I am new to Roon and I’ve got 10 days left on my evaluation period. I was sceptical initially but I’m convinced now - I was blind but now I see. I’ve ordered a NUC10i7FNHN, RAM and SSD storage, and I’m looking forward to building my own Roon ROCK this coming week.
By the way, NUC10i7FNH models are no longer available at sensible prices in the UK, but the NUC10i7FNHN (N on the end, no direct audio output) - which is fine, I hope, if the Roon ROCK is just a server - can be found at Insight and Scan if you are interested.
I am planning to buy a Holo May DAC and feed it from HQPlayer. I know that Roon will recognise HQPlayer as an audio output which is great. At this point, I have some questions.
Roon only allows zones to be grouped if they use the same streaming protocol. Does HQPlayer count as an RAAT device so that it can be grouped with other Roon-ready devices, or is the connection to HQPlayer a protocol in its own right?
Although I can’t seem to find it again now, I think I read somewhere that an HQPlayer NAA endpoint can be sent output directly from Roon using RAAT. Did I dream that or is this true?
If it’s true, then if I use HQPlayer Desktop/Embedded with output to a separate HQPlayer NAA, I could presumably switch between:
- Roon sending output to HQPlayer itself, so I can upsample to the Holo May DAC for highest audio sound, and
- Roon sending output direct to the NAA endpoint, bypassing HQPlayer, so I can group zones for party mode
That being the case, I conclude that it is better to have NAA endpoints feeding my HiFi equipment, rather than, say, RoPieee or RoPieeeXL, because that gives me the added flexibility of targeting them with HQPlayer as well as directly from Roon.
Apoloogies if I’ve got any concepts wrong. I’m still learning.