Roon

Agreed.

Roon as the method of managing your library, both local and ‘virtual’ albums/recordings, playback and exploring additional works by the same and similar artists Roon is the best. Chatting with guys from Roon they also have much more they want to do to improve this & can as they are only focused on the UI and backend.

With the addition of ‘Roon Readiness’ to the new ranges or the use of the Sonore UPnP Bridge (once you get the right OS & Bridge version working properly) this is then available to the Naim user.

Simon

SimonPeterArnold posted:

There is another upnp bridge software that is a LMS plugin but can run independently and does similar thing to the Sonore bridge and its free. Can be a bit fiddly but I used it to send Roon and LMS to my upnp Pure speakers I had. 

Do you know the name?

Phillippe’s squeeze2upnp most likely. 

.sjb

Yep Sloop John B is correct. It's by Philippe 44 you can download the executable file. It will make any upnp device visible as squeezebox which Roon can then see, which is what Sonores one does to. Not sure why they charge so much for it myself.

https://github.com/philippe44/LMS-to-uPnP

SimonPeterArnold posted:

 Not sure why they charge so much for it myself.

 

 

To make money?

Innocent Bystander posted:

SimonPeterArnold posted:

 Not sure why they charge so much for it myself.

 

 

To make money?

You could be on to something there!

.sjb

Sloop John B posted:

Innocent Bystander posted:

SimonPeterArnold posted:

 Not sure why they charge so much for it myself.

 

 

To make money?

You could be on to something there!

.sjb

Could be the start a whole new concept!  It deserves a name - how about ‘profit’? A bit of a eprandom word I know, just came to me from somewhere...

For anyone interested there is a review of the Roon Nucleus + in the May18 edition of HFN. 

Huge posted:

The Sonore Roon Bridge has been withdrawn due to stability issues.

Huge, please elaborate?

I tried Audirvana first (with Tidal) but m now a complete Roon fan

I've tried Roon and really liked it , the integration with Tidal is superb . I saw the Roon Nucleus plus last week whilst passing a Central London dealer and it looked very neat and fuss free . It could be all you ever need . 

As I mentioned, I’m running Roon on my iMac and have USB out to a Chord Dave.  Everything sounds pretty good.  Do I need the Sonore (or equivalent) bridge?

Just feed the Dave DAC into your amp, no need for the bridge unless you are using a separate uPnP endpoint and not the output of the imac. But Its recommended to not use the output of the core directly as the music playing end as laptops and desktops can add all sorts of noise to the chain. Normally you would have the core on imac then feed over network to another roon endpoint. This could be Roon Ready streamer/dac or using Roon Bridge on a Raspberry Pi (meaning it uses RAAT, roons own streaming protocol) then these would feed you DAC and onto the amp. 

I have used Roon with the Nova as well as a Dac V1 (Allo Digione) and it is superb. The nova was part of a multi room setup all controlled by Roon (perfect sync) and it was amazing. A stable and well sorted wifi is important to ensure Roon reliability but once there, it is superb.

Highly recommend Roon

docmark posted:

Excuse my ignorance, but what exactly is a renderer?  And like you, I am not an avid social mediaphile.

A renderer is a computer program that talks to a control point (Naim app, Linn Kazoo, Bubble UPnP, etc.; some control points call renderers "rooms", just to make users even more confused!) to a server (control points sometimes call servers "libraries"), manages playlists and, most importantly, converts music files (.flac, .wav, .aiff, etc.) into (USB, S/PDIF, etc.) streams of data which are then converted to analog signals by a DAC.

In contrast to what some manufacturers like to suggest, a renderer is just a small computer program that can run on almost every device. As an example, upmpdcli (google "upmpdcli renderer") is a popular MPD based renderer. MPD itself is the "Music Player Deamon", a standard application for playing music, especially on Linux systems.

docmark posted:

As I mentioned, I’m running Roon on my iMac and have USB out to a Chord Dave.  Everything sounds pretty good.  Do I need the Sonore (or equivalent) bridge?

In this case, the iMac is acting both as a Roon server and as a Roon renderer (or endpoint, room, Roon ready device ... no matter how you call it).

You might be able to further improve the quality of the USB stream fed into the Dave by having the server and the renderer running on a dedicated machine or on two different machines.

You have a vast array of options, basically limited only by your budget. These options start with something like a Sonore Sonic Orbiter or a dedicated mac mini and range to devices like the new Antipodes CX + EX (server + renderer) combination or the announced Innuos "Statement".

