Do you think the new M4 chip iPad Pro is powerful enough for Roon Server ? If so, it will be nice to see a development of iPadOS Roon Server app.
I think it’s unlikely that the iPad would be sufficiently powerful or that Roon would develop server functionality for it, see:-
An iPad Pro will want to constantly go to sleep. As far as servers go this is probably a worse idea than a laptop, which can at least be told to stay awake.
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I have no idea about coding an app for this, I’m sure it would be a mammoth task to build it from the ground up for the new M4 chip. But I think its power and with all the hardware accelerations in GPU and neural engine it would be a rocket ship!
I wouldn’t hold your breath though.
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M4 is plenty powerful (actually too powerful, even older M1 would be plenty powerful) and has 8GB RAM even in the base model. It is more than enough.
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The issue is the device architecture and the OS. It’s not designed for such workloads.
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The roon specifications suggest otherwise. 
The spec says Intel i3 and 8GB RAM as minimum. I’d assume 6th gen i3 because I used to run Roon Server on 6th gen i5 just fine until I switched to Threadripper server that I use currently. And even M1 is almost as 2x powerful (per Geekbench result, for reference: MacBook Air (Late 2020) vs iMac17,1 - Geekbench) than 6th gen i3 and the iPad Pro has 8GB (or 16GB if you went 1TB+) RAM.
EDIT: Like @mjw said, the OS would be the problem. It doesn’t like background processes.
EDIT 2: On the larger library section, it says that " 1. Your server should be based on a more powerful CPU and the Nucleus+ is an ideal platform. Other options include ROCK or Linux running on an Intel Core i7 or i9 CPU, Windows on a Core i7 or i9 CPU, or macOS on a Core i7, i9, or Apple Silicon CPU." So yes, you’re the one who haven’t read requirement section well enough.
Even if Roon decided to port server software to capable iOS devices, wireless constrictions would likely tarnish the experience - or would you want to use it tethered to an Ethernet cable?
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iPads run iOS. Not MacOS so are not included by that statement.
Unlike MacBooks and Macs, iPads are not optimised for continuous use. They are optimised to extend the usable battery life so even though they may use apple silicon of the same generation as, for example, a MacBook, their performance characteristics are not the same.
As @Marin_Weigel suggested, iPads do not have an etherenet port (although there are workarounds) and Roon consistently say that WiFi should not be used for the Roon Server. This aspect would made even worse it relying on networked attached storage for library media.
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It’s the hardware, too. It not simply a matter of CPU and memory. Disk i/o, memory performance are factors. This is often ignored when people ask if the latest Raspberry Pi can run Roon server.
When you can pick up a Nucleus One for $500, and DIY for less, why would anyone want to use an iPad?
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For disk, I could add external Thunderbolt drive and wired ethernet with it. RAM performance is same for Macs and iPads AFAIK. And yeah, $500 Nucleus would be better for Roon. I’m mostly thinking it as secondary use after getting it replaced by another iPad.
And for @Wade_Oram, I was just talking about hardware side, not software side. Limitations of iPadOS, such as background process limit, networking limit, and million other things would make it impossible for now. I was assuming if those software limitations were not there.
EDIT: To clarify, my point was about hardware being enough to run Roon (even with different performance characteristics it would still meet at least minimum), but the software isn’t being locked down by Apple and thus limits its full potential.
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The m4 will blow away any other cpu out there, so the cpu isn’t the problem. If the new iPad OS really is the OS that you can finally use an iPad instead of Mac computer, then technically yes, but I would still run OS X on a Mac for running Roon server. My m1 iPad has the power to run Roon server, but it doesn’t have the OS to run it
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I am using a Mac Mini with an M2 processor, ethernet, and 2 external SSD drive over USB-C. performance is great. However for the iPad ,I guess that Apple primary use case was not for people to turn it into a server, but it has the horsepower.Apple M4 vs M2: Check Out the Performance Gains of the New Chip
3 posts were split to a new topic: New M4 iPad Pro used as a Roon Remote
Yes.
I have zero interest in seeing Roon spend time on this though. There is absolutely zero reason to put Roon Server on something that has a screen that expensive. Complete waste. Wrong tool for the job.
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You can purchase Logic Pro for iPad. I’d venture a guess the workloads put on an iPad from Logic Pro are significantly higher than the average Roon Server.
Spend your time and money wisely. Use the turnkey Nucleus One or ROCK on a supported NUC instead of trying to shoehorn this into a platform for which it is not designed.
He just asking for trouble when there is a elegant, inexpensive solution at hand. Same goes for people trying to run this on a NAS.
If we all stuck to supportive solutions, the Roon support staff would have more time to focus on quashing bugs and developing new features
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Absolutely not. The OS is not anywhere near up to the task. Buy a Roon Nucleus or a reconditioned Mac Mini.
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Only because it is designed relentlessly to save power and put background apps to sleep. Apple could make it otherwise quite easily, but you’d want to keep the device plugged in, making it not an “iPad.”