Cheap Roon Endpoint

I use Asus Tinkerboard (better hardware than Raspberry Pi), and Volumio (Download |Get Started | Volumio). Volumio has Roon endpoint as a plugin. Using USB to my DAC.

Sadly, JPEG2000 was ahead of its time - the hardware of the day simply wasn’t up to it. The underpinning technology is still used in many commercial applications, though.

Just wanted to say a huge thank you to everyone that gave me their kind advice in relation to my post.

I have taken the plunge and purchased a RPi 4, Official RPi 4 power supply, HiFiBerry DAC2 HD, HighPi, Raspberry Pi 4 Model B Case and 32Gb Samsung Micro SD card.

Everything arrived this afternoon, and by 4.30pm, Bowie was thumping out of my Kudos Titan 606s. :+1:

It was ridiculously easy! The hardest part was attaching the plastic spacers/supports between the RPi 4 and the HiFiBerry DAC2 HAT! :smiley:

RoPieee downloaded to my iMac, then loaded to the SD card without issue.

Roon recognised it immediately…A bit unsure of the MQA settings, as I don’t think the DAC supports it?

I have to say, the top shelf of my rack looks a tad bare, compared to when I had the Bartók! :laughing:

Job done…Thanks everyone :clap:

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Shame about the Bartok.

Wondering how you think the SQ compares using the RPi w/DAC HAT.

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I heard the difference immediately. The new temporary setup is not a patch on the Bartók. But then what does one expect, £157 versus £11,499

Not sure if the RPi and the HiFiBerry DAC will sound better over time?

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Glad to hear all went well.

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Glad to see you found a solution, for anyone who is using a dac and is looking for a solution for a very cheap yet extremely capable roon endpoint an android box works very well.

But it’s not really an Android box any more after you put CoreElec on it, is it? It’s an ARM running Linux and Roon Bridge, do I understand that correctly? Much like a Pi running RoPieee?

Correct, however, you will be sideloading it to an SD card meaning the android portion of the android box is retained if you ever need it. It is very similar to running on a PI with RoPiee but in my testing boots up much quicker and is not susceptible to the same corruption issues that plague the PI with improper shutdowns. It also has the added benefit of being able to be used with HDMI Receivers for multi-channel output as well as toslink/coax dacs provided the box supports these ports. Corelec also has the added benefit of being able to be used as a dlna renderer as well. In my country these boxes are also about 1/5 the price of a Rasberry PI.

Wow! 1/5! Cool, and it may be a better design than the Pi, as well. We should probably look at more of these boxes.

I highly recommend it, they are extremely reliable and have the added benefit of being able to upgrade the power supply if one desires. Also, the fact that it is not USB-powered means it sounds cleaner out of the box. Although I imagine a PI with a good hat might do it better. For context, I now use a bluesound node 2i and in all honesty, there isn’t much if any improvement to sound when using an external dac. The cheapest and guaranteed-to-work well box I have tested and used is the mxq pro 4k running an s905 processor.

My Apple TV now shows up as an endpoint! Not the best sound quality but handy for party mode

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Hate to bump this thread, but while all the recs are great and I do have an RPi4 endpoint with HiFiBerry hat that works great… I’m frankly stunned that we have to DIY to get a functional decent quality endpoint under $500 in this day and age.

Is there a nice streamer endpoint, no crazy features just a nice box with wifi and RCA outs, around the $150-200 price point that Just Works and runs RAAT well?? If not would anyone like to go in on producing one and selling it? (Kidding…. Sorta)

Only digital, but it’s a decent quality endpoint.

You are asking for a lot at that price point and if you have tried the Hifiberry then that is as cheap as it goes (I have the digital and analogue versions and while they are great, are not really a match for a Zen Stream or Matrix Audio mini I 3)

Though the Zen Stream is good as I have one (along with the superb mini I Pro 3), it has digital and USB outputs so needs a DAC or a system with a DAC to get it working. You can use a cheap DAC like the newest Zen DACS that are $99

There is the Bluesound Node which does most things well and the Primate NP5 mk2 but both are more expensive and the NP5 only does digital output as well.

Darko and Hans have covered some low cost ones on their YouTube channels so you might want to try them and watch some of their thoughts at this price point

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You would struggle to find something around $200. As all prices have gone sky high. When I sold my RPi 4, I got more for it than I paid.

I can only recommend what I have had.
At present I have a Naim NDX2 (£5,400) UK.
However, I can highly recommend a Bluesound Node 2i. (£550) UK. Their app and technical support is 1st class. Bluesound are a Canadian company.
See if you can get a pre owned Node 2i.

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Ha ha that is well outside the requested price, but I understand what you are saying.

The Node 2 is a good choice for its total flexibility, a Node 2i would be cheaper but the DAC is not as good as the latest model.

I had a PowerNode 2i and was always impressed with at for the price point

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:grinning:Yes I know! :smiley:

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Still out there on eBay are plenty of Chromecast Audio dongles. $50 or so all in. (3.5mm audio out, so you’ll split to RCAs. Jack doubles as optical if you have a DAC.)

Finding this is really good. It’s comparing favorably to my Pi + Pi2AES HAT into Denafrips Pontus II.

Got mine for around $650 used.

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Hi Chris I have a couple of CC audio pucks and agree they are great (one of them completes the connectivity on the MA so it does everything I could need), but the poster was specifically asking about Roon Ready devices, so I left it out.

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