AirPlay 2 Support in Roon for Paired HomePods

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41

Thanks everyone for your reports. What’s your take on @Iain_Boyd’s comments on sound quality?

42

How will this one work with Roon ?

43

I am adding my request here for official Roon support for the HomePods so that I can select paired HomePods from Roon without having to resort to workarounds.

I have 6 HomePods.

Thanks

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44

I think 1.8 is coming soon and I hope it includes this support. I have unpaired my Home Pods for now.

45

Doubt it. You do realise that airplay2 is limited to iOS or MacOs clients only. It won’t run for people on anything else. So I don’t see Roon fracturing their userbase for this hardware. Its not the way they operate, if it can’t run on all configs it wont get support. So until it’s reversed engineeres and open source so it will work on any platform like Airplay was don’t hold your breath.

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46

Thanks Simon. I was not aware of this difference between Airplay and Airplay2.
I am sure you are right about not wanting to limit users.
Everything I own is Apple. There are now 1.6 billion cell phones in the world and 1 billion of them are iPhones.
Apple is moving forward as if everyone was like me and totally immersed in their ecosystem.

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47

Funny as Android has considerably more users than iOS in every country they put it at just over 71 % to 23% Apple globally so I think you figures are off there and global count for smart phones is nearer to 4 billion.

As for computer OS we all know who dominates here and it isnt Cupertino.

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48

While I’d love to see Airplay 2 support in Roon, I doubt it will happen until it is “solved” by third parties. However, some promising developments happened in the past weeks. See https://github.com/mikebrady/shairport-sync/issues/535

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49

Since Roon already supports AirPlay, I don’t see why they would be fundamentally opposed to AirPlay 2. A large number of audio and TV manufacturers already support AirPlay 2.

I agree that it is limited to being initiated by Apple iOS devices, but in wealthier markets Apple maintains a substantial share of the market - especially in the US, UK and Germany. So it will depend on how this matches to Roon’s user base (which I’d imagine will be similarly skewed to wealthy markets).

Stereo use of HomePods is no doubt a very minimal part of even that market segment so I can understand that it won’t be a priority for Roon unless it comes as part of general AirPlay 2 support. Still, it would be good to see.

50

Airplay though can currently be used on any platform due to it being fully reversed engineered and made open source.n So it was easy for Roon to add it. Until Airplay 2 gets to this I can’t see it being added. Whilst it has been in development for a while and they made breakthroughs last year it seems to be a slow process and a ways of yet. So is the way of property products tied to one eco system. But as soon as its tried and tested I am sure they will add it like everyone else will

There is a workaround using DSP and normal airplay with Roon to get Stereo pair to ride people over or not.

51

Apple itself is FINALLY about to support Airplay2 for default system output in Big Sur 11.3. So, it’s hard to be too disappointed with Roon.

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52

That’s not the same thing at all. Roon should have Airplay 2 support a long time ago like so many other devices and software.

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53

I was under the impression that Roon used shairport-sync like every other streaming OS out there, but looking at the open source components, it’s not listed there (nor is the older shairport):

So it’s either an omission or they are doing something very different. Assuming that it’s an omission, the shairport-sync guys are just starting to crack open airplay2, so I wouldn’t expect airplay2 support for a while yet. But if they are doing their own airplay implementation who knows.

Sheldon

54

No one is arguing that. There are lots more Apple speakers out there than most other brands. I have but one Meridian node but five pairs of HomePods. To me, all the info razzle dazzle is of relatively little interest to me. Good AirPlay2 support is my #1 requirement. All else pales.

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55

i’ve tried @Craig_Colthorp 's workaround and it worked but definitely sounded sub-par compared to addressing the HomePod stereopair directly via AirPlay 2. The workaround that works/sounds best IMHO is to

  • use a Mac running macOS Monterey as the Roon Core
  • in Control Center send all sound output to the HomePod pair via “AirPlay” (this actually uses AirPlay 2)
  • turn off all OS sound effects and/or ensure they are not played through the HomePod pair :wink:
  • instruct Roon to play through “System Output”

Compared to what Roon normally does for sound quality and fidelity, this is a travesty. But it does work and to me sounds best, under the circumstances.

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56

Hi again, Craig…

Though I had this working last year, I am no longer able to make it work. I am using a different set-up with 2 HomePod minis and can do the set exactly as you describe, but as soon as I click on play, Roon seemingly starts to play, only to stop a split second later.

I essentially can’t get Play to happen.

Any idea why this may be occurring?

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57

cross-posting here: Is AirPlay 2 on the Roon roadmap? - #80 by gerald

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58

Thanks so much! I saw that yesterday and was able to make it work on my end.

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59

Just a thank you to @Craig_Colthorp for the idea/setting for this.

I’ve been using my Apple TV 4K with Apple HomePod Mini’s set in stereo mode with Roon, which has been working perfectly. That is, until they updated… Scratching my head for the last week and a half and countless hours of my life lost, I finally found the answer and a work around.

It seems Apple updated AudioOS which killed the feature?

60

Now that Roon 2.0 makes use of the native macOS support of the NET framework, I’m hoping that this will allow them to easily access macOS’s official libraries for sending to AirPlay 2 devices (when the core runs on macOS).

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