Hi,
I had searched for a solution like this, couldn’t find one, so I figured one out and wanted to share it here.
First things first, I am running Roon Core on a Mac Mini at home. I am remotely (off the home network of the Mac Mini) accessing the Roon Core and playing music through a FiiO Android DAP.
You only need a few things:
- An Android (iOS should work, too, though) audio-capable device
- A connection to WiFi (this doesn’t seem to work over cellular, but let me know!)
- Tailscale app installed on BOTH the machine running the Roon Core & the device running Roon Remote (Download · Tailscale)
Tailscale is the key here. It allows you create fully encrypted and private connections between any two devices. All you have to do is have the app in both places, log into the same account on each, and enable the connection. It will configure a VPN that basically just connects the devices that you add to your “Tailnet.” It uses WireGuard to do this under the hood. You can read more on their site: What is Tailscale? · Tailscale
From here, with Tailscale running and connected, you should see a private IP address for the home-network computer running Roon Core and another for the remote device in the Tailscale app. Take note of the private IP address of the Roon Core machine.
When starting Roon Remote on the portable device, Roon won’t find a Core. Click “Help” and paste in the private, Tailscale-enabled IP address of the Roon Core.
Boom! You’re now connected to your Roon Core from anywhere in the world where you have a strong and stable enough WiFi connection!
Sometimes Roon won’t recognize the portable device as an audio zone it can play through, but I’ve found that turning WiFi off/on from the portable device gets it to show up.
Let me know if this works for you, too!
Cheers!