I’m just wondering if the Aries LE is Roon Ready, as an endpoint like it’s more expensive brother ?
Yes it is.
Thanks 
. Although I see that the Aries don’t support Spotify connect. I’m really looking for an endpoint that supports Roon Ready, Spotify connect and Airplay. This would cover all of my devices and listening scenarios. But no luck just yet.
If your are bound to Spotify, Roon maybe not the best solution. But why don’t you switch to Tidal? This and roon are perfect for the Aries. Each and every cent was well invested in my lifetime subscription.
Just for the simple fact that Spotify has quite some albums that Tidal doesn’t.
You may have seen in the Media Services thread that Spotify most probably will not come. Furthermore mot many ask for it. When you check the statistics, you see that less than 300 users were interested in this topic; more tahn 2’500 in Qobuz.
Don’t get me wrong, but why do you buy an Aries to listen to compressed music? Or is this just something you want to use to make your music library complete? In this case you could steam Spotify via AirPlay directly to the Aries.
I have set up a cheap solution to solve the same problem. I love Roon and Tidal to play my hires files and stream with better quality. The problem is that the rest of the family use Spotify and I really like spotifys recommendations.
The easiest solution is to buy a Raspberry Pi and then buy an IQAudIO PI-DAC+ or use a USB dac. Fire it up with Runeaudio, Moode or Volumio. Install the Roon bridge script. Now you have a Roon ready endpoint with Airplay support.
The hardest part is to get Spotify connect. I ran google translate and followed these instructions:
http://powerpi.de/spotify-connect-auf-dem-raspberry-pi-2-installieren-dein-smartphone-ist-die-fernbedienung/
Now I have an endpoint that I can enjoy Roon and Tidal with. Family and friends can hook up through Airplay or connect through Spotify connect
If you want in my opinion better DAC for the Pi then i recommend the Mamboberry DAC. You can get it pre installed with a nice small case: http://www.collybia.com/product/mambo-media-player/
Evan has already an AirPlay endpoint. The Aries supports this. So the family can use their iPhones to stream Spotify, Apple Music, et cetera directly to the Aries.
Sorry, I got the impression that he was considering to buy a Aries not that he had one.
Thanks guys. I’m considering to buy an Aries. The reason for Spotify connect as opposed to airplay, is because of the advantage of the way it works, in that the client/remote isn’t streaming anything to the endpoint. So you can do multiple things with audio at the same time on one iDevice.
Lazerharp, thanks for that info. I actually have tried something similar to this before. However correct me if I’m wrong, but as you need to enter your own spotify user/pass to get the script to work, doesn’t that mean that only spotify clients logged in with that user, can see the endpoint ?. In other words, it won’t work like a commercial spotify implementation, where everyone on the network can just see the endpoint, and stream …regardless of what user they are logged in as.
Yes, you are right. You have to enter your credentials in the script.
Right. If you ever find a Spotify connect Pi implementation, where any client can see the endpoint, regardless of user logged in, then let me know
The only device that I could find, which supports Spotify and Roon (don’t ask me about details) seems to be the dCS Rossini. But for me it would be far too expensive.
If you can live with streaming Spotify from an iDevice. I can absolutely recommend the Aries. What I would think about - even though I love roon and we are in a roon forum - is, consider buying the Femto version and add roon later. Unfortunately you cannot upgrade a LE to a Femto.
Interesting! And yes, probably way over my budget. I think, Volumio + Roon bridge install on a Pi, might be the best solution in the end actually . It seems a little tough, to get all 3 protocols on one endpoint. But who knows what is coming down the track this year!