Roon Endpoint device

Audio Gear Talk
1

I am completely new to Roon. Been using Audirvana for long time.

Is there an non Airplay endpoint device that simply outputs a digital stream that I can pass to my Chord DAC?

2

You have quite some choice. Depends on your budget. From DIY solutions to commercial products everything is available.

  • Bluesound
  • Auralic
  • Lumin
  • Project

Just as a few examples. Find a more here:

3

Or this, if you don’t mind spending about $77 or whatever the price is now…

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4

Hi Peter Thanks for response.

Probably the DIY solutions are best for my needs as I want a truly bare bones device - no pretty casing and bells and whistles.

Literally - connect it to power and wifi and a DAC and have it recognised by Roon.

I have tried Bluesound but in an earlier ‘life’ connected to Qobuz and did not like its interface. It didn’t deal well with classical streaming interface requirements.

At moment i have a Yamaha WXC 50 which has a digital output but it is restricted to Airplay resolution. If I use this device as a streamer it cannot handle gaples!!!

5

Great info! thanks

6

I’ve assembled three of these, one with a screen. It’s a piece of cake and works very well. I used the RPi4 and use one connected to my network using ethernet and another connected by WIFI. I use a Meridian Prime Headphone Amplifier with the ethernet one and a Dragonfly Cobalt with the WIFI one.

If you don’t need a HAT and just want USB out, a FLIRC case works well with the RPi4 as a totally silent heat sink. Everything you need is available on Amazon.

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7

Great, Jim!
Let me digest all of this - it looks very interesting from my perspective of music loving electronics software type of old guy.
At my age everything moves very slowly but that adds depth to the view ;o)

8

I’m 73. It takes about 5 or 10 minutes to download the software and flash the micro SD card and another 5 minutes to slap the RPi4 into the FLIRC case and put in 4 screws.

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9

Ha ha Jim - these 7 years make you so much faster than me :)))

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10

Raspberry Pi is a very affordable DIY route to a Roon endpoint. I’m eagerly awaiting mine to arrive (RPi4B + DAC2 HD) from HiFi Berry. The DSM 7 update to my Synology Rackstation will kill my current USB connection to the core in my office/mancave, so I need a network based solution instead.

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11

A Raspberry Pi with HiFiBerry DAC+ installed on top, will do this
You have two choices connect this little device straight to your amplifier
or in your case, connect it with USB to your dac of choice
Costs around 180 dollars
Review: http://www.modelpromo.nl
search for HiFiberry Review

12

Here’s a link that gives you the step-by-step.

13

Tremendous responses in this thread - thanks to all. I’ll get back as soon as I have delved into these in depth.

14

As others have said the Rasberry Pi is the the solution.

If you have a USB input on your Chord then it really is as easy as buying a RPi starter kit (you can always buy the bits separately, a 2GB RPi is fine) and maybe a nicer case like the Flirc one which doubles as a heatsink if you’re feeling extravagant :wink:

Then install Ropiee on it which you can do without even needing to plug a monitor or keyboard into the Raspberry Pi. The beginners guide someone posted above should have all the info you need.

If you need a digital S/PDIF output then you’'ll need a Digi HAT which you simply plug onto of the Raspberry Pi. HiFiBerry sell a complete kit including a matching case (no need for the HDMI cable, switch or remote and you don’t probably need the heatsink). Again install Ropieee on it or if you’re using a HiFiBerry hat you could also try HiFiBerryOS which has some additional features.

If you need an analog RCA output you’d instead use a DAC HAT (which has a digital to analog convertor built in) but the process is otherwise the same as the Digi hat.

But it sounds like you can probably just get away with the USB output on the RPi connected directly to the Chord. In which case a RPi starter kit is all the hardware you need. There’s no benefit to using a HAT in that scenario. Other than putting it the case and burning Ropieee to a Micro SD card that pretty much it in terms of setup. No real technical skills required.

(* if you can first set Ropiee up using a wired/ethernet connection it will make your life a lot easier, you can then set the non-wired Wi-Fi network details if you want to).