I’m honing in (depending on what day/time it is 
) on my preferred system for the new home. I’m pondering a Nativ Vita as a head, connecting to Schiit DAC (undecided, views?) and the Schiit Vidar(s).
Has anyone used the Vita? Views? Plusses, minuses? Comments on the approach?
Have at it!
Cheers
Graham
Hi Graham,
Can the Vita run Roon ? I saw the software described as “open”, which usually implies Linux. The only Roon Core in Linux is a RoonServer (x64) which lacks a Control and won’t run on the Cortex A9.
Given that you may need a Roon Core elsewhere, the Vita loses a lot of attraction as a Roon component. You might run Roon Bridge on it (Output) but then you’d be sending music from the local HDDs over Ethernet to the Core and back again as an Output, and you wouldn’t have the display working.
I’d suggest looking at a NUC for the Core. An i5 is going to be fine unless you want to upsample stuff to DSD. It could run Windows if you wanted to use other music programs as well as Roon, or ROCK if you preferred Roon only. A second hand iPad as a control (I use a Mini 3) and you’re good to go.
Yes it can. I have a roon core already.
Hey Graham… Did you end up getting the Nativ Vita?
We literally moved in this week, so no action yet, but I can update you on my thinking.
I like the look of the Nativ, but it is VERY pricey and, IMHO, adds little other than looks to a Roon endpoint. The integration with Roon is a “future” that is promised real soon.
So on balance, I’m thinking that an iPad as the room controller with a RaspberrPi and HiFiberry endpoint will feed into a Schiit Freya preamp (if the are ever back in stock). We did visit the Shiitter to hear the Freya/Vidar combination and loved it, so the RpI -> Frey -> Schiit Vidar(s) -> Tekton Double Impacts is the current plan.
Of course, this all depends on how it all sounds in the room, which is large, but the ability to add another Vidar and make them into monoblocs is also appealing.
So the challenge now is to get Roon up - my iMac which has the Roon Core on it has somehow vanished between my office in CA and our new home in NC. It may be hiding, but I think that unlikley. Then to hold my breath and power up the FreeNAS, rebuild the Core and then coordinate all the pieces to be delivered at the same time for the 15/30 day trail periods.
Trivial!
That’s pretty much what I was thinking… I’ve been thinking of going the iPad route since I just recently bought an iPad Pro so I have my 3 year old iPad Air just sitting in my desk drawer. I was thinking of getting a Bluesound Vault 2 and putting the iPad on a charger stand on my audio cabinet and using it as the living room controller for Roon (I already have it set up as a universal remote for the rest of my gear too but just don’t use it as one yet) and the Vault for music storage I can access from my desktop as well as my iPad. I’m a big fan of the Schiit products too. I run a Lyr on my desktop and I have the Mani phono preamp and the Saga running my turntable through my home theater system for now. I’m temporarily living in a garage apartment while my house gets built so it’s a pretty small room to pump music into. Once I’m in the permanent home I’ll probably go the Yggdrasil, Freya, and dual Vidar route too and move my current stuff into my office.
Never heard of this product or the company, but after a quick look at the website it seems to me they are trying to reinvent Sooloos? Roon of course moved on from this to what it is now, an adaptable and well developed modular system. Vita on the other hand are starting from scratch, or do they have previous history developing this type of hardware and software?
It is not obvious to me why the Vita is any better than an iPad, as it only claims at some future point in time to run Roon Remote. Has anyone joined the Community and seen what people are saying about it? I certainly spent a lot of time reading this Community forum before purchase of Roon, and the support offered (by both Team Roon and Roon users) was a key decider in going ahead.
I’m starting to play with an Amazon Fire Tablet to see how that does…
Cheers
Avoid like the plague!