Audirvana vs Roon

Connection with external Audio Devices UPnP / DLNA
#1

Hi Audirvarna Community!

I’ve been using Audirvarna for about a year now and I’ve been using Roon for about two months.

I have A+ installed on two Mac’s. One for my headfi rig and one for my stereo set up. Forgive my ignorance, but I’ve not been able to stream from one installation to the other so I have one drive on each serving music (in addition to Tidal)’. This means I need to keep the drive synced when I add music.

I cant put my finger on it, but A+ just sounds better. Arguably Roon has the better interface, if you value that stuff. The meta data in Roon is nice, but when I switch on, my main priority is sound quality. This way I only need one audio repository.

BUT: The way Roon can spawn into a network is really it’s strength.

So my suggestion: If A+ can develop a similar protocol as RAAT, it will be the benchmark audio player in my view. This will make the integration of multiple systems in a household a breeze.

Kind Regards,

2 Likes
#2

It already has it, it’s called UPnP.

1 Like
#3

I have seen that. How does one make a Mac a UPnP device? So my one Audivarna interface can see the second Mac a potential streaming device?

#4

Why you would like to stream from a Mac to another one? You want to stream from your Mac to your DAC, what device you use to listen to your music?

#5

I have one A+ installation on a macbook. I have a Lumin D1 connected to the network. This A+ see’s the Lumin without any problem. Is this a UpnP connection? The macbook serves my music library.

I have another system with a mac mini connected to a Mytek Stereo 192 DAC. A+ is installed on this Mac too and is attached to a second hard drive with a duplicate of my music library. I have tried a network share but the performance on my network is too slow.

So my question is: Can I set up the Mac Mini to appear as one of the connected devices on the A+ installation on the macbook as one of the connected devices?

#6

If you see your device in the network section of audirvana then yes, you will use UPnP if you select it.

Have you tried to use Audirvana Remote on your smartphone? You can use it to switch between your computers and control it at distance without having to do a screen share.

#7

For sure. I uses it all the time. But I have to switch between the two installations.

The only issue I have is that I need two music storage locations that have to be kept in sync.

#8

Why are you using 2 instances? You can play to the Lumin (UPnP over network) from the instance connected to the Mytec. I’m assuming you’re using USB to connect to the Mytec.

#10

I also have two systems with two Macs, one for a desktop system and one for the living room. The only thing in common is a single Audirvana licence! I also maintain two separate hard drives, one for each Mac and its attached DAC, and add any new music acquired separately to each one, even though they are on the same network. Is it possible for one Mac to use the other and its attached library as a UPnP device, so that one hard drive could serve both machines?

#11

How about using a network attached storage (NAS) that way your 2 macs can pull files from one source during playback.

#12

Will figure out how to set that up—thanks.

#13

Why have the music stored in two places when either mac can/could see the files no matter in which they are stored? Then there is no issues syncing the music files between two devices. I use a Mac Pro where all the music is stored and I can connect it to the Receiver via Optical and Ethernet adapters, extenders. or I can use the MacBook which accesses the files on the MacPro and connects to Receiver through HDMI. Both connections allow for Gapless playback.
My Audio Album files are named [Main Artist - or Composer last name for classical] = Album] for all the stuff ripped in FLAC.
And [Main Artist or Composer last name for classical // Album] for all the stuff that I ripped in MP3 before I knew better and to which I no longer have access.
This way I can easily tell what they are without having to go to filters, type, etc.
The Macs can connect to ea. other through the wireless modem or directly through ethernet cable if you use an adapter for the MacBook. So many options…

#14

Yeah. I guess that’s the right way of going about things. But I’ve battled on my network to get the remote Mac to read without some delays. Especially with DSD. Surely a limitation of my network hardware or setup. For now I’ve found decent piece of software to sync my drives periodically.That will work for now. I’ll look at a NAS is due course.

#15

I’ll share my short experience running Audirvana 3 vs Roon 1.7 & 1.8. I think the SQ depends on your system. Roon sounds the best if you use an NAA to decouple the Roon Core from your DAC. Or if your DAC has a very good USB interface such as a Holo Audio May DAC, then you can connect your Roon Core directly to the DAC via USB. Assuming your downstream DAC has a good implementation of USB interface, then I don’t hear a difference between Roon and Audirvana. I do think Audirvana is better if your DAC’s USB interface isn’t very good in handling jitter. When I connect my MacBook to my OPPO BDP-105’s USB interface, Audirvana 3 sounds better.

Roon has another advantage, it can integrate with HQPlayer’s resampling which I find better than Audirvana 3’s upsampling algorithm. If you run HQP, you’d need to decouple the HQP server that does the heavy lifting away from your DAC and use a NAA to stream the data over to your DAC.

In short, it all boils down to how busy your computer is if you connect it to the DAC directly.

My current setup: Roon Core on Mac upstair in a different line. Stream to HQP client on Raspberry Pi4b connected to Holo Audio May DAC’s USB. Audirvana on Mac connected directly to OPPO BDP-105 USB interface in my office upstair.

#16

Tried Roon then cancelled. Perhaps, the reason I didnt find the Roon to my liking was that I FAILED to turn off UPSAMPLING in A+. Then I started using Roon EQ w/Upsampling. UGH!
May try Roon again this time with all brain functions operating.

#17

Synthetic HQP resampling, in my opinion, kills the remnants of life in the original files.

#18

I listen without resampling (99% of the time). It’s not my thing. I use HQP to get rid of some of the noise added by MQA on Tidal. Sounds better to my ears. The source recording is still the most important in my humble opinion. No amount of DSP can fix garbage.

#19

I agree and the reason I think the only music with soul is live classical without synthesizer… As soon as a single resistor or capacitor is involved, it destroys the soul of music. :laughing:

#20

Very limited over UPnP and not a consistent experience. Roon user now and staying there. This is a very 1.0 product and a clunky experience streaming to other endpoints. Will check it out again around 4.0.

#21

Wish roon worked with upnp renderers