Roon Ready devices for 5.1 or higher

I’d like to see a list of Roon Ready devices that can handle surround streams like 5.1 or higher. This is typically not clear in the product descriptions and most streamers can only handle stereo streams. The brands listed on the Roon web page do not in general support surround.
I’m a music producer and I’m using Roons since many years to listen to my mixes in different speakers/environments during the production process. The only working solution to listen to my surround mixes for now is to let Roon stream to the HDMI port of my MacBook Pro and connect a HDMI cable to my home cinema system. A better solution would be to have a surround receiver that could work as an interface to Roon.

1 Like

I don’t know of any Roon Ready AVRs, but connecting an HDMI cable directly between my Anthem MRX 710 and a recent Roon Nucleus lets me play multichannel music on that system. The HDMI outputs on the Nucleus show up as Zones in Roon. My AVR never shows up but it still works.
The 2nd Nucleus HDMI output is welcome so I am planning on running a second HDMI cable through the wall to get Roon working in a second room on another MRX 710.
Another benefit is the MRX 710 processes via HDMI at its maximum digital processing capability.
Other digital inputs are limited.

Merging + make Roon Ready multichannel Dacs

1 Like

NAD has a least one AVR and a pre-pro that support bluos, so perhaps they also work with roon. Not positive though.

Exasound (may not have the name quite right) has some nice surround dacs

How about a microrendu with usb output to an avr that can do surround via usb? Not sure if this works, so you’d have to look into it.

They do, but, you need their streamer component as well as the DAC.

Thanks for all comments.

I have a couple of hi-end DACs from Merging and that’s what I’m using in my studio. In this case I’d like to stream to the 5.1 system in my living room to get a feel for how my surround mix works in that environment. I have actually mailed NAD and asked if their AVRs can be used with Roon. Some NAD AVRs have analog inputs in surround, so another option would be to use my Merging DAC with a NAD AVR.
Per

Roon lists roon ready devices. Looks like several nad avr’s on the list.

https://roonlabs.com/partners/nad

I believe my Oppo 203 can do this. I have HDMI from Nucleus to Oppo 203. Problem is, I don’t have a 7.1 receiver. If I did, the Oppo 203 DAC can do 7 channel 24/192 and send out the RCA outs to an amp and speakers.

Maybe @mitr might be able to comment

Sure but there are many issues raised here. I stream/play multichannel from Roon in many ways. If there was an explicit question, it would be easy. For example, what does the OP mean by “stream?”

My original question was this (slightly reformulated): Is there an AVR I can use as a Roon Endpoint to play 5.1 (or higher) files from my disc to my surround system.

NAD came up and I know now that the T758 can be a Roon Endpoint, but it can only take a 2.1 stream, 192 kHz. This one has a WiFi dongle.

I will have the possibility to test the T778, which has a cable internet connection and according to intel from NAD, I should be able to play 5.1 streams in this one. I’d like to be able to stream with DXD resolution.

I’ll let you know.

I might have used the word ”stream” a bit carelessly above, since ”streaming” is nowadays associated with lo-res transport of music with some kind of perceptive coding. I’m talking about super resolution PCM transport. Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be any AVR with a Ravenna connection, which would solve this problem. I’m using Ravenna when recording to connect my interfaces to the recording computer and with a single CAT6 cable I can transport more than 150 channels of full resolution audio. Both ways. And with a properly managed switch, I can have audio going from one source to many receivers, or from different sources to different receivers. The possibilities are endless. :slight_smile:

Cheers

Per

Per Sjösten (PhD)
+46 708 878707
Sound Processing AB (http://www.sound.se/)
Footprint Records AB (https://footprintrecords.com/)
Vice President AES Northern Europe 2017-2020 (http://www.aes.org/)

I am not very informed about approved Roon Endpoints but, of course, there are AVRs that can do this via HDMI. After many disappointments, I have stopped trying WiFi.

Aha! So, now you are confining your options to WiFi? Is HDMI impossible for you? I ask because this is the most probable and easy way to do MCH from Roon to an AVR.

Let us know but I am skeptical. Would like to be surprised. So far, I have done this only with a Trinnov prepro.

The confusion, I think, is between streaming from an Internet source and from LAN-based sources and/or between wired and wireless. Too many flavors. Content/resolution are separate issues.

Aha! Not yet. Harman is beginning to implement Dante into their new prepros but it is not yet clear if it will support input or only outputs at this time.

I would love for there to be a Ravenna solution and, imho, including a Merging ZMAN (or equivalent) into modern AVRs should be a no-brainer. Using Roon (or JRiver) with Merging devices has been a delight.