I have three music systems in three different rooms. Currently my Roon core is on a PC in one of the rooms. The other two locations have their own computers running JRiver. To make this work I have to have three copies of my music library, one for each room, and add new music to each separately.
Since they are all hard wired to my home network, with WiFi access for iPads to control the music players, I would like to be able to access the Roon core from each system. Different people need to be able to be able to listen to different music on different devices at the same time. The room with the core has a PS Audio DirectStream DAC with the Network Bridge II and the PC, a second room has a Pioneer Elite Network Audio Player N-50, and the third room has a Marantz SR-7014 AVR.
Both the PC’s USB port and the ethernet are connected to the DirectStream DAC. To switch between the two I can’t just switch the DAC’s input. I also have to tell Roon which output to use, USB or the Bridge.
I can do that because I am only using one output at a time. However, if others want to access Roon in the different rooms at the same time, how can that happen, since the core seems to be able to only be set to one output at a time? To clarify, how can I be listening to my music in my man cave, somebody else listen to theirs in a bedroom, and a third person listen to something different in the living room?
Install Roon on the computers connected to the Pioneer and Marantz and point them at the Core. You will then see Zones for those computers as Outputs on the Core and Control apps on iPads can tell the Core to play different music to those different zones simultaneously.
If you don’t want to install a full version of Roon on the separate computers you could just install Roon Bridge which is an Output only.
Rather than trying to have Roon use the duplicate music stored on those separate computers you can just have it continue to use the music on the Core.
Choose 1 PC , install Roon and JRiver, put all you music files onto that PC. Leave Roon and JRiver installed on the other PCs but with no library
Roon will show ( as will JRiver) any devices on your network that are capable of connection. I don’t know the devices they may show up as DLNA in JRiver or AirPlay in Roon if they are not Roon Ready.
If you need RAAT put a RPi/Roipeee device between the network and the device
One library, one BU, one maintenance that’s the joy of distributed audio,
Roon and JRiver play nicely together
I assume you have Roon Remote and JRemote on your iPad to control things
This will then look like my setup, works fine has done for 4 years
I want all locations to access the music stored on the computer with the Roon core. I also want to remove the two extra computers. While I’m not sure about the status of the Pioneer, The Marantz is a Roon tested device so it should be able to access the core directly.
The Marantz shows up as an enabled device just like the DirectStream. What I don’t understand is how to tell the core to output to both the DirectStream and the Marantz at the same time.
One computer as core, playback devices (Roon ready or via computer with bridge or full Roon program acting as bridge) and one or more remote control devices such as a smartphone or tablet.
Bottom Left corner of Roon select a zone, you can play many at the same time and on different sources. You will need to Settings >Audio > Enable each device
I downloaded and installed the Roon Bridge on one of the other computers. When looking at the computer it shows Roon Brodge as running.
The instructions say to start Roon either on the PC with the core or a device with the remote app, go to settings, then Audio, then under networked devices select the device and enable it.
However, when I get to Audio, there is no section for networked devices, only This device for an iPad or iPhone with the remote app that I’m using and a section for devices connected to the core. While this section does show networked devices such as the DirectStream DAC Bridge, DirectStream DAC WASAPI, and a Light Harmonic DAC that was replaced by the DirectStream, it does not show the Roon Bridge
You could also invest in a couple RPi4’s and turn them into Ropieee’s and get the other (non-core) computers out of the picture. It’s a fairly straightforward piece of DIY, but not for the totally faint of heart. Lots of advice on this forum about how to do just that. That’s what I would do.
When you install Roon it will ask whether you want the install to be the Core (or some such message). Reply that you don’t want the new install to be the Core, or however it’s worded.
Now, you can get on Roon’s GUI on either the Core machine or on your new Roon install, which is also acting as an endpoint.
I’m trying using the full version in my home office. It’s on the same network as the core, both hardwired to the network. When I clicked on Find My Roon Core it started searching the network. It seems to be hung up. The core is powered on and working.
That didn’t work so uninstalled the full version and installed the Bridge in my office. That didn’t work in this system either. Apparently Roon just won’t play nice with my other DACs. Guess I’ll keep using JRiver and separate servers with the other systems. That makes a lot more sense than buying new DACs just to be compatible with Roon.
My network was set up as follows: the cable comes into a WiFi modem which is hardwired to a Netgear Gigabit mulit-port switch. This switch is then hardwired to a switch in each room of the house. In the music room (which has the Roon core and is at the other end of the house from the cable WiFi router), the WiFi signal was spotty which made consistent control through the iPad iffy. To correct this, instead of using a large switch in the music room I used my old WiFi router and a couple of 4 port Netgear switches. This seemed to solve the problem. Everything connected to the internet, worked properly, and the WiFi signal to the router in the room no longer dropped out.
While trying to solve this issue with streaming Roon to the other systems, I did some deeper digging into the network. When I checked the IP address of the computer with the core, it was assigned the IP of 10.0.0.1 even though it does not have a WiFi card. Today after a trip to Staples, I removed the WiFi Router and extra small NetGear switches in the music room and replaced them with another multi-port Netgear ProSafe Gigabit switch. The IP address on the computer no longer shows 10.0.0.1. It is now 192.168.X.XX and the computers in the other systems in the house connect to it with no trouble and stream Roon just fine.
