HWA-LHDC With NUC Roon Bridge or ROCK

Roon Software Discussion ROCK
1

Hi there

I wish to stream music to my son’s room using Roon Bridge or ROCK on a NUC. He would then listen to music with a Bluetooth or headphone. I am thinking of the Hifiman Ananda BT. It uses the HWA-LHDC codec. Does anyone has experience on how to make it work this way?

Thanks and looking forward to your help.
Best
Stève

2

If you go with the Ananda BT and your son’s room has nice, strong WiFi (and assuming, of course, your Roon Server is visible on the WiFi network), it should just work: You’d need to have an iOS or Android phone or tablet that can run Roon and be able to pair the Ananda BT with the phone/tablet. (IMO, this setup would be nice for use with Roon ARC.)

In terms of getting the best sound quality, though, you’d probably be better off with comparably priced wired headphones (in your case, say, the Ananda Nano); however, that would necessitate having a streamer (Roon endpoint), DAC, and headphone amp in your son’s room. Those three functions could take from 1 to 3 hardware components and a wide range of possible prices.

It’s probably best to decide first whether you want to go wired or Bluetooth and then come back here if you have more questions.

3

Hi thanks

You guessed the Ananda BT right. There is an Ethernet cable connection in the room so no problem with bandwidth. I thought of installing Roon on a NUC or Raspberry PI. This should allow Bluetooth connection and via USB cable. Rather than a phone, even though only for Bluetooth an old phone would be a good option. Basically, would HWA-LHDC work on the Roon-NUC?

4

You won’t get a NUC or any PC to work. This is a specialist codec that high quality vendors have adopted and you have to go with their hardware to get what you want. In addition that Hardwear would need to be Roon capable. So you are looking at a DAP made by someone in the alliance to mate with your chosen headphones.

Other HWA Union members include:

1 Like
5

Thanks! I finally opted for a Ropieee that I will connect either to a spare DAC I don’t use anymore (aqvox) for analogue headphones (maybe Audeze LCD) or directly to a pair of Dynaudio Core speakers. Reason is I prefer not to be dependent on a technology that might be obsolete in two years. Anyway Bluetooth is not meant for Hifi right?