So, I’ve been testing out Roon with a Bluesound Pulse Flex. Now, I’m looking to incorporate Roon into my main home theater system. I have a lot of FLAC 5.1 files in my collection. I had hoped the OPPO 203 could be the endpont, but no multichannel support. Then I bought Bluesound Node 2 only to learn that it too does not support multichannel.
So, unless I am missing something, the only endpoint options in the $500 or so range are a PC/NUC or maybe Raspberry Pi device?
This got me to realize that I have a Microsoft Surface Pro 3 that could be used (though it does need a touchscreen repair). So, I think I’m going to give this route a try. I’ve got a docking station, so the Surface could look pretty slick on my HTPC rack, with the added benefit of being an additional control device that my kids don’t walk away with as they do currently with my iPad.
One thing I am trying to decide is whether to also move my Core to this Surface. My current Core is a QNAP TS 653A NAS, which is a few years old with Celeron CPU.
Is there any harm in moving the Core to the Surface and having it also be Endpoint (and maybe occasionally Controller)? Or, am I best to sacrifice the CPU horsepower and keep the Core on my NAC? BTW, Surface is i5, and both devices would be hiredwired to gigabit LAN.
I’d also appreciate any other advice for options zing my setup, and makeup no sure it is stable and reliable.
I had problems with connected standby/modern standby using a lenovo surface pro knockoff.
In my setup, I had to disable all sleep/standby modes, including screen timeout. Roon wouldn’t keep running even during screen timeout when everything else was supposed to still be running. Screen timeout apparently put in in some double secret “modern standby” mode. There’s a secret registry entry you can modify to disable modern standby, but it’s otherwise not accessible from any settings menus. I think there may be some “keep awake” utilities you can install as another workaround.
Even with disabling all the standby modes, it didn’t really seem stable for a server type app.
I ended up installing the server on an old i5 mini tower I had sitting around and put it under a desk back in the office.
This is purely anecdotal. Theoretically it should work and should be plenty powerful enough.
Theoretically you can run Rock on the Surface Pro, especially if it’s got screen issues. With Rock you don’t really need a screen. I tried searching to see if anyone’s done that and it’s unclear, but conceptually I think you can. This would avoid any screen timeout/sleep mode issues with the Surface. Maybe someone that’s tried this can chime in.
