first time Roon user here (v1.2), everything works (with the occasional drop out), but I have a question re the installation. I am using
NAS -> Auralic Aries -> DAC/HiFi
… with no music stored on my mac that I am using to control Roon.
During installation I got the choice between (1) “I want to use this PC to manage my music library” vs. (2) “I want to use this PC as a remote control”. I went with option (1), but I am not sure if this is correct for my setup, I wanted to try option (2) but could not go back to try it as seem to have been set on (1) with no possibility to change it.
In ‘Settings’, Roon displays Library as ‘On this Mac’, when in fact it is on my NAS; and does the fact that my Auralic Aries is ‘Roon ready’ mean that it can house the Roon Core, and my Mac would really just be the remote?
You’ve done the right thing. The Core will run on your Mac. Since audio always goes through the Core, the path will be NAS-Mac-Aries-DAC.
Depending on your NAS and the size of your collection it may be possible to run RoonServer on it. You will see some threads on this forum about that. That would mean the Core on your NAS and the Mac would be a Remote. In that case the audio would only go through the Mac if you sent it to a zone connected to the Mac.
The Aries can’t run Roon Core. Being RoonReady is the equivalent of running RoonBridge plus some extra things when available. The Aries is an Output only.
So I am going NAS > {wireless} > Mac > {wireless} > Aries > {USB cable} > DAC/HiFi, which probably explains the dropouts.
From that POV it seems to make more sense to have Roon server on my NAS, which is connected to the Aries via an Ethernet cable (via a switch). My NAS is a QNAP and my collection is pretty small compared to some (ca. 400 GB) - is it straightforward to do?
OK, just had a quick look - it seems that many NAS don’t not have the processing power to run the Roon core adequately (not sure about mine: QNAP 219, ca. 3 years old).
I just started to play a few High Res tracks (24bit / 192kHz + 24bit / 96kHz), and they all have pretty severe drop outs, so this will probably kill Roon for me. Shame as I really started liking it, and I appreciated been able to control the music via my laptop, and not having to use a tablet for it (which runs Auralic’s Lightning DS).
As I think you suspect, it’s the wireless between the NAS and the Mac that causing the drop outs.
To confirm you could try hardwiring the Mac to your LAN.
Do you have any other Mac or PC hardwired to your LAN that you could use to run either Roon or RoonServer on?
RoonServer (no GUI) is not as demanding Roon, so it might be possible to run RoonServer on your QNAP but at this point in time, whilst RoonServer is now available on Linux, being honest Roon on QNAP is more experimental than main stream. If you’re really interested it might work but unless Roon build a QNAP package it never going straightforward. (I would like this too BTW).
If you don’t have any other hardware options, you could consider purchasing a small Intel NUC running Windows, or a Mac Mini.
No worries Samuel, keep an eye on the Software Release section of the forum for any RoonServer version for your NAS. I’d have to echo Carl’s words about a NUC. I run RoonServer on a BRIX with my smallish library on an SSD, I can imagine a BRIX for RoonServer with a NAS for storage would give very good Roon performance.