Peta

Nonetheless, also what others may experience.

Let's just say that what I observe is what I observe. I did contact Roon and got no useful assistance. Antipodes did help and that is a good thing. Music playing does not slow down nor does much else - it does take a long time. Processing the files does consume resources. Generally that is not a good thing if at all avoidable.

See response jsut before this one

Antipodes has greatly upgraded their processing power for models after the one I bought - a DX. Originally, Roon was quite light on processing needs but after the version that introduced the DSP and new metadata engine, the problems with initiating became apparent. With only a 1tb internal disk I have another 1.2 tb on a NAS. Roon trawls through that each time I start it and "adds" the files. Most of the time there are no changes but it does all that anyway. The update that failed referenced a non-existent (to those outside the Roon organisation) DNS name. If you were unlucky enough to do the update at the wrong time, you got that problem. The problem, however, displayed as there being a license problem. Two weeks later it was fixed with no further update installed. Rather than Roon helping to fix the problem, I got good help from Antipodes to analyse the logs on the DX and track the problem down. When asking what was happening when Roon would only identify two tracks on Talking Heads '77 96-24 bought from HD Tracks, they would only help if I uploaded the full files to a dropbox. The dropbox seems to have a limit on the size or bandwidth for uploading so I was unable to upload after a dozen or more attempts. There was no alternative so they would not look at the metadata, despite me giving it to them. It seems as though I am about the only Roon user who has bought that Hi-res album. I do use Roon, of course. I wanted to also share the less good part of what Roon do.

Of course this is my personal view ... I bought Roon early on when it was giving high quality audio and a smart presentation that worked for playing music. Then they started bloating the product with features that I do not use and interfere with playing music. I do not use shuffle or most of the other playback options. I like to play the music as the producer of the album meant it to be played. At the start Roon began to take notice of classical music lovers and improved the way you could classify your collection and then select it. However, they soon went more commercial and focused on pop music "song" based classification and lots of overhead that is ok with a small collection. I have some 2,300 albums, including more than 200 records that I converted from vinyl. Roon has dreadful trouble with these and I have to manually override. Roon also has trouble with a few HD tracks albums that are in 96 and 192kHz format. It jumbles the album and you cannot seem to fix it. Their support is atrocious. You have to effectively prove that they have a fault and then they say they will look into it for a future release. I think this is because they know you have bought the product already and they gain nothing by looking after you. By contrast adding bells and whistles to get new buyers is their focus. There was even one instance where they released a faulty update that stopped Roon working completely and they did not even acknowledge it. There were at least five reports and multiple people identifying that they also had the problem. I had to use a different streamer because Roon was installed on my Antipodes DX and therefore effectively disabled it. Roon is not so good at managing large collections. It has a crudely built indexing engine that likes to re-index each time you start the Roon server. It then takes a long time to do it, requiring the manufacturers of playback devices to move to much more powerful processor upgrades. I get the impression that their target market is people who play music on a desktop computer to and amp/speaker combination. There are a few more nitpicks but that is probably enough. Recently there have been a few small improvements to usability, however the focus on new customers rather than existing ones seems to be still happening. Nonetheless, I still use Roon to play my music.

I have two substantial subwoofers and configured them to work together with a DEQX. Look good and sound good. Even though it seems to be an advanced thing room treatment fo\r the bass is well worth the effort and small expense.

I have almost the same as Marc. A less powerful NAS but the same reasoning. I access over 2500 albums via Roon - most ripped form CD or transferred from vinyl over 12 years, a few dozen hires albums from HDTracks and the like. About 600 videos via Plex - most ripped form Bluray or DVD

Personally, I am sick to death of looking for the burglar running down the hall during Dark Side of the Moon ?

Further cynical response: What is the difference between a used car salesman and an audio salesman? The used car salesman knows he is lying.

Cynical response - by reading one Reality - our prejudices stop us from seeing the fakeness unless we really want to. The obverse applies too - we refuse to see what does not confirm our biases. All because we are humans adapted to survival by sticking to what we know ...

William also did my 18" subwoofer. A first class joinery.

A few photos from last year. Ballarat, Point Leo and Jervis Bay

VAF Signature speakers are very tolerant. I worked with them to get what I wanted ... right through to the DEXQ

Not anymore andy ?

