I want to use an M2 Pro Mac mini as a Roon endpoint, connected to an external DAC. I’m not planning to interact with the Roon app on this Mac; I will just use an iPad. The Roon Server is elsewhere, on a Linux rackmount server.
I’ve installed Roon Bridge and all seems fine, but I noticed that macOS Roon Bridge is not yet a Universal Binary. It’s an Intel binary. That’s fine, I don’t have an issue with that for now, but with the new architecture of Roon, is Roon Bridge still needed? Will the full Roon installation act as a bridge to local devices if the GUI isn’t running?
(If you’re wondering why I can’t just use RoPieee: I’m running some DSP plugins on the Mac through virtual cable software; the plugins aren’t available on Linux/Pi.)
I must be missing something. The only way I can see to shut down the GUI is to quit the app; when I do so, the local sound outputs disappear from the list of available outputs.
How can I get a Roon Bridge effect — no GUI but local sound outputs available to Roon?
I believe Roon for Windows and MacOS includes a Roon server, GUI, and bridge. When you shut down Roon, you are only shutting down the GUI. Roon server continues to run and I suppose the bridge does too.
You should be able to use another Roon client such as a computer, phone, or tablet as a control for your active Roon server, wherever and whatever it is. There you should be able to go to Settings - Audio and see your Mac Mini end-point with it’s attached DAC. There you would enable the end-point and enter the DAC settings.
Then, to play music through your Mac Mini and it’s attached DAC, you would choose that as a zone on your Roon server using your client device GUI.
The correct use case for the OP is Roon Bridge. As he says, it works fine despite being a dreaded (sic) Intel Binary. If you are thinking of different approaches simply to avoid using said binaries then that is driven by something other than logic. If it works, leave it alone.
Personally, I would install Roon. Nothing wrong with having another Roon server available. I use my Mac Mini as a backup Roon server and to reboot my Nucleus and reconnect Tidal and/or Qobuz, if needed, when away from home, using Splashtop.
I assume you mean make it the “active” Roon server. I’ll give it a try when I get home next week just to see what happens. Problem is, it will probably work for me because I have three lifetime subscriptions so all 3 of my servers are always active.
On Mac, you can close the Roon UI window without quitting Roon by using Cmd-W on the keyboard, or click on close (red dot) at the top left corner of the window. The Roon client will continue to run with sound outputs available, but no GUI. I verified that it works. If you truly never plan to use the Roon client GUI, then Roon Bridge is a better solution.
Thanks, all. I will continue to use Roon Bridge. I plan to run the mini close to headless, solely as a DSP engine. I appreciate all the answers.
Sic means “[it was] thus”, as in “it was in the original”. I never used the word “dreaded” anywhere in my post. Au contraire, I explicitly said I don’t have an issue with it. There may come a version of macOS in the future when Rosetta 2 is no longer provided or supported, as was the case with the original Rosetta that bridged PowerPC and Intel. If Roon Bridge is no longer required (my question), then Roon may not update Bridge to the Apple/ARM instruction set.
I think I created some confusion in my original post.
When folks think of using a Mac in Roon, they might get the impression it’s being used primarily as a server/GUI and perhaps as an endpoint. Not so in my situation.
I should have clarified that I intend to use this Mac headless, only connecting KVM when I need to enter a password on boot.
I’m not familiar with Windows, so my go-to for headless operation is a Linux box. Unfortunately the DSP I want to run isn’t available on Linux, only macOS and Windows.
This Mac will just sit near my DAC in my listening room. Roon Bridge will pipe digital audio to the DSP system using virtual cable software, and the DSP will send the processed stream on to my DAC. Other than configuration and administrative tasks, I don’t intend to interact with the Mac.
I apologize for not being clear, and thank you all for your responses. I will continue using Roon Bridge — if it’s the only solution for my use case, then I assume Roon will continue to support and update it as needed.
I still think having an M2 Pro Mac Mini available and not loading the full Roon software package on it is somewhat of a waste of resources. I think it could serve your purposes while also acting as a backup Roon server. I’m not sure I agree it needs to be the “active” server to work as a Roon bridge, but I have never tested this. I plan to test that next week.
No, for example my Roon server is on a NUC. It works as I described:
Launch the Roon app on a Mac, and connect it to a Roon server elsewhere.
Close the Roon app’s UI window, without quitting the app: type Ctrl-W on the keyboard, or click on close window (red dot) at the top left corner of the window.
If there is music currently playing through this Mac as an endpoint, it will continue playing uninterrupted.
Open a Roon client on another device (phone or computer). You will be able to select the Mac as an endpoint.
AFAIK, this only works on a Mac. On Windows, I don’t see a way to close only the Roon UI window without shutting down the entire app.
The DSP is somewhat CPU-intensive. I started out running it on my Intel i5 MacBook Pro and the CPU utilization went up to 120%. At 192 kHz sample rate, the audio began to break up as the processor couldn’t keep up. I probably don’t need 192 kHz, true, but I wanted to test a worst case scenario.
I’m becoming interested in using DSP to correct room issues that my passive treatments couldn’t entirely solve. It’s possible I might try more in the future, so I decided to future proof a bit.
Another Mac in my home office has the full Roon application installed, as I use it to play music in my office. When I first installed it, it asked if I wanted to use my Linux Roon Server or I wanted to use the Mac on which it was installed. I chose the Linux instance. I didn’t get a Roon Server instance installed and its outputs disappear from Roon when I quit the app.
I just close Roon on my Windows 11 PC and Roon server remains open. If playing music, it continues to play. They are two different applications actually, if that is the correct term.
I was addressing the OP’s question which is a different scenario. It is when Roon server is already running on another machine and you open the Roon desktop app on a computer to use only as an endpoint. On Mac, you can close the UI and it continues to work as an endpoint. On Windows, I don’t see a way to close only the UI without also shutting down the endpoint (the server is already running elsewhere and didn’t start up on this machine).
