First-time poster here. I am trying to find out a good option to setup Roon with multi-channel surround music. I mostly play files from my Synology NAS. After a little bit of searching on the Internet, I am thinking of going with the following two options in the diagram. Are they going to work? Is there a better way to make a multi-channel setup done without spending too much? Thank you.
I play MC files from my NUC/Rock via HDMI to a Denon AVR with a 7.2.4 speaker configuration. Simplest way I’m aware of.
BTW, welcome to the community.
If, as I suspect, the TRS/XLR links between the FerroFish Pulse 16 and the AVR/AMP are analog and the FerroFish is doing the D/A, you will be doing redundant A/D-D/A conversions. A less complicated but more logical way is to modify Option A by putting the DiracLive DSP in the PC/Server and a Streamer/Dac (like the new exaSound s88) with amps, or active speakers, in the music venue. You will need a more powerful PC than a NUC for this.
Mike_LC’s suggest also works but relies on Audyssey rather than DL3.
Thank you Mike_LC. Your setup is definitely less complicated and cheaper. Main difference will be the DAC quality of Denon AVR vs Ferrofish DA. I think the newer Denon’s (X6700H/X4700H) have better DAC performance compared to the old models.
In your setup, do you have both Roon Server and Roon player on the same NUC/ROCK? If that is the case, are you able to control Roon player using Harmony or other universal remote control? Do I need high end CPU/RAM on the NUC?
Thanks Kal. exaSound s88 looks like an interesting product. But looks pretty expensive for what it does.
I don’t have prior Dante network user experience. But looking at the product manuals, I thought that, in option A, all are digital until the Ferrofish DA. If I use Acourate on the server, then I don’t really need Audyssey/Dirac Live. I had a nanoAVR-DL. While I liked the result of Dirac Live sound, after applying Harman Kardon curve or B&K curve with bass boost in Audyssey, I can get pretty close result in my old Denon receiver as well.
Yes, you can feed the analog out of the FerroFish into the analog inputs of the Denon IF the Denon does not re-digitize them.
I have the Denon X8500H and OPPO 205 in my LR entertainment system. Use HDMI to one or the other for MC playback.
For the NUC/Rock its the 8I7BEH with 16gb ram, Samsung m.2 for OS/DB and Samsung Sata drive for my library. Does everything I need it to do without any issues. Streams 2 channel via Ethernet to the Bedroom and Kitchen zones, USB is 2 channel to the OPPO and HDMI for MC.
I use my IPAD PRO 12.9 to control Roon and the Harmony remote to control the configuration setup and volume control.
I already had the entertainment center setup for 7.2.4 surround before I found Roon so just use what I have. I would like to have the exasound dac that Kal mentioned. That is the only addition I’m thinking about now.
A Raspi4 with Roon bridge on Volumio will do 7ch out on HDMI (limited to 48khz), I have not checked USB Mch out.
I’d suggest forgeting about Dante, that’s a pro-level protocol for distributing audio stream over IP and most likely not at all compatible with Roon’s RAAT protocol. The Oppo 20x series is a Roon capable renderer and you can connect it via HDMI to your Denon to get MCH (at least that works with my Marantz). But the Oppo’s are hard to find and very expensive, so you may want to stick with the suggestion to get an i7 NUC and use the HDMI out to feed the Denon. In this case the NUC is functioning as both the Core and the renderer.
Since you are using Acourate, you could use Roon’s convolution engine to apply the filters but my only experience with Acourate is stereo, so you should confirm it can handle surround. Maybe easier (not necessarily better) to get Roon working without Acourate, just using what’s built into the Denon and that start playing around with Acourate once everything else is working.
I’ve seen a lot of music available in 5.1 for download, including a lot in DSD. But this will take a lot of processing power, especially if you eventually want to use Roon DSP. The only material I’ve seen in more than 5.1 is on BluRay music discs and those are usually in DTS or Dolby Atmos and if your Denon is an older model, it may not support the decoding and mapping via HDMI. Of course, these don’t need to be streamed as you can play them on any compatible BluRay player straight to your Denon.
Good suggestions. After some read-ups, I think the easiest and lower hassle solution would be to go with NUC/Rock combo. Maybe investing in a newer AVR-X6700 will give me reasonable DAC performance. With SINAD close to 100dB, at least that will give me a transparency level that is close to or beyond my practical hearing threshold. Thank you all and Merry Christmas.
Hi Mike,
What settings are you using and which device have you selected?
With settings I mean: which channel layout have you selected in Device setup in Roon and what multichannel mixing have you selected?
Selecting 7.2.4 does not seem to be possible in Roon.
What does it mean if you select 2.0 channel layout and do channel mapping only? Is the data for all channels but Front Left and Front Right simply tossed away?
With regard to selecting the device, the following.
I have connected a NUC via HDMI to my Denon AVR. Roon then shows 6 devices for the Denon. They are all ASA devices, 1 is ALC256 Analog, the others are HDMI. I presume the HDMI-devices seen by Roon are all the same, i.e. it does not matter which one to use?
Roon Rock on a NUC
Denon[(edit: corrected typo in type] AVR4520 playing in 4.1 (i.e. 2xfront, 2xsurround and 1 subwoofer).
My NUC setup has HDMI 0 - HDMI 4. I use HDMI 0 and I believe that is the recommendation.
For the channel layout I use 7.1 with Multichannel mixing set to Downmix as needed.
With the 7.1 option selected Roon adds an option/switch to Swap rear and surround channels. My speaker arrangement is 7.2.4 and on occasions I switch the rear channel to the side surrounds using that option. Brings the rear sound closer when I’m sitting in my recliner with the headrest blocking the rear speakers. Most of the time that option is set to no for rear channel use.
Skip the Send stereo/mono content as 7.1. That does not give you surround sound. A 2 channel file with still drive the front left/right speakers and the others will be silent.
Roon will play the channels in the music file as recorded up to 5.1. There are DSP functions available in Roon but I’m not familiar them. I might decide to play around with them some day.
I use the DSP functions in my Denon AVR 8500H to simulate surround from Stereo if that is what I want.
The Dolby surround option does a decent job with the simulation with a Stereo signal.
If the music file from Roon is mutli-channel that will automatically override the Dobly simulation and the receiver will indicate a MC signal and play it as it. No switching of receiver function required.
Be aware that Roon only plays Stereo or MC PCM over HDMI. It will convert DSD to PCM for playback. I have another zone for DSD playback via Etherent with a Roon Ready 8 channel DAC.
Hope this helps.
