I have a friend who is migrating to Roon from Sooloos. He has an 818v3 as an endpoint/DAC so no worries there. He is planning to run Roon core on his i5 desktop and has migrated his music from his Meridian MC200 to his desktop HDD in native format. He also bought a Samsung external SSD for his music. He’s planning to plug the SSD into the desktop. What is the best way to run his music on the SSD? Not plugged directly in to the desktop I think.
Roon Core (server) should be installed on a system that is booted from SSD. Having music on an SSD is not required though its not going to be an issue…HDD is fine location for music but not for the Roon database that by default is put in the OS’s drive (windows and OSX/MacOS alike).
You dont say if the desktop is MAC/PC. But music must either be connected directly to the Core location (internal or USB) or via a SMB connection to a server or other share point on the same network.
Make sure the desktop is connected to the local network via LAN cable not wifi.
You can hang the SSD from the desktop (via a suitable cable adapter) or insert it internally if there is a spare SSD slot.
Assume the desktop will be left powered on ? If not then there is a bit of wait-time if the desktop is booted up each time music is required.
Roon should see the 818v3 as an available end-point ready to be enabled. Just make sure that the MC200 Sooloos core is OFF to avoid any zone ownership conflict.
Does your friend have an ipad ?
Should have mentioned it’s a PC and is connected to his LAN. He has an iPad. The 818 found Roon, no problem. As of now he’s running Roon core on the PCs HDD. I think he’s removed the MC200. He’s concerned about audio quality if he loads his music onto the SSD and plugs it directly in to the PC. Any thoughts on that? Also, I don’t know if he leaves his desktop powered on.
It will make zero difference if he connects the SSD to the PC if he is using the ID41 card in the 818. That is a network streamed solution and will be immune to pretty much anything on the server side.
OK, I’ll pass that along. He’s running Roon server on his PC’s HDD which is not good. Might he be better off if he used the external SSD for Roon server and left his music in the PC’s music file on the HDD?
Yes…that would be better. Access to the Roon database on SSD will likely be better than on the HDD. Music can sit on the HDD as that is not so speed sensitive. Typical read speed of a HDD is plenty for streaming to several end points.