Thanks @RBM, good to know!
TBH this is just a testbed at the moment, but if it looks like it’s staying I’ll check out those options as part of the process, thanks. For now, I have zones!
Why wait, get a squeezebox Boom. Wonderful device for a kitchen. 
Is the squeeze box part of the RoonBridge zones?
no, squeezeboxes are not RAAT, so they cant be grouped with RAAT zones
that is one of the goals of RAAT
you can… just click on the little info button in the zones picker
No, it can’t be grouped with a RAAT endpoint. However, the device is the only device that I know, (given that I don’t pay attention to anything Airport), that is a wifi network endpoint and Boombox in one. Given how easy and pretty much rock solid they are to setup with Roon, I suggested it as a lower cost option until someone builds something better.
There are scores of wifi boom boxes available. At all price points. What’s needed is an inexpensive “consumer” option for RAAT so it can be grouped in the same zone.
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Or perhaps in the meantime, a way of grouping some of the most common devices like say Airplay and RAAT, even if that comes with a SQ compromise. I’d happily accept a compromise in that scenario, as I wouldn’t be ‘critical listening’ and it would be incredibly convenient - the world of Airplay devices would be open to me.
Of course, I don’t know if it’s just a compromised scenario, it may not be technically possible?
I suspect the problem is more to do with getting a perfect sync between them all. Squeezebox always struggled to achieve it between the hardware players and the software emulators such as Squeezelite.
Even a few milliseconds difference is incredibly distracting.
Exactly, even with RAAT, 3 different endpoints outputs in the same room, there are millisecond differences and it sounds like the song reverbing and echoing. You say you’d accept a compromise, but, really when you hear out of sync music it borders on “fingernails on the blackboard” irritating.
Mmmmm, actually the compromise I was thinking was more along the lines of a reduced SQ due to some sort of ‘clock-bending’, rather than being out of sync. I’ve got a 0.32ms delay on one channel of my Devialet so I can sit off-centre, so I know all about the big differences that come from tiny delays. In fact, the first time I set this (I got the numbers from Dirac originally) I had to check it a few times and look it up. 0.32ms seemed like an awfully small amount to detect! But I can!
Roon seems to look fine on iPhone 6(s) displays. Maybe the low-res issue is unique to Plus models?
What I hoped for in 1.2 is that I could finally play high resolution files. I had one of the set-ups that would stutter and fail at 20 seconds in. Now it works perfectly and here I am listening to a nice 24/96 album. And I am sure there are many other benefits that I am enjoying but unaware of. Thanks, Roon!
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Finally had time to set up Roon the way I wanted from the beginning.
Roonserver running in a Linux VM (2 vCPU and 4 GB vRAM) running very fast and very stable with my library at 39k titles. Resource utilisation peaks at 2.2 GHz (4.6 GHz available) and 1.8 GB RAM. I will keep monitoring the utilisation and if it doesn’t go up I will reduce the vRAM.
Music stored on Linux fileserver VM on the same host as Roonserver.
Roonbridge running on my 8 endpoints (mixture of Win and Mac). Control from iPads and iPhones.
My impressions: fast, stable, easy control for the whole family. Great work!
Now it’s time to get some dedicated Roon endpoints.
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I get a break in sound when grouping and ungrouping two zones. Not sure if that’s intentional/unavoidable?
Also, ungrouping quit all music on one occasion.
OS X and Pi2 wired.
I’m also a bit confused about the zone control. Once you have a group, how do you revert back to a single zone? The only way seems to be to ungrouping them rather than transfer to single zone. But then your group is lost. Or am I doing something wrong?
Hey Steve,
I believe that’s intentional to sync up the music.
To ungroup, just repeat the grouping procedure and unclick the zone.
Cheers, Greg
I did that. I guess I was just a bit confused - I imagined linked zones could stay linked to be re-selected at a later date. Will have a bit more of a play.
I was using zones last night and loving my two-zone setup! I will say just from my first couple of days with zones, that it would be much better if in the future it were possible to remove the break when linking/unlinking - I got some very unpleased looks from the lounge when I added the kitchen and the music stopped briefly. Perhaps it would be better to keep the main zone playing and try and sync the incoming zone offline until they’re both ready, and then add the second - so its not immediate, but the sound is continuous. Equally for unlinking, I wouldn’t have thought there would be any need for a break in sound to disconnect a zone?
That aside, the feature is amazing, and I can’t wait to setup some proper zones around the house. I’ve now re-wired my Pi after a failed wifi attempt (my signal, not Roon), and have a Jambox attached via the Pis output, which all things considered works pretty well. I’ll now start looking at other solutions to replace the slight mess of Pi and Jambox and wires…. I might even take my old Roberts radio apart and try and fit the Pi inside…
Very nice new features.
I can group my RPi with ROON Bridge (connected via optical to my Devialet Phantoms) with my MacBook with ROON Server conntected by USB to my Devialet D120.
The problem is the time delay between both systems. The music isn´t synced.
Is there any solution to get both systems synced ?
I think the problem here is the Phantom has an internal delay for its DSP. So despite the Pi being in sync with the Mac as both are RAAT it doesn’t take into account the device delay. Perhaps Roon could give options for custom delays when grouping such devices?
Meanwhile I suppose you could put a delay in both channels of the D120 in firmware to try and match the Phantom. Devialet may be able to tell you what it is? Or it may not be consistent in which case it would be practically impossible.
I know nothing of the Devialet, this comment may not be relevant.
But I have noticed, if I have music playing in one zone and then group it with others (I use Meridian), the music continues playing in all the zones but it is badly out of sync. Seconds, not milliseconds. Have to start playing something new, then it syncs.