Plenty of passionate statements here. As always when discussing Class D. I think the simplest way of describing my own experience is that for a cost of circa $5k for a biamped set of power amplifiers, the results are: Class D (Bel Canto Ref series) give me as good or better results than three alternative Class A/B options that cost more. I can accept that there may be a small difference in top end sound. Whether that difference is material is a subjective assessment, of course. I am not sure that the differences are better or worse - just different is the only thing I can be sure of. All three Class A/B amplifiers sounded different to each other too. Each of them was trialled in home due to two generous dealers. I offered to buy the amp if it sounded significantly better. What the Bel Canto amplifiers do better than the others is to have very tight and controlled bass, clear and precise positioning in stereo and whatever you call the impression of not being troubled by high dynamic range. I would have to pay over $10k to get significantly better and probably more than 18k to bi-amp from Class A/B. By contrast $7k spent on a DEQX to adjust for room, speaker and anything else in the system produced startlingly improved sound across the spectrum. $1,250 spent on room treatments in the bass and midrange produced a marked difference as well (before the DEQX). On top of that an upgrade from an Auralic Aries Mini to an Antipodes music server/endpoint at $6k produced a result about half the perceived improvement compared to the DEQX. Spending $12k on good bi-ampable speakers sets a kind of baseline for the old idea of 40% on speakers, 20% on source, 30% on amplification and 10% on cables etc. Lesson? There is more to this than just direct one-on one comparison. It is a matter of where you spend your money to get an optimal result. To my mind and judging from direct experience, spending a moderate amount on good Class D amplifiers and putting the "savings" into other areas that deliver more cost effective improvements.

Item: Krix Tektonix Subwoofer in Jarrah finish Location: Canberra Price: $750 (reduced - let me know if you want to make an offer) - current model. Sells for over $2k with this finish Item Condition: Very good or better. very slight impressions on the top veneer but definitely not scratches. Electronically perfect. Reason for selling: I have invested $8k in high capacity passive subs instead Payment Method: Pickup - Cash, Paypal, COD Only Extra Info: Very powerful and ideal for home theatre, although it does a good job on music for sub $15k systems, I suggest. I am happy to arrange whatever transport you wish at my end. I can wrap in bubble wrap but the original carton has been attacked by insects and thrown out. Here is the Krix site https://www.krix.com.au/tektonix/ Quite happy to talk about it, however I may not be able to get back to you immediately. Pictures:

Marten, it is a competition between 900hz and 1200hz for the best crossover. However, I am increasing the acoustic dampening in the room a bit more around the 2k hz range and will recalibrate after that. the subs take the bottom 2.5 octaves. The mid bass - midrange does about 3 octaves and the tweeter does 4 octaves. I would like to balance it a bit more. Speakers ar VAF i66 Mk II

Mike, out of shot there is a thick rug dealing with most reflections. The wall facing the speakers is 7.5 m away. Ceiling is at an angle 2.4m to the right of the picture and 4.2m at the left. To the left there are 2x 2m door openings. On the facing wall, there is a large staggered bookcase. On the wall (4.2m high) at 2.5m there are rows of books. I use tapestries and high density fibreglass absorbers for midrange taming and bass traps. Overall it works well enough to deal with the room modes.

120 hz crossover. That worked best when I tested it. The bass/mid of the main speakers go from 120 - 900. Tweeter above that. Crossover slopes 36dB/Octave (main speakers are bi-amped. I chose those frequencies by testing several configurations.

One way to achieve that sound.

All I really want to say is that the HDP-5 is now doing more to make my ears happy than a preamp/preprocessor that costs twice as much ever did. It took me half a day to setup and reconnect everything. I have to say that for such a complex piece of technology, it is well thought out and not that hard to setup. Results. Bordering on spectacular. Based on a large room, biamped main speakers. Dual subwoofers. Quite a lot of bass and midrange treatment. I can say with confidence that there is nothing I have used to date that has made such a difference and been as satisfying in the past 10 years. High quality digital streaming and the step change in amplification - pre and power amplification are comparable. We could discuss ... however I have a date with some music

My tuppence worth ... even in movies and surround, the main sound stage is still in front of you nearly all the time. That means priorities 1-3 are the stereo speakers , amps for them and the preprocessor in that order. Fourth, have a high power subwoofer with its own amp. Fifth, the centre is useful. 6th go for as many surround speakers with a multichannel amp as you wish. After the left/right surrounds you are really adding speakers for the opportunity to spend money/impress/quantity beats quality/"hope that the source material comes along really soon now because someone wrote an articule in a magazine a few years ago and its gonna happen any day now ...."

From personal experience Classe SSP sounds very good and up there with >$5k stereo preamps. There are always compromises but you get somewhat approximately what you pay for at that end of the market

The active option looks good. Music benefits from the bigger room, in my view. The Actives with DEXQ have a definite edge in room correction but still less correction needed cannot be a bad thing.

To be more correct. 2.4-4.2 m sloped cathedral style ...