Roon Ready on Astell & Kern

Roon Core Machine

QNAP HS-453-DX
RAM 4G

Networking Gear & Setup Details

Router HELIX from Videotron Internet Provider
Core linked via Ethernet
Roon operated via Roon App installed on iPhone and MacBook Air M2

Connected Audio Devices

Lumin D2
iPhone with Roon Arc

Number of Tracks in Library

7189 tracks

Description of Issue

Good morning,

I own a portable KANN CUBE music player from Astell & Kern. This is not Roon Ready. I’ve made the suggestion to A&K support, and I’m waiting for a response.

The new Digital Music Players fron A&K are mainly Roon Ready, including the all-new A&norma SR35 that will be available on May 15, 2023.

My Roon Core is installed on my QNAP NAS.

In the event that the KANN CUBE becomes Roon Ready or if I Acquire an A & K Roon Ready device I would like to know if I should get a 2nd subscription to Roon to use Roon on a Astell & Kern device?

Best regards.

To use more than one Roon Ready device, you do not need a second Roon subscription.

You only need two Roon subscriptions if you need to run two Roon Cores (in two different sites, for example) simultaneously.

Your current Roon Core on QNAP, however, is both underpowered and does not have enough RAM. You may consider moving to a more powerful hardware, such as NUC11i7 with 16GB RAM.

Thank you for your quick response and for letting me know that my QNAP NAS does not have the power or RAM memory to run ROON efficiently.

This probably explains the connection problems I encounter regularly. But this is the first time this information has been given to me.

When I explored NAS devices to install ROON, QNAP’s were recommended.

I think it was before the Nucleus launch.

Is it the new version of Roon that makes 16 GB RAM necessary?

You can use 8GB RAM for ROCK if your library is small. If you run Windows, you need to have 16GB RAM at the minimum.

You mean albums ripped on the NAS?
If I upgrade my QNAP NAS to 8 GB RAM will I get improvement?

The Roon APP is run on Mac Book Air M2 and I have 16 GB of RAM on it

I found what is NUC11i7 and ROCK thank you. I will think about it. Thank you for the advice!

From your point of view, would it be better to run with ROCK instead of Windows?

Is it simple to install ROCK?

Yes. ROCK is focused on running Roon and does not need all the background processes that are running on a general-purpose operating system like Windows. So all the available computing power is available to Roon.

There is also nothing to manage like on Windows with permanent updates, much less that can break, and Roon has control over everything on the computer. The update is just a click in the remote app and it’s back in a few seconds

Installation is quite simple. You need to transfer the installation image to a USB stick, put it into the NUC, tell the BIOS in the NUC to start from the stick (you need to attach a monitor and a USB keyboard for this), and that’s about it.

Thanks for the information on how to configure and install Roon with ROCK.

The process seems a bit similar to the one I followed to install Roon on a Rasberry Pi device before purchasing the QNAP NAS HS-453 DX.

However before proceeding with the purchase of a NUC11TNHI7 I will install Roon Core on my MacBook Air M2 and observe the performance of Roon but also the advantages and disadvantages of not having Roon Core on a dedicated device. My MacBook Air have 16 GO of RAM and 512 GO of Memory.

With your advice, I now have a good game plan.

Message left unanswered sent four days ago.

In addition, earlier this week I submitted another request concerning the impact of ending my subscription to TIDAL and taking one with QUOBUZ, namely that the information from the TIDAL library can be transferred.
I am pleased to inform you that I found the answer by doing a search on Roon.Labs – community space.
This is possible with the following application: https://soundiiz.com/en/

Finally in this message, I also asked if Roon was considering integrating the new PRESTOMUSIC streaming service?

There is also additional information in this other thread about the same topic:

Only Roon can know and they very rarely comment on future plans. In particular when integrating additional streaming sources, I am sure that there are many things to consider regarding contracts, and most likely nobody can reveal anything before all obstacles are removed and contracts are air tight

Thank you, I understand.

Good morning,

I am pleased to inform you that I managed to install Roon on my MacBook Air M2 and that everything works very well. The sound is impeccable and I no longer have connection problems when I use the database to add albums and tags or playlists. Sometimes when I type on the keyboard, the music stops, but it’s minor. For the moment, that will be my solution. In case of difficulties, or the wish to stop using my MacBook Air M2, I will consider the purchase of a ROCK device or a Nucleus. Thank you again for allowing me to identify the problem that made my experience with Roon uncomfortable.

I’m glad that it’s running well, the Air M2 is an amazing little machine, I have one as well as my daily laptop. Have fun!

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