Hello all,
Given current issues with availability of the Pi4 and consequently high secondhand prices, I wondered if anyone can recommend any similarly good value Roon endpoints to the Raspberry Pi?
I’m looking for something to use as a simple bedside streamer into my Mojo 2, freeing up my iPhone to be used solely as a Roon remote without having an endless line of cables and converters dangling from it.
Thanks in advance for your insights!
Robin
There are a number of moderate priced solutions.
You can buy a used NUC online.
You could get a pre configured roon endpoint.
Both will be a bit more than the Pi but are available.
I’ve been really looking at the iFi Zen stream to take the place of my RPi solution.
It’s got USB ports, so you can use it just like a Pi. Just install the Roon Bridge.
Any of the super cheap with Windows preinstalled PCs going for ~150. Just load on RoonBridge.
It’s actually not that difficult to score a raspberry pi from an authorized distributer, if you are diligent. They are getting regular stock replenishments but are usually sold very quickly (minutes). I recently picked up a couple more to use as additional endpoints.
Check this website and filter by location and Pi type. Follow their twitter feed, or better yet, just setup a web page monitor extension such as Distill.
I’d also recommend creating accounts at each of the distributers and prefilling all address info in your account to make checkout faster.
I use a used Lenovo laptop that was just collecting dust. The Microsoft soundcard may introduce jitter and other artifacts but it also allows my DAC to maximize it’s abilities,(decoding up to 32/192). There are literally hundreds of used/renewed PCs using Windows 10, many with free return periods, priced under $200. There are so many options now in this area that it’s really inexpensive to get the highest quality audio some folks would want.
If you want to use your Mojo DAC trough SPDIF, you can buy also a much cheaper RPi3 and a Digi One HAT.
Also a cheap solution is a small fanless Zotac Mini with Rock (I’ll prefer it against a Windows setup) on i and using then only the Roon Bridge.
Thanks for all of your ideas!
there is the wiim streamer for 80 bucks
That’s a very interesting product. It will be a lot more interesting if they are able to do an integration with Roon.
Now that it’s Roon Ready, I’d recommend the ZEN Stream from iFi Audio. It’s a little spendy at $399, but think of it as the Nucleus of Roon endpoint solutions. 
Unlike Nucleus, it works quite well over Wi-Fi. It should look great connected to your Mojo 2. The 2nd USB port can be used to power/charge your DAC as well. Both ports use iFi’s Active Noise Cancellation technology, which some folks say make things sound better.
From the DietPi site, I’ve had good luck with the NanoPi NEO2, but it took a long time to get here and only works with a wired Ethernet connection. I guess the NEO3 is the new version. I’ve not tested it, but it uses the same CPU architecture, so I imagine it will work fine.
I’ve read that it runs quite hot, so the heatsink is not optional. 
Some assembly required, for sure. Roon Bridge does not require much CPU usage, so I would not worry too much about the reviews about it overheating…that said, I’ve not personally tried one yet.
I actually found a few mini-PC’s on Amazon for under $100, like this one:
Trouble is that for Roon Bridge to work, you have to login to Windows, which might be a pain if you are running this headless (no display or keyboard). However, if you’re a bit technical, you may be able to install Linux and Roon Bridge. It may even be possible to get Wi-Fi working in Linux, but no guarantees.
Or set it to autologin to Windows.
Yes. I’ve had good luck using the netplwiz command in the past to enable automatic login after boot; however, since one of the recent Windows updates, it seems that this is no longer possible.
Or, one could follow the guidelines in the Roon FAQ on setting up Windows Headless Servers.
I wonder if that still works…I’ll see if I can find an updated Windows machine to test.
Sure, autologin works also with Windows 10, but if you don’t need ASIO drivers, then I would install in any case Rock on the small devices…
Ubuntu server and Roon bridge works great. Wifi works, although command line is required to get it Wifi functional from a new state.
DietPi also makes it simple to create a Roon bridge.
Hmmm. I’m setting up a new Windows 11 Pro machine, and there’s no registry key for HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon.
Suggestions?