ARC at the cabin/office, etc... how are you getting the best sound quality?

Not talking about being in the car using Carplay; or on a walk, sending your phone’s audio to bluetooth earbuds.

Thinking more about those who are using ARC to extend their Roon library to an alternate location, like their office or cabin or second home or whatever… What are you doing to maximize sound quality?

Maybe it’s as simple as a dock for your device to an RCA connection to your stereo. But maybe you’re doing something more elaborate.

Just curious.

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Android phone, usb c to AQ Dragonfly Black , 3.5mm to twin RCA cable into an older Aiwa all in one stack.
Sounds better than I expected by far!

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  1. iPhone to AQ Cobalt DAC to either headphones or 3.5mm to RCA then to anything going

  2. Bose lightning dock at mother-in-law’s (yes Bose)

  3. Android phone, as per 1)

Preferred is 1)

@AceRimmer Aiwa, wow, they bring back memories

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is that with a lightning to camera adapter?

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Correct, the one you can charge at the same time.

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I haven’t gotten there yet, but maybe it’s time to try. I have a separate core at my second home, and I want to be able to control each of the 4 zones I have set up there. But maybe it’s time to just accept that none of them are “critical listening” setups and instead to just accept that it’s time to go back to basics. Not sure tho. Switching cores back and forth is now part of “arriving”.

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Make sure you grab that next Early Access build and let us know how its going :wink:

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Nothing fancy here. In my office, iPhone or iPad, lightning->USB connector that also allows charging, USB into a pair of Peachtree M24 desktop speakers. Sounds great, especially cranked up a bit when I have the hallway to myself! :wink: Cheers!

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Oooh hints at something Androidy. Naughty Mike.

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Always:
Apple CameraConnection Kit into a Chord Hugo 2 and then out to headphones or RCA into a music setup, like this one:

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iPhone to FiiO Q5s (using FiiO’s Lightning to micro-USB short cable) to Sennheiser ie900.

I could also try the above to my systems at home, but they are all already served with Roon end points.

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I’m around generators at work, Active Noise Canceling for me is huge. I use a lighting to usb adapter, Audio Quest red, then wired into Sony ANC headphones.

Generally I use my actual laptop as the source, and we don’t have ARC for windows yet - but there is a Tidal app. So I’ll just use tidal for windows if my phone is busy tethering.

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For use with ARC I recommend this one:
Sennheiser’s momentum 3 true wireless

Here is a link to Darko Audio’s presentation:

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Roon ARC on iPhone 12 mini > Apple Camera Adapter with USB and Lightning > AudioQuest DragonFly Cobalt > Bowers & Wilkins P7 wired.

Very happy with the sound.

EDIT: I would love to use my Onkyo DP-X1 DAP with ARC, but the app is not available for that older device.

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great responses, all.

It would be great to actually have an ARC PC/Mac app for these remote uses, but I’m guessing that’s not top priority. (Or maybe they’d prefer not to condone it!)

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For my office set up I’ve started using ARC on my iPad usb out to > SMSL SU-9 dac > Emotiva BasX A-300 > Kef Q150s. Nothing like my home set up but in my office I don’t need it to be. I love having ARC/Roon in the office for the first time, and, by virtue of the percentage of my waking hours spent here, now do the majority of my weekly Roon listening at work.

I am desperate for ARC improvements in filtering my library searches though. Really looking forward to the day ARC and Roon 2.0 are at feature parity in that regard.

24 posts were split to a new topic: Android USB DAC only plays at 16/44.1

Top job Team Roon.

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When in the ‘office/office’ and not the ‘home/office’ which is once a week or so.

iPhone into a pair of B&W MM-1 Desktop speakers through Lighting to USB ‘Camera’ adapter. Limited by the DAC in the MM-1 to 24/48, but still sounds great for a glass walled office cube.
Office WiFi/internet demoted to a 5G Mobile broadband service into a single WAP preserving SSIDs, from the previous symmetric fibre based service (cost €1,000/month to €15/month, saving lots)

Getting to the office by car
iPhone into a Dension ICE Plus Link iPod adapter into the stock OEM ‘CD Business’ head unit in my ‘03 BMW 318Ci Coupe, with ID3Tag support on the head unit display. Took an Apple 30-pin to Lighting cable (& extension), but very pleased this works. 4G/5G service to the iPhone allows for ‘orginal format’ playback and the iPod support is limited to 24/48, but HiRes on a 20-year OEM head unit.

Getting to the office by public transport
iPhone with Ztella DAC with wired B&O IEMs - fully support upto 24/192 PCM & DSD 128 (DoP). Shame no MQA as Ztella is a render, so needs Roon Core to do 1st unfold upto 24/96 with MQA signaling to the ARC endpoint.
Other headphone choices - B&W P5 Wireless (or Wired), BT AirPod type, Bose Sport wired IEMs

Getting to the office by Bike
iPhone with Apple 3.5mm headphone dongle with Bose Sport IEMs which have a pass through so you hear the traffic, and Apple dongle so the remote works (and take/make calls). Limit 24/48 by the Apple dongle.

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Arc has been great for us at our cabin. We have a set of M-25 Peachtree Speakers and a Polk Audio PSW-10 powered subwoofer. A couple of Sonos Ones give us Airplay coverage in the kitchen and porch when needed.
We used to have to pack up the NUC, the SSD, and the cables to bring everything along. Now we just bring the iPad and a Dragonfly and run direct to the Peachtree input.
The M-25s do not support Airplay but I got around that by finding one of the older Apple TVs on eBay with an optical out which connects to the Peachtrees and shows up as an Airplay device in Roon.

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