I see your point about the distractions, but I remember that the Roon team’s origin is in Sooloos, where they had to build their own hardware because nothing else was available. It was very cool originally, but it rapidly became obsolete, big and clunky and unresponsive and expensive — ooh, was it expensive. (I still have one in the basement, if you are interested.)
The mainstream manufacturers have huge development budgets and low manufacturing costs, because of volume. Nobody else can compete.
But the idea is good. I think we can define a software configuration on top of mainstream hardware. I would suggest getting a minimalistic iPad, registering it with another user name, not your regular one, so no mail or text or other stuff will know about it. No distractions will arrive. Uninstall everything else, and just install Roon. (An Android device of course works too, and is cheaper, I don’t know much about them.)
The Tidal connection is not a problem, because it is from the Core, not the remote.
Just remember not to use it to communicate with the Forum! Once you open the door to the Internet, stuff will begin to leak in.
I am very confident apple will never allow that but some hardware manufacturers such as, HTC, Samsung or Sony for example would entertain the idea. Roon slaps it’s branding on and uses the exact same amazing app for mobile/tablet we are used to that they are already developing and has the tablet boot straight into it.
It stays at home, no distractions and can be enjoyed by everyone.
If you want to run ONLY the Roon app on an iPad then you could use Guided Access (part of Accessibility settings). This would mean that users could not access any other apps without entering a 4 digit code.
I would still need to have it connected to an iTunes account to manage updates and download apps. DAPs exist while we have phones, cameras still exist while we have phones and so do remotes.
It would be nice to have a dedicated remote. I’m very tech savy and know there is tons of ways to imitate what I’m looking for but if the nucleus can exist then so can dedicated remote control hardware.
I have a couple of stripped-down iPads that I use for this very purpose. They aren’t logged into any accounts aside from the App Store and have all notifications turned off. The only apps loaded have to do with remote control in one way or another.
Read up on the Guided Access function in iOS. This allows you to lock an app to the screen and completely bypasses the need to unlock the device if it’s asleep. Roon still needs to reconnect, but that’s pretty quick these days.
I’ve also used Guided Access on my personal iPad and it has the side benefit of disabling all notifications as well. The feature was primarily designed to allow you to hand your iPad to your child to use a single app or watch a video without messing anything up on the iPad.
I do a very similar thing with a Surface Pro tablet running Windows 10 with all notifications disabled and the lock screen just set to swipe. It works pretty well as a dedicated controller in tablet mode, Roon in fullscreen and with the mouse hidden.
It has the added advantage of being able to access all the DSP, export and so on which isn’t yet available in the iOS app.
I absolutely love the surface pro but cant justify the price just for a standalone remote device. I would use it as my everyday windows device if I don’t spend a bomb on laptop not so long ago.
The SPRO is a little costly, I was lucky in that I got mine through work.
The Surface Go is certainly within the iPad price range, in the UK the base model is £379.99. Its 10" and only weighs 500g so with that and the ability to run the full Roon control application (although you would have switch it out of Windows 10 S mode) I think it would be perfect
And this is the problem and why Roon can’t ever compete in the tablet market, it would either be too expensive and not sell or Roon would take a massive loss on each unit sold.
It’s not terribly hard to set up an iPad to exclusively run a single app. With the config tools Apple makes, you can setup an iOS device to boot up and solely run a single item and not easily be able to quit it. I’ve done it with the Sonos app for my kiddos on an old iPod Touch. It requires adult intervention when an app upgrade comes out, but it isn’t that hard. I THINK you can do something similar with an Amazon Fire tablet which is cheaper, but offers a far inferior experience.
The Roon software works well on tablets - mainly! I just installed Roon on an Amazon Fire tablet and it works well (battery life seems short), and the tablet is “flimsy” compared to an iPad, but for $70…
My main beef is that Roon (it seems arbitrariliy) decides if the device should display in landscape or portrait. I’d like the option, but certainly landscape: hese devices can scroll you know!
On the Fire, Roon occasionally decides - momentarily - that it can display in landscape, rotates the display, states that the resolution is insufficent and locks up! The app seems to treat it as a phone and not as a tablet.
AS stated elsewhere, an (e.g.) iPad can be configured as pretty much a dedicated Roon controller and it works very well. However the bit of the equation that is not yet solved is a stabd to hold it on a table for example and to manage power so that it is is always available.
There is a thread in Tinkering (iPad controller mount) on this topic and there are some good thoughts on the topic there.
I’m inclined (when the move is complete and Roon is installed and the new two channel is complete) to have a crack at designing and machining a few alternatives.
Thoughts and input welcome.
BTW, the closest I have seen to an ideal solution is the Nativ Vita, but the price…
