Roon certification now required to be able to use device?

Roon Core Machine

Waversa core

Networking Gear & Setup Details

Waversa router/switch & waversa core/switch

Connected Audio Devices

Trinnov altitude 16
Playback designs mpd-8
Playback designs mps-x streamer

Number of Tracks in Library

I only stream using Qobuz and tidal

Description of Issue

Previously I was able to use any network device even if they had not yet completed Room’s certification process and I never had any problems with non-Roon certified devices, they all worked the same as “certified devices”.

This process, as I understand it, requires the manufacturer to pay fees and supply their hardware to Roon. Playback designs has done this yet my $10,000 MPS-X streamer is not being allowed to be operate in Roon and the reason the software gives me is that the certification is not yet complete. I am a paying subscriber to Roon and find it very discouraging that the ability to use devices that have not yet completed the expensive process of getting certified are now being blocked from use when I know that there is no technical reason my streaming device would not work with Roon.

This looks to me like it is purely to pressure manufacturers to pay these fees and supply their hardware which would be fine if this was a service only paid for by the manufacturer but it’s not because I along with every other user of Roon has paid a fee to be able to use Roon.

It’s the most expensive software of its kind so given that I pay to use this service I find it disturbing that Roon doesn’t care about my user experience and has left me unable to use my streamer of choice.

There needs to be a better way to handle this process that doesn’t negatively impact end users due to wanting to generate fees from manufacturers. That’s fine if that’s how you want to do business but have a fast track path for the interim to allow products to be useable when you have started the process with a manufacturer as is the case with playback designs.

It’s incredibly frustrating that Roon would allow my experience to be this way as a paying user. Either just collect fees from manufacturers or allow users to use their hardware of choice but getting users caught between where Roon is at with a given manufacturer is not a good sustainable model.

Furthermore, I’m also disappointed that I have reached out 3 times to Roon directly using the “contact us” channels with this same problem and I have not yet received one single reply back. As a paying subscriber I expect a better experience than this. Very disappointing.

No manufacturer pays ANY fees to Roon Labs during the certification process.
This is simply an inaccurate statement.
Units are provided that usually are not returned and that is it.
The rest is between Roon and the manufacturer.

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And it’s actually the equipment manufacturer violating the agreement with Roon, when incorporating their SDK, not to advertise and sell their product as certified while it is still under way.

Go blame the manufacturer instead…

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@Darell_Smith where did you get the idea that Roon charges fees for Roon Ready? This is the second time in the past couple of weeks that this issue has arisen with reference to Playback Designs. Is this misinformation been discussed on other forums?

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Never any device, only Roon Ready devices. Unfortunately, some manufacturers marketed their products as Roon Ready without completing the certification process, and this caused problems for users because the devices did not perform properly.

As a consequence, Roon only supports products that have completed certification. This change occurred a couple of years ago, and Roon had a process in place at the time that did not disadvantage users who inadvertently bought products that were marketed as Roon Ready, but hadn’t completed the process [certification].

Products affected by these changes should have had plenty of time to go through certification by now. If yours hasn’t you should be discussing this with the manufacturer since they have failed to deliver on a promise.

PS. I am a community member, and this is from recollection. There are a lot of posts about this topic in the archive.

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Not for quite awhile. When is the last time you believe you were able to do this?

Simply not true. Where did you get that info?

If that were the case, it would already be certified. Plain and simple. It’s not because it happened to work in your setup, that there aren’t any issues. It only means that you didn’t trigger them (yet).

If a manufacturer charges you $10,000 for a device, yet falsely advertises one of its feature, I’d have some serious questions for said manufacturer. That’s my 2 cents.

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Previously? They changed this in September 2020 if I remember as too many devices where being released with unfinished code and causing unnecessary support issues and bad user experience. So they stamped this out by not allowing any non certified device to work. They operate same as Google and Apple do for Airplay and Chromecast in this regard apart from Roon certification is free there is no charge to be manufacturer other than shipping of the product for testing. It’s up to the manufacturer to request their devices be tested. It’s using Roons proprietary code and that code needs to work as it should.

I apologize if my original post had misinformation like manufacturers paying fees to be certified. I had heard that and it didn’t occur to me to question it because it sounded logical. Even if they did charge fees I wouldn’t have a problem with that. Any business, roon included, is entitled to make money so I have no problem with paying fees to roon myself or any other source of revenue they may generate from any reasonable source.

If I stated anything else in accurately please forgive me as my intention was not to get into any dispute over these kinds of details. I’ve used roon for a couple years now and it’s been a while since I used anything new but when I first started using roon I was trying out all kinds of streaming equipment and it was all working fine whether it was certified or not. I can’t see any harm in allowing non-certified equipment to be used and just have a notice, as it did at that time, stating this device has not been certified so that if for some reason it doesn’t work well then there’s a logical explanation. This is surely a viable option for when products have not yet had time to be certified yet, is it not? My product is slated to be certified, what purpose does it serve to prevent me from using it? I have no insight in to how that process works, or how long it takes. It does seem that for some boutique manufacturers that sending out a working test product that is hand assembled on a per order basis is asking a lot of smaller manufacturers but that’s not my problem and not the problem I seek to solve. I just want to be able to use my streamer and get an answer as to when I will be allowed to do so. Is that not reasonable?

I understand your frustration. See this thread on this issue. I suspect the only entity that can answer the question of when your device will be Roon certified is the manufacturer of the product, rather than Roon.

Unfortunately even though this should have been clear to all it apparently was not.
Roon support time was wasted in many ways trying to assist troubleshooting with these uncertified devices.

I cannot speak for Roon HQ as I am, like yourself, just a member here but I would be sure those are days that they do not want to revisit.

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When a device has been certified as Roon Ready by Roon Labs, it will be shown as such on the Partner page. The MPS-X is not currently listed:

It appears that Playback Designs have jumped the gun by claiming that certification has been obtained when it has not.

Can you tell me when it will be? That’s the question I most want answered. Thanks

When it’s done - that’s the only answer possible. I don’t work for Roon Labs, but that’s the answer they would also give.

The process involves a dialogue between Roon Labs and the device manufacturer - any problems found by Roon Labs need to be resolved by the manufacturer. This may involve several iterations before the device gets certified.

It can be fairly quick, if the manufacturer has done this before, but it has been known to be very long - one device took three years to get certified. However, that was an unusual case.

An overview of the process is given here:

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The website doesn’t claim Roon Ready for the streamer, but the manual that the site links to claims both Roon Ready and Roon Tested. Ready and Tested, kind of like wearing a belt and suspenders, I guess.

One bit of sanity I found in their FAQ that referred to their DAC -

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