After many delays – some COVID-19 related, many others not – I finally moved into my new place over the summer.
The two Trinnov endpoints are working great with Roon, but the four NAD CI 580s are not. I have now learned that there is a known issue using the NAD CI 580s as Roon endpoints. This is supposedly being addressed (see Roon drops rooms when connecting to NAD CI580), but after waiting for a few months without any progress I am ready to give up on the NADs and I am looking for alternatives.
I have been told that the Roon playback issue does not exist with single zone Bluesound products, so going with the Node 2i is an option but is definitely not an optimal solution given that I would need 12 of these to replace three CI 580.
So I would welcome any recommendations for other multi-zone preamps to replace the CI 580. Some requirements include:
- Support for Hi Res Audio up to 24/192
- Digital outputs for 8 zones
- Balanced analog XLR outputs for 4 zones (which would be an improvement over the CI 580 or Node 2i which only have analog RCA outputs)
- Ability to group all 12 zones together with the Roon UI (am I right that I would need to use the same hardware platform for both the digital and analog zones?)
Based on the recommendations previously received here I decided against using Crestron to control the distributed audio and I am hoping to use Roon as my primary UI, so at this point it is critical that any solution works with Roon right out of the box. I am therefore wondering whether I should have a bias towards Roon Tested solutions?
Many thanks.