I’m just in the beginning of this audible puzzle but will post again when I have more listening time. It certainly isn’t bits are bits and they all sound the same BS. So to me a lot is going on under the table that nobody talks about. Does that mean it’s better or just different… Audible preference should be the prevailing factor. I realize that HQplayer has various filters and all have some impact but I could never get back to JRiver with any setting I used. HQplayer audio, to me, becomes more restrictive and slightly muted compared to JRiver or Audirvana.
To a trained listener it would be impossible not to notice. Mostly with spacial characteristics and with some recordings a difference with mid bass that is very distinctive. But when Roon is brought into play there is a distinctive sound difference. There is very little if anything to distinguish audibly between the two when a Dac is setup identically with both. JRiver and Audirvana are for sure kissing cousins. So that I can elaborate a little I have been a headphone listener for decades from electrostatics to planar but it’s not the headphones that matter but rather being able to distinguish differences or nuances. It is astounding to me that there are differences between all of the players with Roon and HQPlayer being the outliers. I’ve been a Jriver user for eons but decided to try Audirvana and Roon and… HQPlayer.
AUDIRVANA VS AUDIRVANA PLUS MAC
I’ve run Roon headless on a few different Mac mini’s over the last 5 or 6 years too so I’ve got a multitude of experience with it.Īnyway this has been my experience between the two. No issues, not even with Roon 1.8 that got some hate on the interwebz. My home setup is an i8 Rock Nuc in an Akasa Turing Case. I went to try the new AV Studio last week but it will not open on my M1 Mac Mini, regular AV does fine just not the Studio version hence I’m building a Roon Rock NUC. I went through troubleshooting like an IBM IT Support Tech telling someone to plug in the damn computer to no avail if you know the joke.
That has never been my experience between the two, but I did take the time to read and understand Roon and all of its settings/requirements early on which are crucial to best performance.ĪV has always had a bit of a crackle or static out of both Mac Mini i7 w/64gb of Ram and even a new M1 with 16gb of Ram playing into a myriad of $1K dacs. I have to say I was surprised to read some of the early comments in this thread that AV sounded better to folks than Roon. I’m now building a Rock NUC to run Roon at my office for a few users. I’ve been using Roon since pretty close to its launch in a number of configurations (whole home and single station at office), for the past two years it’s been exclusively whole home and Audirvana at my office.