Roon Storage: NAS or DAS

Support
41

how is then your connection from the media server to the dac exactly?

42

Media server > Ethernet > Endpoint > DAC, most probably.

43

Yup, exactly.

44

ok. and what is your endpoint and dac exactly?

45

airport express :wink:

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46

Mine is NAS>WiFi>RoonCore>USB>DAC. I have an HD in my Mini, but plan to move that once I settle on a RoonSpeakers endpoint.

47

ok. and what is your endpoint and dac exactly?

These are the five zones that I use the most:

  • B+W A7 in the Kitchen (AirPlay streaming)
  • Squeezebox Boom in the Garage/shop (Squeezebox streaming)
  • Meridian 808.3 + ID40 + 7200s with the TV (Meridian streaming)
    RoonReady Sonicorbiter SE + a USB DAC+Headphone amp for headphones in the office. (RAAT)
  • Windows machine running HQPlayer + a different USB DAC+headphone amp for headphones in the office the other half of the time (HQPlayer)
  • Whichever-RoonReady-Device-We-Are-Reviewing-Now plugged into the studio monitors in the office, possibly with a USB DAC in between, depending on the device. (RAAT)

My situation is obviously not a good model of the real world. We have a lot of hardware here–manufacturers send it to us so we can provide support for it and test it when making changes to Roon. I have pre-release RAAT/RoonReady gear and software, too.

And of course, it’s more important that I cycle through a bunch of configurations on a regular basis (for testing purposes), than it is that I pick the “best” and fall in love with it.

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48

What a great range of kit! It must be a chore testing so many devices
 :wink:

Is there a favourite out of the list above? I’d assume the Meridian but


49

thanks for your answers, brian and fritzg!

when listening to music, my main focus is to reach optimal audio quality. therefore i am also using hqplayer.

now i realize, i should also focus on the topic of possible audio distortions.

after browsing here through the forum, i looks to me that a roonspeakers ready device could be optimal. for example an auralic streamer.

is this correct?

50

RoonReady + HQPlayer, unfortunately, don’t work together, because HQPlayer doesn’t provide a way for us to get the audio back into Roon for further re-distribution. Once we pass the stream to HQPlayer, HQPlayer owns the rest of the path to the endpoint.

Many people are using HQPlayer’s NAA to accomplish this kind of configuration–it’s the same sort of thing as RAAT–a network protocol for moving the audio to another place before rendering it, but it’s much simpler in scope.

51

What a great range of kit! It must be a chore testing so many devices
 :wink:

~25 USB devices x 4 platforms (win,mac,linux,asio) x all the different configuration parameters and content types sounds like a chore to me :smile:

We don’t need to do that often, but given the current efforts to replace our old audio output subsystem with RAAT, that’s exactly what we are dealing with right now.

Is there a favourite out of the list above?

This is going to be a lame answer, but we can’t be playing favorites with the companies that have been so gracious as to provide us with hardware.

We will be publishing a list of the devices that we have in-house. Having those devices lets us provide rapid support in case of problems. By far the most frustrating support issues for everyone are hardware-specific compatibility problems that dead-end at “we need access to the hardware to continue investigating”. We hate losing sales to those situations, but we could spend our entire budget and then some trying to buy “one of each” of every piece of hardware that’s ever been involved in a support incident.

Personally, I judge hardware on sound quality and user experience with roughly equal weight. I am generally more impressed with companies that have the time and patience to nail the UX details than companies who make great sounding hardware and then send it out the door with crappy drivers or inflexible approaches towards volume control.

52

5 posts were split to a new topic: Further integration between HQP and Roon

53

~25 USB devices x 4 platforms (win,mac,linux,asio) x all the different configuration parameters and content types sounds like a chore to me :smile:

Yeah, OK, so maybe not so relaxing
. :smile:

I meant more your personal favourite system in your household - i.e. which do you prefer listening to - but I see now that with so much loaner kit and your professional ‘Roon’ life, that it’s a tricky one to say fairly.

The reason I ask is that I often enjoy my lowish-fi car stereo, and my headphones straight out of my Mac at work, as much or more than my main system in some sways. Similarly I wondered if, although on paper the Meridian system is probably your main ‘best’ one, whether you actually end up getting more enjoyment out of say a headphone setup or whatever.

54

I think it’s very understandable that @brian can’t name a personal favourite (or indeed say anything more than he already has) bearing in mind the business relationships involved.

55

Me too. :wink:

56

The reason I ask is that I often enjoy my lowish-fi car stereo, and my headphones straight out of my Mac at work, as much or more than my main system in some sways. Similarly I wondered if, although on paper the Meridian system is probably your main ‘best’ one, whether you actually end up getting more enjoyment out of say a headphone setup or whatever.

Ok, sure, along those lines
there is plenty of gear that isn’t in the loaner category that I can talk about.

Yes, the Meridian system is great. The integration with the volume control, IR remote, front panel displays, etc and Roon is fantastic–it is difficult to get that elsewhere. I wish they had first-class network-based solutions for higher-resolution content, so I didn’t have to see everything >96k being resampled. It’s clear that they’re working on it, but that they haven’t gotten to the point where all cases are solved.

The Squeezebox Boom was a pleasant surprise. I use it in a part of the house where SQ isn’t a priority, but it’s about 90ft from the WiFi router through many walls, it performs much better than AirPlay ever did in that room, and it sounds ok, too. It’s just a really enjoyable device to live with.

The bulk of my “pleasure” listening as well as virtually all technical/critical listening happens on my HD650s. It’s a lot easier to hear what’s going on without getting the room involved.

The most cringe-worthy detail about my setup: in my office, I use a pair of powered studio monitors driven by a PA mixer. There’s some SQ evil there for sure, but the convenience of being able to have 4-6 DACs live at a time and hear the computer sound (youtube, skype, etc) too without thinking about input switching–ever–is worth it.

57

I’d like to see a Computer with Roon (DAS) vs a Core/Server Remote (NAS/Remote/Endpoint) shoot out.

58

Another facepalm moment for Logitech. I still wonder what I’m going to replace mine with in the kitchen if it eventually dies.

59

Not at all, its these sorts of details that are so interesting - practicality and convenience often win out.

Great insight into what you guys go through as well to get all this stuff working.

OK, sorry for dragging off topic.

60

True. But with a correctly implemented RAID 1 or RAID 1+0 with rotating spares, RAID could be considered a backup.

I like @rbienstock’s idea of the going with a RAID 1 (DAS) on the Roon Core.

  • Storage that can be easily moved to another machine if need be.
  • RAID 1 will give you plenty of read speed (not sure how much is really needed, I see an average of 580Kb/s with 96/24 files and 1.2MB/s with 192/24. I am not sure on the required bandwidth for DSD as I don’t have anything DSD.
  • Add to that setup a few extra drives you can keep offline and keep a rotation going depending on how often you add files to your collection and you have a nice backup solution.

If you want faster write speeds you could go RAID 1+0 but you’d need 4 drives and a min of 6 to implement a backup solution. Seems overkill.

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