As I've repeated ad nauseum, Squeeze (auto) provides the best sound on Antipodes, and nothing else comes close. But, I do use Roon for music discovery. I use Roon/HQPlayer as the latter provides better-sounding scaling than what's built into my DAC. With a different DAC, I could see other options being preferred. Roon/RAAT is lot better these days than it was a few years ago.
If you do experiment with Squeeze (auto), I'd be curious if you hear a difference with Roon server stopped vs running. Prior to my K30, I was using an Innuos Zenith Mk3. I found that just having Roon running, subtly harmed sound quality when using Squeeze only. That went away when I moved to the K30. I'm guessing that might have been a benefit of the way Antipodes splits the server from the player. Your K22 doesn't split things so it mirrors how the Zenith operated.
Finisar SFPs in single mode are definitely the way to go. I'm using Finisar SFPs that have been discontinued. I believe they are the FTLF1324P2BTL that I'm using. I believe there are others that are now in favor, but I had evaluated a bunch of them before landing on the ones I have now, and these did the best job of disappearing.
Wow. A lot to process here. But to start, as I said earlier, both my audiophile friend and I agreed Roon RAAT sounded better with the Sonore than Squeeze/Roon.. It was more "full bodied" and "present."
However, I
DO believe that with the K22 Squeeze Player w/Roon absolutely sounds better than Roon RAAT. I cannot account for an explanation why the same player would sound different on one device versus another, but it is apparent. Perhaps it comes down to the the power supply of each device. Maybe Squeeze needs a "bigger, deeper" sound than what is native to the Rendu but provided by the Antipodes. It's odd for sure but the difference is obvious
I am using Squeeze Player w/Roon and I understand that listening to Squeeze Auto sounds even better. Are you confirming this? I had a one on one screen sharing with with Mark Cole (who
ALSO prefers Squeeze) and he brought up the Squeezebox server on my Mac and the interface put me off. I think I would sacrifice some SQ in favor of the interface provided by Roon w/ Squeeze.
HOWEVER....there is the Peng app on the Apple App Store for only $8.99 and from what I understand, this app would read the library on my Small Green Computer, OR on a K41 should I upgrade down the road. Do I have that right? I have a friend who, like you, uses Roon for music discovery but does his serious listening with Squeeze Auto as provided by the K22. So I haven't taken the full leap to Squeeze auto yet until I can confirm that the Peng app will read my library. I understand I can sign in to Qobuz just as I am signed in to Qobuz so presume the interface should be "good enough" for such listing.
Now, turning to SFP's, my Sonore came with a multimode SFP, so presently I am using a Finisar multimode in my office where my server resides (apart from everything else), and in my Sonore Optical Module and EtherREGEN I have
single mode SFP - this model:
FTLF1318P3BTL. Once that part arrives in a few days everything will be aligned with single mode SFP. A friend has pointed me to a specific Finisar kit from After Dark in Hong Kong who claims to have an audio grade level Finisar SFP but it's crazy expensive at close to $400 US for one transceiver and Corning fiber. Not ready to spend that much money at this time .
That said, happy to see you affirm much of what I have read and heard from friends that these days, and even the Snore boys have come around to appreciating single mode v multimode and they
used prefer multimode. Anyway, soon enough I will be aligned 100% with all single mode Finisar SFP's so hopefully I'll get a bump in SQ.
In any case, once I hear back from you or any other member I'd be happy to download the Peng app if it is as simple as pointing it to my library on the internal SSD drive in my Sonic Transporter. As regards defeating the Roon app is concerned, I believe most any server can only serve up one app at a time. so if I download and install the Squeezebox server, it would REPLACE the Roon app. In fact, during my remote session with Mark Cole we did precisely this: we installed the Squeezebox Server and in order to get Roon online again we had to REMOVE the Squeezebox server. So...to me this seemed like a pain in the butt, so reconciled myself to going halfway there Squeezebox/ Roon auto. It may be a compromise I live with...unless a number of members like you insist the SQ is more than nominally better, as in SIGNIFICANTLY better with any interface with Roon.
Good convo, and thx for the feedback ...