I have a 6 TB external drive with tons of music I’ve downloaded from various sources connected to my Apple laptop in my at home office. I want to be able to play the music through my living room system which is anchored by an Outlaw RR2160 receiver. Ideally, I don’t want the external drive and laptop in the same room (my living room) as the receiver and speakers. How do I integrate Roon into this configuration? Up until now I’ve been playing digital files through a Sony HAP Z1ES streamer. However, it takes ages to load music into the streamer, and I’ve already filled the internal drive. I also have a Qobuz streaming account. Thanks!
Good starting point. You’ve got a couple options. Looks like you’ve got Coax and USB digital inputs on that Outlaw so…
Cheap Option but maybe not the best sound quality…
Get something like a WiiM Streamer which is Roon Ready and will plug into the Outlaw digital in. The WiiM devices are inexpensive, their software very stable, and have good Roon support. You’d load Roon / Roon Server on your Apple laptop. Sign-in to Qobuz via Roon. Point Roon at your 6TB drive. Then enable the WiiM as target. Control Roon from your phone or tablet. Press play. I use WiiM as example here but you’ve got ton of options. A nice step-up would be Eversolo. Almost an endless list of streamers in this category and price points. If you’ve got any background in computers / tech you can even do this with a Raspberry Pi.
More expensive / better sound quality option…
Buy a streaming DAC or a streamer and DAC. You’d plug the Roon Ready streamer into the DAC and the DAC into an analog input on the Outlaw. This will bypass the DAC in the Outlaw and let you get whatever sound, DAC architecture, price point, etc. you want. You also get to jump into the deep rabbit hole of various DAC and streamer options. You can use the Apple laptop similar to the cheap option. As example, you could pair an Eversolo streamer with a Schiit or Geshelli DAC. That combo will sound very good and set you on your way.
Hi Craig and welcome to Roon. I suggest you start by downloading the Roon IOS package to your laptop. It will take some time (at least overnight) to read and process such a large hard drive. Once you have it working and playing on your laptop, you can explore the software and then add your living room as an additional zone. As your Outlaw receiver doesn’t seem to be Roon ready, you will need to plug in a Roon endpoint into a spare input. These vary from inexpensive Raspberry Pi computers or Wiim streamers right up to high end streamers. Your choice. Personally I have been very happy with modest DACs attached to Raspberry Pis with the Ropiee ( About | RoPieee ) operating system. That has provided me with 5 zones all around the house with high reliability, as long as they (and the main Roon computer) are hardwired to the network. There are also a lot of helpful materials available through the Community. Good luck.
Since the Outlaw has an internal DAC, you might consider a FIIO SR11. It’s purely a streamer (no DAC) but it’s cheap, dead simple, and supports Roon (RAT protocol). You can connect it to one of the USB inputs on the Outlaw and connect to your laptop wirelessly.
Welcome to the Roon Community @Craig_Zeichner!
I think the comments from ipeverywhere, Gimlet, and David_Gibson are excellent because their opinions are based on long experience with Roon.
As a relatively new user to Roon, I’ll come at your question from a different angle, because it took me a while to figure out if I actually needed Roon.
So, right up front: there are better solutions than Roon if you don’t care about playing local files and intend to stream to only one device/speaker at a time.
Roon’s marketing language makes it difficult to clearly understand what Roon is, how it works with your computer and network, and the assumptions made about your level of technical abilities.
Please don’t let the stuff below scare you off, because Roon is easy to install and use. However, it can be frustrating if your expectations are significantly different from it’s design and target audience (not relevant if you set it and forget it with Roon’s Nucleus).
Roon is a comprehensive ecosystem
Roon is both server and client, where server manages the database while other devices can act as clients/remotes/endpoints.
-
User Interface & Experience: Roon is considered the gold standard for metadata and music discovery. It presents a digital magazine experience, linking artists, composers, and performers with rich bios and reviews. Its Valence (machine learning) engine provides highly personalized recommendations.
-
Multi-Room Support: It excels at managing multiple playback zones (AirPlay, Chromecast, and Roon Ready devices) simultaneously. Different types of speakers can play in sync and all controlled from any client/remote/endpoint or phone app.
