“YES!” to what?
Your Apple ecosystem investment? Hacks that run contrary to your Apple fandom? Seems considerable cognitive dissonance.
Maybe, you have bet on the wrong horse. Or, maybe, you have to decide which is your priority, Apple or Roon.
Sometimes in life, you have to make choices.
AJ
The hackers that made the so called Airplay hack have coed Apple’s website!
https://developer.apple.com/documentation/avfoundation/airplay_2/getting_airplay_2_into_your_app
So hacked off!
Yes, I have copied and pasted that very same link just a few posts above.
Do you understand what it means? It looks wonderful for any Roon core running on current Apple hardware or software.
However, how does that apply to any Roon core running on RoonOS, Linux, or Windows?
AJ
Ah yes’m I see what you mean. I have no idea 
Roon has added support to many products and Airplay 2 is very widely used with many, many audio devices for obvious reasons. The user population is really not in question.
Apple charges nothing to use Airplay 2, it’s all software now. In fact Apple has many api’s they charge nothing for.
Her is a list of the things that Apple provides as open source.
Ever heard of web kit? Open sourced by Apple and most modern browsers use it including Google Chrome.
False equivalency. Supporting Airplay 2 is a no brainer and attempts to deny that sound pretty silly.
It’s really clear that people defending Roon here have very little understanding of Airplay 2 or Apple. Several of us have posted links to Apple’s documentation but apparently the naysayers haven’t read it because they continue to say incorrect easily disprovable things. It’s frankly pretty silly to say such uninformed things at this point.
There is zero reason for Roon support of Airplay 2 to be a hack. People say thighs as fact here that are flat out wrong and easy to prove to be wrong.
Meanwhile Apple keeps improving the HomePod and I keep getting more. Just got two this week so I now have six and two in stereo pairs. My Sonos devices do Airplay 2 and I’m getting the new version of ken wireless too which also does Airplay 2. I’ll be letting my Roon sub lapse until they fix this gaping hole in their capabilities. As much as I like Roon there is no sense in using it when it won’t work the way I want with so many of my devices as I prefer to use Airplay 2 for multi-room audio due to it’s simplicity.
I’m with @DarwinOSX on this. Heck, the HomePod made Stereophile’s recommended component list. I’ve been fortunate enough to find a workaround for Roon to run on a paired set of HomePods and I’m pleased with the results.
Roon’s reluctance to disclose future plans may have been necessary a few years ago. However, now it seems almost silly to not simply state was is, and what isn’t in their plans. Apparently Roon thinks we can’t be trusted to trust Roon.
Roon’s a great product and I enjoy every minute with it so I’m not at the point of threatening to end my subscription. Five years ago a technical failure or unkept promise may have been too risky for Roon. Right now though, I think Roon can be a bit more transparent about what features can be expected.
Airplay2? Come on Roon.
+1 This gap is starting to be irritating as I would like some convergence. I have Airplay 2 speakers and streaming for sake of family ease of use and it works great. But not having Roon support is a PITA any time I want to stream my library to any of these speakers.
Yes devices support it they are receivers and use the API they are not senders. Senders can only be Apples own software or apps via the API that run on iOS or MacOs it’s exclusive and not available on other platforms or am I missing something?
Here’s what’s supported
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT208728&ved=2ahUKEwjjksrMvt3sAhXcAGMBHS-bANcQFjAAegQIKBAC&usg=AOvVaw2aj-8zA6Xeeo8FT3uwlqvm
I don’t see any non apple software or products being able to utilise sending audio to an airplay 2 device. Doesn’t matter how many devices support airplay 2 if they only way to send it is via Apples own locked in eco system or software.
If I am wrong please show me an application outside of apples eco system that works please.
@DarwinOSX from my memory WebKit was a fork of KHTML from the (Linux) KDE project so Apple had no choice to release it on as it was GPL licensed (similarly their BSD changes in Mac OS as again they did not invent it).
So they used an Open Source product as a starting point but added a great amount of work on top.
They tend not to share so much of what they create themselves though (remember Steve Jobs promising to open source IMessage protocol live onstage)
Regards
Mike
I just found this thread while checking to see if AirPlay 2 was, in fact, the missing piece to get Roon to stream to a stereo pair of Homepods. Sounds like yes and I’m sad to read that there’s no solution.
Shairport was reverse engineered as the original Airplay was a lot simpler, it doesn’t sound like we’ll see anything like that for Airplay 2 as there is encryption involved that Apple’s not likely to share if they don’t have to.
I’d move my Roon Server over to my Mac from Linux if it could do native Airplay 2 only on Apple hardware, but from what I see about how cross-platform Roon is (Mono), I doubt they have access to the native Mac libraries for that sort of thing.
Could something like Airfoil (https://www.rogueamoeba.com/airfoil/mac/) be used to relay an Airplay stream to the stereo pair of Homepods?
@Michael_Harris - it was Facetime, not iMessage (I was at that WWDC), Steve made that statement off the cuff without checking with the engineers to see if it was possible and I guess due to video patents, it was not.
Airfoil does seem to work, sort of. It shows the two Homepods separately but it will play the left channel to the left side and the right channel to the right one if they’re both selected. I don’t know if it’s using Airplay 2 for that or not… but wouldn’t that same approach work right in Roon: add both Homepods to a group, then use the DSP to drop the gain to nothing on the channel that the Homepod is not (mute right on the left Homepod, left on the right Homepod)?
People have got audio to stereo home pods using DSP and the mixer in Procedural EQ to split right to one and left to the other. Then group them as normal airplay Whilst its not as practical or as neat as airplay 2 it will give you what you want
I have 5 pair now and plan to add another. I mostly just live with Apple Music except when I’m listening on my Meridian. Oh well. I’m resigned to this dual world.
I have an apple ecosystem here at home and with iPhones and iPads as well. So apple music is a no-brainer for me.
Roon is great, but so is iTunes. Frankly the artist view and the song view in iTunes is much better than roon. You don’t have to be monogamous, Roon and I are in an open relationship, we just don’t talk about the other.
iTunes can send redbook audio to my devices every bit as well as Roon, it’s just a different method.
Yup. Agree. (Free, too.)
T.
Do you have an iPhone or iPad? If you use that as the endpoint in Roon and configure your home pods as the via airplay from there.
It does mean that everything goes through your tablet or iPhone. Currently using this setup to play to volumio at the moment via regular airplay.
Interesting! So you are suggesting that using the iPad in a single zone, with two HomePods, and Roon (app and server) you can achieve stereo output? Based on using the iOS Sound Output routed to Airplay 2.
Well this solves it- use an iPad as the controller, output via Airplay 2 to your homepods. (And anything else that is Airplay 2). You lose volume control in Roon and DSP. 