ELAC Discovery

If you only use your NDX to stream from Tidal then what do you want Roon to do ?

james n posted:

If you only use your NDX to stream from Tidal then what do you want Roon to do ?

What it's for, to arrange all my artists, albums and pull all the metadata to make suggestions to other artists and give all the associated reading material.

Ah ok - I didn't realise it could do this with Tidal alone, so in this case it's acting as a front end for Tidal. Interesting...

james n posted:

Ah ok - I didn't realise it could do this with Tidal alone, so in this case it's acting as a front end for Tidal. Interesting...

You have got me wondering now James, as that's what I thought it could do...

No I think you're right. Might be worth asking the question in the Streaming section as there are a few Roon users over there. I'm genuinely interested as I should have a Roon end point in the next couple of weeks and I'm wondering how Roon would fit into my own system.  

james n posted:

No I think you're right. Might be worth asking the question in the Streaming section as there are a few Roon users over there. I'm genuinely interested as I should have a Roon end point in the next couple of weeks and I'm wondering how Roon would fit into my own system.  

Roon gives you boatloads of info on music regardless of whether it is on Tidal or local storage, and merges it into a single library (more or less, depending on which view you're using.) 

I had a look at this unit and liked its sound on the analogue output. Nice balance but of course not up to NDX quality. It runs the lite version of Roon Core which allows it to serve any Roon endpoint, but also enables Roon control of the unit itself (at least that's how the dealer seemed to be controlling it). So you could use this to play music to the NDX via its digital output.

The only reservation *may* be that I read at least one review which said the Discovery's digital output was not one of its better features. I'm not sure how sensitive to source quality the NDX is on its digital inputs but this combo should be auditioned and compared against another transport/source known to have good digital out with NDX.

ChrisSU posted:

james n posted:

No I think you're right. Might be worth asking the question in the Streaming section as there are a few Roon users over there. I'm genuinely interested as I should have a Roon end point in the next couple of weeks and I'm wondering how Roon would fit into my own system.  

Roon gives you boatloads of info on music regardless of whether it is on Tidal or local storage, and merges it into a single library (more or less, depending on which view you're using.) 

Thanks Chris. After doing a bit of reading up on Roon last night I understand a bit more of how it works now. I'll certainly give the trial a go as I can run it using my Mac Mini as a core and compare it to my Melco running via Ethernet or USB.

Anyway back to Popeye's original question.

James

DC71 posted:

I had a look at this unit and liked its sound on the analogue output. Nice balance but of course not up to NDX quality. It runs the lite version of Roon Core which allows it to serve any Roon endpoint, but also enables Roon control of the unit itself (at least that's how the dealer seemed to be controlling it). So you could use this to play music to the NDX via its digital output.

This looks like a fairly cheap, simple way to add Roon to your system, although it looks to me like you are not getting a full Roon license with it, just the Roon 'essentials' control app. That might be as much as you want from Roon, but you would need to check this. It also begs the question, why have an NDX? You might get better sound quality by spending your cash on a DAC, as all the functionality of the NDX is being replaced by the Elac.

Popeye posted:

Would using this still use the NDX DAC if connected via coaxial or not? Is this unit likely to effect sound quality?

Yes, digital out from the Elac would use the DAC in the NDX.

ChrisSU posted:

DC71 posted:

I had a look at this unit and liked its sound on the analogue output. Nice balance but of course not up to NDX quality. It runs the lite version of Roon Core which allows it to serve any Roon endpoint, but also enables Roon control of the unit itself (at least that's how the dealer seemed to be controlling it). So you could use this to play music to the NDX via its digital output.

This looks like a fairly cheap, simple way to add Roon to your system, although it looks to me like you are not getting a full Roon license with it, just the Roon 'essentials' control app. That might be as much as you want from Roon, but you would need to check this. It also begs the question, why have an NDX? You might get better sound quality by spending your cash on a DAC, as all the functionality of the NDX is being replaced by the Elac.

Popeye posted:

Would using this still use the NDX DAC if connected via coaxial or not? Is this unit likely to effect sound quality?

Yes, digital out from the Elac would use the DAC in the NDX.

No your right, there wouldn't be much point in keeping the NDX. Think I will just carry on without roon for the time being.