after a couple of weeks of listening to Roon through my iPhone as endpoint with earbuds while cycling I had a thought and went and connected my Oppo Headphone DAC that I use occasionally with the Onkyo HiRes audio APP. What a wonderful surprise to realize that I can now listen to my DSD and HiRes FLAC files straight from my Roon library! You have no idea how convenient this is for me. Before I had to parcel out available phone space and use the cumbersome iTunes app to “sync” HiRes files over from the library. Now I simply select any album, yesterday 24bit/192k and I’m off in listening nirvana. I’ll leave the Onkyo APP for when I’m traveling but that’s all it will be used for now.
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Welcome to the club, Michael! 
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Is that the Oppo HA-2 portable that you’re using? I like that I don’t need to buy an external battery for travel—Oppo included a fast charging mode.
I too use the Oppo HA-2 when on the go…but just one question @Michael_Conners How are you connecting to Roon while out and about on a bike? I am making an assumption you are not on a stationary one 
Please be quite specific if you can as many others will be interested to know (assuming this is a VPN) how you have implemented this.
Hi
I am on a trainer using Zwift virtual cycling (indoors) in the bad weather months
Love the HA-2 , I also use it as a straight DAC in my listening room. I have created a Roon Endpoint using a Raspberry Pi 3
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yes, not the new OPPO HA-2SE , the older HA-2 . Packed with features and all the way up to DSD128 . Awesome
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I am also listening to Roon on my iPad or iPhone and using the Oppo HA-2 and find it works flawlessly. I had some dropouts with the first upgrade of iOS11 (or maybe it was one of the last couple of iOS 10 updates) and emailed Oppo and they told me Apple had “broken” the connection some between their device and the phone but it was expected to be fixed for iOS11. Sure enough it has been, no issues.
I have wondered what the differences are between the original and the HA-2SE, any users of the upgraded product on here? I also upgraded the lightening cable that came with the Oppo from the short and stubby one to a Pangea Audio interconnect and think sound improved overall. That’s another subject for another day, upgraded cables from the phone 
A fellow Zwifter!
The two models seem very similar, but I can’t speak to the details. As for cables, even if there’s no audible difference between one digital interconnect and another, I can appreciate a quality cable that doesn’t feel like it’s going to snap in half.
I am skeptical of the benefits of whazoo cables as well, but, the main reason I went with a different cable was so that I could have the Oppo and the phone not so tethered together, as they had to be with the Oppo cable. I can now lay the amp, for instance, on the arm of the couch and just have the phone in my hand to browse music, listen to video, watch other things. Same with the iPad. I don’t think I have ever used that rubber strap they shipped with the unit, I was not interested in holding the big brick that was created by doing that!! The primary reason I bought the Oppo was also the benefit of it being used as a battery charger for the phone. By the way, I recently discovered that it will charge the phone at the same time as it being used for playback and amplification. I always was under the impression it was in one mode or another.
Cool, right? I think that specific feature is what elevates it beyond most portable DACs. It’s a device that manages to do just about everything, yet do everything it does well.
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Just to continue
I completely agree with guerph above and I’ve previously used SOtM and Sonore USB output endpoints.
The ultraRendu + Uptone UltraCapacitor LPS-1 linear PSU is about as good as it gets (in all my tinkering) for a permanently mains connected USB endpoint.
But the iOS endpoint running off internal battery or powered by a large powerbank (NOT being charged at the wall) provides perfect isolation from mains power and sounds better for it to my ears. iOS devices are power frugal too, by design, which helps keep noise low (so I’m told by some experts)
My iPod Touch (6th) has been completely stripped of all apps essentially to only function as a Roon endpoint for critical listening. There’s 6 or so apps that I can’t delete. It’s permanently on Do Not Disturb Mode and all sounds and all notifications have been disabled.
I had a question mark whether playback was truely bit perfect on the USB output (not what Roon was reporting) but when I had the little Pro-Ject S2 Dac which I bought for the old man (dad) and was playing with for a couple of weeks, Brian gave me a great idea to test bit perfect playback capability for myself.
MQA needs playback to be bit perfect for an MQA DAC to decode, so MQA playback to an MQA DAC is a great bit perfect playback testing tool ! And indeed I was able to confirm with my own eyes the iPod Touch output to the MQA DAC was bit perfect.
The reason I stripped back the iPod Touch so much is that iOS doesn’t allow Exclusive Mode (something else I learnt from Brian). But with the way I’ve stripped it back, there’s nothing that can take over the sound of the iPod Touch so it’s essentially in Exclusive Mode with Roon.
So for critical listening, my source is:
iPod Touch 6th Gen + Apple USB3 adapter + Mophie powerbank
Someone somewhere measured and said Mophie consistently have the lowest noise among powerbanks.
I tested once and that powerbank can get me 20+ hours continuous iOS Roon endpoint listening over WiFi My listening sessions are typically 1-2 hours max, maybe 3 hours continuous on the weekend, so I’m covered with letting it re-charge to full overnight.
If you’re someone that can’t be bothered with re-charging all the time it’s a pain. This is why I shipped my ultraRendu to the old man. It’s a permanent solution that needs no maintenance and that’s about as good as it get so SQ from a permanently mains connected USB source, so he can enjoy that.
But I don’t mind a little bit (not too much) of QUICK fussing around to get better SQ, and for me this does sound better.
I use a 2meter Supra High Speed Certified USB 2.0 cable to give it 2m of separation from the DAC, just for feel good factor (some distance is better than no distance I figured)
There are ways to get an Pi3 B/B+ and Allo USBridge to working wirelessly as USB sources of course, since both only need 5Vdc power, which a powerbank can provide. But the iOS’s WiFi reception is much more reliable than WiFi dongles I’ve used before and the Pi3 B’s internal WiFi is shaky. That’s critical for me, because if I had one single dropout, I would have abandoned the iOS endpoint idea and kept the ultraRendu for myself. I have no patience for anything that gets in the way of enjoying the music, once I hit the play button.
So far though, not a single dropout to this day, so I can safely say it’s a rock solid solution in my setup and sounds great!
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