Roon Ready Cert for BR-20? When will this happen?

@Jeff_Z … a data point from a BDA-3.14 owner, which is a certified Roon Ready device. As far as I know, the features you mention aren’t implemented on the 3.14. It does have volume control from Roon, at the 32-bit digital level, but I can’t toggle power and if I turn it off, it vanishes from the list of zones.

thanks. good to know so I don’t have any expectations. i have two roon ready devices. I can control both completely from roon, i.e. turn them on and off, control volume. and i only had to enable them once. now they are just part of roon, basically.

I only enabled the 3.14 once, but if I turn off its power, it’s no longer an available zone. When I turn it on, it reappears, enabled, with its queue preserved. I just leave it on all the time.

As always, we are waiting for firmware update that resolves issues that came up during our certification process. These are real issues that would hurt the experience in a substantial manner. This is why we certify. Anyway, they’ll get through it eventually.

2 Likes

From the CEO of Bryston in response to someone asking why the BR-20 isn’t Roon certified (posting on the Bryston audiocircle pages):

HI

No it has to do with the way they want the volume bar on ROON to work with the volume control on the BR-20.

We are working on new software but that is a ways off.

james

Jerry_B,

I am experiencing the red flashing lock light when using Roon. Others posting on the Bryston audiocircle forum have noticed this too. For me, it happens every two weeks or so. I have to unplug the BR-20 and plug it back in to get the lock light back to green.

If you have a look under settings audio in Roon when flashing red it thinks BR20 is certified with an error. try restarting Roon Bridge in MediaPlayer under services interface before power cycle. Otherwise I find you have to after power cycle.

Some of us asked Bryston to provide something use with BR20 until Roon certification is completed. Roon Bridge is an OEM version.

To me Bryston are a year behind (COVID 19 restrictions in their province). No-one likes what is going on, so glad we have something.

Its better than some cheaply made gear that pops a cap or IC after 2 years and becomes landfill.

Stay safe

I find if the lock light is solid red its just not playing.
Blinking red can also indicate you need to add it in again from Roon under settings audio.

To all Bryston BR-20 users :

I has come to our attention that a release of the internal BR-20 software might have made it to some of your units with a component called “Roon Bridge” enabled. While not shipped with your unit out of the factory, it seems that this update may have been inadvertently pushed to users whom it was not intended for. After been notified of this situation by Roon Labs and talking to them about the situation, we wanted to clarify a few details in order not to mislead you. Bryston and Roon Labs are actively and relentlessly working at completing the Roon RAAT Certification for the BR-20.

A few weeks before the launch of the BR-20, an obscure bug was discovered by Roon Labs. This bug sometimes occurs when the user makes a lot of volume changes using the front panel wheel while at the same time moving the volume control in the Roon application back and forth in quick succession. In some cases, this would cause the volume level in Roon not the accurately reflect the actual volume level on the BR-20 for a few seconds.

Because of this bug, the BR-20 Roon certification was rejected and Bryston has been tirelessly working at finding a solution for it. As such, and in accordance with Roon Terms and Conditions, the BR-20 was launched (and is still shipped) without Roon support out of the box. As some users and testers were still asking for a way to use Roon to test out product, we opted for a temporary compromise which was to make a Beta/Testing software version available with RoonBridge installed as a temporary way to play media from Roon.

This image was to be made available to select users only and under the understanding that this was a technical demo to help test the capabilities of the unit and that it was not an official version of the software sanctioned by Roon Labs. We had also notified the few users we originally sent this image to that it was to be considered experimental and without and guarantee of features or support of Roon technologies. Those would be released as soon as the certification process was completed. Despite our intent, it looks like this image might have made it to more units then expected due to a misconfiguration in our update server.

We apologize for the confusion and wish to reiterate that the Roon Bridge solution currently running on some units is not an official Roon implementation and is not supported by Roon Labs. It was always intended as a temporary patch for some testers to be able to experimentally play content from their Roon library and test out some features of the BR-20 but was and will never be a production ready solution.

As soon as the certification process is complete (which hopefully should happen any day now), an over-the-air update will be made available to all users which will include the official implementation certified by Roon Labs. Also if implementation of ROON is critical for the customer we do not recommend the BR-20 at this time but instead the 3.14 and the BDP-3?