You can easily invest from 100$ to 20K$ in trying to improve your source. Whether this is worth the time and the money is something that only you can judge.

Innocent Bystander posted:

charlesphoto posted:

If you do go for a Roon license, then try running Roon ROCK on a dedicated low power NUC server as the sound gets even better. I’m using a 7i5BNH with 8gb ram and a 256gb SSD drive (one really only needs a 32 or 64gb but easier to find one with a 256gb these days) with a Chinese 12v 5a r-core linear power supply. Local music resides on a 1tb 2.5” OWC portable hard drive plugged into the NUC and powered via usb. It sounds better than running Roon on my 2013 Mac Pro. 

Ah, so the negative comments about Roon’s sound quality when used as a renderer compared to some alternatives such as Audirvana probably relate to use on a standard computer: a fundamental strength of Audirvana is its ‘direct mode’ whereby it bypasses all of the Mac’s own audio circuitry and normal audio drivers.

...

I am not sure, I seem to remember posts (but I'm not sure whether here or on CA) in which detailed comparisons were done between a dedicated player (Sonore ultraRendu, if I am not mistaken) acting as a UPnP renderer and as a Roon renderer.

In both setups the player was receiving data from the same server (running a UPnP server and a Roon server) and the quality of Roon playback was found to be inferior to the quality of UPnP playback.

Such findings could of course be due to a poor implementation of RAAT on the specific devices. I am sorry I cannot provide more details, perhaps worth trying an advanced search in this forum?

After lots of reading and a few auditions, I'm coming to the view that an Antipodes DX3 or CX + Ultrarendu + Uptone LPS1.2 plus a Chord Dave might make a half decent Roon source to replace the CDS3/555DR.

Has anyone found a better Roon source for a similar cost?

Best regards,  FT 

Why not wait for the new streamers to be available and give them an audition they will be Roon ready. I've been very impressed with Roon on my Atom.

Or just add the Sonore UPnP Bridge to your existing system, and make your existing Naim Network player behave as a Roon Endpoint.

If you don’t have a server to run the Roon core, then one of Small Green Computers products can run the Core and the Bridge.

I went with an early NUC5i3 product to run ROCK, and a Sonore product running the Bridge. All good and all the benefits of Roon with my existing Naim Network player - who needs the ND555 product?

Thank you Simes_PEP.  I am looking to replace a CDS3/555PS and have already ripped the CDs to a Synology NAS drive (my profile has the details).  So I don't have a Naim streamer, as none have managed to lure me away from the CDS3.

Re a Roon CORE, I looked at an Intel NUC, then realised that it would be placed close to my working desk, a location that precludes any fan noise.  Equally, we don't want computer fan noise in the living room.  This train of thought leads to a Melco/Antipodes/Innuos/similar style of dedicated storage & server solution + renderer + dac.  As we quite like the Roon user interface, the choice narrows further.

Hence my question above.

Best regards, FT

Look at the Roon Nucleous it's silent and can be used as a streamer  as well as core and designed to be in with the other hifi equipment. You can still keep the music files on the nas. Al you need is a good usb DAC to feed the amp.

Or get an Akasa fanless case for the NUC. $160 or a lot less on the other side of the pond. My NUC ROCK is in my office closet, but I still might get an fanless case for it someday as it’s supposed to increase the sq by a smidgen. 

Foot tapper posted:

...

Re a Roon CORE, I looked at an Intel NUC, then realised that it would be placed close to my working desk, a location that precludes any fan noise.  Equally, we don't want computer fan noise in the living room.  This train of thought leads to a Melco/Antipodes/Innuos/similar style of dedicated storage & server solution + renderer + dac.  As we quite like the Roon user interface, the choice narrows further.

...

CompuLab makes fanless, aluminium die cast computers that are aesthetically attractive (in my view) and powerful enough to run a Roon Server and a Roon endpoint, just search for CompuLab IPC3, fitlet2 or Airtop2.

Of course, if the device is to be directly connected to a DAC via USB or S/PDIF, an Antipodes or Innuos server + renderer could be a better option. The Antipodes CX should be available starting this May. You could start from there and the possibility of adding an EX renderer would give you a nice upgrade path. For some more money, Innuos has recently introduced a two-box "Statement" server + renderer which might be worth considering. Unfortunately, Naim does not appear to have anything to offer in this department.

I wouldn’t do anything other than a 7i5 if going the NUC route, esp if doing DSD or convolution of any kind. The i5 is 60% faster than the i3 and only 20% slower than the i7 which uses 2/3rd more power. Factor in a linear power supply for it too.