It’s great to witness progress happening at Antipodes, and I’m truly grateful for the forward-thinking approach in future-proofing Squeeze as I just learned. This all sounds (and hopefully looks) incredibly promising.
Unarchived 1 hour ago - In preparation for the release of AMSv5.
‘’ We continue to use Squeeze player as embedded default player ‘’ (video)
“Squeeze gets a new Skin which greatly enhances the user experience, we have enabled UPnP on Squeeze Server to enable the use of MPD as a player app combined with Squeeze Server, added as a pre-set.”
(…)
Updated Squeezelite 1.9.9
Improved stable connection with Squeezelite client
Squeezebox server fixes
Updated Logitech Media Server version 8.3.1
Updated Skin for Logitech Media Server (Material Skin)
(…)
No worries, plenty more good stuff to help you utilize your Antipodes however you please:
‘’ All Apps except for Roon (Roon updates Roon) are receiving major version updates, the biggest changes will come in Squeeze and HQPlayer.
Squeeze gets a new Skin which greatly enhances the user experience, we have enabled UPnP on Squeeze Server to enable the use of MPD as a player app combined with Squeeze Server, added as a pre-set.
perhaps. but I don’t believe so. it’s not the interface that causes the SQ issues. The interface just sits there and does nothing until a user interacts with it. It’s all the background activity in roon that seems to interfere. I believe its possible to have a great interface and great SQ - just nobody has delivered it yet
It doesn’t matter how smart you spend your dollars or how many dollars you spend. There is no solution on the market right now that gives me (and others) what we want which is SQ on a par with Squeeze and an interface on a par with Roon. Some of us have to sacrifice either SQ or user experience and I’m not prepared to sacrifice either. So until a solution becomes available I will keep jumping between roon and squeeze and complaining about both
Maybe we can now hope to see sound quality prioritized by Roon. Per their founders:
“At Harman, we’ve been given a mandate to reconnect with our core audience. These are the curators who are passionate about shaping their music collections, the audiophiles who appreciate the nuances of high-performance audio equipment, and the genre experts who depend on Roon to expand their knowledge of music. “
Well if you are a Tidal fan you get something- Right on the heels of the Antipodes AMS5 update, this morning Roon updated to include Tidal Max, or their high-res recordings, so now there are plenty of Tidal 24/192 albums to compete with Qobuz.
*As many of you know, TIDAL introduced its new flagship Max quality tier in the summer of 2023. TIDAL rolled out support for up to 24bit/192 kHz high-quality FLAC streaming to their native apps first, with integration for third-party app partners, like Roon, projected for late 2023.
Many of you have been quite excited to see TIDAL Max become available in Roon, and we’re pleased to announce that the day has arrived with this release! Roon now provides access to the same high-quality content offered by TIDAL’s native applications but with all the added features you love about Roon. If you’re a TIDAL HiFi Plus tier subscriber, you’ll receive the same high-quality streaming content through Roon that was previously exclusive to TIDAL apps.
Roon has worked closely with TIDAL during integration to ensure parity with their treatment of Max quality content - providing a seamless experience and streaming format consistency across the two platforms."
Today, it seems you can’t have both optimal sound quality and an elaborate graphical interface simultaneously. If you ask yourself whether you’d prefer to watch your music or simply listen to it, the choice becomes clearer. Regardless of the software you choose, achieving optimal performance, such as playing local music from a SSD and minimizing network interference, is feasible for obtaining the best sound quality; simply avoid networks and streaming (services)
In the above Roon announcement, they highlighted change of direction by letting go of the internet connectivity requirement and improved performance allowing audiophiles to enjoy their music collections offline and a focus on enhancing features related to personal music libraries rather than non-library streaming content. Additionally, there is no denying that Antipodes just has successfully improved the Squeeze GUI through a recent operating system upgrade, potentially enhancing sound quality as well. To me these promises and concrete advancements suggest a promising future for both sound quality and user experience that you may not have fully recognized. It takes some patience though.
It’s great to have choices/options I’m an avid user of Roon when streaming around my home using multiple different sonos speakers (I’m no sonic snob) for casual &/or background listening. On my main rig ( dac, preamp. Amp & speakers all on the same level/class as my K50) i hear roon clearly holding back what my set up is truly capable of delivering. Everything just sounds more congested. My set up is optmised for delivery of a very open, transpatent and ultimately very natural sound (my own personal preference), On my head phone set up (different again) i have also used roon to “tame” a hot treble on one of the lesser amp/dac configurations i’ve had pass through. So no definitive or right or wrong answer here. For me the only single upside of Squeeze’s clunky GUI is that is that i end up listening more to full albums from start to finish, immersing myself in the music rather than flitting around from one song to next &/or distracted by hunting for the next best thing to listen which i find myself doing almost compulsively when i use roon. If there is such a thing as sonic adhd, then roon is it🙈 So sonics & gear aside, many other different factors to take into account.
