Hello my fellow Roonies
This is my story of success with Roon and Roon arc.
I’m not affiliated with Roon, nor getting any reward in writing this. The only reward I hope to get is for those who read this to get a better experience from Roon and enjoy the music as I do.
Why spend time writing something that may or may not be read? Simple. I like to help and I like to share my experiences, as it could help others.
I learnt of Roon from watching YouTube videos from the Darko channel. Ooh! What’s this I thought.
I took out a trial and have been heavily hooked since.
Here we go.
My Core
Roon shows on its website multiple ways to use Roon - Roon - How Roon works
Supported NUCs -
Anything other than a NUC with Rock is called a Mock.
I had a NUC type device and managed to install Rock. It was a low spec machine and it showed. It had a basic N series Celeron CPU and 4gb of RAM. It was slow, very slow with Rock. I upgraded this to an old Dell Optiplex desktop PC with 32gb RAM, 1tb SSD. this ran perfectly but was big and used more electric than I wanted. I tested it with Windows 10, Ubuntu and Rock. It ran smooth in either configuration. As I used it for other things I settled for Ubuntu. I’ll come back to this later on in the Ubuntu section.
For my use case and as I wanted an extremely small form factor and no requirement for storage as I solely stream, I purchased a MeLe Quieter 3Q. Here’s a review of it with the specs -
I installed a 1tb NVMe, a Samsung 980 Pro M.2 SSD. It came pre-installed with Windows 11. So I tried Roon Server for Windows. I found this to be a little too heavy of a combination and tried Windows 10. Again I found this to be less perfect than I had hoped for. I know Rock would work well but I needed other features to run on it, so I chose Ubuntu. Ubuntu Server to start with then Xubuntu Desktop.
My Core machine can handle a 10 band parametric EQ to 2 zones without issue.
Linux
For the past 20 years or so I’ve always tinkered around with Linux. I had never really found a reason to use Linux long term until Roon came into my life.
I’ve settled on Xubuntu Desktop, it’s a little lighter than Ubuntu and still allows me to do the other things I needed.
So, Roon Server for Linux was installed -
If you chose the Ubuntu Server distro route, enable SSH during the install process. It’s extremely helpful.
As I chose Xubuntu I had to install SSH after the initial install. There’s plenty of sites listing ways to do this. Some easier than others to follow. Also YouTube is a good tool.
I also chose a desktop version to allow easier access to settings such as not putting the machine to sleep, connecting to Wi-Fi (shock, horror). I also have it set to auto login. This doesn’t bother me as my machine is just for Roon and nothing else.
Another thing to note - in BIOS I have it set to reboot automatically in the event of power loss.
SSH & VPN
With SSH now setup you can now remotely (same network) manage your Linux machine. You just need to know it’s IP address. You can locate this in Roon settings under the General tab under the heading ‘Roon-Core’.
Once a week I access the machine via SSH from an app on my phone. I use Termius for both iPhone and Android. I do this to run updates.
Open terminal and type - sudo su
And enter your password you gave your machine during installation of Ubuntu, you now have root access.
I then type - apt update && apt upgrade -y
This starts the update and upgrade process in one go and automatically accepts the installation. Done.
Also, with the htop command I can see what the memory and CPU state is at. Out of 8gb I rarely see it above 3gb RAM used. CPU is less than 10% across 4 cores.
Now on to VPNs. I started using a VPN installed on the same machine. The easiest guide is below, yes it’s for a Raspberry Pi but it works very well on the same machine as the Core.
I use a VPN to allow me to access the Core directly when I’m out of my home network. I can also use my phone as an endpoint as if I were at home. Handy in case there’s an issue that can only be sorted by accessing the core.
I have a UniFi network and my VPN is part of this now.
Combined I can now remotely access my Core machine from anywhere. Quite handy really.
Why Roon?
Well, if you’ve gotten this far I thank you.
I have listened to music since I was a young lad. When I was 10 or so I had an old 1970’s style hifi with vinyl storage below and a record player on top. The record player was broken so I removed it and placed a board over the hole. I purchased a Matsui CD player and managed to configure the wiring and fitted RCA plugs. I had 4 speakers around my bedroom. It was fantastic. My mum loved me dearly. She never told me once to turn it down. Well I couldn’t hear her for starters.
My journey with music continued. A CD collection in excess of 5000 CDs, I think nearer 6000 CDs happened. Many were singles and CDs from magazines in my younger day. My story of CDs ends here as it ended badly.
I’ve used streaming services since the early days of streaming and heavily used Spotify in the beginning. I then moved onto Tidal and others.
Anyway, why Roon. Roon brings the enjoyment I had when I was a kid back to my love of listening to music. Instead of physical disks and artist info on a pull out, Roon gives me the digital version. It’s bliss.
Roon sounds great. Interacts with my Sonos, HomePods and other endpoints I have seamlessly and without hiccups.
Network
Like many I mainly used my ISP combined router and Wi-Fi access point box. My ISP box is terrible so I used a separate router/access point. Whilst this improved things over my ISP box, it still didn’t give the best network I needed for my existing devices before Roon. I purchased Google’s Mesh Wi-Fi with 3 hubs and this gave me the coverage of the whole house that I needed. However, the draw back was the wireless backhaul. It robbed my bandwidth/throughout. I then pulled in an externally routed Ethernet cable to allow a wired backhaul, installed a 5 port gigabit switch. This improved things once again.
