Gave up with roon last year was running on a laptop had trouble streaming hi res so moved over to a bluesound node, no problems streaming hi res.
i miss the interface of roon so my questions
can i run the roon sotware and use the node as the streamer
or do i need a core, if so will a nuc stream better than a laptop dont want to spend out on a nuc only to have streaming issues again
thank in advance for any help suggestions
Hi Darren and welcome back to the Roon community (I hope) (I edited the title of your thread, I hope you don’t mind)
You need a Core and if you had issues before I would suggest that you attack that problem first.
Get a decent core and plug it directly into your router via Ethernet. A Nuc or Mac Mini M1 are not that expensive (particularly Apple devices are on offer at the moment)
Also check out the FS section where people are selling gear.)
The Node makes a nice endpoint over WiFi as I have used one.
An even less expensive option for the Core is a refurbished mini pc. They can work really well - I went with an HP Elitedesk 800 G2, which has a really small form factor. It’s been running steadily for two years now. I imagine Dell and Lenovo offer similar models, I preferred the HP.
If you don’t have particular requirements like HQ Player upsampling, this could be an option.
With windows or Rock?
I started with Windows and got everything working. At that time I was still using Audirvana, so Windows was a requirement. One of the reasons I chose this pc was that I had read reviews of it running Linux, which I wanted to try with Roon.
Currently I use Linux Mint and it works very well. I did try Rock not too long ago - it installs fine from what I could tell, but I was unable to reliably connect with my Chromebook. These devices handle apps differently, including sandboxing and natting. So there must be some packages missing which Linux Mint provides. I didn’t feel like trying to continue troubleshooting, so I reverted to Linux Mint.
Maybe a Windows or Mac laptop might have better luck connecting.
whats the best option, previously i was running a windows 11 laptop and streaming high res was sketchy where as the node streams no problems
cost isnt the issue reliable hi res streaming is, as said previus i was running a laptop with roon and it was sketchy
Darren but there are many things likely to affect that such as the age of your laptop and it’s power.
Mostly people point to networking which is what I focused on in my post.
Doesn’t matter how much you spend on the Roon server if it is running on WiFi and it is not top of the range. Roon recommend Ethernet connected servers
People run quite large libraries on crappy celeron processors in NAS boxes and small factor PCs. It’s networking that trips roon up or roon shows up networking, whichever way that seems to you.
As long as you have basic internet connectivity then the external network has little impact. It’s correct DNS lookups, internal broadcast domains etc that trip systems up.
Hello Darren
I recommend a Nucleus+. Set it up and forget all troubles.
always run on ethernet no wifi involved the lap top was not that old i just worry is the bluesound better at streaming than the roon
It’s correct DNS lookups, internal broadcast domains etc that trip systems up
thats where i get lost al i want to do is stream via roon as i love the interface not multi room the nas would sit next to my dac and amp etc can use the node if needed in the equation
Well if you are all Ethernet then you should be good to get back in and test again.
I have a Bluesound device as well as Sonos and they’re great, but the Roon interface and Metadata system is just miles ahead. Do you need it, no. Does it make browsing and playing music more enjoyable, absolutely yes.
But a non working, or poorly working Roon setup is worse than useless as you only get half of the enjoyment and such frustration.
im going to take the plunge and get a nuc as i too have a node but miss the roon interface
will start a seperate post about getting a nuc
Good luck with this Darren and plenty of people here to offer help and advice if you need it
BluOS is just a simpler path as its point to point for a single zone, device pulls direct to it. It decodes Flac and other formats on the device and its library stuff is pretty basic in comparison to Roon. Overall it does very little so can run on the low level cpus on the devices. When streaming flac or from Tidal or Qobuz you are using less overall network bandwidth with BluOS unless using wavs.
Roon isn’t point to point it requires a separate server to do all the heavy lifting pulling the streams and pushing the streams to zones. All processing of any kind (with the exception of DSP volume on Roon Bridge installs) is done on the core, it uses far more cpu power than other applications as a result of this and its deep and enriched library functions.
Whilst many can and do get a decent experience on a multipurpose pc others equally do not. This can be down to core being under specced or has some conflicts, music is on another network device etc or it can be local network environment.
I have only ever run music server software like Roon or LMS before it on a dedicated music server pc and not using any standard operating system lie windows or Mac always been scaled back Linux variants. Apart from bugs in the software itself I have had a trouble free experience music has always been able to be played and mutiroom is trouble free. As Roon is a pretty active and complex application to me it just makes sense to put it on something dedicated to it where other processes don’t get in its way. Roon will quickly expose any weakness in a system as it’s more data heavy in what it does only sends uncompressed pcm audio to zones and it’s demands for multiroom are quite strict in regards to timing accuracy and it will expose any latency in the network quite easily.
I just wanted to say something about running Rock off of a laptop as I’ve been doing this for about 3 years now. As long as the laptop isn’t super old and has a relatively new CPU & SSD with about 8 gb of ram you should be alright.
What I wanted to say about running it off of a laptop is that, in the last year I’ve added a dock and run Ethernet and my dac connection off of there. When I did this, it got rid of any noise or static that I could hear running it directly off of the laptop.
I don’t really have issues with it and use Arc with it too fine. I run backups nightly, just food for thought, figured I would share.
I use Roon in two locations, using refurbished dedicated notebooks with i5 processors, 8 gigs of ram and small SSDs. This has been an economical and problem-free solution for me.
I use a Beelink 8Core Ryzen 32gb DDR5 on a NVME all my files are on my Nas I’ve tried lots of hardware
I’m running Windows 10 just for the ease of using Roon and HQPlayer on 1 Box
If you don’t need HQPlayer and are going just Roon and your DSP requirements are manageable in Roon only as DSP is only Dual Threaded then Try Rock on a nuc or Roon Server on a dedicated box
I’m a long time subscriber. My imac core was crashing and stopping playback repeatedly. I’ve switched over to a Nucleus Plus as my Roon core about a month ago.
Solved my issues with the Roon core crashes. Installed an internal music storage SSD and works like a champ. Setup was simple.
