Hi MartyCount me among the recent Extreme users (w a Lampi GG2 + JL USB board) who have upgraded to TAS beta. Emile’s instillation was a thrill to watch from my TeamViewer shared screen as it’s like watching an Avenger character moving faster than a speeding bullet. I have spent the better part of two days comparing Roon to TAS and agree with what everyone has already posted. The SQ of TAS is clearly superior but…and for me it’s a big “but”.
First, I found that the surprising area in which the SQ of TAS is superior is the bass. I don’t know if this is a common observation, nor do I know why it’s the case, but it’s quite noticeable and significant, at least in my rig. A second observation that I found unexpected is that due to the increased clarity across the board vs. Roon I found that I was enjoying much of what I played at a lower level than before. Perhaps it’s a common audiophile tendency to push one’s system to warp 9 in order to become more emotionally involved or “immersed” in the sound field. I’m guessing this is often done without much forethought. (If “x” on the volume control is good, the “x+1” must be better!). But TAS diminished that need, at least for me. Anyone else notice this?
However, now that SQ is out of the way, let me say why I won’t be using TAS as my primary listening tool. I think the reasons are obvious. As has already been mentioned, TAS is a product in evolution. Anybody who owns an Extreme and who has interacted with anyone from Taiko knows that their commitment to sonic excellence will continue to drive constant improvement in TAS. That’s a given. But working with a product that doesn’t allow intraplay scrolling or pause, and which relies on a user interface that at best can be described as clunky, is simply a non-starter for me most of the time. While Roon’s SQ is perhaps 80-90% (?-you pick a number !) as good as TAS’s, its user interface is a masterpiece of intuitiveness and simplicity. As we all know, TAS is not there yet although we hope it will be eventually. I have said before, Roon has changed the way I listen to music. Unfortunately, TAS does the same, but not in a good way. Navigation alone is the huge caveat in TAS, and the fact that I often rely on 20 years of playlists that I can’t access is a big part of that. As far as the user interface, well, it was obviously written by “PC guys” and has the look and clunky feel of that universe. The PC MS/Unix world is often the preferred programming environment of engineers for a reason, and that is exactly what we have here. Mac slick it is not, but functional and capable it surely is in spades (especially for its programmers), so if SQ is your holy grail, knock yourself out. (Then again, if SQ is truly your holy grail, why aren’t you using your TT more?)
During the install, Emile mentioned that he did something recently that raised the SQ bar on Roon (I don’t know if that has to do with the Extreme and its drivers, or TAS, or both) but apparently the differential in SQ between Roon and TAS just recently decreased incrementally. Roon may not be as good as TAS from a SQ perspective, but whatever percent it is, it’s now higher than it used to be. And for that reason, I find that Roon serves its purpose just fine for my needs as it sounds pretty darned good. For “critical’ listening (whatever the heck that means), I’ll certainly use TAS since once you hear it, it’s hard to unhear it. But for musical exploration, which takes up a good deal of my time and effort, you won’t be able to pull me away from Roon… for now. I’m sure I’m not alone in hoping that I will be able to enjoy the SQ benefits of TAS full time once the program is successfully further developed to allow access to the features I now enjoy so much in Roon.
I felt the same way initially but then the siren sound of tas drew me in more and more where i am just using tas now most of the time. It's like transitioning from a merc to a porsche , the former has all the tech toys and glamour but the latter true to its roots rather than a technological marvel that gets replaced again and again. Having driven a porsche, i certainly wont go back into a merc.
Perhaps it is just me .... but i have never truly found a turntable that has beat my digital setup yet. Thats not to say never of course
And i am sure i havent heard the top end tt setup out there as yet but until then - digital is it for me
