This is actually important as you can do both. I’m in league with @Polygonhell as the the RC though. I have listened to my Weiss as a direct streamer with their web ui and a Roon endpoint and there is no difference in sound quality I can detect. There’s probably a large h/w factor in the outcome of anecdotal results.
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Hmmm to me it sounds like a large cope factor from those who purchased overpriced underperforming software
Mainly joking around here, interesting findings
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Unfortunately for me, it actually kicked in as a realization 3 days after I purchased a one-year sub to Roon, lol…
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Hahahaha, that’s so true, the things we deal with to try and get most of what we want.
I’m excited to try listening to different DAC’s and cables now in the main system. The amount of extra detail that has come forth now has made me appreciate certain qualities of what the equipment in hand can do. By no means were things lackluster before but certain key aspects of performance have been brought forth that I think I should be better able to distinguish small differences that were simply not easy to grasp previously using ROON
I’m absolutely at a quandary though on how to integrate the house now and knowing full well there are limitations I may not be able to get around unless some large sums of money are spent or unless I decide to shrink or simply deal with things. Damn I hate this hobby sometimes, you just can’t Un-hear certain things 
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LOL burn!
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Be nice.
Roon cost is a none issue for me at least, I pay more than that a month to host this site.
I really can’t hear a difference, on the NS1 or my PI streamers.
The NS1 is somewhat interesting because unlike a lot of other devices it isn’t running Roon Bridge, but rather some library Roon provides to developers.
I don’t discount what people are hearing, and there is clearly a difference in load on the streamer if the streamer is running the core (which is Nick’s case).
I’ve said before if we assume these devices don’t play with the actual data, there is a limited number of things that can really influence the quality, basically it’s down to how active the CPU’s and other devices on the board are and how well isolated they are from the actual think pushing bits to the DAC.
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No, everyone was telling me I need roon, it’s nice to see that I don’t
Fair
It’s all implementation in the end
I’ve just stopped thinking why and more worried about the results
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This isn’t the bash ROON thread, Lol 
it’s all about Innuous products and I hope to actually productively assist anyone making a choice towards one or not in the future.
What I like about ROON is that it allows integration of multiple music reproducing stations of which I have many across the house. Innuous is a known offender when used as a core woth ROON. Today though I got the full effect and it surprised me.
Yes though, this lesson has made me question every single piece of equipment I have ever listened to in my home and it will take me months to re-listen to pieces just to satisfy my own curiosity.
Unfortunately for people like myself who own little music and really prefer the rental aspect of streaming I will have to make some choices. One of which is probably to disconnect my main listening system from ROON, purchase a new core for the rest of the house and figure shit out from there. The rest of my streamers should have no issues playing the software as intended and since I have the luxury of swapping pieces in and out when the mood hits me, I’ll be able to make my own comparisons over time to see what effect or not the software has. I’m willing to play for another year, without going all out on a more permanent solution, it satisfies the boredom and makes for knowledge gained.
At the moment I have shifted my thought process to put source at the leader of the pack as far as critical listening and expenditure is concerned when making a purchasing decision. This goes beyond speaker and HP’s which is sacrilege in ANY discussion. I may change my mind after further experimentation with many more hours of use.
I have also been able to discern poor quality recordings for a long time now and I have a feeling the new found detail retrieval from the material itself will further limit some of my favorite albums which then simply puts ROON right back in the running as a good source for doing what it does best. Sometimes I actually do want
to listen the music and not the equipment.
I will have so many more technical questions in the following weeks. We can rip stuff apart in the appropriate threads to better keep the information content accessible for searches and research purposes. 
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Good idea, need to get one of those going
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You’ve assumed a role here, guinea pig for testing/settling a very important question. I’ll set up a Roon core for you as it’s ready to play on my old box. Sitting in a shelf now for for months. I even have a LPS for it.
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This was always my assessment as well.
Ultimately, I will likely still keep Roon. The “it just works” is nice and it’s easy enough that my gf can easily control the music and she’s the type that is wary about changing the volume on the setup (bless her).
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@dB_Cooper I mean FFS, I’m in the main listening room now playing w/ the K-horns, 8 swapped and upgraded tubes across a DAC, pre-amp and amplifier, 4 upgraded power cables, a DDC waiting it’s turn to jump into the system, an upgraded USB cable, a new AES cable waiting it’s turn, a BNC cable waiting its turn and fuck all if i know what I’m listening to because it’s a totally different sound signature.
Gone is the warmth and romantically rich sound i had been cultivating bit by bit for 3 years now. 
