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Amarra, Roon, Audirvana, or something else?

Amarra, Roon, Audirvana or something else?


  • Total voters
    30
Isn’t Roon too expensive though?

Does it worth its money?

Yes it's expensive and I think it's worth the money, but can understand if other people think it's not. There's a free trial if anyone's unsure - and it doesn't do anything to the music files such as change their location.
 
Yes but how about the sound? Is the sound as good as others? I tried the Roon trial but I think Amarra is better when it comes to quality of sound but not as good in tech features..
 
I would be up for changing to Roon, but my CA 851N isn't Roon Ready sadly, and its a great DAC and Streamer, trying to beat it with a Roon ready device would end up costing a fortune. So maybe when it breaks....

Not everything has to be Roon ready. If you use the CA851N as a Dac connected to a Roon Core on something else, I am pretty sure it will happily work. My Cambridge Audio DAC100 was never listed as Roon ready - Roon does not care.
 
Isn’t Roon too expensive though?

Does it worth its money?

For me it is expensive and I was trying for 2 weeks to find a cheaper but similar solution, which will give me the nice interface/remote/integration, and I failed to do so.In the mean time I realized that in the last 2 weeks I listened to a lot more music, found tons of new stuff that I like, while using a software that finally looks like it is developed in the 21st century.Please keep in mind that a big part of this "experience" is the integration with Tidal/Qobuz.

Then I used @AndyU 's logic which I remember reading on some threads regarding Roon/Qobuz - is it to much to pay less then 1 EUR (roughly) per day for something which is bringing so much joy to me?

So, as I said, for me it's expensive, but totally worth it in the end.Let's see if I will still think like this after the 1st year of subscription ends.
 
I would be up for changing to Roon, but my CA 851N isn't Roon Ready sadly, and its a great DAC and Streamer, trying to beat it with a Roon ready device would end up costing a fortune. So maybe when it breaks....

IIRC your amp has a USB DAC? If so you don’t need the CA at all. You could use the same setup as I do for roon (even though my amp has a built in UPNP streamer). QNAP NAS with roon, then USB out.. job done and 1 less box - a win win.

roon should work on any generic USB 2 audio device. My amp isn’t roon ready but it works perfectly via USB
 
I was very reluctant to try Roon.

Now I have tried it, I do not want to go without it... at around 425€ the plunge appears steep but over the lifetime of the subscription it is actually quite cheap.

Its interface is great with pop, rock folk etc and brilliant with classical.

As for sound, it is at least equal to dCS's own software on my Bartok and so much more pleasant to use.


And I have yet to combine it with Qobuz or Tidal...
 
Not everything has to be Roon ready. If you use the CA851N as a Dac connected to a Roon Core on something else, I am pretty sure it will happily work. My Cambridge Audio DAC100 was never listed as Roon ready - Roon does not care.

More boxes though...

IIRC your amp has a USB DAC? If so you don’t need the CA at all. You could use the same setup as I do for roon (even though my amp has a built in UPNP streamer). QNAP NAS with roon, then USB out.. job done and 1 less box - a win win.

roon should work on any generic USB 2 audio device. My amp isn’t roon ready but it works perfectly via USB

I like the 851N as a DAC. It beats the Pathos HiDac and most others I've tried.

Maybe I could use the QNAP into the 851N, I'll investigate.
 
Spec requirements for a QNAP roon server:

QNAP TS-251+8GB RAM & 2x1TB Sandisk ultra II SSDs = c£600 this will perform as NAS, roonserver & rooncore all-in-one box. If you were to find the USB on the Pathos' DAC to be equal to the CA when using the QNAP you've got the simplest/cleanest system build i can think of.
 
Yes but how about the sound? Is the sound as good as others.
I think Roon does sound better. Better than Audirvana & better than Amarra.
However, that’s my ears in my system. The DSP options are superb. Very slick & very user-friendly.
If I was only using locally stored music on a NAS etc & not also using a streaming service, then the benefits of Roon are lessened.
However, for me, sound quality-wise and user interface, Roon is a big step up from the others I’ve dabbled with.
 
Roon is the best software I have used, and it’s EQ facility can bring huge improvements in SQ.
Keith

Put the equalisation facility to one side.

Do you think that given the same input, Roon sounds better than (eg) LMS?

Are there other aspects of Roon which make it special? For example, search. Is the UI so much better than, f.e., Squeezepad?

Depending on how you answer I may give it a trial when I get back to London.
 
Spec requirements for a QNAP roon server:

QNAP TS-251+8GB RAM & 2x1TB Sandisk ultra II SSDs = c£600 this will perform as NAS, roonserver & rooncore all-in-one box. If you were to find the USB on the Pathos' DAC to be equal to the CA when using the QNAP you've got the simplest/cleanest system build i can think of.

The Pathos DAC isn't equal, most DACS i've tried arent equal :)

...the 851N has a USB In, so could this work as you say Raj?
 
The review you link too is BS. My NAS scans all 1500+ albums in just a few hours, and the first scan (which allows you to play all albums) is ready in minutes.
 
In Roon, can I make a single playlist containing tracks from my own music server, tracks from Qobuz and tracks from Spotify and tracks from YouTube all mixed up?

Roon doesn't support Spotify or YouTube, so no. Your own music and Qobuz/Tidal yes, it can be done easily.
 
The review you link too is BS. My NAS scans all 1500+ albums in just a few hours, and the first scan (which allows you to play all albums) is ready in minutes.

The user also says that you can't filter by file type (MP3, FLAC, ALAC etc). You can do this very easily using the Focus function.
 


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