Well, RoPieee is running a configuration application and web server plus a bunch of other background tasks. When I login and run htop on a RoPieee installation, I recall seeing ~45 tasks running. When I run htop on DietPi, I usually see 14-17 tasks and the CPU load is lower:
If this makes any difference to sound quality is splitting hairs and impossible to say, but since I don’t require a web interface to configure my Roon endpoints, I prefer to keep things as lean as possible. Most people will be better off with RoPieee so that they can manage configuration without having to learn shell commands.
I meant no offense to you or RoPieee. It’s a valuable addition to the Roon community and has enabled many people to assemble excellent sounding Roon endpoints who otherwise would not have done so. And the 7" RPi touchscreen support looks really cool.
Hi Harry, You read my mind. I have just done that (used the now spare RPi3 as the screen control. Turned the WiFi on and dug out the wall wort that came with the pi to power it) …it works well, yet adds to the clutter of boxes!
The USBridge Sig does tighten things up a bit (it is not night/day). It shows how good Ropieee is on the RPi3 at de-tunings the pi to focus on audio. Plus reduces the USB noise to below the perception of “noisy pi” (what ever that perception is). The measurements are improved and the USBridge Sig goes that bit further for that SQ%.
Marking this for my research. I am a newb to this and want to build one of these to use with my Meridian Explorer 2 to my preamp. I am doing this as part of a migration from SONOS to roon, and want everything I run to be roon ready. Other end points will likely be more standard DigiOne types but want to be able to use this Meridian USB fed DAC.
I’m currently using the Allo USBridge Signature. I went with the model that has both USB and the optional DigiOne board, which is nice for flexibility when I’m evaluating different DACs.
AFAIK, Allo has not participated in the Roon Ready™ program. A few of their products, like the BOSS and Piano DACs and the DigiOne Player are certified as Roon Tested, but none are certified Roon Ready.
The good news is that this doesn’t mean that the USBridge Signature does not work perfectly well with Roon. I can attest that it does as long as you choose “DietPi + ALLO GUI” for the “OS” when you place your order.
In this configuration, the USBridge Sig run’s the “Roon Bridge” software that is supplied and supported by Roon Labs on top of the DietPi Linux distribution. Said another way, it is running the latest Roon Bridge code, so RAAT protocol and Roon support is 100% (assuming nothing funky is going on with the attached USB DAC).
If you must have an actual certified Roon Ready network audio transport for USB, the SOtM sMS-200 is a nice way to go. Check Roon’s Partners page for more details: https://roonlabs.com/partners/
That said, I have had no problems with the USBridge, and I suspect that its performance (especially with the Shani LPS) matches or exceeds the sMS-200 and subsequent iterations.
Well, I just found out Roon doesn’t do Spotify on its own. So I guess I am looking at BlueSound again, as that is a requirement in my family. I am a Tidal guy, but everyone else is hooked into the Spotify musicverse.
How is your family listening to Spotify? How many zones are playing the same music from Spotify? Does everyone listen to their own music on Spotify in their room only? Do you have ceiling speakers throughout your home or just individual Sonos speakers? Where do you listen to your music at? Does everyone listen to the same music as you? Is your system just dedicated to your listening area?
Hey @dabassgoesboomboom I bought a Poly for the Mojo and had been using my Explorer² attached to the Sig but now I have swapped the old USBridge out and I am using the Sig to feed my Prime HP amp upstairs in our bedroom (I have only slept in there twice since we moved to Canberra as I have been downstairs with Charlie and using the MojoPoly when I have had the chance).
At home, we currently use the SONOS system to listen to Spotify. I am trying to figure out how to re-create the SONOS grouping and streaming options, including both Tidal and Spotify. No ceiling speakers. We have 3 Connects, and 3 different standalone speakers, a 1, a 3 and a 5. The 3 and 5 are not the latest generation and are legacy. As are the Connects. Normally, Spotify is used in my wife’s office for her own music, and throughout the house generally synced to the same music in those zones. When I listen to my own music only in my main listening area, I use a Meridian Explorer 2 from my Mac mini, as it sounds way better than the SONOS Connect I use with that system when I want it to play the same thing as the other rooms.
But why change what works? If you put everyone in the Roon ecosystem then they will have to get use to the Roon ap. Why can’t you do both and just keep your listening area confined to Roon? I use Roon when I just listen to the music but when my wife wants to listen during the day I change the input on my pre amp and we listen via amazon echo link connected to my multichannel amp running all my ceiling speakers all controlled by Alexa from multiple dots in each room or zone. The music is just as enjoyable and sound great. The convenience of voice control is pretty cool.
That is fine for now. I am looking forward. I am not investing more money in Sonos units, and 5 out of 6 are legacy, and will ultimately have some impact from not being updated. Also, as long as that may be an issue, I want to move to higher resolution sound anyway. So far, the overall easiest way seems to be so go BlueSound. I had hoped I could save some money on that, and go with Allo units, and run everything using Roon. But Spotify does not work with that. So, again, it looks like a migration to BlueSound is on the horizon at some point. And whether or not I add Roon to that will remain to be seen. I love the metadata and all that, but it is another expense. And I am choosing not to do Alexa. It is not enabled on my TV that supports it either. Just my choice.
