The assembly was successful, largely because of the instructions and advice on the forum – so thank you!
I have some questions for the community.
Here’s my relevant kit/ info
• Hegel H190 with up to date firmware
• Melco N1ZH Mk1 (I refuse to pay £500 to convert it to a Mk2, hence my experiment with ROCK on a NUC). I want to see if I can equal or better the SQ, functionality, ease of use.
• Music library 3TB, almost all 16 bit and ripped to FLAC, with some DSD albums (<20) and a fair few 24 96, <20 241/92.
• If I can do this then the Melco will be sold (possibly releasing funds to buy some kit!)
• I have put a small selection of albums of different resolutions in the library for testing purposes
• could not resolve network address of my library, so connected a usb drive – it liked that
Questions in order of priority from my point of view
I have had the NUC running today, not bad as it was built yesterday
Q.1 If I connect ithe NUC to my network then Airplay is used to play files no matter what – can this be solved or do I had to live with it? Do I have to get a network something or other to do this?
I have had most success disconnecting the network, and connecting the NUC as I would my Melco, ie usb cable out of the NUC and into the input port of my Hegel. 44Khz and 96khz played. DSD downsampled sounded cr*p
Q.2 On the ROCK I had to enable DigiHug Audio USB Audio ALSA which is connected to the core for the files to be played. Am I doing this incorrectly? Suggestions / solutions/alternatives would be appreciated
Q.3 Can I have an ordinary usb out without any ALSA business?
(I was thinking into a M2Tech usb to spdif and then coax into the Hegel? I know that the USB is limited on the hegel is 24/96)
Q.4 \DESKTOP-AV***5\f is where my music library lives – what do I put in setting to prevent seeing not a valid address etc etc etc ?
I will be contacting my dealer and Hegel to see if they have anything Hegeley to offer and not Roon specific
Thanks for any contributions - stay well and safe
That’s on the Hegel side. Hegel apparently is working on Roon integration, but they aren’t there yet, and it’s been a while. They could then claim that the device is “Roon Ready”, and it would work transparently with Roon’s protocols, as it currently does with AirPlay. In any case, you should probably speak to Hegel or one of their representatives if you’d like better visibility there.
This all said, right here, right now, you have two options:
a) You add a “network something”, or, in RoonSpeak, an endpoint.
These can go from tens of dollars to tens of thousands of dollars depending on how comfortable you are with lego, what outputs you want and how susceptible you are to marketing claims. From the sounds of it, you want something with SPDIF out, for which there are a multitude of options.
b) You sell your Hegel and buy a replacement that’s already Roon Ready.
Thanks for the contributions so far - please keep them coming.
If I am not understanding the Roon infrastructure please let me know! I think I need something inbetween the NUC and the Hegel - am I correct.
Cheers
Yes, for example, using the Allo DigiOne Player which I suggested. You need something to turn Ethernet into Coax. So, the audio chain would be Core - ethernet - Allo Digione - Coax - Hegel.
I"m not quite understanding what you are asking. From what you wrote, I am assuming you are using a NUC running RoonOS as your core, and, you have a separate PC called DESKTOP-AV that has an F drive where music is stored and you want to point ROON to that music storage on the other PC?
It is odd to see *'s in a share name as those, in computer speak, generally mean a wildcard and are invalid for IP based name resolution (DNS). I have no idea if they are valid for SMB. You can try something like:
\IP\shareName or \192.168.0.8\f
if you know the IP address of the machine where your share is. Otherwise, if that really is the same of the machine you may need to ping support on if they support a name with *'s in it.
ALSA is (one of) the Linux sound systems and stands for Advanced Linux Sound Architecture. It’s really good and handles supported USB DACs just fine. So, you want ALSA. ALSA is a good thing. Even a M2Tech will need some kind of USB audio driver and, if supported, would also be supplied by ALSA. Generally, and I say generally because there are exceptions, if the USB interface on your DAC / convertor is supported by ALSA it will be supported by ROCK.
Please nobody is going to know anything by showing a private address…unless you have your server on a directly addressable public Internet address in which case you are owned already most likely.