Hi
@DrCWO , Such a detailed answer, thank you very much. It's much appreciated and you've already helped me a lot. I also found a couple of your videos about the different features enlightening, not just about the rooExtend product but also about the RME, and some of the theory around DSP and volume control in general.
In the meantime I pulled the trigger on the DAC. The ADI-2/4 Pro SE has been playing magnificently in the living room since yesterday. This is not your regular DAC from Topping or SMSL for example. There's definitely a learning curve involved.
I understand all your advice so far. It looks like rooExtend might be the solution for all my use cases. With the upcoming API updates for Roon things can only get better. It would be nice to have native bridge device support, instead of having to rely on the radio station input and incurring additional latency for that.
I am not ready yet to go all in and get fully locked in into the Roon ecosystem. That's not really because I don't like Roon (except the missing native Spotify support, a Wiim can do that so why can't Roon..) but more because I am apprehensive to give away so much influence to a single company. On the other hand, if it solves all problems in a good way I might let go of this principle. But still, with software it's scary. Hardware you can buy and if you're lucky it keeps working and you don't need support. Software comes with recurring costs and keeps changing, possibly into a direction you can't live with.
First things first though, learning more about RME and room correction, and just testing things and having fun. I'm also wondering if I can somehow take the analog input on the RME, apply RIAA, than use that as an input interface on my PC for recording, but instead route it through a convolver with something like VB-Audio Matrix.
In theory, do all of the rooExtend plug-ins require a separate physical box? I have a Windows PC that runs Roon, and the RME DAC connected straight to the PC in USB mode (stereo). Is there a reason why I couldn't use rooADI in this setup? I'm not trying to criticize, just wondering about implementation details and possibilities.
The separate box has an advantage too though, assuming the electronics are quiet. I could run the Roon core somewhere else and remove the PC from the hifi rack. The PC isn't bad, but I've tried two options from Streacom and HDPLEX now, and I can hear the switching noise. Not noise that gets induced into the music from switching supplies (that's fully clean thanks to the RME DAC and my amp), but literally noise straight from the components. With the Streacom, I can hear some motherboard components. With the HDPLEX, I can hear the PSU.
To conclude, I suspect I will spend a lot of time and some money, then decide you already solved the problem in the best way possible. That just leaves the best way to generate my filters, the time investment for Acourate might be unrealistic for me in the short term.
Kind regards,
Jaap