I have just started trailing the Roon software and love the presentation but loathe the system not able to operate unless the PC is left on.

 

I enjoy having to touch a PC at night and the phone is the most obtrusive I like to get.

 

Not sure if Room is worth the money if I don't utilise all its functionality.

 

What's your thoughts?

The PC in this instance acts as the Roon Core - there a multitude of hardware options that can take over this role, from something as simple and cheap as a Raspberry Pi.

I myself use Roon’s own Nucleus as my Core.

Edited March 18, 20196 yr by Hydrology

Anyone dabbled with the DSP?

 

Interested to know peoples experiences with that side of things. Logically that makes sense to me,  do all that manipulation before my DAC rather than miniDSP etc options.

Edited March 18, 20196 yr by DarkNark

I was looking at this over the weekend. Seems like there are some good options out there e.g. Oppo etc that will run it.

 

Anyone clued up on what provides the "best" outcome. Is it a custom build PC with some fang dangle soundcard or are one of the off the shelf options better?

 

Thinking about it I'd be going optical out into a receiver.

 

Lastly, so I am clear on this. You have your PC or other server on (Oppo, Naim etc) and then you can have a tablet that will talk to that via your wifi network? Is that how it works practically

 

43 minutes ago, Peter the Greek said:

....Lastly, so I am clear on this. You have your PC or other server on (Oppo, Naim etc) and then you can have a tablet that will talk to that via your wifi network? Is that how it works practically

 

That's how I am doing it. Running the software on my MacMini and I can use my phone as a remote

1 hour ago, DarkNark said:

Anyone dappled with the DSP?

 

Interested to know peoples experiences with that side of things. Logically that makes sense to me,  do all that manipulation before my DAC rather than miniDSP etc options.

Lots of options for digital room correction.  Roon has DSP and there are hardware options E.g.  miniDSP has the SHD Studio or DDRC-22D, DEQX etc. You will need a beefier Roon Server to run DSP.  Would someone choose Roon just for DSP?  I am guessing here but I think people choose Roon because of its music services, the way it organises music etc. and DSP is a bonus?  

 

p/s have contemplated Roon a number of times, latest wth the Phantoms, but each time, adding a server plus end point seem to be a barrier for me!

Edited March 18, 20196 yr by Snoopy8
Typo

I’m running Roon core on a Sonictransporter i5 from small green computer, comes loaded with Roon core, so just a little bit of setup and away you go, it has been hassle free since new and the SQ is excellent, using the Roon app on an iPad.

I don’t need DSP in Roon as my dac has plenty of grunt and converts everything to dsd, too easy ?

4 hours ago, Snoopy8 said:

Lots of options for digital room correction.  Roon has DSP and there are hardware options E.g.  miniDSP has the SHD Studio or DDRC-22D, DEQX etc. You will need a beefier Roon Server to run DSP.  Would someone choose Roon just for DSP?  I am guessing here but I think people choose Roon because of its music services, the way it organises music etc. and DSP is a bonus?  

 

p/s have contemplated Roon a number of times, latest wth the Phantoms, but each time, adding a server plus end point seem to be a barrier for me!

Thanks, for some of the options there, Snoop. I am trialling Roon and to be perfectly honest I don't see it having that many advantages over Audirvana+ that I currently use. The info about the artists is a novelty but the reality for me is just that. It's a novelty. I am failing to see all the love for Roon, to justify the price. Quite possibly I am missing something. I will say that using my iPhone/Ipad for the remote works flawlessly compared to Audirvana, which tbh doesn't work very well for me.

3 hours ago, awayward said:

I’m running Roon core on a Sonictransporter i5 from small green computer, comes loaded with Roon core, so just a little bit of setup and away you go, it has been hassle free since new and the SQ is excellent, using the Roon app on an iPad.

I don’t need DSP in Roon as my dac has plenty of grunt and converts everything to dsd, too easy ?

My DAC can play DSD, but I don't use that function. In my case, I don't hear a difference. I may have not been clear when I asked about users experiences with Roons DSP. I was referring to the convolution filters for room correction. Anyone tried it?

Edited March 18, 20196 yr by DarkNark

@Peter the Greek so long as you have a 'core' (laptop is my case), you can use the remote on multiple devices and its all connected to your WiFi. I had my ipad, iphone and a 2nd laptop running as remotes.

 

@DarkNark i really did like the ease of use of Roon and it also sounded better to me (vs direct laptop on tidal). FWIW, I have a hard time manoeuvring in Audivarna  and the fonts were so small, everything didn't seem as interactive as Roon - but thats just me. However, all in all, the tight arse in me found it hard to justify the $500 price tag.

4 minutes ago, jgunner said:

@Peter the Greek so long as you have a 'core' (laptop is my case), you can use the remote on multiple devices and its all connected to your WiFi. I had my ipad, iphone and a 2nd laptop running as remotes.

Sweet. So then I just need a soundcard of sorts? or are there other better "devices" to get decent audio out of a laptop/computer/whatever into a receiver or whatever

7 minutes ago, Peter the Greek said:

Sweet. So then I just need a soundcard of sorts? or are there other better "devices" to get decent audio out of a laptop/computer/whatever into a receiver or whatever

USB DAC

@Peter the Greek  there will always be a 'better' device. from the many post on this forum, i gather that PC is not really the way to go. i ran mine on an macbook air during the trial and it sounded very good to me. however, there are other options (sotm-sms200 comes to mind immediately) and it depends on your budget, how interactive you want you want it to be (like a screen on the device showing album art for exampl), what outputs do you need and so and so forth

@Peter the Greek for example:

 

24 minutes ago, jgunner said:

However, all in all, the tight arse in me found it hard to justify the $500 price tag.

I wouldve said the same thing 2 years ago, now I cant live without it!

Another great solution is the ELAC Discovery server. Has analogue/digital outputs and comes with their own licensed  lifetime version of Roon (Roon Essentials) which is exactly the same, minus DSD support and DSP functions. 

2 hours ago, DarkNark said:

I don't see it having that many advantages over Audirvana+ that I currently use

Having compared Roon (user for almost 4 years) to Audirvana (Windows version) on identical hardware for sound quality I think Audirvana wins easily. Shame it is such a crap piece of software (especially the remote) compared to the Roon interface. If you are happy using Audirvana then just stick with that IMO.

@darknark @awayward what dacs do you use that convert to DSD?

duplicate post

 

Edited March 18, 20196 yr by Mickstuh

16 minutes ago, Mickstuh said:

@darknark what dacs do you use that convert to DSD?

My apologies Mick. I have a Giesler Groß which can play DSD, not do the conversion. I have edited my post to reflect that. 

Ta

22 minutes ago, Mickstuh said:

@darknark @awayward what dacs do you use that convert to DSD?

I have a PS Audio DirectStream dac, designed by Ted Smith. He believes that dsd output produces the best sound, so all formats are upscaled to dsd. I have no say in what the dac does, but the SQ produced is very high quality, no complaints, I just feed it the best native format I can.

Thanks. I agree with Ted, DSD sounds best, to my ears. FWIW, I have used Teac Hi-Res editor to convert wav files to dsd – they sounded better. I did not think they would, but they did. So naturally I'm interested in dacs (like the PS Audio) that convert on the fly, and software that does likewise. 

I upscale everything in Roon to DSD256.

....gawd I have a lot to learn....DSD?

1 hour ago, Peter the Greek said:

....gawd I have a lot to learn....DSD?

remember SACD? Yeah, that...

2 hours ago, Hydrology said:

remember SACD? Yeah, that...

LOL, riteo.....I'll google at some point