Curious to know your ROON hardware

[Acerun]

Ethernet to NUC, but endpoints work fine on a reasonably stable WiFi. I like having the RPis connected to the DACs, it just works. The 1Gb version is 35 bucks, the great Flirc case 15.

If I don't have my own library and I'm streaming Master from Tidal... Do I even need Roon? If I understand correctly, if I use NUC Wi-Fi with AirPlay or Apple TV, I'm back at the same quality that I would have from just using Apple TV or Fire Stick and Tidal, no?

 

[Zensō]

If I don't have my own library and I'm streaming Master from Tidal... Do I even need Roon? If I understand correctly, if I use NUC Wi-Fi with AirPlay or Apple TV, I'm back at the same quality that I would have from just using Apple TV or Fire Stick and Tidal, no?

The biggest draw of Roon is probably the seamless integration of local files and streaming. It’s also a nice way to put together a whole house system using disparate parts. So if you’re streaming Tidal to one endpoint, you don’t need Roon. You may still want it though. Personally, the big draw for me is that Roon has come the closest to mimicking the old experience of digging through the record bins at Tower Records. I enjoy checking out who is playing on the album I’m listening to, then seeing what other artists they’ve worked with, then checking out that music, then checking out those players, and so on. Used in this way, Roon is a great new music discovery tool that I find much more satisfying than AI generated playlists.

 

[ahofer]

So if you’re streaming Tidal to one endpoint, you don’t need Roon.

Or even multiple endpoints. The Tidal app sees all my Chromecast endpoints - grouped and single. So you could use a Chromecast dongle (eBay for a second hand Chromecast Audio if you don’t want to split HDMI) or a compatible Streamer/DAC (like Cambridge CXN). The Cambridge would be pretty future proof for you, as it is Chromecast/Airplay/Roon/DLNA/Spotify compatible.

 

[Acerun]

The biggest draw of Roon is probably the seamless integration of local files and streaming. It’s also a nice way to put together a whole house system using disparate parts. So if you’re streaming Tidal to one endpoint, you don’t need Roon. You may still want it though. Personally, the big draw for me is that Roon has come the closest to mimicking the old experience of digging through the record bins at Tower Records. I enjoy checking out who is playing on the album I’m listening to, then seeing what other artists they’ve worked with, then checking out that music, then checking out those players, and so on. Used in this way, Roon is a great new music discovery tool that I find much more satisfying than AI generated playlists.

I appreciate the point of view. I signed up for three free months of Roon so I'm going to play around with it and see if I fall in love with it before investing in hardware I think. ;-) ( I have it running on a spare laptop at the moment)

 

[mrbungle]

If I don't have my own library and I'm streaming Master from Tidal... Do I even need Roon? If I understand correctly, if I use NUC Wi-Fi with AirPlay or Apple TV, I'm back at the same quality that I would have from just using Apple TV or Fire Stick and Tidal, no?

If you run Roon on a single laptop, it’s both your server and endpoint - you connect your DAC via USB as you normally would. In that case the only advantage is that you can install Roon on your phone or tablet and use it as remote without you needing to somehow connect via AirPlay or Bluetooth. The remotes will automatically find the server in your network. No quality difference. (Obviously no need for Ethernet in this case since server is connected to the DAC).

With a NUC, you just avoid having that laptop running 24/7 and replace it with an efficient mini PC. Your DACs need to communicate with the server, if not directly via USB, cheap RPis via good WiFi do that just fine. When you turn on your DAC, the server is notified and the DAC shows up in all your remotes.

There are a few alternatives to RPi, checkout the DietPi website. I’m 99% sure every ARMv7 or ARMv8 machine will install the Roon Bridge. You might want to double check though.

But yeah, play with it for a while. If you like the interface and recommendations you get, you can figure out the multi room stuff later.