I am very new to Roon and based on advise I have purchased a Roon Endpoint / Bridge Volumio / RoPieee Streamer Pi4 B from Ebay.
Currently I have Roon core on my laptop, connecting direct to my Chord Hugo TT2 via USB
I bought the Bridge under the impression that it would improve the sound quality some degree, but feel may of misunderstood its purpose and in turn wasted money.
Is this the case, that it will make little/no improvement to my audio?
How would I be connecting this, I understand that it would be via Ethernet from my laptop to the Bridge, then USB into my DAC?
Is this the case, that it will make little/no improvement to my audio? - Yes, due to less noise.
How would I be connecting this, I understand that it would be via Ethernet from my laptop to the Bridge, then USB into my DAC? - Control from your main computer as Roon Core, another computer with Bridge installed, use USB cable into your dac. Make sure your Roon Core and Bridge connected in a same network.
The chain you suggest is the right one. The change in setup isn’t guaranteed to sound better, in both cases the final USB link in the chain is effectively identical. It’ll only improve if:
the DAC is poor at rejecting/shielding noise at the USB input, this is unlikely, I don’t own a TT2 but Chord’s USB implementations are generally solid; and
the Pi endpoint generates less USB noise than the PC, again not a given.
FWIW my belief is that none of the above is a real world problem if the DAC’s well made, and yours probably is. The separate endpoint arrangement does afford other advantages, your PC is no longer tethered to the DAC is one. You’ll need the Pi hardware or similar if you have ambitions for multiple Roon endpoints as well. Enjoy.
I have the roon bridge unit here with me, but its not showing in Roon as a audio device - I have allowed it through the Win 10 firewall, anything more I would need to do? Its connected directly to my laptop via ethernet cable.
That’s going to be a problem for you, the laptop is on wireless presumably? The Pi device will need to be connected to your router as well as the PC. A few more details about your network set up might help in truth.
What I could do I guess, is to move my homeplug adapter as this has an ethernet port, therefore the unit would be able to obtain a DHCP IP from the router.
A RPi4 running RoPieee or RoPIeeeXL can connect by WIFI. I have two, once is connected to my router by ethernet and the other by WIFI. I use the WIFI all over the house and on the porch with no issues.
Do be aware that neither wireless or homeplug networking are optimal for Roon. Homeplug in particular can be capricious. I am currently happily listening to a Raspberry Pi endpoint via homeplug, but it’s the most problematic endpoint in the house. Another issue is that you’re effectively doubling the load on the wireless link if you’re streaming/listenting to content elsewhere on your own network. Any content external to the laptop has to arrive at the core for processing and then is distributed to the endpoint.
AFAIK yes.
Edit Sorry @Jim_F I mistook your statement for a question from the OP
I have this all up and running now, will see how it goes across the powerline network.
I predominantly use Tidal Hi-Fi, and have a large amount of FLAC files.
That looks good to go to me, it’s digital so quality wise all should be well. Problems will show as breaks or skipped tracks if you’re bandwidth limited. If you’re looking to improve the sound quality DSP room EQ or headphone EQ might be of interest?
