Issue finding Aries airplay

Support
1

I grabbed this over from Computer Audiophile

Roon Trial just setup and downloaded on my MacBook Pro. It has indexed my NAS library successfully and is able to play on my computer. My Tidal account login and integration went smoothly too, and I can play Tidal as well.

I want to stream through my Aries, and know that real integration isn’t available yet. But I should be able to play through my Aries via Airplay right?

I have my Aries set to Airplay. Roon has the standard “System Output” icon, and I would think that if I click it, and look for any available “network devices” the Aries would show up.

If, for example, I am using my Tidal iPad app, and want to access the Aries for Airplay, the Aries DOES show up as a selection option, but it’s not showing up in the Roon software.

I’ve probably missed an answer for this somewhere earlier in this thread or an Aries thread, but I figured I’d ask again and see what I’m missing.

2

First thing to check is about enabling the zone. The “Zone Selector” off the footer bar won’t show zones that you haven’t enabled in audio setup… sidebar -> settings -> audio

Have you done that already?

3

In the Audio Settings, as of right now the Aries isn’t even showing up as a network available device. I do see where these available devices need to be “enabled”, but the Aries isn’t there as a choice. The software DOES see an Airport Express as well as an Apple TV on my network so I know there is network communication happening.

And as I mentioned in my previous post, my Tidal iPad App, as a point of comparison, DOES see the Aries as an Airplay ready device, so I know that the Aries is also available.

Hope that makes sense.

4

By the way, I’m very impressed by your responsiveness. On a Sunday no less!!!

5

FWIW - I have an AppleTV, a Marantz receiver with Airplay and an Aries.

While I see the AppleTV and Marantz as Networked devices in Audio Setup, I have never gotten the Aires when set to Airplay mode to show up.

6

Does the Aires support AirTunes2? I asked about Shairport(airplay emulator) in another thread, and Roon requires the newer version 2 protocol. I would guess the Aires uses Shairport or something similar, which is V1

7

I can only say that the Aries has a selection that Auralic calls AirPlay, so I’ve always assumed that AirPlay is AirPlay.

We all know in this game that things aren’t always what they seem. I have for what it’s worth been able to stream to AirPlay mode via my iPad.

8

@brian is working on some airplay stability issues reported this week, and he has an Aries right now. We’ve been working on RoonSpeakers for it, so we never tested the Airplay support. He said he’ll look into and report back. My guess is what the other guys are saying, it is Airplay v1 (AirTunes is what I think they call it), which we don’t support.

No one has an official AirPlay implementation on the sender side, Apple does not license that – it only exists in iOS and Mac OS X. Every implementation is reverse engineered and then built ground up. Some people use implementations others have written. Others, like us, use the reverse engineered specification and built our own implementation. We only chose to support AirPlay v2 since only old Apple products support AirPlay v1, or very unofficial and usually not-so-great implementations exist of v1.

9

Thanks, that sounds like the proper approach. As to the Airplay stability issues with devices such as the AppleTV, perhaps that is why every now and then the AppleTV appears then disappears in the Audio Networked section, only to re-appear again.

Of course RoonSpeakers for that Aries would be an even bigger win, speaking selfishly.