I’m running Roon on a Windows 10 PC. I just downloaded Roon as a trial.
The PC is connected to the peripherals through an Ethernet network. I listen to my music using a
Yamaha WXC-50 streamer/DAC. It is connected to the network using an ethernet connection. The Yamaha has DLNA, Bluetooth, Chromecast Audio and AirPlay enabled.
When setting up Roon for the first time my Yamaha DAC is recognized. However, I can only set it as an AirPlay or Chromecast device. Since Airplay doesn’t allow hi res and I don’t like the Chromecast very much these are not my favorite options.
Is this a consequence of the Yamaha not doing RAAT? I thought/hoped that wouldn’t be an issue when playing over an ethernet connection.
But, if indeed that is the case then I wonder will upgrading my NAS to enable Roon starting from there be going to work in combination with the Yamaha?
Yes, RAAT is a protocol that needs to be built in to a receiver, just like Airplay or Chromecast.
Also, I’m an not sure what the NAS has to do with the Yamaha. Running Roon on a PC or a NAS is the same situation.
I want to step back and have you describe the audio chain. What is the Yamaha plugged into, for example.
Hello, thanks for responding. This my system, in short:
I have a B&O sound system with active speakers.
My music (flac or alac) is stored on a qnap nas which has an ethernet connection to my home network. My pc and Yamaha wxc-50 are connected to the same wired network.
On a wifi connected macbookpro I installed audirvana. Audirvana uses dlna to stream to the yamaha.
This gives my the following possibilities to listen to my music:
Using the yamaha musiccast app on my ipad. Using minimserver on the nas I load the music directly to the yamaha dac in 44.1mode.
Using audirvana i wirelessly load the music to my laptop, have audirvana do its things and upload it to the yamaha by dlna.
I was hoping that by using roon on an ethernet connected pc or nas it would convert the music stream into pcm and send that to the yamaha.
I also have Qobuz and Tidal subscriptions to listen to hi res and new music.
As CrystalGipsy mentioned, Roon does not use dlna or uPnP.
You can get a streamer which is Roon Ready and attach that to either your Yamaha or your speakers. There are many to choose from with different functionality.
There is the Allo DigiOne which will take in Ethernet and output Coax SPDIF. You could just attach a network cable to it, plug it into the Coax input on your speakers if they have one, and done. Small, cheap, sounds excellent and will just work with minimal setup.
Not quite so I think, OP could for instance use a Roon Bridge, say Raspberry Pi with HiFiBerry DAC+ running RoPieee to connect over Ethernet and into standard RCA audio input in Yamaha, or HiFiBerry Digi+/Digi+ Pro into the Yamaha digital input.
I think that one of the pros of Roon is that it can connect to virtually any endpoint player over Ethernet via a Roon Bridge, or have I got that wrong??
That sounds very promising and worth looking into.
How does it connect to the Yamaha? On the photo I see a network port and some usb.
The Yamaha doesn’t do usb. It’s usb port only accepts small usb sticks but nothing like external usb-disks or continuous data streams over usb.
It needs to connect via USB. So, it won’t work for the Yamaha.
The Yamaha only has a Toslink digital in (it seems from the manual), which really limits the ability to plug something into the Yamaha. The best Roon Endpoint for Toslink I think is the HiFiBerry Digi+ (Pro version). You can get the kit at their website and should be an easy build-by-numbers.
Or, if your speakers have a 2nd digital input you could use that. What B&O speakers do you have and do they have another digital input, so that you could plug a Roon endpoint solution straight into the speakers? You would have to switch back and forth between inputs.
Or, If there is only 1 digital in on the speakers AND you don’t want to hassle with the kit listed above; then, you might think about changing out the Yamaha with something like a BlueSound Node 2i.
Hi, looking at the photo of the hifiberry it seems to have a coax port, the yamaha uses optical. That would mean the need for another converter… i doubt if that’ll improve the sq.
I have been considering the bluesound, but as far as I can see it doesn’t do dlna, which I want to keep for Audirvana.
And since I already have the yamaha I wonder if the sound quality of the bluesound is so much better it would justify a >€500 investment to replace the yamaha. The hifiberry is priced reasonably enough to function as an in-between until I’ll be ready for a bigger investment.
The HiFiBerry Digi + Pro has both Coax and Optical outputs, I have a Raspberry Pi 3B+ with the HiFiBerry Digi Pro + to connect Roon to my Cambridge Audio 851N (which has plenty of both types of digital input) over Ethernet and have tested both outputs to do A/B testing of SQ by simply switching Digital inputs on the 851N using the remote controller whilst listening to Tidal 24bit recordings - no difference to me in SQ. I am using the Optical output from HiFiBerry to 851N. You could drive two different DACs/Players with one unit. Works great.
Edit: just checked, the Standard Digi + also has both TOSLink and RCA.
Maybe… but the DigiOne option is several times the price of the HiFiBerry solution, and quite possibly just as good SQ wise… Possibly the OP did not want to spend so much??
Also it does not appear to have an optical output… which the OP requires.
Erick, sorry for the delay getting back to you. The UPnP Bridge is a converter. It sits on your network and acts as a relay. All communication with it to and from is via Ethernet. So your Yamaha still uses its network port.
OK I am confused and stand corrected, it seems to me that there was only an optical option from the above. I was only trying to help someone who is new to this Roon infrastructure, as am I and so I offered an opinion based on my own recent experience of finding a solution.
I will butt out and leave it to the experts, as I just want to listen to music and not get into semantics or disagreements with others.
Well sorry if that upsets you. I did read your post, but to me it did appear to be a quote and not a link to another conversation.
I do very much appreciate the efforts and help I’m receiving over this topic.
As said I am new to roon and I find following the conversations confusing at times.
Again, thanks for your help