i consider buying the Denon Home 150 for my kitchen as a wireless roon endpoint / speaker.
Since it is the most affordable i could find and don’t seems to have Bluetooth lag as the bluesound alternative.
My Question however is do i need any additional hardware or software to use it as wireless speaker / endpoint?
The Bluesound Pulse Flex, which costs slightly more than the Denon, works with Wi-Fi and supports Roon RAAT as a native endpoint. Arguably a better alternative than Airplay 1.
There is no lag when using Wi-Fi or Bluetooth with my Bluesound Pulse Flex, so I’m not sure where you heard about lag with Bluesound. Indeed, I just checked YouTube with the Flex and that worked fine too. I can easily switch between Roon endpoint (using Wi-Fi) and Bluetooth with the Flex from iOS.
Incidentally, Airplay is a protocol that works over Ethernet and Wi-Fi too. IIRC, Roon only supports Bluetooth when connecting the Bluetooth speakers to a computer or phone running Roon.
there is some old confusion around ‘tested’ when it comes to connect devices to Roon.
-every Airplay 1 and 2 devices can be connected with Roon and controlled. The control only works from direction of Roon to the device. if you e.g. change the volume on the device this will not feed back to Roon.
-for Roon tested better check the definition issued by Roon. for me with reference to your question - Roon tested often refers to the question if you can generally connect via Roon. that could be via protocols RAAT (certified by Roon as ‘Roon Ready’ with bidirectional control), Airplay, Sonos and Chromecast. You can only groups speakers using the same protocol.
Nope. Roon tested does not mean you can connect via RAAT that is exclusively roon ready.
The reason to recommend roon tested devices over others is in the category name, they’ve been tested.
"Roon plays to thousands of USB, Airplay, and Chromecast devices, but Roon Tested devices are profiled by the Roon team to ensure simple setup and effortless daily use.
If you own a Roon Tested device or are thinking about buying one, you can have the confidence that you will enjoy the best possible experience of it."