I have a Chromecast TV device in the same room as my Bluesound Pulse 2. I played the Chromecast through my TV to Bluesound for about 20 seconds. No comparison to streaming to the Pulse 2.
That’s the only experience I have so thought to share it.
Thing is, most Hi-Fi products that have both Toslink and Coaxial from the same DAC chip
have 24-bit / 96khz as maximum for the optical and 24-bit / 192khz for the coaxial.
My main idea was if there is any use paying 80 Euro for the Chromecast Ultra to get more than 24-bit / 96khz over the HDMI than the Toslink.
It can use the toslink. It should show up in Roons audio devices as one of the outputs. What’s its called will depend on the board and chipset this audik section uses.
Sorry missed the bit about ROCK.You running it on a NUC? If you not running it on a supported NUC then it may or may not work on your pc. Its works ok on my non NUC but be warned you mileage may be different.
Settings will look something like this for the core in audio settings.
Realtek®High Definition Audio
(5.1) Digital audio via HDMI connector
1Audio out &S/PDIF combo jack
1Mic in jack
Its Linux certified so I guess quite generic Realtek audio chip for compability.
But if it doesent work I can get a hold of a real NUC also.
Anyhow, since it’s my first try @ Roon I dont want to waste to much money so I’ll try to get it out of the Toslink to my Marantz preamp. Then later on I have been thinkin of something like NAD M51 DAC.
Hmm you may find the cpu is under specced if it does install at all, recommended minimum is an i3 gen7. Saying that mines a gen4 i3 and its fine. But it might not support the chipset for celeron. Roon is very CPU intensive so you may find it does not run optimally especially if you want to use any of the DSP features and have multiple zones. If your just running a trial your best just installing the roon ccore software on its current OS rather than potentially blow what you already have. This way you will still find out if you like Roon and if the hardware can handle it.
Its just laying at work, was for testing enviroment. If Roon suites my needs, then ofc if I ivest 1500-2000 Euro for good MQA DAC of I can put 500 Euro on a brand new I5 Gen 8 NUC.
I won’t be using multiple rooms, I wont be using DSP atm.
I have a system where I use my PS Audio DSD as the Roon Endpoint in my primary listening system and an Oppo UDP-205 in my secondary listening system. When Chromcast support was announced I bought a Chromcast Audio unit thinking it would be an inexpensive way to add Roon streaming to an outdoor patio area that is connected to a Heos amp. I tried it the Chromecast with both the analog output (using the internal DAC) and the optical Toslink output into the Heos amp. I found both to be pretty unlistenable. Perhaps you’ll have different results but I found the SQ of the Chromcast to be pretty subpar even with an upgraded power supply. I gave up on it after about a week of experimentation.
To be honnest. My problem is that I dont want to spend to much cash on Roon before I decide to stick with it.
Im the kind of person who go full out before I have tried stuff enough (I end upp selling stuff I dont use after a few weeks, with a lot of money lost)
So this phase 1, is more a GUI test than sound quality. I just want to get it upp running.
I have already bought a Chromecast Audio (30Euro …) now so this is how it will look.
Rest of the hardware I already own.
Control: Ipad
Core: Windows Server with real desktop CPU (no NUC)
Output: ChromeCast Audio
If then, I will get along with the system, I will swap the ChromeCast Audio for a NUC output via USB to a DSD DAC to pursue better SQ.
