Roon through a Bryston BDP-1

I currently have a Bryston BDP-1 media player, and use an Ipad mini running Mpad, a Music Player Daemon - MPD - Application, to send music from my NAS drive through the network via a Cat 6 Cable to the BDP-1. Can I use Roon in this configuration?

Thanks!

Dane

Currently, the only network endpoints are Meridian and AirPlay. Other endpoints will become available as Roon works with manufacturers. Since all the current discussions are private, it is only speculation at this point.

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I can’t get a good idea of how the BDP1 streams in the first place, you move files to a connected USB drive and control it with MPad? Or is the NAS playing the files and streaming over the network, in some sort of ALSA->BDP1 connection? The former doesn’t give much hope as RoonSpeakers would have to be added and, if ever, that’s probably a BDP3 release thing.

What DAC are you using?

I’m using a PS Audio Directstream DAC, connected to the Bryston BDP-1 via balanced interconnects. The Bryston connects to my music library on a NAS drive via the network on CAT 6 cable.

The MPad app is a Music Player Daemon front end, it detects both the Bryston, and the NAS drive.

MPD is probably running on the Bryston? They would need to implement RoonSpeakers, but since they already have a BDP2 I wouldn’t count on it.

Chances are that PS Audio will include RoonSpeakers with their Network Bridge expansion.
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You would still need a PC to run as Roon Core (maybe the NAS will be able to run it later?), so you might just as well use a fanless Intel NUC (or similar) thing and connect it to the DAC with USB directly.

I also have a Bryston BDP-1 and I can use it with Roon. Roonserver runs on a dedicated PC and Shairplay is activated on the BDP-1.
It’s not without any problems but Roon is a much better interface than MPD. The latetest sounding slightly better,…
Problems I have with the BDP-1 in combination with Roon are: hanging communication with the BDP after using the pauze-button on Roon. I can solve this most of the time by stopping and restarting the Shairplay service on the BDP. Also the Roon radio-functionality is not working all of the time. Nothing is playing on the Roon server for BDP1. It also needs at least a restart of the shairplay service on the BDP1.

I, too, have been using a Bryston BDP-1 with Roon; and I’m happy to report that my experience has been more positive than WimJ’s.

Before Roon, I had a few Squeezebox Touches fed from LMS 7.9. I have been adding quite a lot of DSF files to my library and I was about to install EDO on one or more of the Touches to unlock the better listening experience DSD provides. Then I found a BDP-1 for sale on eBay. I convinced myself that it held the promise of even better performance than an upgraded Touch, so I bought it. Alas, I was never able to get it to play my DSF files unless I transferred them to a USB drive directly attached to the BDP. PCM files, however, played flawlessly when streamed from LMS.

The problem with the DSFs seems to arise from the handshake between the BDP and LMS. The BDP tells LMS that it can handle DSF “natively”, so LMS does not offer the option of converting the files to DoP for transport. At the other end, the BDP refuses to convert the stream to DoP, even when the appropriate box is checked in the list of DACs connected to the BDP. My primary DAC is a Benchmark DAC2, whose display indicates that no recognizable data is being received. When I substitute a Wyred4Sound DAC, I do have audio; but the display indicates that it is receiving 352.8 kHz PCM. With DSD128, even the W4S remains silent.

So I shelved the BDP and again toyed with an EDO upgrade for my Squeezeboxes. But before I got around to that (which can take quite a long time for me ;)), Roon 1.1 burst onto the scene with Squeezebox support. I dusted off the BDP, made sure the Squeezelite service was enabled, and was delighted to see that Roon listed it along with my Squeezebox Touches. Furthermore, Roon gave me the option of converting DSF to DoP at the server end.

I connected the Benchmark to the BDP and was immediately rewarded with glorious sound – which the Benchmark identified as DSD. I’m chalking this up as an unexpected benefit of the primarily one-way implementation of the Squeezebox transport adopted by Roon. The BDP thinks it is receiving 176.4 kHz PCM and passes it straight through to the DAC, no questions asked. I should mention that this all works only for the BDP’s coaxial output (and, I presume, AES though I haven’t checked). I can’t get anything out via USB. That’s not a problem for me because the Benchmark is one of the few DACs that will accept DSD via its coax input; and the 192 kb/s limit for that interface isn’t an issue because I’m not interested in DSD128 or other super-fast formats. The DSD128 file mentioned earlier has been replaced with a DSD64 version, since my 66-year-old ears cannot hear the difference!

For me, the Roon-to-BDP (Squeezelite) link has proven very robust, with none of the interruptions WimJ experienced when using Shairplay. I’m a happy camper and a Roon lifetime subscriber as a result. Woohoo!

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If anyone is looking for a BDP-1 USB, this is a darn good price…

My BDP-1 failed today (it’s been a bad audio gear week)…good fortune though, I called Bryston and Bryston expert Chris Rice (unincognito on Audiocircle) walked me through checking a couple of things and it turned out to be a loose serial cable. Bryston stuff is built like a tank. Great service for sure.

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Got to say I love my (Roon Ready) Bryston BDP-1USB (feeding a Marantz NA-11S1). Takes 3-4 minutes to appear in Roon from switch on - but wonderfully solid and stable, with track skip and pause from my Logitech Harmony remote. The perfect Roon endpoint (for me).

Sound is (a little bit) better than playing CDs through the same DAC - before we even talk about DSD or hi-res PCM.

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