I want a Sonos-type player for Roon

Audio Gear Talk
1

I already have DAC/preamp/heaphone amp and nice headphones and powered Dynaudio speakers and core/remotes and so on in my listening room/spare bedroom. I just want to stick a decent sounding unobtrusive speaker in the living room and listen to music out there sometimes. I tried an Audioengine B2 Bluetooth speaker but the connection keeps dropping out, so I am going to have to send it back. Decent sound, though, and a nice looking product.

I could buy a Sonos product, but I like the Roon interface way better. What is the Roon way to do this?

Thanks!

2

Squeezebox is coming. Would the Squeezebox Boom work for you?

3

Are they still making them? But anyway, I still have and use a squeezebox touch. So, yes.

4

Probably not, but there’s a healthy market for them on eBay.

I wouldn’t touch Sonos due to the lack of Hirez capability.

5

ELAC is going to be making some products you may be interested in.

6

Looking forward to this!

7

Here’s an an article from DAR about the ELAC Discovery demonstrated at RMAF.

Edit: For some foolish reason I interpreted John’s statement about storage being USB as meaning there was no Ethernet connection. As he clarifies, the Discovery will be Ethernet and WiFi connected.

8

Airplay speakers should work right? Like B&W A5/7, Zeppelin etc.

9

Can’t wait! In the meantime, I am enjoying having the squeezebox hooked up. I think I’ll send the Audioengine B2 in on a set of their A2+ so I can have access to the DAC in that system. Maybe Roon will go ahead and support the squeezebox.

10

As @paaj says, any AirPlay enabled speaker can be a current network endpoint. Whether a particular AirPlay device also implements RAAT and becomes RoonReady will depend on whether the device can be upgraded through software or firmware and the manufacturer writing and releasing it. AirPlay functionality won’t be lost when RAAT is released, but AirPlay doesn’t do hi res like RAAT.

@JChrisG, there’s a pretty good chance that Squeezebox support will be in the next major release.

11

That’s good news about squeezebox support. The Squeezebox Touch was a nearly perfect little player, how it fell through the marketing cracks is beyond me. If you guys want to crowdfund something similar, let us know.