring it up kept Roon’s interface speedier. No other differences I’ve noticed, and streaming is smooth. Works well for me
From the Innuos chap on the Stereophile review (all done over USB, importantly!):
“We don’t tweak the tonal balance or the amount of treble or bass.”
I don’t see how that would even be possible with a stream of 1s and 0s. You might as well end up changing the lyrics.
I can see that with USB connection into a dCS DAC the Innuos gear (or the Taiko Extreme gear) could improve things over USB straight out of something electrically noisy like a MacBook or a Roon Nucleus, but the main reason I don’t even consider USB anymore is that people with bigger brains than mine avoid the USB faffery by going ethernet instead. dCS are very, very clear about Ethernet with a to-spec, unshielded Ethernet cable being their input of choice.
How often do dCS exhibit with one of their DACs connected via USB? Or with a separate music server? I think that if either made their DACs sound better, they’d do so.
For those who hear a difference (and an improvement, of course — differences can go both ways!) over USB or with a specialised server: good for you. Better is better, whether it’s ACTUALLY better or not.
For me: I’ve tried and failed (only as high as an Innuos Zenith Mk3, admittedly) to improve how I feed my Rossini. It’s Ethernet with a fibre interruption (GigaFoil v4) and a $12 unshielded ethernet cable (Belden) for me. My money and time goes elsewhere now.
The dCS Rossini Apex is, as its name indicates, the peak. It’s unequivocally the best Rossini ever made and in my opinion it’s better than the pre-Apex Vivaldi.
if find it interesting that he said SQ wise Rossini Apex is better than Vivaldi pre-Apex. That was what sterophile mentioned in their review as well. Anyway, I’m really happy with the SQ of my Apex Rossini