The 3D space of the system is so cool and even the damned K-horns have fallen into line and disappeared just a bit more, and for folks that question what “just a bit more” means, it means thousands of dollars saved in stupid upgrades is what it means. 
I never got the meaning of the word “decay” before, i think i can better understand the term now…
I always enjoyed the upper range of my different speakers and mixes of equipment, at one point last night though i was actually questioning if my Single driver Ωmega’s were reaching the bottom levels of “brightness” 
These are the MOST non-fatiguing speakers i know of, i work to bring out the upper registers w/ tube swaps and for the first time ever i would have sworn someone came and installed full fledged tweeters in them.
I’m re-listening to favorite songs that i know have various levels of dynamic range and even though i was easily capable of hearing extreme details 24hrs ago in my system as it sat, my ears feel like someone unclogged a bunch of goo out of them and I’m not sure how that works, because dammit, the detail was damned good before. 
It’s a pleasure and a pain of emotion, i absolutely adored what i had 48hrs ago, you listened to it for a bit yourself and know it was damned good. I have to give credit where it is due, despite what ever awkward software issues this streamer may have it’s a damned fine piece of equipment and I’m salivating over what its big brother fully decked out with upgraded PSU can do. I hate the cost of this hobby.
Yeah, for sure, i want to try your ROON core and see what else i can figure out. I’ll be using all pieces of equipment i am well fmiliar w/ at this point so it’s a great way to learn.
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It’s not really intended in Roon’s architecture that you run the core on the output device, but I guess with the so many streamers straddling the server/streamer divide, I’m not surprised people do.
They do include the bridge as a part of core as well, but it’s intended as a convenience for those without streaming endpoints.
I actually have a two box setup. My server box has the Roon core and a second box is a renderer that does the output. Again, the difference isn’t mindblowing in my case and I can hear the potential of what could happen. Either or, Roon still has a good use-case for me.
Out of interest how far apart are the 2 boxes?
And how are they connected?
About 2 feet apart and connected via ethernet
point to point (I assume not), or via a switch?
Just wondering if you’ve tried moving the server away from everything else?
I doubt it would make much if any difference, but it would be an interesting test
I would love point to point but no, there is a switch in between
The cable involved are a bit too short but i can try to move the server as far as possible
I’m just interested, if you have a cheap 12ft+ network cable that would be enough to satisfy my curiosity.
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So I finally received a full reply back from the folks at Innuos on how to better integrate my systems using their software using my Zenith MK3 streaming unit.
Here is the reply, now more thinking and experimenting on my part to figure out which direction is best for my particular situation… 
Hi Nick,
Apologies for our late reply. We have been very busy these days. Thank you for your wonderful feedback and your kind remarks. Your report is in fact inline with what we have been receiving from several customers these past years. It makes you wonder what everyone is missing right? Yes, recent and latest Roon updates seem to have been triggering issues for several customers.
First things first, please check which innuOS version the server is currently using and make sure it’s updated to the latest innuOS v2.1.1 system. We always advise our customers to keep their servers as much updated as possible so that all bugfixes are in place. We frequently release updates with bugfixes, improvements and new features. You’ll always benefit from having the server fully updated.
Regarding the multiple zone/room playback support, yes that’s already possible with our innuOS v2 system and the Innuos Sense app under certain conditions/limitations. In example, currently and out of the box any endpoint that it is Logitech Media Server (LMS)/Squeezebox client compliant can be immediately integrated and work as a separate player (zone or room) with it.
Otherwise if your current Roon endpoints are also capable of working as network UPnP streamers (instead of Roon endpoints) then you may choose to integrate them on the ZENith as such. You’ll then be able to play with the Innuos Sense app directly and individually to them. You may read more about it here:
Support KB > Getting Started > Connecting Network Streamers
This is still very much a work in progress, so not all UPnP network streamers out there will work well from the start but there is the potential we’ll be able to work out individual UPnP player profiles for them and make them work with it. Our own innuOS system and the Innuos Sense app are also ongoing further development to better support multiple players (zones or rooms).
With our recent announcement of the new PULSE series of network players soon to be released they will also work as endpoints to any current Innuos server/streamer, so you may choose to integrate them as different players (zones or rooms) with your current ZENith Mk.3. Everything will work out via the innuOS dashboard or the Innuos Sense app of course. Or to any Roon server integration if you so choose,
Hopefully this helped to clarify it for you. Please do let us know if you require any further assistance.
Best regards!
João Sousa
Senior Customer Support Engineer