Exactly, Tidal already provides the option for pre-buffering individual tracks and entire albums, eliminating the need for a constant server connection (such as Roon always has) during playback. Local files from SSD (Antipodes still recommends Samsung PM893 2.5" SATA - Dec. '23) offer the highest quality sound in Antipodes servers, despite efforts to minimize network interference, which can require significant expertise to optimize your server, your setup and consider all other devices connected to or present within your system. Thus, there’s potential elevated SQ with Tidal if Roon is willing to forego the reliance on an internet connection. It’s crucial to consider network interference within your system as well.
It depends on the reasons behind your dislike. If you’re generally against mergers, that’s one consideration. However, a subscription model like (Harman)/Roon/TidalMAX seems inevitable, though they might also provide an audiophile option. If it enhances sound quality, why not consider it? And remember, you can always substitute Tidal with Qobuz if you prefer.
Do you feel confident about this?? Why is Tidal’s name explicitly mentioned and not other streaming services??? Will all information from Roon’s development be shared correctly with other platforms??? I don’t like the idea of monopoly.
Feb 14 “So, how does the K22 sound with Squeeze? I won’t sugar-coat it; Squeeze sounds a lot better to me than Roon, certainly on Antipodes servers. Playing the same tracks as before, there is a new level of tightness, crispness, articulation, and overall precision to the sound. It’s a leaner presentation, for sure, but the server simply refuses ever to sound dry or anemic. The transparency and precision are definitely increased, but even so, I still hear the richness, saturation, and flow that characterize the server.”
“If you want to extract the last ounce of audiophile performance from the server, it is recommended to use it with Squeeze or UPnP.”
I agree with him on Squeeze, but this perplexes me:
“With JPLAY, the K22 sounds similar to Squeeze but with further increased precision and transparency.”
But he concludes on the right note:
“Ultimately, no matter your personal preferences, the beauty of the Antipodes concept is that it allows every format under the sun to be used, just as the listener prefers. Oh, and importantly, every app works absolutely flawlessly!”
I agree, I was taken back with that comment too, he did add Jplay was “less smooth” than Squeeze, but makes me want to try Jplay, as I haven’t yet. Have you? do you have any context to this comment?
The JPlay/MinimServer experience is not something I would want to live with.
I have a number of devices that I might be using to control music playback. At present, it’s an iPad, but a MacBook Pro and an iPhone are on the table next to me. Last night it was my work laptop, a Lenovo model. Squeeze and Roon provide me the same view of my music library and playback queue. With JPlay, one must initiate a scan on every device to get it to pick up new music and it’s oblivious to the playback queue that was populated by another device. Also MinimSever has no automatic scan capability to the best of my knowledge. So every time I added music, I needed to scan MinimServer, then when it finished, initiate a scan on my iPhone and iPad. Unacceptable to have this in 2024.
Squeeze can automatically scan. Once a scan completes, every single device is up to date. Also Squeeze easily allowed me to go right to the newly added music. I pinned that to the first screen so it was a single click to get there. JPlay required multiple clicks to get to a view showing the newest additions.
The icon on the menu at the top right of JPlay is referred to by UI designers as a hamburger. This is a common UI element on many mobile apps. JPlay made me have to use it too often. In my opinion, it makes a very poor use of available space so one has to bounce around to get to stuff that’s tucked away. I think Material makes the best use of available space. So simple to navigate. Roon has a hamburger too - and it seems that JPlay tried to borrow their design. Roon pulls it off much better because much more can be accomplished without having to open the menu.
As far as the sound quality, JPlay/MPD/MinimServer frustrated me too. I couldn’t listen to it because it smeared things too badly. That was a complete dealbreaker to me so I found little point in trying to identify any strengths. Others might be able to tolerate smearing. I believe that is true of the author of that review. I think everyone needs to make their own decisions on what’s best.
I hope the bespoke app that Antipodes eventually releases to control music playback takes the best of Material and avoids the hamburger-dependency kind of UI featured on
I have complete faith in Christiaan’s observations, and I’ve noticed and have let him know that lately he’s been approaching his writing more from the perspective of a Roon user. It’s not because he lacks knowledge or prefers Squeeze less; it seems to be a matter of convenience. However, his latest review truly highlights the strengths of Squeeze + Squeeze, which is also a testament to the efforts Antipodes has been making to propel Squeeze in the right direction.
Unarchived 1 hour ago - In preparation for the release of AMSv5.
