Continuing the discussion from Your Next Upgrade? (Part 1) - #10093 by Stier2704.
Previous discussions:
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Preamp… My plan (in the very near future) is to upgrade from my Quad Artera Pre, which is a darn fine preamp in its own right.
However, the preamp that I plan on purchasing soon is considerably better… Very considerably better.
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The TEG-S51SFP is an inexpensive entry-level solution. With the Teradac 212 there is the option of ordering it with a better clock and integrating a linear power supply. The TEG is only supplied with a plug-in power supply. Seen in this way, the Teradac with the equipment is still cheap. Greetings Andrew
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I was waiting for the Perfectwave Phono PreAmp but as there is absolutely no sign of that since Darren moved on, I’m sticking with my Stella as it is a superb Phonostage which I’m actually very happy with especially since I’ve put some IsoAcoustic Orea feet underneath it.
So that’s it, I’m done.
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Cables because they are the only thing in my budget right now. Thinking Audioquest Golden Gate interconnects from my Marantz SA-10 to Sprout 100.
It’s still a little too soon but I’m gonna call it.
I’ve had minor network issues with Roon/Qobuz skipping playback. It has been going on a while. It would happen mostly on hi-res. It was more an irritant than a real problem.
I followed all the Roon site advice. I’m capable of following network instructions and digging in. I can usually make my modest stuff work.
I run 75’ of OM1 fiber from a central server location (closet in basement). I used a trendnet switch with two SFP slots for the fiber. The fiber runs to a sonore signature rendu. The trendnet switch is a managed switch but I carefully configured it (most settings disabled, enabled multicast, flow control, etc). JRiver always works!
I just bought a sonore opticalmodule media converter (copper to fiber). I powered it with a decent (not crazy) linear power supply. The sonore opticalmodule is at the source in my closet.
Heck if the optical module isn’t working perfectly. Expensive, compared to the trendnet, but is working perfectly. Roon/Qobuz is snappier in operation too.
Just to take the last bit of uncertainty out (even though the Roon/raat network is now working perfectly). I just bought an unmanaged Netgear 16 port switch replacing the managed trendnet. It was truly plug n play.
Do I hear a sound improvement….could be the sonore or my new Puritan ultimate power cords on my pass 260.8s. It is better. Life is too hard to worry about one upgrade a time.
Edit: I did try several other media converters including an etherREGEN (long ago sold that), they all exhibited the same problem. Tried another unmanaged trendnet switch too.
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I thought you might go with Cardas Clear Cygnus interconnect 
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99% of the time, it’s Roon at fault, not our network gear. I worked in I.T. and networking for a number of years as well as software integration. I know my system here at home is rock solid, yet the Roon clowns kept saying it had to be an issue with my system.
Funny thing is, ever since I ditched Roon, I haven’t had a single drop-out or stutter since, with either the Cambridge streamer or the Auralic. Gee… Imagine that.
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and yet, I have a rock-solid network and Roon and have never had a single drop out or stutter ever. So there’s that.
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Ya, that is the refrain over there. I hope my opticalmodule holds. Longest listening, of mixed data rates, session without a hiccup in a very long while.
Edit: what I never tried was replacing the sfp in my signature rendu with an rj45 one (I have the cable run, terminated, and the sfp). I was stubborn in my troubleshooting. I am committed to making my fiber run work.
Well I guess you’re in the minority. On Roon’s own forum as well as many other forums, there’s always complaints about their questionable service.
I’ll admit, Roon was good for the first couple of years, but the last couple of years, the quality of service got worse and worse to the point I nearly stopped listening to music for a couple of months.
If you’re still happy with Roon, that’s fine.
I’m more than satisfied with Auralic’s Lightning DS app. Works every bit as good as Roon, gets me just about the same amount of artist/recording info I want, and the “Radio” feature that kicks in after an album is done playing is much better at selecting similar artists/music than Roon did.
I’m not sure forums are ever really a good measure of performance/reliability these days - most people who have no issues do not go on a company forum to praise them for it working as expected. I don’t even have an account on Roon’s forum.
I’m also not trying to diminish your issues, I just think its a difficult problem for Roon to solve because they can’t control your network, or your server (unless you have the nucleus) so troubleshooting must be incredibly difficult for them. On top of that, I doubt its a very large company in terms of the number of people who can even make it through all of the forum issues. So is it truly “99% of time” Roon’s fault? I am skeptical at that claim.
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And I never said you were. No worries there at all.
I communicated with them quite a few times about network setup just for Roon, I walked them through my setup, showed them all of the various settings, even the custom settings in the registry for Roon Core. They couldn’t find a single thing wrong with my hardware or software, yet kept insisting that it was on my end.
After going back and forth with them about this for nearly 6 months straight, almost 2 of which I just stopped using Roon completely, I just gave up on them when it came time to renew my subscription. And I don’t plan on going back to them.
My latest (free) upgrade was running the Nordost degauss track (try saying that 3 times fast) a couple of times and presto change-o, better bigger soundstage and more detail / quieter background…
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The PerfectWave phono (designed by Darren) should see the light of day mid next year. Still in the works.
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My experience with Roon Droputs (especially with hires) is always solved with a fatter, more reliable internet connection, try using the Qobuz app on a computer to play 24.192 files on a computer. Then play the same files with Roon. If the Qobuz app doesn’t stutter but Roon does, I would say your internet connection isn’t up to task. The Qobuz app loads the track into memory, taking it as fast as it can until it has it all in its buffer. Roon doesn’t do this sadly. You could try it. The Qobuz app doesn’t have to play through your system, any computer will do. You aren’t trying to see how good it sounds, you just want to see if it stutters or not.
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I have never really had Roon Dropouts except when I run DSP on DSD. 128 is about all I can run reliably room correction via Roon with. You can see the computer go down to 2.1 or 1.x when its running. If I try it with 256 DSD it really bogs down. And of course that is local. Pretty much anything I throw at it from internet has worked well. I went from 300MB recently to 1G fiber. Both worked fine. Anything below that and the gamers in the house saw lag. Sab but true the 20 somethings still live at home. I blast the stereo next to the one that took the finished bedroom in basement hoping he will hate it and move out.
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Not sure about upgrade, but just trying a new thing…. Ordered Maggie LRS+ last month, 4 months lead time as told. Should be good with M700 (I hope).
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Congrats on speaker choice. I heard the LRS+ at Axpona, and they sounded very nice! You might be pleasantly suprised at how good they actually sound.
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This brings up a question I haven’t been able to answer, but first some background. I have 300 Mbs fiber internet and I have occasional issues with slow loading of sites like e-mail and this site. I don’t use Roon, but I do occasionally stream CD quality and higher and sometimes I get hiccups. The only other user in the house is my wife who may be, worst case, watching videos via Zoom or YouTube. In my estimation a 300 Mbs connection is more than adequate for what we do. My only hesitation is I don’t know if AT&T throttles our internet since we are the slow pokes (I think they offer up to 1 Gbs) but it sure doesn’t seem like we get the speed we pay for, yet … every time I check the speed of the gateway it is 300+. So, the question is, how much does internet traffic (outside the home) effect things like streaming? Additionally, do we really need a higher speed connection just to stream audio?
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