Now I had 3 hubs, 1 switch which all needed power. This was not good. I was running out of sockets and don’t like extension leads at the best of times.
After watching numerous YouTube videos I came across Ubiquiti. The UniFi range looked perfect. PoE access points. Managed switches etc.
My setup is the Ubiquiti UDR, 2 access points (soon to be 4). A house extension is near completion and my main switch is already installed centrally. It’s not a managed switch as I don’t need VLANs. This network is robust and all wired on backhaul and bandwidth/throughout is more than I need but with an ever extending ecosystem of Sonos, HomePods and other devices it will be enough.
I strongly believe a robust network is needed for Roon to be stable. I’ve not had any issues with buffering, lost devices that seem to be plaguing lots of other users.
I appreciate not everyone wants to start pulling in Ethernet cables. 1 of the cables I pulled in was 35 meters due to the route it took. If you can buy a flat Ethernet cable it can be ran internally under carpets, behind skirting boards etc. wiring a mesh networks backhaul will pay dividends. Wiring as many devices is also beneficial.
Core on Wi-Fi
My network affords me the great pleasure of being able to operate my core on Wi-Fi. I occasionally hook it up direct to my DACs where there isn’t a Ethernet connection. Draw backs are none. On Wi-Fi I have successfully used Roon Arc on the go in CD Quality without issues.
My network allows me to monitor the usage of every device and I’ve seen nothing to indicate I’m running into trouble running everything on Wi-Fi. 2 TVs streaming 4K content, 3 iPads being used for Minecraft amongst other online use, wife on her phone (constantly), me using Roon Arc (on mobile data) and Roon streaming to my Sonos systems and my network isn’t breaking into a sweat.
In the end, my core is usually wired to a Ubiquiti Flex Mini switch with my Sonos Beam, Apple TV & Nintendo Switch. My other Sonos devices are on Wi-Fi.
Sonos
The Sonos 15.2 update has not affected me like it has many others. Why not? I do not know. I personally feel it’s a network related issue. Could be wrong but I have not been able to break my set up and I have tried. Maybe I am just lucky.
I have had Sonos products since the first Play:5. Why Sonos? Well it’s easy to setup, use and sounds adequate for me and my family. It suits my lifestyle.
Could I get better? Oh hell yes. My last system was a multi-thousand £/$ system. Large floor standing speakers. Monobloc amps. Spaghetti cables everywhere. I do not miss the cables. This system sounded truly awesome. Why the change? Kids, wife and life.
Sonos gives me the flexibility to move speakers around easily and simply. Trueplay is a great function and it works 8 out of 10 times.
I also have HomePods. Roon allows me to group all AirPlay devices. This includes the S2 AirPlay compatible Sonos speakers. I also have AirPlay endpoints. One big house party can be had in less than 10 seconds. Flipping marvellous if you ask me.
Head-Fi
My main listening as of late is via headphones. A budget Head-Fi setup gives me immense pleasure. Just me and the music. My main H-Fi has a PokyVection Digi32 Squeezelite endpoint. With Roon Squeezebox support turned on it produces a simple and good sounding source to my DAC/headphone amp. My profile picture shows my headphones of choice.
Problems
Have I encountered any problems with anything Roon related. Nothing to note. When I have, I read and searched the www for answers. Mostly any issue has been due to me not doing something, like forgetting to change the IP on the port forwarding rule for Roon Arc when I swap from wireless to wired connection. Setting a fixed IP address in your router helps.
If I wasn’t as capable then I’d agree that Roon needs to be noob proof. Is it noob proof. Yes. Roon has a comprehensive setup guide on their website for anything Roon related - https://help.roonlabs.com/portal/en/kb/roon-labs-llc
I’ve read through lots of the help pages in case I’ve missed a function or haven’t done something. Very thorough if you ask me.
My ISP broadband going down is the only major factor I cannot control. Well, I can. I have the function to use my iPhone as a failover with my network and use my unlimited data to provide enough speed/bandwidth for my households needs.
Cost
We spend lots of money on equipment and don’t grumble about it. Roon on a machine is a piece of equipment. For the cost of my machine and my lifetime subscription, I’d say that was a good purchase. I started paying by the month, then an annual subscription until I knew it was time to be a lifer. Any regrets? None. Well worth it.
The Forum
The forum is full of likeminded people all willing to share knowledge, music tastes and current favourites. It’s a great place to escape to whilst listening to our favourite music.
There’s plenty of banter in the music threads.
Many turn to the forum for help. There are lots of us who want to help. We just need to appreciate we all come from different backgrounds and there is a language barrier/culture that makes some feel others are rude and this on the whole isn’t the case. Sadly there are some bad apples, but we know who you are!
Final thoughts
I had hoped to make this read better than it does. I had hoped to put more detail in. If anything doesn’t make sense then I apologise. If you feel I could get a better experience then PM me.
Sometimes the Roon service breaks, one way or another, this is the world we live in now. The Roon team are excellent when it comes to giving help. Sometimes there’s a delay but that can be because so many write in asking the same, or has the same problem. A quick search on the forum for similar threads to your issues might save the support team time and speed through issues quicker. The above mentioned knowledge base is perfect place for knowledge.
Be polite to one another. We don’t have to agree with each other, but appreciate the other persons perspective.
And above all enjoy the music. That’s why we are here and why we use Roon.
The Roon Team curates several wicked (good) playlists. Give them a listen.
I’ll probably edit this and amend it constantly when I see errors or make changes and improvements.
Catch you in the forum. 
