I’ve recently bought a Sonore Sonicoribiter NAA and connected to a MacMini which has RoonServer and runs HQP. My question is now that I have an NAA connected to my dac could I switch my main computer iMac to run RoonCore and install HQP on this machine instead.
Is their any benefit for me to keep running a music only server which is the only purpose of the Mini (one less item that needs power + the additional HD power attached to it).
And if I do switch to RoonCore/HQP on my iMac will Roon keep track of all my play history and custom tag edits… thanks in advance for any help.
I run a BRIX as a separate music server. For me there are benefits from not having to turn on the main desktop in order to play music and anyone can use the desktop for any purpose (including software installations or updates requiring restarting) without disrupting music streaming.
HQP can dynamically adjust itself to available resources. I like to let it have the music server available to it (RoonServer consumes relatively few resources). Using HQP on the main desktop would, for me, impose constraints on both HQP and anything else on the desktop (eg. ripping with dbpoweramp).
A separate server can be optimised for audio, reducing processing and OS overheads to a minimum. I use Audiophile Optimiser on Windows Server 2012r2, I suspect the benefits of such optimisation are less significant when using an NAA, but I haven’t conducted any testing to verify that suspicion.
That’s what I’m wondering. My main desktop system is on 24/7 to begin with and the with the electrical costs ever going up from my provider, being able to get rid of a couple other items Mini/4TB HD that are also on 24/7 seems to be good thing… but if there is still a benefit running the Mini as a music only server, I’ll keep it. But otherwise I’d like to un-power it.
Since it seems simple enough to transfer the Core without losing the database, I’m gonna try it and if I find SQ falls off, I’ll go back… thanks for the reply.
In his review of the SonicOrbiter On CA Chris Connaker noted this in the comments:
I setup five different computers as Roon servers to send audio to the SonicOrbiter SE.
Windows 8.1 noisy, non-tweaked (hardware or software) PC with 6TB spinning drives of local storage.
Windows 2012 R2 server SOtM / AO server with highly tweaker hardware and software.
OS X El Capitan MacBook Pro
OS X El Capitan / Windows 10 (Boot Camp) MacBook Pro retina
OS X El Capitan iMac 5K
I couldn’t hear a hint of difference between the sources when sending audio over Ethernet to the RoonReady Sonicorbiter SE. This combined with the fact I have no idea how the source could possibly effect the sound of the Ethernet endpoint in this situation, lead me to believe the source has no effect on sound quality.
Note: I completely respect the opinions of others who will try similar tests as more RoonReady endpoints become available. In addition, my conclusion here has absolutely nothing to do with locally attached server / DAC combinations not using audio over Ethernet.
Chris was, of course, talking about RAAT, but similar considerations could apply to the NAA.