I would tend to agree. Especially, since Roon’s roadmap is secret and apparently takes no direction from subscribers/owners like us. Honestly, I love Roon and went for a life-time subscription right out of the gate, but if there is another product that is comparable I may jump.
I really dislike that we are kept in the dark about priorities and most importantly that we don’t have a voice into product development.
Hi all, saw this link In a post on this forum, and it worked! Roon is now playing my homepods (Stereo paired). Admin/Support, please share this, I’ve waited for a year!
If I can get Roon to play my Beoplay A9 then it’s a perfect interface.
I found it’s possible to create a stereo pair within Roon if one really wants this.
Here’s what you do:
Enable each HomePod, making sure the Volume Control is set “Device Volume”, and within Roon send some music to figure out which one is Left and Right and then label them appropriately (using little pencil icon).
While playing on one of the HomePods, click the signal path and at the top select “DSP”
Within the DSP, click “+Add Filter” and select “Procedural EQ”, and then “+Add Operation” and add “Mute Channels”
For this example (Right HomePod), mute the Left channel.
Follow same instructions for Left HomePod and mute the Right channel/
Group the speakers together and you now have a synced stereo pair! 
I didn’t think you could have DSP in grouped airplay , only RAAT suppose to be possible for groups and dsp. You sure it’s doing what you think?
https://kb.roonlabs.com/DSP_Engine:_Disabled_During_Zone_Grouping
Yes - tested with a lot of different distinct stereo tracks (Whole lotta love, most AC/DC lol, etc.).
One interesting tidbit, if you ask Siri to lower or raise volume, it treats them as a stereo pair (if you set them up that way on the Home app of course). I have single HomePods in other parts of the house as well, so if I ask the kitchen to raise the volume, only those two will go up.
Very odd as it shouldn’t.
Hey Craig - I gave this a try on my stereo-paird HomePods and it worked just like you described. I tested out some songs that I know to have hard panning of the music left to right and it sounded good. I then tried using the Qobuz app directed to the HomePods via AirPlay and playing the same tracks actually sounded a little smoother via Roon. So, overall this is a nice hack and it works!
Thank you 
You’re welcome Ali!
Glad it worked out for you!
Brilliant solution Craig!
I followed your steps and got it to work for me.
To my amateur ears there is no timing difference between left and right and sure sounds like true stereo (albeit Airplay) from my paired HomePods.
I had to work around a setting on my “My Home” app that I used to set up the HomePods. I could make the DSP settings and group them. However, even though the play transport buttons worked, the track wouldn’t advance - no sound was playing.
I went into the iPhone app and changed this setting from
“Only People Sharing This Home” to
“Anyone On the Same Network.”
Enjoying my paired HomePods with Roon now. Very nice.
Thank you @Craig_Colthorp
Tom
That’s great Tom! Glad it worked out for you and thanks for your helpful tip about the Home app. Mine was set to “Anyone On The Same Network” already so didn’t run into that.
Cheers!
Best Buy has HomePods on sale for $199.99 each this weekend.
With this Roon workaround using DSP and Airplay, it seems like a great bargain to add another endpoint to a Roon system for $400.00.
I love my paired HomePods and listen in the near field mostly. Not the same as my main listening setup but still a great sounding wireless speaker.
T.
Thanks all for helping with this. The price has gone down in the UK as well (GBP 199) so I bought a second one. The design is fun and the sound is great, though I am no fan of the software implementation or control. Sometimes they are playing music and I have literally no idea what the source is! My fault, I guess.
I also was cross to find that Roon wouldn’t see the pair as a single endpoint, but delighted that others had come here to discuss and sort it out. I look forward to trying the fix.
Hmm. Well it does work technically, but not musically, to my ears. I’ve tried it on various tracks with strong stereo imaging or movement and compared them to versions played straight from Apple Music (!) which sees the HomePod stereo pair as a single device.
With the Roon grouping solution there are a lot of phasing and timing issues and it really doesn’t sound very musical or as pleasant to listen to.
So, doesn’t work for me (unless anyone has a further fix or refinement?) but I was fascinated to implement the ‘Procedural EQ’ and thanks to Craig still stand.
This thread is nearly 2 years old. Airplay 2 was releases just over 2 years ago. Not sure if there has been a statement on Roon re ‘Airplay 2 on the Roadmap’ (so many threads about it), but after all this time and no visible progress I think we have the answer.
Regarding the price drop of the HomePods, there seems to be equal rumours that Apple are either dropping it or bringing out a HomePod 2. So the usual Apple rumour situation then, all bets hedged.
Thanks for the tips … finally a decent ‘compromise’ for stereo homepod users. Has anyone found that by just enabling the Parametric EQ, it sounded better too?
As long as there’s no significant progress being made in opening up AirPlay 2 à la Shairport Sync I wouldn’t count on Roon implementing it, since they’re apparently using the latter for their legacy AirPlay implementation, which, being a reverse-engineering project, is not officially supported or sanctioned by Apple.
I just gave up and put one in Den and one in Office.
Use for Siri or handoff of iPhone etc.
Excellent, thanks for showing this to us Craig, I’ve just ‘paired’ my Homepods with Roon and it works a treat!
Cheers
PJ
