Dear Roon forum,
Before I go on I want you to please bear with me as I am an audio noob and I do not know all the hifi audio ins and outs, so please forgive my ignorance. I am considering in trying to test drive Roon, but before I can do this I want to fact check what I know about Roon. I am planning to embark on an audio diy project and purchase and build a “standard” classic audio kit from scratch on a budget. Standard as in stereo loudspeakers and a traditional amplifier attached to it.
Core Machine (Roon Rock, AMD B450 motherboard with AMD Ryzen 5 3400G)
- AMD Ryzen 5 3400G
- Gigabyte B450 I Aorus Pro WiFi
- G.Skill Trident Z Neo 32GB - F4-3600C18D-32GTZN
- Samsung 970 PRO 512GB M.2
- Seasonic Focus SGX Gold 650
- Noctua Low Profile Cooler
- Silverstone SG13
or similar.
Network Details (Including networking gear model/manufacturer and if on WiFi/Ethernet)
Cisco SMB 1 Gb Switch
Ubiquiti Unifi AC Pro
Kobol Helios 64 NAS
Android OnePlus 6 (Roon Controller)
Audio Devices (Specify what device you’re using and its connection type - USB/HDMI/etc.)
Amplifier: https://www.google.com/amp/s/spectrum.ieee.org/consumer-electronics/audiovideo/build-your-own-professionalgrade-audio-amp-on-the-sort-of-cheap.amp.html
Speakers: https://youtu.be/h-RSm97lkOU
Description Of Issue
My questions are this:
My main concern is this, I read there is a possible setup for Roon with an Raspberry Pi Endpoint and an Allo Digione top hat which features a digital output for streaming sound from Roon. The thing I do not get is how can I get the audio signal to a traditional set of speakers (or in my case an hifi audio amplifier), or is this not possible? In case it is not possible with this DIY amplifier, would a standard of the shelf amplifier from a HiFi dealer do, or is there other equipment I need for this to work? What am I missing here?
Also I read on the website that for the Roon Core only Intel processors are supported. Is this true or can I also use an AMD system? In case AMD processors are supported, what kind of performance can I expect with a typical AMD system for the one which I described? Will this kind of setup do the job?
As a last thing I also would like to know if Rock setup for the Roon Core is required, and if a standard Linux Distro would work as well? My goal is to actually make a plex/ roon core system which supplies video through Plex and audio through Roon. Would that work or will you run into duplicate port conflict settings with Plex by going this route, and installing plex on the same machine as Roon?
Thank you in advance for taking the time to answer my questions.