Best Connection for Roon

Currently have a roon core of an iMac with external hard drive holding iTunes library connected to iMac. The iMac streams wirelessly to a bryston bdp pi, which is connected via Ethernet cable. I am unable to get Ethernet cable to the iMac due to an older home, which does not allow run of cable.

Would I gain greater fidelity by connecting the external drive to my AirPort Extreme, setting up as a nas, and pointing roon at the nas?

This would allow a wired connection between the nas and bdp pi.

Appreciate your feedback.

Gary Knapp

Gary Knapp

No, that would not create a wired connection between the AirPort ad hoc NAS and the Bryston endpoint. Audio always is routed through the Roon core.

AJ

Thank you sir. Would the audio quality improve if the core was wired vs wireless?aq

The solution is to put the Roon core at the wired end with the endpoint. Use the iMAC as a remote only. The remote-only device will be fine using wireless.

Nope, it would not necessarily improve sq. Others might disagree but I have found no difference using.wired or wireless.

Unfortunately I cannot relocate the iMac to the endpoint location. Hence the need for wireless.

Actually I was thinking more about reliability especially if you are upsampling or using hi res content. I’m sure the sound is the same as long as the wifi doesn’t have dropouts or bandwidth challenges.

Use the iMac as a remote. New device for storage and Roon core.

Me too - with a good internet connection the difference in SQ is non-existent.

If you have no choice but wireless, which I fully understand it’s not always convenient to pull off, then I would recommend you invest in decent wireless technology to help stabilise it, also if you can use the 5ghz AC band as it has higher throughput and less interference from neighbouring access points. Try looking at the newer mesh systems as a lot of people have good results with them.

Having the core connects by wireless though can lead to difficulties especially if your streaming off tidal. It would be sensiible to keep the drive on the mac so at least its a direct connection to your core.

But for best overall results and stability if you have wired in your listening room then maybe it’s time to look at getting a dedicated silent machine to run the core and have that with your kit. Perhaps a Sonictransporter i5, or a custom built nuc.