-
Mobile Capabilities: The Roon ARC phone app (this really confused me b/c it’s separately installed and different than the Roon app for iOS/Android) allows you to listen to your local library and Qobuz streams (no Spotify though) from your phone as long as it can reach your home network and the Roon server. The Roon mobile app does not work outside your home network (confusing right?).
-
Resource Intensive: Because it’s capable of managing massive, interconnected database of music files and metadata, Roon is more resource-heavy than alternatives.
Allow me to parse what you’ve described as needs and I’ll ask clarifying questions if you care to reply (no pressure to do so).
Roon installation and setup
- Roon is a one-click install on Windows and Mac OS; both client and server get installed.
- The server requires access to the 6 TB external drive - the faster the connection between drive and computer, the better the experience using Roon.
- The client software can also run on other computers and devices so long as they get reliable, high speed communication with the server running in your network.
Q: Do you plan to install Roon on your Apple laptop, and if so what version of the operating system is it running?
The Outlaw looks pretty nifty and I’m sure it was a premium device when it first came out. Fortunately, it looks like it can be connected to Roon via USB. This may help you take Roon for a spin and see if it’s what you’re looking for.
The port labeled R5 would connect to your Apple laptop and Roon should recognize it as a locally attached music device. The following quotes are taken from the manual at https://outlawaudio.com/outlaw/docs/RR2160MkIImanual.pdf
“Connect the RR2160 MkII to a computer and select the PC USB input to allow the RR2160 MkII to act as an external sound card.”
Pg 27 from the manual states:
When a computer is connected to the PC USB port (R5), select the PC USB input using the Source button (F18) or by pressing the USB source selector button on the remote (C3).
Once that input is selected, any audio from the computer will be played through the RR2160 MkII.
For evaluation purposes, you could sit next to the Outlaw with your laptop and connect them via USB cable.
Q. Do you have a high speed and reliable home network?
Q. Will the music devices be on the same network segment (no VLANs)?
Q. Are you able to manage how music devices get their IP address?
In the diagram below, a digital transport can be devices from WiiM, Eversolo, FiiO, Bluesound, Cambridge, and so on.
Laptop → usb → Outlaw
Laptop → ethernet → digital transport → USB/RCA/Coax/Optical → Outlaw
Laptop → wifi → digital transport → USB/RCA/Coax/Optical → Outlaw
Laptop → wifi → Apple TV → TV → RCA/Coax/Optical → Outlaw
Laptop → wifi → Google Chromecast → TV → RCA/Coax/Optical → Outlaw
Line number 2 is the recommended configuration as the folks above have shared.
Keep in mind that some digital transports can replace the Outlaw, as they are digital transport, DAC, and amplifier (e.g., WiiM Amp Ultra).
Q. Do you plan to stream to other music devices/speakers in the house and keep them in sync?
Phew that was lengthy, but I hope that helps you decide what to do with Roon.
Avoid disappointment , try and avoid Wi Fi if you can , Roon can be a little unforgiving of poor networks
The advise is all there plug play & enjoy
This applies as well if you use only one endpoint and have no local files:
Thanks! Many interesting options and I’ll think them all through. Much appreciated!
Thanks! This is incredibly valuable advice!
Thanks! DAC & streamer shopping seems to be on the horizon.
Thanks a million! I appreciate you and the careful thought you gave this.
Thanks! My sometimes sluggish Wi Fi is a bit of concern here.
In my experience, Roon over wifi can work well. The problems people encounter happen when they try to run the Core or Roon server on wifi. I think for best practices the Roon server should be connected to the router via ethernet either directly or through a switch. The endpoints such as a Raspberry Pi or the Fiio SR11 can work quite well. I have three of these and I frequently use my IPad or IPhone as a wireless endpoint and they all work perfectly with my mostly average wifi.
I never had problems with WiFi endpoints - with a wired server and Red Book audio. I’m pretty sure it would have worked just fine with the server on WiFi also. I’m easily getting hundreds of Mbps transfers over WiFi, which is more than enough for audio, even for the ever-higher-res kind.