I am brand new to Roon. Love it.
What is the advantage of buying a receiver with Roon built in? Is it the DAC’s built into the unit?
Should i buy a higher end receiver with high end DACS (like the Audio Control XR-8 or a lesser receiver with an outboard DAC?
I plan to use pre-out from the receiver to McCormack amp(s) for music.
Thanks for your advice.
You will get multiple responses, each with a different opinion. In my mind, I would rather not use a receiver for music. I would get separate units for Roon core, DAC, pre-amp, amp, and speakers.
There are not many receivers that are Roon Ready, you sure your not mistaking Roon Tested with Roon Ready, they are not the same as they tend to use Airplay not Roons own system. Marantz and Denon are pimping this at the moment and it’s causing no end of confusion with customers as they are not fully Roon Ready and limited to connection via Airplay.
I would also not recommend a receiver for main audio. I used to use my Arcam but it’s not as good as a dedicated hifi amp.
Why? Maybe the OP wants a high end installer grade roon ready multi-channel setup with built-in dirac room correction, etc. It’s his/her money.
I gave my opinion. Feel free to give your’s.
I did. You don’t say why.
I plan to use pre-out to go to main channels which are powered by an upgraded McCormack amp.
The challenge is i only have one room for this purpose and need it to work for movies, tv, etc. Do you have a DAC that you reccomend?
No, sorry I don’t. My opinion stated above is not where I am yet. I am using a Nucleus with ethernet as well as HDMI out to an Oppo 203 DVD. From the Oppo, I go HDMI through my LG OLED to a Bose 5.1 system.
My desire is to get an amp and speakers for stereo music. If I get this, I will be using the Oppo DAC. Right now, I’m using whatever DAC is in the Bose system.
I do have a couple DAC’s for headphone listening, but that’s not what you’re looking for.
I highly recommend the RME -ADI-2 dac, but there are so many choices for you to make and only you can choose what sounds best in your setup. Some are very happy with Topping DACs and SMSL which are reasonably cheap and measure well.
I’m a new Roon user also, although I have been a receiver user since my military days in the 70’s. I’ve made good choices in components so I am used to a better than average listening experience. I am the first to admit that there are better sounding solutions but they can be pricey and take up more room than I can provide.
Presently, I have an Onkyo TX 787 that is connected via HDMI to a dedicated Mac Mini 2018 for my basic Roon setup. My peripherals include a Roku, a Blu-Ray player, Samsung TV and Bowers & Wilkins 702 speakers. With my sound system, I can distinguish compressed vs uncompressed (DVD Quality). Beyond DVD quality I have difficulty distinguishing higher resolutions. I don’t know if it is my hearing or the quality of my components. I am happy with the sound and music.
Although I am limited with space, I do plan a few upgrades. My first will be to implement a NAS for my music. This will not affect SQ, but it will make life easier for music updates and accessibility for my other music platforms. My second upgrade will be a Yamaha Aventage receiver since the DAC is touted a one of its strengths. This still needs more investigation, but I am going in a receiver direction.
As a new user to Roon, I spend a lot of time reading the community blog and learning from the experience of others. I plan to stay with Roon because the music experience has been most rewarding.
Make sure you explore the use of a NAS for music carefully on this site. I’m not sure it works as well as you would like with Roon.
Depends on how you want to connect everything up, also budget?
I plan on a QNAP two disk unit with SSD’s. I’m starting small so that I can get some experience with a NAS. I’ve done a tone of research and this seems to be the best solution for me.
I only have one room also.
I have an Onkyo 7.1 receiver which I use to feed my center, surrounds, rears, and sub. That’s good enough for movies, since these channels are mostly sound effects anyway. The other thing I think is important is a decent center channel since dialogue is what one hears predominately in movies.
For the front channels in movies, I send the front pre-outs of the Onkyo to the HT passthru of a PrimaLuna pre-amp and then on to two monoblocks.
Inputs to the receiver are a Roku and JShiver running on a media computer that also hosts RoonServer and Plex.
An Rpi 4 running Ropiee feeds the DAC.
That way I have a separate chain (DAC/pre-amp/amp/stereo speakers) for music and don’t use the DAC in the receiver.
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Much of the current McIntosh line is “Roon Tested”. But as @CrystalGipsy said, you sort of need to pay attention to what that means. It doesn’t necessarily mean it will get recognized on a network, which is what you’d really like.
But you can’t argue about it not sounding good. And of course they really make a visual statement.
The receiver the op mentioned is, according to the company, roon ready, i.e. raat installed, just not yet certified. A lot different than roon tested, airplay, d+m, etc, which has muddied the water and caused a lot of confusion.
NAS works nicely but I got a Roon Nucleus and put a hard drive in it to simplify.
NAS works nicely for some, not all.