New information on the Discovery from Digital Audio Review. Looks like in addition to being a self-contained device it is also reliant on an ELAC app for control, which i dont think has been mentioned yet. Im sure this may be a viable solution for some but not something that is appealing to me, though i do like the design of the box.
Frustrating to me is the fact the new active speaker module for their speakers will apparently only be compatible with their version of Roon. Ugh, An active speaker that serves as an endpoint would very a very cool thing to offer, if it were compatible with the larger ecosystem.
On the good news side there is this:
The first Roon Ready device coming to market from ELAC is their 100wpc Class D DS-A101 integrated amplifier that bundles the following features: Roon Endpoint network streamer; an internal DAC that can also be tapped via Toslink, coaxial, Bluetooth, Airplay and Spotify Connect inputs (but no USB); subwoofer output with optional crossover point analysis; analogue input; DSP-fuelled room correction (bonus!). You get a LOT for US$499.
That seems like a decent little box that offers a lot of options.
following up to my earlier post. According to Jon Iverson in his post on Stereophile the Discovery has the following option:
For some reason I liked this product the moment I saw it. And at $1,099, including a lifetime full Roon license (for $1,000 you get a lifetime limited Roon license), it became even more interesting once I started digging into the features. Essentially, you can run Roon on your tablet and use the DS-S101 as your endpoint without the need for a computer.
This means you can hook up to your NAS drive, Tidal, AppleTV, or whatever else Roon supports, to the ELAC and be off and running.
If true that makes this a much more compelling product with a full Roon install, though it seems to directly contradict what @Danny posted. Iâm going to chalk Jonâs report up to a miscommunication during a busy show but if something has changed recently, I think it makes for a great option.
âBusy show miscommunicationâ indeed. This needs some clarification here.
ELAC DISCOVERY IS NOT ROON
As this keeps popping up over and over, I can make it very clear: ELAC Discovery is not Roon, nor can it be turned into Roon at any price.
The ELAC offering is powered by Roonâs library management engine, but does itâs own audio management. This means all the Roon audio offerings donât automatically come into the ELAC products. The confusion is surely coming from the fact that it is currently being demoed with full Roon UI at these trade shows, and no one is doing crazy stuff like HQ Player or DSD in the demos.
Shipping, it will lack many Roon features out of the box (I mention a few earlier in this thread). The upgrade price will open up some of those features, but many will be unavailable even for an upgrade.
Much of our current work, and future roadmap has plans for that either donât make sense for ELAC, or wonât come with ELACâs offerings.
The ELAC Discovery is a great product, but it is not Roon in a box. It is itâs own ecosystem with benefits of its own.
Buy ELAC because it is a great product on its own. Do not buy ELAC to get Roon. Do not think that buying ELAC is a way to get Roon cheaply. ELAC provides a great audio system with a great user experience, and I believe that itâll be one of the best experiences out of the box (once it is released). However, it is will not be Roon.
The marketing of this product is the hype-machine-gone-bad. It is such a great product on its own, Iâm confused to why itâs being tied to Roon so much.
The only vendor selling the full Roon-in-box experience right now is SOtM and their device doesnât come with a Roon membership. You still need that from Roon Labs. More of these types of manufacturers are coming up as well.
Danny, interesting comments, itâs good to see such clarity. I suggest you take a look at the home page for the Bristol Sound and Vision show. (Feb 2016). The comments on the ELAC page might be of some interest to you.
Interesting article and video about the ELAC DS-101. Sure sounds like theyâre selling Roon. Chris Walker, in the video, states that the Roon license included is only for the ELAC eco-system but does state that for a $99 up-fee, you can get the full Roon license.
So @Danny, what is the scoop on this now? Have things changed since your earlier post or is it still more hype than it sounds?
No, nothing has changed. They have improved the message, by stating that works only within their own ecosystem, but they still canât get the marketing message accurate.
Their customers are going to be pissed when they donât get full Roon.
The upgrade fee will unlock many features, but not RoonReady devices and forget about DSD⊠Unsure why Chris said it supports DSD. That box doesnât have the horsepower to drive all the DSD formats Roon supports. Plus there are limits on library size.
While I donât doubt that the Elac is a cool piece of technology, it seems very much like theyâre overselling it, particularly if it cannot work with all RoonReady devices. Another question⊠who will be responsible for software upgrades⊠ELAC or Roon?
Just hope those pissed customers donât blow back on you. Theyâre certainly using Roon to market it.
Iâve left a reference to this thread on the Audioholics site (couldnât link because of an anti-spam threshold). Hopefully it might do something to reduce the incidence of pissed customers.
Iâve just had an email from a HiFi supplier based in Arnhem, the Netherlands informing me that the ELAC Discovery is now in stock and available. Their product page makes great play of the fact that Roon is integrated, and that there is no subscription cost. Nothing is said about the fact that, according to @danny above, it wonât work with Roon Ready devices.
The ELAC Discovery web site itself is not much better. It links to reviews of the full Roon software, and nowhere is it made clear that whatâs in the Discovery is NOT full RoonâŠ
I canât help but feel that there will be some disappointed customers, and it may have a negative effect on the Roon brand as well.
Fully agreeâŠespecially the linking to Reviews of âFullâ Roon, will only lead to false expectations
And as Roon will be the company asking them for more money for a full subscription, it is Roon that will likely end out being âblamedâ by most users, rather than the false advertising claims of Elac
Bringing this to the attention of @robdarling, @danny and @mike to act on this information as they see fit
I contacted the HiFi supplier (Wifimedia in Arnhem) and pointed out the potential for confusion. Just had an email back, and theyâve now changed their product web page so that the first bullet point under the product description now reads âpowered by Roon Essentialsâ instead of âpowered by Roonâ.
Of course, that rather begs the question that people understand what, precisely, âRoon Essentialsâ is. I certainly donât.
Not surprised about Wifimediaâs swift turnaround â theyâre a great and knowledgeable shop. That they were not properly informed says something though.
I was looking at this a few days ago and it seems that the main Elac website is not talking about Roon at all for the discovery. Though from the screen shots it looks like Roon.
So it does. I was looking at the Dutch distributorâs web site for the ELAC Discovery, and there they are certainly still making out that the Discovery is powered by Roon, in particular their new web site for the ELAC Discovery is very misleading. Someone should tell them to get it fixedâŠ
Edit: Hang on a minute - the main ELAC web site page for the Discovery specifications also states that it supports Roon End Points. How does this fit with @danny 's statement about it not supporting roon ready devices?
Weâll find out more about Roon Essentals from the devs pretty shortly. I agree with the posters above that the marketing has to be very clear about what people are getting, what theyâre not getting and whether they can upgrade or not.
Roon Essentials has no signal path, no DSD, no streaming to Meridian, Squeezebox, HQPlayer, the high res PCM audio is capped at 192khz, it has no private zones, it has a 15k track limit (for this box, other boxes will have different limits), there are no composer/work pages, no Roon Bridge support, other stuff.
Technical support for Roon Essentials is done by the vendor, and not by Roon Labs.
It was a last minute decision to give our Roon Ready partners as much support as possible, so Roon Ready devices will work, as will Airplay.
Thanks, Danny. I can understand the decision to support Roon Ready devices. It makes sense. Iâm still happy to have gone the lifetime support route of the software though, rather than buying a Roon Essentials device. Choice is good.