I’d really like my next home theater receiver to have Roon built-in (RAAT speaking directly to the DAC, source switching, volume control, etc.) So far, I’ve only found one model that includes this for less than $2,000, and it connects via WiFi only (NAD T 758 v3).
First question: Did I miss any models? Are there any other Roon-ready AV receivers out there in this price range?
Second question: For those who have used the NAD T 7xx receivers, how do you like them as Roon endpoints? How’s the sound quality? How reliable and trouble-free are they to use with Roon? (This is for my family to use, so it has to “just work”!)
I’m just spit balling here, but I don’t think that the AV surround receiver customer is necessarily interested in hi-res two channel audio. Hence, these manufacturers do not offer this feature in their product. I could be wrong though in my market analysis.
There are some two channel receivers out there under 2K that offer Roon; Naim, Cocktail Audio, etc.
I don’t think the Roon ecosystem is extensive enough to make purchase decisions for something like an AV system just yet. I would concentrate on getting something that fits in every other respect and utilise a USB input to enable Roon via something like the Allo USBridge for best quality with least complication.
Any of the recent Onkyo receivers (and others) include AirPlay clients. I have used this with absolute reliability and full feature set. No high resolution support, but very family friendly. Richard.
Almost zero AVRs (or processors) have USB Type B inputs. So, by and large, that will not work. A Roon Bridge product would be limited to S/PDIF or HDMI in order to connect to an AVR. That is one of the reasons why some are interested in using Roon via the network inputs present on almost all AVRs. But I agree that Roon currently is too niche, may always be too niche to attract the attention of mostly Japanese AV manufacturers.
Yes, the T 758 has been the top/only entry on my list for some time. Have you used it with Roon? It’s WiFi only (which Roon advises against, but works pretty well for my other endpoints), and the reviews of BluOS by itself on this unit are pretty bad. I’m wondering if Roon fixes those issues, and if so, how it sounds compared to my current setup (Roon -> Boss DAC -> Denon AVR-x4100w).
I had a NAD T 758 v3 on loan for a couple of weeks prior to getting my NAD T 777 v3.
Both receivers were connected via Wi-Fi only and I did not have any issues.
The AV receiver sits in the living room and it is used for TV/film watching and for music.
I use Roon for music listening and it works fine.
There is still an issue with MQA playback as the BluOS app is still using an old version of RAAT, but that will be solved eventually. This does not bother me much really.
I have been out of that game for a while so didn’t realise USB wasn’t a thing with many multichannel amps. I would still offer the same advice but using HDMI as the connection method. You would need to do your homework to see what Roon Bridge hardware and OS’s supported this without issue. You may be confined to RoonBridge on Windows which comes with its own complications.
the lack of asynchronous USB is the big problem with home theater receivers. The only way around this to to use an external dac for one of the inputs. That’s what I do with my yamaha aventage RX-2070, which is a very good receiver.
The UPNP features of the yamaha work very well for streaming tidal or qobuz, but are not usable for roon without an external dac.
I was just thinking about this, and it seems that most big AVR manufacturers are willing to slap any amount of features on these products, no matter how niche (especially if those features help marketing the product to aspiring audiophiles). Many of these branded features even have licensing fees, which I suspect Roon Bridge does not. Whatever hardware runs the code for AirPlay, Spotify Connect, Chromecast, DLNA, etc. could surely run Roon Bridge as well.
I am in total agreement with your comments concerning features but I have had no luck ever getting responses back from major manufacturers concerning adding Roon support. Most of my kit is Yamaha and while I would not expect support in the AVR line Yamaha makes a very high-end series of two channel kit that it would be perfect for this. All of their two channel stuff includes AirPlay perhaps those who make the decisions think that is enough since Roon sees AirPlay. As stated previously though I’m sure the volume levels are just too small to attract their attention.
I think you might have helped me understand my issue with my Yamaha Receivers. What dac are you using? I’m trying to play DSD from a dedicated Mac Mini 2011 to the Yamaha. But things are choking or I get slow loading error. Files are on a Synology. Trying to find a good solution and be done. Thanks.
[quote=“Andy_Spinks, post:8, topic:44347”]my Denon works really well as an AirPlay Roon endpoint.[/quote]Can you expand on that? What does “AirPlay Roon endpoint” mean? I’ve only seen Roon at audio dealers, and always with Tidal. But I run Apple Music family plan, so prefer to stick with that over Tidal. And which Denon do you have? Thanks!
Roon will stream to any Airplay device, once you enable it in roon settings. So Roon can easily stream to pretty much any networked receiver over Airplay. However, the quality is limited to what Airplay can do, so may result in some resampling. If you are OK with the sound quality from Apple Music, then Airplay will be fine for you. It’s better than Bluetooth, but not as good as Roon native streaming (RAAT).
My Denon is AVR-x4100w, but most network receivers have Airplay capability.
I know it is a rather old topic, but I am pretty much in similar situation in which I would love to have an AV Receiver with RAAT capabilities, that is, Roon Ready.
My setup is as follows:
Roon Server on a Synology DS920+
Cambridge Audio CXN Streaming to
Onkyo TX-NR 609 AV Receiver
I also have an Apple TV 4 connected to the receiver for the Home Cinema.
In my case, I would love to get rid of the two boxes (Cambridge Audio Streamer + Onkyo AV Receiver) in exchange for a single AV box which is Roon Ready.
I have recently learned about the Arcam AVR10 and was wondering if anyone has had any experience with it… or even comments if giving up the Cambridge Audio CXN component from the setup in exchange to a single Roon Read AV Receiver would be a mistake…
