Dutch & Dutch 8c: pre-Roon Ready thread

This is tricky due to the fact the solution you’d likely want isn’t available yet. @JD_M has been a beta user of version that supports roon via lan in the 8cs. He thinks it’s hands down better than going digital using AES/EBU (which is much better than going analog). Once that is released you could then go Roon via lan and turntable via a pre-amp with phono inputs and XLR outs and use Lanspeaker to switch sources. This is probably the ideal choice if what @JD_M says is true. BUT…I would not expect LAN support in the 8Cs to be released in the short term as its been expected for over a year and D&D won’t make any commitment on when it will be released.

Given this you probably need an alternative solution for the short (med?) term. I’m not aware of any network transports that have AES/EBU outs and an analog in (for the turntable). It’s possible they exist and if they do this would likely be the best alternative option but I don’t know of any. Maybe others can suggest something here.

Alternatively you could go this route (although more complex and do-it-yourselfy) and have access to your turntable from all your zones: Introducing Entrypoints, the audio entrance to Roon. I’m not sure if this is a high quality choice however…

Without any other workable short/med term option then you’d likely have one of a couple of choices:

  • A network transport with AES/EBU outs for Roon (going digital into the 8cs is better than analog if you’re starting with digital as it minimizes A/D and D/A conversions) and a preamp with phono inputs and XLR outs for the turntable and a XLR switcher to choose between them. This is probably the highest quality alternative since you stay digital with Roon into the 8Cs for the reasons noted and you stay analog with the turntable into the 8Cs and let the 8Cs do the A/D and D/A conversion. You would have to both switch sources with the switcher and use Lanspeaker to switch the XLRs between digital and analog input. This is a bit clunky but probably the highest quality short/med term alternative.

  • You could also pair a network transport with a preamp that has phono inputs and a DAC and go analog XLR to the 8cs. This is much simpler as you’d use the preamp for switching sources but then your Roon chain undergoes a D/A in the preamp, a A/D in the 8cs to use it’s DSP tech and then another D/A to go to it’s amp which is less then ideal IMHO.

There may be other approaches I haven’t considered but thought I’d provide some input for you…