Steve williams
Site Founder, Site Owner, Administrator
Like you, I have been mesmerized with the SQ improvement but have no clue what Emile did to aechieve the improvement
Taiko Audio SGM Extreme : the Crème de la Crème
- Thread starter CKKeung
- Start date
Like you, I have been mesmerized with the SQ improvement but have no clue what Emile did to aechieve the improvement
Steve williams
Site Founder, Site Owner, Administrator
I gather Emile had many different iterations of his update that audioquattr was testing for Emile on his horn system. Yesterday morning Emile did my update and the difference was immediately apparent. About 30 minutes later Emile messaged me that he had made one more alteration to the update that he thought was the best yet, He again used Team Viewer to do the update and was finished in a few minutes, This new version which I gather is the final version is quite amazing as I listened for 8 hours non stop yesterday
Far be it from me to speak for Emile, but I watched what he did and he tweaked the Extreme, not Roon.
Steve williams
Site Founder, Site Owner, Administrator
I watched as well and although if you blinked, you missed it, it did seem that changes were made to the Extreme
Steve, I had second thoughts about posting that, because he did make some adjustments to the processor load balancing. He'll have to say if those adjustments involved Roon modules, which could make my answer technically incorrect even though adjustments were not made to Roon internally.
EDIT: btw, as an IT guy (not so obnoxious as the one on the old Saturday Night Live skit
), I've resolved not to touch the Extreme. But why would I? That Windows 10 LTSC version is beautiful, minus all the crapware!
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Steve williams
Site Founder, Site Owner, Administrator
all above my pay grade and TBH if it is a trade secret we should just smile and enjoy the music rather than perseverating on what Emile did and bothering him about possible sensitive issues
IMO Emile needs to be a beta tester for all new Roon builds as yesterday's lesson had me listening for 8 straight hours
Steve, I run Roon and did not experience the sound changes you guys have when I installed the new version on my server. This is very hardware dependent since it has a lot to do with how the computer is configured.
I agree. Nobody wants an obnoxious backseat driver. Besides, Emile knows way more than I; I'm just a lowly application programmer, much more interested in enjoying music than needing to know exactly what was done (I just happened to be there when he logged in).
And most of us probably have way too much time on our hands this month.
Steve williams
Site Founder, Site Owner, Administrator
It seems to be more common, I have received a considerable amount of enquiries if these updates can be applied to different machines. And the answer to that is no, they are specific to the Extreme's hard- and software environment. I did not change the Roon code, I changed the way it interacts with the rest of the system.
This begs the Q...will the designer of Pink Faun 2.16, Innuos Extreme and any other top echelon streamers provide the same tailored service?
My guess is maybe, maybe not, and this above a lot of other reasons would be the reason to go w Emile.
My guess is maybe, maybe not, and this above a lot of other reasons would be the reason to go w Emile.
PS I still would like an answer...Roon is not JUST an organiser/Man Friday for yr library? It's also an algorithm that the music is controlled by?
It's a complete music playback suite serving library management of locally stored files, online streaming services (qobuz/tidal/internet radio) and an audio transport to audio drivers which can be located locally (USB, AES/EBU etc) or remotely (Ethernet). It can also do format conversion, up / down sampling and apply a variety of DSP algorithms like headphone correction curves, parametric equalization etc. And it probably is the most elaborate metadata provider for things like album art, history on artists or albums, song text, music reviews.
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Well, that description pretty well sums up why I don't want to live without Roon.
The key part is that it can serve as a music transport to audio drivers which can be located locally or remotely. There is no reason as I understand it that the Roon front end cannot be used in conjunction with a third-party driver, and in fact if my conception of what is going on is accurate, that is what Innuos' "Experimental Mode" utilizing Squeezelite, and the Extreme's use of JPlay up until Roon's build 537 rendered JPlay incompatible, are doing or have done.
So as I and other Extreme owners have found out with Emile's support, we are able to have our cake (Roon library management and rich user experience) and hear it too (no sacrifice in sound quality).
Steve Z
I think Emile might have answered your question Matt. As a part of the optimization changes Emile made, he removed the JPlay driver. The part I am still marveling over is this -- when I first received my Extreme I gave a good trial listening with and without JPlay and unambiguously preferred Roon + JPlay. Now, with the OS optimization Emile has applied, Roon without JPlay sounds even better than Roon + JPlay did pre-build 537, and not by a small margin.
Steve Z
Welcome, Christoph. I can't imagine a more interesting and fulfilling sabbatical than to be able to work with Emile and the other talented Taiko team-members on a daily basis.
Steve Z
Roon is very well written software. And particularly impressive is all of the cross-platform compatibility. But I don't envy the support staff. Those guys get hammered with tons of requests every day. In the few times I've put one in, and gone back later in the day to check where it is, I have to scroll down several pages for all the dozens of others that went in after it. And I've never had anyone from the staff get rude. Therefore, imo it outclasses the competition.
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