I am now in my second year of using Roon, which I mainly use for the quality of the wireless audio to stream Tidal. I have been using a Rasberry Pi 3 as my Roon bridge but my second RP has now packed up and I want to get something a little more robust.
My setup is as follows:
In the lounge:
Naim Nait 5Si amp
Chord Qutest DAC
DynAudio M600’s
Rasberry Pi 3 with Hifiberry DIGI+ using Optical out to the Qutest
In the bedroom:
Main server PC running Roon server
Used to control:
IPad Air 2 with Roon remote which controls the Roon server in the bedroom which pings the audio over RaaT to the Rasberry Pi connected to everything in the lounge
It’s arguable that Roon is overkill for my needs as I primarily use it to stream Tidal. However I do like the extended information that comes with Roon but mainly I love the RaaT wireless protocol that gives me a lossless signal whilst controlling everything from my IPad whilst sitting on my sofa. It’s a nice setup that I am happy with when it works, my only problem is the robustness of the Rasberry Pi. It does a stirling job when it works but now the wheels have just fallen off my second one, I think it’s time to get something a little better to setup as a Roon bridge.
Does anyone have any recommendations or can tell me what works for them? I don’t want to break the bank on this so something that can feed my Chord Qutest with a solid signal that won’t die on me anytime soon.
Another Pi combination, but the Allo DigiOne is a great match for the 2Qute. Go for the aluminium case, which also acts as a heatsink, and install Ropieee. I use a quality Van Damme/ Neutrik 75 Ω interconnect. Ideally, connect Roon Server and Roon Bridge (the Pi) to a wired network.
You must be unlucky with your Raspberry Pi … I have a few and two are on 24 x 7 x 365 and have been running for 2 years+. Are you sure the Pi has failed? Could it be the SD Card?
Yup, especially if mainly listening to Tidal. And I wouldn’t worry about Chomecast Audio’s TOSlink jitter that’s reported. Not with Qutest’s TOSlink input anyway:
What makes you think that the CCA has been discontinued?
I ran a quick search and found a post on another site from January of 2018 where someone suggested that it had been discontinued then but got an answer saying it was available on the Google store although it was temporarily out of stock. I checked the Google store and found it still listed and on sale. The terms of the sale are as follows:
Save $20 on Chromecast Audio. Starts November 22, 2018 at 12am PT and ends February 28, 2019 at 11:59pm PT, while supplies last and subject to availability. US residents only. Must be 18 years or older. Unless otherwise stated, offer cannot be combined with other offers and is not transferable. Purchase must be made on Google Store US. Not valid for cash or cash equivalent. Void where prohibited.
I guess one might take the “while supplies last and subject to availability” text to mean it has been discontinued but it could also just be required legalese.
I know you are Metrum guy! How do you like the Ambre? What DAC do you use? I just received my Ambre last night and I’m still waiting for my Onyx to arrive…Currently just using DAC in my Rotel 1572, but I think it still sounds pretty damn good! Def an updgrade from Bluesound without a question.
Thank you all for your replies. I have a few more questions:
What is the difference in terms of sound between a CCA and a RP3 with a Digi+ add-on board? If CCA is bit-perfect when connected to the Qutest, then I guess what more can one ask for
Which leads me to my next question, the Metrum Acoustic AMBRE looks like a lovely peice kit with a price tag to match. If the CCA gives me a bitperfect stream, why would this be a consideration?
WIth regards to the Atom, I did look at into this when it was released but I love the sound my current setup gives me. I had an Audiolab MDAC+ before the Qutest and the difference when upgrading I found to be night and day. There is something about the Chord sound married with the Naim sound that just works for me. I don’t want to go down the rabbit hole of replacing core components when all I need is a solid Tidal stream source.
It’s really difficult to ignore the CCA at it’s price, especially as Roon has built in support for this and I think the native Tidal iOS app might too, but I don’t know if native Tidal would be as good a stream as going through Roon. Does anyone happen to know?
Ah that’s interesting, multiple roon endpoints was something I want to do in the future so this could be the reason not to get the CCA.
Perhaps my RP3 hasn’t given up the ghost, I’ll try another SD card and see if that fixes it. If I have to replace an SD card every year or so I can live with that.
I have adopted a setup and forget on the CC side of things. I really only use for displays but I guess if you can group them in the CC interface then that’s something…how well they will stay in sync might be an issue perhaps…ymmv
