Hi Geoff. You would designate your iMac as the Roon ‘Core’. It would populate its Library from all the music you point it to and furnish itself with the rich metadata that is a great part of the Roon experience.
That iMac would also be an ‘endpoint’ for your entertainment room, feeding the LH Labs DAC.
Your iPad would be a ‘Roon Remote’, using Roon’s iOS Remote software. It would also be another ‘endpoint’. Talking to your iMac in your entertainment room, it would receive a stream from the iMac and output it to the Bel Canto.
The iMac would have to be running, even when you’re only streaming to the living room because all the music and any manipulation of audio such as DSP, EQ, Volume Normalising, up/down sampling etc. (You only need do manipulation if you want to, but it’s there as an option) would be done by the ‘Roon Core’ - The iMac, in your case.
You could control the music selection in the living room from the iPad, think of it as ‘pulling’ the music from the iMac, you can also… if you so wish… control the music selection in the entertainment room from the iPad, in this case it’s just acting as a remote for the iMac and the iMac is pulling the music itself!
You can control the music selection in the entertainment room from the iMac, or even the iPad, if you brought it in from the living room, or an iPhone, Android phone… whatever.
Do you mean purchase Roon and then do everything as Dan has suggested, without buying any new hardware for the living room? Or do you have something else in mind?
Roon Version 1.4 introduced the ability to use an iOS device as an ‘endpoint’, as well as a remote control. Up until that release, it was not possible to stream music from the Roon Core to an iOS device. Now it is!
Yes, just as Dan has said. Here’s a screenshot of the available resolutions through my iPad into a DAC connected by USB (the internal iPad DAC is limited to 48k). The green means currently available, the yellow means available if I change some settings and red means unavailable:
Agree and it is a great option. I still would consider a $50 rPi as then the iPad (worth far more than the rPi) no longer needs to be tethered to the DAC with a USB cable. Geoff could sit in a comfy couch and use the iPad to browse and select music to play.
Thanks Nick but I’m not much of a DIYer and I have NO IDEA how to operate an “rPi.” Remote control functionality sounds great, but the more complicated the setup, the more hardware involved the more potential problems. I don’t want to solve problems. I want to listen to music.
Agree with both of you. I’d suggest starting off with the existing setup, which I think will permit a Roon trial without changing any connections, and then consider the very wide variety of options going forward if Geoff should enjoy it.
Nick is quite correct about the attractions of sitting in a comfy couch and browsing Roon with an iPad. I’m doing it myself at the moment ! It is different from a set and forget music player in that respect.
@Geoff_Mirelowitz It threw me at first using this forum to get support questions answered, but in practise it works well. As suggested if it’s a specific problem then tag support in your message. Brian, Danny and the team regularly crop up in discussions on all topics though and are very helpful.
The tone of the forum is very civilised, as you can hopefully see, which is a welcome change from most audio related ones (no names!). Also, in discussing specific problems in open forum the Roon guys are being very transparent. Sure problems arise, it’s software at the end of the day, but issues are addressed in a matter of fact way and usually very quickly.
You can also ask the Roon team some fairly direct questions that many companies would avoid answering. Just be prepared for straight (but polite) responses e.g. if something is not going to be on the development plan they will say so (to my mind better than being strung along). If you get a deafening silence it’s usually (I assume) because the reply is commercially sensitive (again fair enough).
Don’t underestimate the usefulness of other members though, they essentially spread the Roon guy’s workload and can often sort things quicker if they’ve encountered the same problem. The moderators are excellent too (have I got enough brownie points yet?!)
All in all by far the best forum I’m on (audio or other)
Thanks Phil. You and others have been very helpful. If I knew where or when we can get Roon to confirm the news in MQA’s press release yesterday regarding Roon compatibility with MQA, I would have all the initial information I need. Based on the suggestions that have been made, I may decide to go ahead and try the free trial now anyway, because it seems I may be successful in streaming my Tidal MQA/Master files wirelessly to my living room system with the Roon technology as it stands now.
Given the statements from CES then the MQA functionality will be coming to Roon, of that there is no doubt. Hopefully soon, but the developers only release things they’re happy with (which is the right approach) so sometimes it takes longer than you’d hope for. Suspect that’s not the case here but worth mentioning just in case.
I’m using a Meridian Explorer 2 DAC so already have the benefit of MQA. Without trying to open the hornet’s nest I personally find it very good indeed, making a noticeable difference. Do remember to turn of all DSP in Roon when playing an MQA track though, otherwise it isn’t MQA (no blue light). At present this is a manual task that’s a bit clunky; hopefully it will get better (feature request submitted). As and when if you need help doing it just tag me in a post, it’s easy when you know how (just four clicks, although the ideal would be that it’s automatic).
Have fun. And if you can’t wait The Meridian Exp 2 is only £140 away (it was one of my better impulse purchases!)
The Meridian Explorer 2 shows on sale for $199 at Music Direct. Not sure if that’s the equivalent of £99 or not. Perhaps that price is only available in the UK?
I don’t know what you’re using at the moment Geoff and whether the Exp 2 would be a step down for non-MQA duties. If not, or even if it’s a sideways move, then I’d be inclined to go for it. You can always use it for duties elsewhere if needs be!
I was using an M2Tech USB DAC before so the Exp2 was a sideways move, albeit to a sound that I slightly preferred. I also have a Dragonfly Black that I use for portable duties; it’s sound is more direct, less smooth, less detailed than the Exp2 (although it’s still a lovely piece of kit).
For info the rest of my system is an Ayre AX7e amp into Harbeth C/72s, so around the £5k mark list price. I’m using an Allo USBBridge as an endpoint, which is fantastic (and only £140). It was not far off plug and play but you said you don’t want to get involved in computers so maybe not for you. Besides, use the Core as your Endpoint to start off with, as I did. If you get into the whole Roon thing you can always tweak later.
