I also have been using Roon on an M1 Mini for several months, with very few glitches. A long time user of iTunes, Apple Music, Audirvana, Amarra, I find the Roon setup stable and intuitive on the Mac. I have used a succession of headless Minis exclusively as music servers for many years. The Mini/Roon combination has been a revelation. Apple could learn a lot from the Roon interface, and especially the synergy of iPads, iPhones and Macs with the Roon control UI on them. Also, I’m guessing Roon would not continue to write their code for Macs if they didn’t see a future in it.
I’m an almost 67 year old record collector/hifi guy with stacks of LPs that the Roon ecosystem has contributed to. I miss going to the record store(sometimes), but really enjoy the instant gratification of the accessibility through Roon/Qobuz. I continue to subscribe to Apple Music, and buy hi-res downloads, and particularly enjoy the Roon meanderings through my SSD library and the segues into streaming. My kids run a record label, so there’s always new vinyl appearing too.
Been running Roon core on a (spare) mini (2018 model) as headless server for several years. No serious compatibility issues at all. I use screen share for remote access.
I only run Roon, iTunes and occasional browser.
The arguments against are valid mainly around price point and $/value ratio. NOTE: minimal experience with the other platforms and OSs.
M2 are around the corner but you won’t get them at that price he could get the M1 now.
For that price I would just buy one.
I’m using a M1 MacBook Air for roon and it works absolutely fine. Could probably run roon 10 times on that thing and still would have plenty of headroom left.
It’s sad that you don’t seem to understand what you wrote. People buy things they don’t need all the time. Great pricing changes the definition of “need” for people all the time. You do understand that, don’t you?
I’d be typing this message on an old 2008 Mac Pro if I bought computers based on need alone. As it is, I am typing this on an almost 5 year old 2017 iMac. If I followed your advice, I wouldn’t buy something new for years and then I would always be waiting for that next better thing…
AceRimmer
(Smoke me a kipper, I'll be back for breakfast!)
28
Let’s turn the heat down and get back on topic please.
Thank you for your patience and understanding
Surely, someone at Roon Labs must have an MacBook on which to do the M1 build. It is literally a matter of using the newest XCode and doing a build. Should be nothing to port as Apple Silicon introduced no new alignment rules or data types.
Roon is built on Microsoft’s .NET framework for cross-platform development compatibilty across Windows, Macs, Linux, iOS, and Android. .NET 6 is almost complete for Apple Silicon, but remains in preview form only; Roon’s developers have posted that they have been testing .NET 6 for many months, but there remain a few issues Microsoft is addressing. When these issues are complete, I believe it will be a fast cutover for Roon to support Apple Silicon.
Doh, forgot about .NET, Marc. I take it that an older .NET framework is being translated at run-time or load time. I’ve been an early adopter of the M1 here at home but am no longer an active developer.
Roon’s .NET strategy has worked surprisingly well. Occasionally some issues in the core and a few more Controller crashes on iPad but these seem to be down with the most recent build.
I share John Darko’s “music first” approach to audio. Roon is way above the crowd when it comes to music discovery.
Well, no as they are two different things. The talk about native version is for RoonServer.
ROCK is RoonOS based on Linux and the linux version of RoonServer. RoonOS is built for specific hardware which is why they have a specified parts list. While that can be loaded onto other Intel CPU based computers, that is not a supported environment.
Probably not.
Not sure why you are making a distinction between the two mini PC hardware boxes. Why not just get a Mac Mini and use it as a RoonServer?
I use a MAC Mini vintage 2012 for my Roon Server (holds my Library) and then I use a M1 MAC Mini that’s used as a Roon Core so I can add Room Correction convolutions to my Library!
