Hello. I’m new to ROON and trying to figure it out before jumping in. After going through the knowledge base and community, I haven’t found out/figured out how ROON streams to end players from a separate core over a network. Does the end output system Buffer the music data? Or does the stream from core to output have to be timed? Reason for asking is I have an Ayre QB-9 USB DAC fed by an old 2010 Mac Mini and the Ayre controls the data stream timing (music clock). If the output computer buffers the music sent from the remote ROON core, does it load the whole song before playing? Or does it load and play at the same time? Related, I’m wondering how ROON handles multi-room (multiple output devices), especially with mixed devices like if I want to play to the HiFi DAC in one room, and to an Airplay device in another. I saw something in the knowledge base that ROON tries to keep the music fairly closely timed, but admits that it isn’t perfectly synchronised.
Current hardware is the aforementioned Ayre QB-9 fed by a dedicated headless Mid 2010 Mac Mini 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo w 8GB RAM running iTunes and BitPerfect, and external FW800 drive for iTunes music data. I would like to keep the Mac Mini for the DAC and install the ROON core with music database on a separate Mac desktop or later a dedicated core box, and iPad as local control/interface. Network is a hardwired Cat5e 10/100 Ethernet through a small SOHO NetGear hub, except for the Wifi which is used for the iPad.
Bill_Janssen
(Wigwam wool socks now on asymmetrical isolation feet!)
2
Christopher, that all sounds as if it will work fine. I started with the Roon Core running on the same model Mac Mini (running Ubuntu, though), and optical Toslink from the Mini to the input of my Onkyo receiver. I’ve now moved the Core to a separate machine, and the Mac runs Roon Bridge, feeding the signal via USB to a Mytek USB DAC. In that configuration, I believe the Core talks a private protocol called RAAT to the Mini, which then outputs via USB Audio 2 to the DAC.
Bill_Janssen
(Wigwam wool socks now on asymmetrical isolation feet!)
3
I’d suggest trying Roon on your Mini, and see how it works with your DAC. It’s pretty easy; just install it, then open it and tell it where your iTunes library is. It will grind for a while, analyzing your music and pulling down metadata about it. If you keep the UI open, you’ll see your albums appear one after another as it understands enough about each album.
Bill_Janssen
(Wigwam wool socks now on asymmetrical isolation feet!)
4
It uses several different protocols, depending on the endpoint. Wants to use its own proprietary protocol, but also does Chromecast, Sonos, Airplay, and some singletons like the KEF LS50W.
Load and play at the same time. The protocol is responsible for doing enough buffering to avoid skips.
You can create temporally-coordinated “zones” from devices which are on the same protocol. But I don’t think you can do cross-protocol zones.
RAAT itself is designed to let the DAC control the clock and thus timing they believe this is the best method. This is Roons own protocol and is used just for endpoints that are Roon Ready or run Roon bridge software. Roon does buffer a certain amount before sending it on to endpoints not sure how much though
Roon wont let you group together dissimilar streaming protocols for multirooom as they all have different clocks. So you can only group together like for like. So you can group all RAAT so they can be in sync and stream to all at once but you cannot do this with Airplay and a RAAT endpoints. Smae goes for all the protocols Roon supports. So if you have a mixed eco system you can’t play in sync to all of them.
Interesting. Thank you Bill, Simon.
So if ROON won’t/can’t let you play the same music in sync to mixed endpoint devices, does it let one play different music to different endpoint devices at the same time? ie would I be able to have the wife listen to classical something on the HiFi while I listen to something else on the Airplay in my workshop (for example), all using the same Core server and account?
As for trying ROON on the DAC’s Mac Mini, I have the feeling that though it might work, there isn’t a lot of processing power in that Mini and I detest pauses and dropouts when playing back. So I would rather keep the old Mac Mini as a dedicated endpoint for the DAC and run the Core database on another, more powerful machine such as one of the two desktops I have. I was curious about the endpoint buffering as I was wondering if the old MM would be enough, but it sounds like 8GB for an endpoint streamer is more than enough, meaning I won’t have to replace it for a while yet.
Thank you.
Thank you Andrew, Ged.
I read most of that thread, at least the parts important to me, and I liked the bathtub analogy. I have to admit that I skimmed the side discussions The root for me is that my little old 2010 Mac Mini w 8GB should be more than enough as an end device for ROON to buffer to the DAC even Hi-Res music that I am slowly adding to my collection, and that I can play music to other rooms with other endpoints if I want (AppleTV in the TV room, Airport box to a clunker in the workshop where I don’t care about fidelity). Synchronised multi-room music would be nice, but not needed for my installation (home). If it gets to the point where I do want that, then I’ll upgrade the endpoint devices as necessary.
Now to clean up my music data before installing ROON.
Cheers!
Christopher
The root for me is that my little old 2010 Mac Mini w 8GB should be more than enough as an end device for ROON to buffer to the DAC even Hi-Res music that I am slowly adding to my collection, and that I can play music to other rooms with other endpoints if I want (AppleTV in the TV room, Airport box to a clunker in the workshop where I don’t care about fidelity). Synchronised multi-room music would be nice, but not needed for my installation (home). If it gets to the point where I do want that, then I’ll upgrade the endpoint devices as necessary.