Gear advice for vinyl, roon, and multi-zone

I’m using rooPlay:

I have a Rega Planar 8 turntable that’s connected to a Parks Audio phono preamp. The preamp has a 24-bit, 96 kHz optical digital output that I have connected to an optical to USB adapter which goes to a Raspberry Pi 4 running the rooDial extension.

This sounds convoluted, but it works beautifully. The rooDial extension makes your turntable appear to Roon as an Internet radio station. Play the station to as many zones as you like. You can even add room or headphone-specific DSP or room correction filters.

I’ve compared the Parks Audio phono preamp to an alternative that costs three times as much and don’t feel that it’s holding back the performance of my turntable at all.

For all of your output zones, I’d buy WiiM Pro or Pro Plus streamers. Use the Pro with your external DAC or amplifier with digital input. Use the Plus in rooms where you don’t want to bother with an external DAC. If you don’t have speakers for the other rooms, a pair of JBL 306P active monitors make be an effective solution that can be connected directly to the WiiM Pro Plus.

Friends can stream Spotify or whatever to the WiiM device, but they are also Roon Ready (well, the Pro is now…Pro Plus works and should be fully Roon Ready any day now).

With this setup, you can stream high-quality vinyl playback to any or all rooms and amaze your friends.

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