Now this looks interesting Roon Relay could be exactly what I have been looking for! I really want to jump back on the bandwagon of integrating a CD player into my audio chain, but I still want to EQ my speakers/room with Roon. Roon extensions are far too clumsy and complicated for me so a device with an ADC (for turntables) and digitally unaltered Roon Relay inside would be a perfect fit.
Obviously manufacturers can implement this in their CD players if they so wish, but I would say a little black box (very much like the existing DDC’s on the market) that offered a range of digital inputs and a couple of RCA analogue inputs (converted via a good quality ADC) as a stand alone network connected Roon Relay box would be ideal.
I’d rather Roon didn’t commission this as it would be unnecessarily expensive - but what about Fosi Audio or WiiM?
@jamie , the announcement stated “Stay tuned for more Roon Ready Relay device news, coming soon at CES 2025”, which ends tomorrow (Saturday). Can we expect more news before CES ends?
So maybe they’re still trying to figure out some quirks and a timeline for availability before making the announcement
Edit, personally I also treat trade show announcements as vaporware until I actually see a product or feature working in the wild as promised. This is a feature that quick research suggests has been promised since at least last year’s CES and hasn’t been formally announced. I’d honestly be a little ■■■■■■ off if I bought a Stream Sapphire after last year’s CES thinking it’d have Roon integration before now because it’s not exactly a cheap turntable and there are others I’d consider first if I only needed it for a stereo setup.
Regardless of the fact that I personally have different ideas about listening to vinyl and the technology and hardware used, it was time to finish something.
It reminds me a little of the ROON certifications and how they are handled.
I was hoping for more detail than that from Victrola including a release timeline that’s more firm than "Spring 2025”, a clear commitment to upgrade all existing “Stream” devices they’ve already sold, and maybe a UI mockup for how the integration will work in their Victrola Stream app.
From Roon I was hoping for more detail about how the new Roon Ready Relay protocol and certification program functionally works, any information about any other partners working on integration, maybe a UI mockup/demo for how it will look in their software, and also a rough release timeline for support that’s more firm than “Spring 2025”. I’m personally a lot more interested in Roon Ready Relay because I think there’s enormous potential for a software based Roon Ready Relay solution (either first or third party) to turn a cheap raspberry pi with an ADC into a Relay.
What we’ve gotten is pretty much a promise that it’s coming, but for real this time and now it has an official name and a rough release window. And other than that, we’ve gotten some hints from staff in this thread about how it will work. I know we’re going to get more information soon, but the vague, buzzword laden, non-technical Roon Labs and Victrola blog posts so far ain’t it.
It’s effectively already there, it’s kind of what the Audio Entrypoint Extension does already except routed into Roon via this new (…well 2 year old now) API (node-roon-api-audioinput) so that the stream pops up in Roon as an audio source with a custom icon, rather than a pseudo-radio station.
So in theory if you wanted to code something today you could, the code is there in Roon, you just need to send a stream to it. Although I expect Roon are planning to work with vendors to build / certify this into hardware devices with ADC capabilities ala Roon Ready (but for inputs, rather than outputs) with nice icons and maybe the ability to switch input sources in Roon.
In short, I expect this is more than just vapourware, as most of the code is already there in Roon to handle this functionality.
I’m interested in Roon Relay due to the possibility I could relay Apple Music ,etc from a computer or other device into Roon .
Could Roon Relay get around the problem of large streaming services like Apple,Spotify,Amazon,etc not wishing to integrate their service?
I have to say @jamie I’m disjointed, I went to CES and roon did not have a presence and Harmon was a private event. So what roon ready relay devices are now available?
“Hi-Fi sources like CD players, tape decks, turntables, reel-to-reel, and others that are connected to a Relay device could send audio — including Hi-Res FLAC — to different zones or grouped devices.”
“Stay tuned for more Roon Ready Relay device news, coming soon at CES 2025.”
The announcement before Xmas led it’s to believe a Roon relay device could be announced IMO, I see only a turntable.
Did I miss anything?
Roon Relay could be exactly what I have been looking for! I really want to jump back on the bandwagon of integrating a CD player into my audio chain, but I still want to EQ my speakers/room with Roon. Roon extensions are far too clumsy and complicated for me so a device with an ADC (for turntables) and digitally unaltered Roon Relay inside would be a perfect fit.
