Huh. OK, I thought if it used RAAT it was. Regardless, it syncs flawlessly with zones, sounds great and makes a superb Endpoint that functions exactly like my Roon Ready device. What, besides it not being “listed” as a Roon Partner, makes not ‘Roon Ready’? Aren’t we just bickering semantics?
1 Like
not at all. It’s a perfectly functioning endpoint that appears to be implementing raat, syncs as zone etc. As far as I can tell it does everything my NAD or DigiOne Sig does.
That’s the LG V20?
Supposed to be a pretty nifty DAC by all accounts.
I tried with an older LG G5.
Yup. I have 3 of them. You can get them for $50 and they are a quality DAC with an equally impressive HP amp. I have an LG8X that works the same.
It’s probably still an OK phone too. heh.
Actually I had never bothered to look at the signal path of the LG phone but it looks just the same.
3 Likes
Sooo? Does it get added to the list?
Now I need answers dammit.
I use a FiiO M11 and its OK around the house if I ever need it but I have enough zones to cover all the house audio wise…apartment living so no garden to roam in.
Lol.
Still does not make it Roon Ready.
When I do it in reverse and play through my Motorola I get the same signal path display.
Walks like a… Talks like a… what am I missing?
Roon Ready Certification 
.
go look in the partners page…thats the definitive list of RRD
That is really interesting.
I tried the same with my iPhone but while it shows in Roon elsewhere, can’t send music to it.
I guess the LG is really, effectively, a roon end point regardless of certification. But I assume it’s not a powerful headphone amp, so will still need to connect it via cable to something that can drive a serious set of cans.
If I had my wish list, I’d love to see something like the (phenomenal) iFi Dibalo (excellent DAC and incredible amp) be roon ready. iFi used to have roon ready devices 3-4 years ago, seems like they decided it’s not longer worth it. For that matter, looks like pretty much ALL mobile manufcaturers (A&K and Chor excepting) have decided it’s not worth their time (or cost?). That’s such a shame…
I can only speak for my G5, and yes it’s headphone amp is not particularly strong.
Even with a fairly sensitive pair of iems, I can max out the volume and not be deafened.
I think the V20 is supposed to be better.
The end use I have for the G5 now though as it’s a retired out of service phone is as a Wi-Fi endpoint to an old stereo stack out in the garage where I connect it’s headphone out to a 3.5mm input on the stack.
Works perfectly.
1 Like
My Onkyo DP-X1 shows a very similar signal path to the screenshots above. And it still sounds quite good with good headphones, even if the music does not arrive lossless.
But the big problem is that I have to “supply” it via WiFi as an endpoint, and unfortunately it stutters even with a very good WiFi signal. There are always dropouts, crackles and interference. I can’t get a grip on it.
See also Onkyo DP-X1 - unclean Roon playback.
In the meantime, I only use it with music from the inserted memory card or with the Qobuz app, which works smoothly. Unfortunately, qualitatively acceptable Roon use is not possible with this device.
Roon Ready has Roon code embedded in the device, there is no app to run on it. It has a deeper level access to the knowledge of the signal chain on that device and the audio hardware. It allows full control of it and allowing it to properly switch inputs and release the audio path to any other input amongst other things. It’s just way more integrated and no system resampling.
Roon Ready Andorid DAPs such as A&K can play back bit perfect upto DSD. You cant do this with the app on Android it sets to what the OS reports back and this ranges from 44.1/24 on my DAP to 192/24 on some Fiio devices. This makes Roon resample to this rate as It’s limited to Androids os audio stack and at the mercy of the quirks of Android such as strict battery and app managment. Yes it uses RAAT to send to the app but that’s it, it’s essentially acting as a Roon bridge but with limited operations. RAAT does not mean Roon Ready it’s just part of Roons eco system to send the audio data and one piece of the puzzle.
1 Like
My iPhone is an end point. I use it with headphones when she is watching tv sometimes when I can’t be bothered getting mojo poly.
Sounds good to me.
1 Like
I had bought an A&K SP2000 some times ago for using Roon mobile, but it wasn’t satisfied for me.
You need an additional remote for navigation and Roon needs a really stable network connection, which the A&K not had.
So I’ve sold the SP2000 and now I’m using further LMS with DLNA in parallel to Roon and here I getting also on android devices (mobiles have in general a much better wifi connection than DAPs) a bit perfect output.
1 Like
The HP amp on the LG is better than you might think. It can adjust for cans with higher impedance. It works very well and can drive some high z cans, but can’t really handle “difficult” to drive ones. It was LGs thing to have the closest thing to an audiophile phone as you can get and they pretty much succeeded. It’s night and day compared to Samsungs and iPhones that I’ve had. Sounds like they are now out of the phone game, though.
Ha. That’s pretty much how I use them too…as end points for various audio systems. It’s my understanding that the V series LG phones were their “flagships” and are kitted with the more powerful amps.
1 Like