After several months of essentially abandoning Roon in favor of Squeeze I thought I’d revisit Roon for a serious listen since it’s been about 6 months since acquisition. I did not want to presume that Harman would be sitting on their hands , so….
Suffice to say I’m more than a little surprised to hear that (unless I’m imagining what I’m hearing ) Roon has delivered SIGNIFICANT improvement in SQ. In fact, Roon/Roon sounds nearly as good if not equal to Squeeze imo. Squeeze w Roon Server to my ears is virtually indistinguishable from Squeeze. Given the superior interface of Roon , I might just be taking more advantage of my lifetime subscription going forward. In my experience, the huge gap between Roon and Squeeze has narrowed considerably. Anyone else in the community with the same experience ? I’m curious to get members’ feedback.
Honestly I can’t imagine how they’d pull off the feat of enabling playback of local files without internet. I’m simply happy that for the most part I feel life we’ve got the best of all worlds now - great Squeeze-like SQ with the unparalleled music discovery and interface of Roon - not to mention the improvements coming by way of Antipodes and their unequalled support for Squeeze.
I was also thinking Roon/Squeeze was sounding very good yesterday. Hadn’t tried in a few weeks. As good as all Squeeze? Can’t say but seems like a real improvement.
I envision a scenario where Roon buffers a local track or album, and then the Ethernet port is (virtually) disconnected for the duration of playback. This means you won’t be able to use Roon library functions or perform any actions that require an Ethernet connection while listening. This functionality is already available in some audio players like Euphony Stylus, and JCAT (JPLAY) exploits this in a certain way. A true purist would even need to forgo track advancement monitoring during this time.
To push it even further, some users have mentioned an audible benefit when connected to audiophile switches like the Innuos PhoenixNET. You probably do not want to sacrifice that, so the benefit has to outweigh what you already had in place.
Roon has removed the need for a continuous internet connection a couple months ago. It has also brought folder browsing which many requested. Sound…. it has definitely improved to my ears. I now only use Squeeze for my pggb files.
Since I discovered Squeeze I confess I’ve not explored some of the new Roon features like “folder browsing.” I couldn’t see the value of it since everything is so well organized as it is. Apparently I may be missing something. Will perhaps revisit.
Honestly I get to a point where I observe the “law of diminishing returns.” If a project involves a lot of work and yields a nominal return I’d just as soon pass and do something else!
That was my thinking exactly! Past several months my routine was to switch to Roon every Friday since that’s when Qobuz releases new titles. So easiest way for me to discover new content. But yesterday I decided to give it a fresh listen since I had heard Harman had made many changes since acquisition. I was bowled over. IMO it is FAR better than, say 6 months ago, and virtually equal to Squeeze in most regards but of course with its vastly superior user experience, And I have come to appreciate once again how great it is to so easily discover new content ASIDE from new releases. Roon remains with peer in terms of music discovery and connecting you to the artist. I find that Roon/Squeeze is nominally better than Roon ONLY and VERY close to Squeeze - close enough that for the most part there seems little need for me to switch to the Squeeze server. Maybe over the weekend I will do some quick A/B comparisons but curious to know what the rest of you find.
And/or the question, do you have to/can you set this, whether you want it or not? I haven’t found any setting options for this?! Do you have to activate this function in advance if you want offline operation?
I have tried the Roon only, squeeze only, Roon server/squeeze player option. I just end up back with Roon server player. It sounds great to me, also the Roon/squeeze option would not play gapless, a deal breaker for me.
I’m afraid I cannot be more helpful here as I have mo experience whatsoever in listening to Roon when NOT online. I am always online in my home and never bothered with ARC. Sorry! Perhaps other users may help here…
Very odd because using Roon /Squeeze it does play gapless for me. Odd that we should experience this setting differently! Like Pete Townshend said many years ago “I Can’t Explain. ”
Yes, incrementally some updates have provided great SQ benefits than others, but particularly the last couple have been big steps, and compared to a few months ago its quite a significant improvement.
My Devialet endpoint doesnt support Squeeze or NAA but its Devialet AIR is really quite good (previously better than roon reasy) however roon ready has now surpassed AIR.
Odd your endpoint would not support Squeeze as I presume that is controlled by the server, Antipodes. In any case after a lot of serious listening the past day I have concluded that Squeeze still holds an edge, albeit a smaller one. It is still, IMO the best there is in SQ ( that I have heard), though Roon is awfully close now .
I gather Squeeze is like RAAT, HQPlayer and for that matter AIR, in that software is needed in both the server and player to communicate with one another.
I am curious if people now consider Roon to be superior to HQ Player.
I wouldn’t know the answer to the question you pose aside from the fact that I do know that people who are into HQ player are usually VERY committed to it and consider it “the best.” It requires more work to it up and running with it for sure - more so than Roon or Squeeze.
After my post I went back and did some hard core listening comparing Roon, Roon/Squeeze to Squeeze/Squeeze. My view now is that Squeeze still holds a very slight edge over Roon and the Roon+Squeeze emulator. A buddy of mine was over today and he favored Roon/Squeeze to Squeeze in a blind “tasting.” Initially. But after going back and forth he concluded that indeed, Squeeze was nominally better sounding. He’s not an audiophile but in his own words he described Squeeze as “clearer.” I would characterize Squeeze as “punchier,” a bit more dynamic with nominally better imaging. It is SO close, and close in a way it was not 6 months ago. My view now is that the average person would not be able to detect a difference. Just my opinion.
