Hardware and zones

Okay, so I’ve tried to find the info in the forum pages but with no luck. Hopefully you can help.

I’ve just sold all my old gear and am looking for a new setup. Therefore a couple of questions:

  • Can the KEF LS50W be a part of a Roon Zone network even though they are not technically Roon Ready? And if so, what other hardware would play along with the LS50W?

  • Similar: can the Chord Mojo/Poly be a part of a Roon Zone and what other hardware can they play along with?

I use a windows PC and stream from Tidal from my iPhone.

Thank you for your help and apologies if this has already been covered.

Mads

The KEF LS50 wireless can be an endpoint or “zone”, however when used as an endpoint they can not be “grouped” with other zones as they are not fully compliant (search through the KEF area for more info).
If you use another endpoint or Roon Ready device (I use a RassberyPi with HiFiberry Digi+ pro.) to hook up the KEF then that device can be grouped with other zones.

I will let someone more familiar with the Mojo/Poly talk about that question.

I just looked and it appears that the LS50W is now Roon capable ! Check out their website below. There was also a review talking about it on parttimeaudiophile.com

So from reading your post. The PC would run the ROON core and your iPone could be a controller. Of course they all have to be on the same network!

Now if you are talking multiple Zones around a home playing the same music I think you may be out of luck. Zones typically have to be “in-kind” to sync streams.

When you say “in-kind” do you mean the same equipment/manufacturer?
Because if you do, that it not the case, Roon syncs the outgoing streams and has controls for those instances where you need to adjust it.
I have multiple zones of varying equipment and have never had to mess with syncing stream to any of them, Yet… :slight_smile:

On my system I cannot group Apple TV, with Sonos or with the microrendu… I am “pretty sure” you cannot group any unlike devices. You can group all Sonos with no issues.

That is what I was talking about.

You might find information in this thread

The various types of Roon Zones are set out in this KB page.

That is very helpful.

I come from a Sonos setup that I used for background listening around the house, and am looking for that multiroom experience with better SQ.

Would it be possible to make group zones between e.g. two Bluesound speakers in the kitchen and Mojo/Poly or LS50W in the livingroom?

Thank you

Bluesound are fully RoonReady, so they are unequivocally RAAT Zones.

The KEF LS50W, however, are a bespoke integration meaning they are not Roon Ready and do not use RAAT in the usual way.

The Build 269 release notes said:

Also, note that due to the technical details of KEF streaming these speakers are not Roon Ready, so linking multiple pairs of LS50w is not possible and some RAAT-specific functionality (like convenience switching or advanced Signal Path functionality) is not possible.

I suspect that being unable to link multiple pairs would also preclude linking to other RAAT Zones but I haven’t any personal experience. Let’s see if @support can say for sure.

One option is to use a RAAT endpoint to feed the KEFs (or the Mojo) instead of direct Ethernet connection. That would be capable of being synced with the Bluesounds.

The choice of endpoint depends on what connection and resolution you need. At the lower end there are Raspberry Pi based devices that perform very well. I use an Allo DigiOne in one system and find the sound good up to 192 kHz, but it falls over every now and then if left on. I think it is a known grounding/static issue that can be resolved by feeding it a separate power source.

In my main system I use a Sonore microRendu which does Ethernet to USB very nicely up to 768 kHz or DSD 512.

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The KEF cannot be grouped to anything directly.

If you feed them with a zone-grouping capable USB or network endpoint, then you are subject to the limits of the endpoint.