Rhein Z1 Roon Server : official or unlicensed? [—> unlicensed]

Audio Gear Talk
1

This product is currently being distributed in France (and probably elsewhere) at a retail price of 1800€. @danny is this Thunder Data company an official partner ? Can’t see them on the partner list. Looks expensive and with unsubstantiated bla bla as marketing pitch.
http://www.thunder-data.com/z5

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2

Note from the specs: “Support all Roon Server features excepts DSP features.”

3

Not an official partner. They are violating our terms. We recommend you stay away from them. We have contacted them asking to stop.

5

Hi danny,

This is Chorus from Thunder Data Co. Ltd.

Sorry to make you confused.
What below describe the status of Rhein Z1:

  1. We have not sell Rhein Z1 yet. We will check why you see it distributed in France.
  2. We have removed the Roon Server feature from Rhein Z1 and the web site content is updated.
  3. The Rhein Z1 is a specially designed server and will be shipped with our own OS, which allow users to use a mobile app to manage the Rhein Z1.

Best regards,
Chorus

6

Hi Danny,

From the description of Rhein Z1 that I posted.
Since Rhein Z1 used Silent Angel customized OS and does not include Roon OS inside, it does not violate the terms.
Do you agree with this?

BTW, we are also willing to join the license program of Roon OS.
Please kindly have contact person response my e-mail and let’s see how to start it.

Thank you!

Best regards,
Chorus Chuang

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7

No. Even distributing RoonServer is against the T&C.

Rob [at] roonlabs.com is your contact.

8

Hi Danny,

First of all, I’d like to mention that we do like to use Roon to play music and also purchased several accounts for listening to music, developing, and testing.

We also have tested and compare Mac Book Pro, Mac mini, and some other devices to run RoonServer and found that the sound quality is better when RoonServer running on Rhein Z1. That is the reason we want to run RoonServer on Rhein Z1. We hope to let user enjoy better music with RoonServer running on Rhein Z1.

Regarding to not distributing Roonserver, we already revise the Rhein Z1 firmware NOT TO include the RoonServer since the first formal release version. If necessary, we can ship one Rhein Z1 to you for verification. Please kindly advise the shipping information then we will do it.

We are also very willing to discuss and nail down the license program with Rob (our concat windows at roonlabs). However, Rob have not reply to our mail since Oct. 9th, 2019 till now. So we may need your help to advise how we can make it.

Thank you for developing Roon. It is amazing!

Best reagrds,
Chorus

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9

Dear I’m a French Hifi dealer and considering adding Silent Angel Rhein Z1 in my portfolio. But I would first like to clarify what is the official Roon position: Is this product authorized to use Roon server ?

Thanks in advance for clarification

10

Its already for sale in the Netherlands without a Roon Rock pre install . Price tagg 1599,=

11

@Eric_Gaetan, the issue described in this thread related to distributing the Roon binaries. The following post provides the definitive answer but also includes an official contact email address.

12

It is not.

13

Any changes?

14

No, in fact, it still looks like he’s still distributing RoonServer, in direct violation of our T&Cs.

I would avoid this product and all non-approved servers if you want a product that will continue to work with Roon.

1 Like
15

Hi Danny,

We are working on adapting to a way not to distributing RoonServer binary. Will contact with Rob regarding to the details. Please give us more time to solve it.

Thank you!

Best regards,
Chorus

16

Hi Chorus, this issue is now outstanding for over a year, please resolve it. Can you provide an ETA?

17

Hi Chorus, don’t bother. I returned my Rhein Z1 to the shop and ordered a Roon Nucleus.

19

Just started with Roon combined with my Linn Klimax streamer. Looking now for a music server and considering the Roon Nucleus or the Rhein Z1, which is now available for sale.

Why is there this dispute…? Does it work or not?

20

Hi Jeroen, it works fine. But since there is a dispute on licensing the software Roon Labs does not support the device which means that they may change the software in an upgrade and the Z1 may have issues. It is a [minimal?] risk that I wanted to avoid.

21

If you look on the forum you will see that there are often issues with 3rd party servers that the supported manufacturers get help from Roon to fix. An unsupported supplier doesn’t get that help.

22

Thanks for this clarification. How does one know if the technology is licensed or not.

What if you use a Mac mini or Intel NUC as an alternative? What I like about the Rhein and the Nuclues that they are designed to process audio with low noise levels as a result.