We thank you for your understanding and will update you again once the update is available.

Kind regards,

Bryston

5 Likes

Beware lost my Roon Bridge updating to latest firmware mine is back up for sale on CAM.

Very sorry to hear that!. Will the BR-20 update automatically? If not, i"ll be sure not to update it until it is roon ready.

1 Like

No, you can choose to not upgrade. Mine still has the accidential roon bridge and I’m not going to remove that.

1 Like

Question/wishes about the roon implementation.

  1. Will the volume control when changeing volume in roon affect the “physical” volume knob? It seems to now only affect the digital volume, I think? The display on the br-20 does at least no indicate any change in volume.
  2. Will it be possible to have artist - song info on the display when playing roon?
  3. Will it be possible to use play, pause skip song buttons on the remote with roon?

Regards,
Fredrik

Hi Fred - From engineering:

This is all part of Roon certification, the display showing track data, volume controlling the preamp volume and to use the transport controls. Regardless if its the remote or frontpanel controls or even Manic Moose

2 Likes

Very glad to hear this. Thanks for the quick feedback :slight_smile:

Tired of waiting bought a celeron based Windows pc and use it for Roon and Apple Music. Gen 11 by Beelink u59.
Interestingly enough it allows me to set 24/192 in iTunes. Using windows 10 sound app it allows 24/384 whats the point if highest bitrate could be 192.
Take the old version of iTunes from Apple download page so you get Bonjour etc then use iTunes to update itself. Yes the old iTunes remote app works fine for control of your Apple Music goodness from iPhones or iPads if you need a break from Roon.
Make sure to get intel driver update app and yes you would use Intel Display driver when asked.
I bought this for audio only no video tasks.

Glad it still works for you @Jeff_Z pretty much feel like I was left flapping in the wind.
Hey but that’s why I spent all this money right a warranty and support?

I have you to thank @Jerry_B for telling me not to update the firmware! Thanks again for letting us all know. Maybe the BR-20 will be Roon Ready before yours sells.

Use an Amazon FireCube as well for Amazon Music and Radio Paradise on HDMI. RP is just amazing lossless streaming 4 genres. Free no strings. Why isn’t it in MDP not sure. Remote codes for bryston on FireCube do not work with BR-20.

BR-20 does identify as BDA-3 connected USB in device manager on a Windows Computer.

Wife’s comment was I have never spent so much money and had to mess so much to listen to my music. Glad restrictions are lifting go out and take pics again maybe its finished by time spring migration is over.

Have had DSD start to hiss several times just pull power cord for 10 mins on BR-20. This was while Mini-PC was running 11.

On windows 11 and 10 his occurs right channel. It is not 5b st thx it follows input on br-20 not amp.
Switching to convert DSD to PCM audio in roon audio returns but at lower volume.
Maybe DAC is doing something driver doesn’t expect or vise versa

Finally my 60k tunes back.

I see people talking about plex with music forget it.
Great for tv and movies on powerful server. I watch ripped 4k movies.
In browsing music with plex I quickly give up in frustration finding that one song. At least with 60k tunes too much work.

Beelink U59 is a great audio only transport.
Audio is quite good with a linear power supply comes close to streamer. Definitely looses some depth and image. The nuances and detail I talk about are still there.

Bios allows you to turn off on board sound and HDMI sound. Leaving just the Bryston Asio layer. This also helps with earlier reported glitches.

Definitely happy with DAC and Pre-amp.

Most responsible companies post outstanding problems online. With a beta fix if possible.

Why am I prompted for a password when I try to reset my device to defaults that isn’t documented anywhere. Kind of important for people selling who have put in network passwords, etc.

I do not understand people saying BR-20 sounds better than BDA-3. Friend bought his over connected to his Lumin transport (while BR-20 was still working with Roon) we gave up trying to tell difference when switching back and forth blind folded. I don’t say this to hurt Bryston but many have Pre-Amp, DAC already they should not upgrade unless they need space. Then make sure to wait until everything is fixed.

Hi Folks - we should be sending a new version of software to ROON this coming week so hopefully I will have good news shortly about certification
james

3 Likes