Rasberry Pi 4, Ropieee, DragonFlyRed/DacMagic200M

Audio Gear Talk Raspberry Pi
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Considering a Raspberry Pi 4 and Ropieee to replace my laptop.

My current setup is:- Laptop running Roon–(USB)–>DragonFlyRed–(RCA)–>Amplifier

My proposed setup is:- RPi4 running Ropieee–(USB)–>DragonFlyRed–(RCA)–>Amplifier

I want to completely remove my laptop from my setup.

Some basic questions:-

  • Ropieee is a “Roon bridge”? What is a bridge? Do I still need a “Roon core” (ie my laptop)?

  • Can I use Roon on my phone to control Ropieee/(Roon?) on the RPi4?

  • Can Ropieee read a USB drive with my ripped CD’s?

  • Can Ropieee resample 44/16 to 96/24 (I currently do this on my laptop)?

Also, was thinking up getting a DacMagic200M to replace the DragonFlyRed, so the setup would be

RPi4 running Ropieee–(USB)–>DacMagic200M–(RCA)–>Amplifier

  • Can Ropieee resample 44/16 to 192/24?

Thanks for any feedback.

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First stumbling block is the pi will not run Roon Core. Simply it hasn’t the horsepower. Many uses use an Intel NUC i3, i5 or i7 to run the core then a pi to act as the end point. Roon is quite processor heavy and indeed GUI heavy

Please read this

And this

The Roon core outputs in RAAT the Roon Bridge software is for the end point to catch the RAAT and pass to the DAC.

Riopeee handles at least 192, probably 384

The ripping I would doubt again due to the constraints of the pi

Resampling in Roon is done in the core not the end point so you still need a core

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As @Mike_O_Neill has already said, you need a ‘core’ to run Roon.

This has to be a NUC, PC, Mac or NAS. So you will need one of these as a foundation.

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4

Ah ok, so I still need a “PC” (even if it’s just a headless NUC) to run the “core”.

No point in getting a RPi4 then.

Thanks.

5

Ropieee is an USB bridge primarily and allows you to connect a DAC w/o network capabilities to work with Roon RAAT protocol. You can certainly attach your DAC to the USB output of your NUC, but that requires both units to be in close proximity which isn’t always the case.

With a RP4 you can use a HAT, which extends RPi4 capacity with DAC functionality. You basically build your own networking DAC using the latest Hifiberry DAC for RP4 and run it with Ropieee.

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Thanks.

In my case the NUC would be next to the DAC (DragonflyRed, or DacMagic 200M if I upgrade it) and amp.

So RPi4 is not needed for my situation.

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Check out the architecture bit, Roon recommends a split core and end point solution.

The consideration is how noisy a PC or NUC may be in your listening area, you would need to go fanless, SSD not HDD

quite a few considerations

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8

Ropieee delivers whatever the core and DAC can handle.
In my case that has been up to 768kHz/32bit PCM and 512 (22.6MHz) DSD

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9

In your situation I would likely consider a better dac first IF running Roon on your laptop is not causing any present problems.
I was doing just the same and I upgraded dac first then finally ditched the win10 laptop for a nuc running ROCK.
Never touched it since.

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Thanks… Yes, I had thought the RPi4/Ropieee could simply replace the laptop, but it’s not the case.

Maybe I’ll get a NUC later, but in anycase I’m thinking of getting the DacMagic200M to replace the DragonFlyRed.

11

I have no experience with that dac, maybe someone who has tried it can chime in.
I do know the $500 dac market is very full and competitive right now so you have plenty of choices depending on the feature set you desire.
Good luck and have fun!

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Hi Matthew - I have this exact setup as you have mentioned:

RPi4 running Ropieee–(USB)–>DacMagic200M–(RCA)–>Amplifier

Running into a Cambridge Audio CX60. It is sensational, and hasn’t missed a beat. I can run USB or optical from the RPi4. Leave the Pi running, and fire up Roon whenever I need.

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