I have Roon 2.0 running on my NUC/ROCK, W10 laptop, IPAD 12.9 and Samsung Note 9. All working as expected but I have not tried ARC yet. Before I do it would help to fully understand the concept and know which mobile devices it runs on.
It is my understanding of the basics, right or wrong, that the device will use Wi-Fi/Ethernet and/or cellular data to communicate with the core on the home network. And you can download as many local music files/playlist as your device can handle for offline playback.
My current IPAD 12.9 does not have cellular so I would need to upgrade. Don’t think I would be interested in having it on my Samsung phone because of the screen space limitations. My use case would be motorized mobility or internet outages at home so size/weight would not be an issue.
Maybe the upcoming IPAD 12.9 2022 model, could have the M2 chip, 8GB memory and the maximum 2TB of storage. That would be dedicated to Roon ARC/Remote use and would hold my smaller library, 10k tracks minus Tidal/Qobuz additions and the huge DSD files.
With that it would connect to the car audio system, has onboard speakers to use if nothing else is available (I’m deaf on the right so buds or earphones don’t work for me) and it seems I could take an Elac Z3 speaker system for “remote cabin” use if power is available. No roon ready interface, Airplay or Bluetooth without internet but the aux connection would work without the Elac app for setup.
I think that would be a good mobile setup and a backup for the sure to be coming internet outages.
I’m looking for confirmation or correction to what I have listed.
The ARC user interface is designed for small screens and remains so when used on an iPad (where you are just running the iPhone version scaled to a large screen.) It will work on your Samsung phone just as well as anywhere else. It’s specifically designed for mobile phones.
Yes, if the device can get to the internet and reach your home internet it will work. The device needs to be able to reach your core.
Tether it to your phone or use wifi or upgrade
Yes
No. ARC requires communication to your Core. If you’re Core isn’t online, maybe because the Internet is out at your home, then no ARC. The only exception is ARC will play anything you’ve downloaded locally (is my understanding).
The ARC interface is specifically built to be used on phones. In fact, if you use it on an iPad it goes into “phone mode” right now. Extra screen isn’t entirely helpful right now. On iPad its just a zoomed version of the phone.
This will work via Bluetooth and/or Airplay with ARC just fine. You don’t need the Elac app for this. Only if you want to adjust bass / treble. Just keep the thing using DHCP and preset the wifi info (or use a cable).
I wouldn’t consider ARC a reliable use for this. I’d just copy your files over and use a player designed for local playback. But, that’s just me maybe.
As has been posted, Roon ARC is designed for use with phone. That’s because it’s not really intended/needed at home. That said, it works fine on an iPad, it just doesn’t fill up the entire screen.
So far, there is no CarPlay integration app, but Roon ARC works to a degree with CarPlay. Just connect and press “What’s Playing.” I have also been able to connect to my in-car system without CarPlay using USB and 3.5mm aux.
I’m at home now and just turned off WIFI and cellular on my iPhone. I am able to play the one and only local file I have and have downloaded to ARC. So, you could use Roon ARC as a “backup” music source of sorts. For best SQ, you can plug in a DAC and set Roon ARC to “Original Format” for both WIFI and cellular.
I also just tried AirPlay, but it’s not finding any devices. But who wants to use AirPlay anyway?
EDIT: With WIFI turned on, AirPlay works. My bad.
EDIT2: I have used both iPhone and iPad in my car. Of course, the iPad does not have CarPlay.
Why not install Roon ARC on you phone and tablet and give it a try? It should work over WIFI at home. If you want to use it away from home, you will need to figure out the port forwarding unless the Roon 2.0 install already did that automatically.
Thanks Jim, I’ve continued to read all the posts with interest but not ready to pull the trigger yet. Don’t want to use the small phone screen with it’s limitations or a stretched version with the same limitations on the IPAD.
I’ll wait a while. My biggest concern now is having a solution for internet outages.
Would the 2.0 upgrade have tried to automatically configure my Network without ARC?
Yes. The install of Roon 2.0 also tries to do the port forwarding automatically. If you are running Roon 2.0 you can go to Roon - Settings - Roon ARC and see if it worked for you or not.
There is absolutely no reason not to install Roon ARC on a phone and take a look. Just try it at home with WIFI to see what it’s all about. If you have no interest, delete it from your phone. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. The Roon ARC app is available on the app store for your phone.
The solution for internet outages is Roon 1.8 Legacy. That’s what I would use, especially if I didn’t want to use Roon ARC. If I wanted Roon ARC with Roon 2.0, I would buy a lifetime subscription to Audirvana Origin as insurance against internet outage. It plays local files only and is $125 for lifetime.
If the phone with ARC is in the same local LAN (wifi) as the Core is, then it does not need the Core to be accessible from the internet. Instead, ARC can reach the Core via local wifi in this case. However, because of the internet connection requirement in Roon 2.0, this does not help if the Core itself cannot reach the internet, because the Core will not work (reliably). Therefore, you are still limited to downloads in ARC on the phone (or some other, non-Roon way to play the local library)
It’s not really. It’s the solution if one needs extended offline availability in Roon and values this over any and all new features in 2.0 and beyond. For temporary outages it is way too much hassle to revert to 1.8 Legacy and then back to 2.x.
Right, you would not be able to go back and forth after 6 weeks. You need to decide now if you want to go with Roon 1.8 Legacy. If I had local music files I wanted to play during internet outage, I would leave my Nucleus on Roon 2.0 and put my Dell laptop on Roon 1.8 Legacy. It takes 30 seconds to unauthorize one and switch to the other. If you need internet to do the switch, use your cellphone hotspot.
If I didn’t have my Dell core, I would buy a NUC to run Roon 1.8 Legacy. Another option is Audirvana Origin lifetime for $125.
Some people don’t want to hear there are options. They just want to play the victim card.
Staying indefinitely on an outdated version that will never get new features and will be unsupported eventually because of a few temporary internet outages per year is not “an option”. 1.8 Legacy solves some use cases but this is not one of them
I’ve used 2.67 GB of cellular data mostly just walking my dog and a couple short outings in the car of a few blocks only. That’s with Roon ARC set for “Original Format” and using a DAC or CarPlay.
My Verizon plan is unlimited premium data and 135 GB hotspot from 4 different iDevices.
Original Format depends greatly on what the original format is. Big difference between 16/44.1 and 24/192.
@BCBC Generally it’s rather easy to calculate the bandwidth that it needs based on the source material’s data rate. At least ballpark for the raw data. (With Original Format setting, it’s the file size on disk plus a bit of overhead). Or you could use the Bandwidth Optimized setting instead.
