I’m curious about how much RAM would be enough for a streamer and why. Also, as far as I know, using an external streamer hasn’t prevented anyone from taking full advantage of a USB DAC’s internal clock.
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How much ram depends on the size of the devices basic os and the services they want to run to make it flexible. Roon Ready is reasonably heavy compared to other protocols, reason it’s just been dropped from appearing on Wiim mini which has 128MB of onboard DRAM. Chromecast too is memory heavy to implement, something Naims brought up as an issue on their hardware.
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Isn’t Roon running smoothly on the Gustards already?
I haven’t come across people complain g about Roon not working?
Worse case scenario I could add a RPi4 as Roon endpoint and built in touchscreen to show Roon album art but this setup would be clunky.
The Rs250 integrated approach is much cleaner and potentially less frustrating but i am concerned it’s “relatively less advanced” chip 9038Q2M.
Which route do you think have the less chance of failure, Hifi Rose RS250 or Gustard A26+RopieeXL screen?
If you want a DAC with the AK4499EX chip and bring RoPieee into play, you have two cheaper alternatives to the Gustard A26… For one there’s the SMSL D400EX (USD 960), and then there is the recently released Topping E70 Velvet (USD 450).
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It is true that the streamer is underpowered for the price and only has 128MB of ram, but it still works fine with Roon up to its maximum PCM768/DSD512 without stuttering.
(The image is R26’s internal streamer utilization while playing 24/48 MQA.)
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The entire point of the Roon Bridge application is that it should run well on very lightweight gear. It shouldn’t require lots of power and RAM to run reliably. And remember also that is different to Roon Ready devices that might need to do more.
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Thanks for everyone’s feedback on using R26/A26 as Roon bridge.
Last question/issue holding me back from ordering a Gustard immediately today.
Do you all think there is a chance of Gustard supporting Tidal Connect?
They tear on the support page “more protocols” coming soon, but is Tidal Connect basically impossible because it requires too much licensing fees? Technically it seems possible because someone on Github only demonstrated that it’s possible but only up to firmware 1.3
Even the expensive HIFI Rose platform doesn’t have Tidal Connect.
That guide will work on 1.4 since it doesn’t matter what firmware version you’re in. Also if you followed that guide, I advise not to apply Gustard’s official firmware update and instead run apt upgrade. (I wrote that guide 
)
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Well, it uses the binary and certificates that was uploaded by mistake by iFi while trying to comply with GPL. I just don’t care.
I don’t see this ALSA option at all. I see the “USB Audio Device” option and the Airplay option. I have it connected via ethernet. Not sure what I am doing wrong here…
Quite often Roon has to be enabled in the software of the endpoint.
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Many AVRs will digitize any analog input then output analog from their internal DAC. If your AVR does this, then any external DAC will be a waste of money. If you’re using the DIRAC room correction, then I am certain that this will be done digitally.
Some AVRs have a way to bypass any digital conversion and pass the analog straight through, but obviously if you do this, no AVR DSP will be possible.
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Make sure the R26 is in LAN mode?
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That is probably the right suggestion, even if it might be late for the OP. I have an A26 and the following is the case with the unit:
- Airplay is always available regardless of chosen input - that is a necessity for this to work
- the streamer portion with the Roon endpoint seems to be switched off as long as any other input than LAN is chosen
- it usually takes 1-2 minutes from changing to LAN until the A26 is available in the Roon controls - not very convenient, but let us just pretend that the unit really switches off the streamer part in some way and that this leads to better sound quality
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Obviously if you’re going to use an AVR with built-in room correction (e.g. Dirac Live) then incoming analogue input will be put through another conversion cycle, which rather misses the point of an external DAC. I use my A26 into an Arcam AVR20 in ‘Analogue Direct’ mode, which bypasses the internal processing.
If I connect R26 via LAN and use Roon → XLR to connect to Hegel H390, will I be able to control the volume?
Does NOS mode have a fixed volume?
If I connect R26 via DAC loop Hegel (coaxial+XLR) - R26 will receive a signal DoP 64 or PCM 24/192.
Which option is better to use with Hegel?
My setup: Ronn Rock - switch Bonn N8 - LAN cat8 - Hegel H390 - MA Gold 100.
There is a new Firmware 1.42 has anyone tried it?
I have been trying to get this update loaded into R26 but can’t get it done. It is supposed to improve Roon Bug Issues.
No, according to the changelog, it’s an UPNP update (switch to Gmediarenderer). Are there any bugs under Roon ? I only use HQPlayer, no problem.
Fix for UPnP 24bit/96Khz, this version of UPnP does not include DSD support. For DSD support in UPnP, please use the previous version.