Meridian Roon Extension

@RBM – how do you drive your Meridian 5200’s? what is the full path (and what else do you have plugged into your “processor”?)

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Path is simple: NUC/Debian > Node 2 > S/PDIF > MiniDSP DDRC-22D / Dirac Live > S/PDIF > DSP5200. Schematic is a few posts up above.

The MiniDSP has 3 digital inputs (Node/Pi/TV (with IPTV/Netflix/ATV/DVD/BL)) – all room corrected. I use a Logitech Harmony Hub (base station + dumb remote) to tie it all together.

This gives me on the dumb remote:

  • Hardware volume control on the DSPs
  • Source selection on the DSPs
  • Roon track controls on the Node
  • One-click Tune-In radio presets
  • Source selection on the MiniDSP
  • 4 filter choices on the MiniDSP

Harmony and Bluesound have nice little applets for the iOS devices as well, offering quick access to Now playing info, track controls and volume control.

and you run your Roon with fixed volume?

Yup – it’s set to fixed in the Node and hidden in Roon. Only volume control is directly on the DSP’s. Why?

…because I have a Roon Extension telling the DSP speakers to do hardware volume/source/standby using RS232. You’d need a cheap usb->rs232 cable to try it out.

Plus I’d need to package it up in a way that it’d be easy to run. My plan was to make that happen in ROCK.

Do you do stuff with Debian other than Roon?

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I would be interested in this… I’m sure it’s not just me!

@Hectorson – what does your Meridian setup look like?

I’m trying to get a feel for how many people are in this situation and what their setups look like.

“In this situation” means one of the following situations:

  1. Meridian DSP speakers, but NO processor of any sort (no AC200, no G61R, no 818, etc…), and NO MS200/MS600.
  2. Meridian DSP speakers + processor, but you want to control a non-MS200/MS600 endpoint.

If you are using a MS200/MS600 and still interested, please tell me why.

2 posts were split to a new topic: RS232 control of McIntosh

3 posts were split to a new topic: My Meridian system setup (split from extension talk)

Danny,

I have various legacy M components. The goal for me would be to be able to create additional Roon zones using alternative hardware.

First question could this or similar work on a Roon remote running on a PC or does it need to be attached to the core.

Even better, would it be possible to have something like a RPi with keyspan attached?

Just trying to work out the best way of using existing kit without having another MS600, space and cost implications!

Regards

6 posts were split to a new topic: Meridian 218 source switching

yes, but what are you driving the DSP Speakers with?

Yeah… Backup/sync, a few extensions, some other stuff. But the NUC is tucked away 2 rooms from the DSPs anyway.

I do have a Pi running nearby – could run the extension from there, I guess. Any tips for a cable that will work out of the box or ones to avoid?

At the moment an MS600 and a SBT for two different zones.

Thought process at the moment is to create RAAT zones for linking within Roon but with the Meridian comms via RS232.

MS600 with Roon works great! Would like to be able to keep using the MS600 independently and add RPi zones around the house. So using second input on DSPs for RPi but maintaining M volume control.

Hoping this is posssible with the API, would also love to add a touchscreen :grimacing:

Hope this makes sense!

wait a sec @Hectorson – how do you use 2 zones with DSP speakers only? Which speakers do you have? What inputs do your speakers have?

I’m using this one

it works well on Linux. How do you plan to get RS232 to your speaker? I have an AC12.

Have DSP5k and DSP33

5ks have coax SPDIF x2
33s have 1 SPDIF

EDIT: Both have 2x Coax SPDIF

With only 1 MS600 feeding 5Ks I cant link zones. I’m keen to expand number of Roon zones. I will keep existing setup with MS600. I get that this will only link with other M zones. I’d like to add RPi to 5ks and 33s and create other RAAT zones going forward. I guess what I’m asking is whether it’s possible to use RPi as a streaming endpoint using RAAT and thus linkable and also implement M comms protocol via RS232

Sorry if I’ve over complicated this!

OK,

Having installed the extension, I have SBT setup with DSP33s with Keyspan attached to Core.

Working well except I have a strange volume display issue, the slider controls the volume but then display jumps back to 45.

This is a useful implementation for me but would be amazing if I could grab a couple of RPi’s and control M kit that way :grin:

Regards

I need the trace from your extension’s output to help debug that issue…

something is clearly configured wrong – ive seen this too, but once i setup things better, im fine.

yes. absolutely. it’s not comms, it’s their rs232 protocol, but the functionality is similar.

do you have 2 things hooked up to them? how do you switch between them?