Recommendations for a good start

Hi every one,

I plan to migrate my system to Roon.
There are so many things to read about this great music solution that I am a bit lost. It would be great if you could help me with the following specific questions.

Here is what I used to play music with before moving to Roon:
NAS storage > LMS server (17K albums) > allo USB bridge (squeezelite) > Chord Qutest DAC > etc… using the android and IOS corresponding control apps

I am very new to Roon. Sorry if that sound obvious.
Here are my questions:

  1. I bet I need a NUC with i7 processor as recommended by Roon team support due to the size of my library(17K albums), is it correct? Is the NUC7i7BNH still the solution to purchase for that? Is there any other option for a “hiden” and silent dedicated computer? any fan-less option?
  2. If I get the NUC and install Roon Rock on it, should I plug the Chord Qutest directly to the NUC over USB or should I use my Allo USB bridge as a NAA or DLNA or squeezeelite to transport the music to the DAC? What is the best option?
  3. Can upsampling be configured on the solution in order to boost my Qutest DAC? PCM up to 384 or even 768kHz?

Thanks in advance for your help,
Have a good music everyone

  1. An i7 will suit your needs. 16 Gb Ram. Sure if you want to go with a NUC that one works. Just make sure it is a model listed as authorized hardware. Not sure the new 8 series are yet. Double Check the ROCK FAQ page.
    I personally build my own desktop size servers. After all, for me, one of the points of Roon is that the server sits in another room far away from the audio playback hardware.

  2. The Allo USB Bridge and it should have a setting for Roon alongside the NAA , DLNA and Squeezelite options. I use an Allo DigiOne and it is great.

  3. You can up sample in Roon to the limits of your DAC and connections. Please note: You did not mention DSD – all my answers would completely change if DSD playback and High resolution DSD up sampling was your goal, i.e. DSD512.

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No. This is an outdated model. Buy 7i7DNH.

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Thanks Katun, That s a good point, this is the one I will get.

Thanks for your super answer Daniel!
I just ordered my NUC7i7+ HD and RAM, I will check as you recommended to install it as far as possible from my system. in my system, NAS, internet box, NUC and allo usbridge will be connected to the same network switch. is it the ideal network configuration?

Regarding the Allo Usbridge, you are absolutely right. I will set it as a Roon player. Do you know if this device support 384 or even 768kHz upsampled files? I am struggling to find the info on the net. What is the best resolution/sample rate you can get with your digione?
My chord qutest DAC supports up to 768kHz PCM files, I have never got into DSD files but it should be supported.

Cheers

The DAC would support DSD, however, how you would have to connect it up to actually get DSD 512 natively is completely different. Basically, to get high rate DSD you need to have the DAC connected via USB to a Windows box running the Chord drivers.

This USBridge should support what the maximum the DAC can handle under Linux drivers. This is highly dependant on the drivers the manufacturers provide for linux. Although Allo can sometimes build you a driver if you ask their support. I would imagine you won’t get higher than dsd256 but it will easily handle pcm at 384 maybe higher. Native DSD support is also an issue under Linux the drivers might limit it to DoP.

Hi again Daniel,
You mentioned earlier that you keep your NUC/Core as far as possible from the audio system on your home network. Can it work if core is connected over wifi to home network? Or is ethernet needed for quality reasons or for example to transmit upsampled flows to your digione?

Its not recommended to have your core on wireless as its very active network wise and tends to have bandwidth constraints as wireless is not full duplex it’s a shared bandwidth. Roon needs to pull info from internet and push out. Especially if using Tidal.

Ethernet. Wifi hops can cause issues, especially if it is the Core on WiFi.

While the guys are basically correct here, i can tell you that my QNAP NAS(And also Roon Core) is connected with a WLAN link over a measly 2.4Ghz network it works perfectly up till about PCM 384Khz and DSD128 upsampling, regardless of Tidal or local files.

Very interesting as it could be so much easier to install this way.
How far is your core from the acces point? any walls in between?

My house is typical South African !! Concrete and brick, I have untold issues with WiFi, I fitted a cable to get around it

It’s easy enough to try, use wi fi if you get dropouts or skipping tracks that’s a bad sign, if you are studding walls it should be ok

Maybe use 5ghz there is generally less interference, I have issues in the evening when neighbors start using wi fi , very little in the day

Good luck

Just as a general warning. A large proportion of the “I have a problem” threads on this forum resolve to networking issues and the recommendation always comes back to hard wire the roon server.
It absolutely may work wirelessly but…
Give it a go and see how it works for you and fingers crossed it will be great. :grinning:

I live in Sweden, so the houses here are quite sturdy, like @Mike_O_Neill describes, just that we try and keep out the cold, rather than the heat! :wink:
My router (Asus RT N66U) is placed centrally in my apartment on the second floor. It’s 2.4Ghz WIFI is picked up by a Linksys AP300N in the basement (two stories down, all concrete and bricks) which is connected to a simple Gb-switch. The NAS connects to the switch, as well as a file server which is occasinally used for backing up music and documents.
2.4Ghz works best for me, better signal strength but lower transfer speeds. I still do about 150mbps over this link which is enough for most situations.

Thanks a lot guys for your support and interesting remarks.
In the meanwhile, I think I found a decent solution. I will probably let my Core close to hifi system , connected over ethernet, but I will use a fanless case (and maybe later an LPSU) to avoid potential fan interference from the NUC. I will give it a try. what do you think?
My NUC should arrive in the coming days, I look forward for installing all that and be a happy roon user
Cheers

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I have a standard NUC in a HiFi cabinet that has doors and except for when I imported the library I have never heard the fan at all. I had a fanless NUC previously and haven’t noticed any difference with my standard one. I’d try it and see.

Hi all,
Thanks again for your help!
NUC received, Roon Rock installed!! happy!
At this stage, the NUC fan is always running (noisy), I bet after the install, library scan and backgournd analysis over, the fan will stabilize? right? Anyway, I have the fanless case =, on its way :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:
I have also seen that I imported some badly tagged files, Is there any chance Roon repare that automatically?
When I open Roon, I have recently imported files prompted first. Unfortunately these lastly imported files are the ones with issues (compilations, that I never listen to). Is there any way to change to configure the overview so that it prompts what I like?
Cheers

yes it should

Just use Roon for some time. Once you start to add new music in a regular manner it probably will turn out to be useful to see the latest additions to your library in Overview. :wink:

I think that will depend

  • on your Import settings - see Settings >>> Library >>> Import Settings and
  • if Roon has metadata for those files in its metadata cloud.