Roon to Android phone options

Audio Gear Talk
1

I sent a post about a month ago which is now closed out. My friend got me up and running with the Roon ROCK.

Now my problem is my Samsung S21 phone with the USB audio player pro does not support Roon.

I have a chord Mojo 2 I’m considering a Chord Poly and I’m also considering getting the Google Pixel 2 phone refurbished.

I’m able to stream Roon through my Samsung A7 lite tablet but it won’t stream DSD.

Will the Google Pixel 2 phone enable me to stream DSD?

Do you think the extra $500 for the Chord poly is worth it?

I would really like as close to lossless audio as possible.

I also want to as stay as portable as possible.

Thank you again!!

3

Android doesn’t have a USB out path. Roon ARC has a BETA USB driver (its doesn’t work for me though); however, local Roon Remote does not have such and you are tied to the Android OS limitations.

You are better getting the phone out of the audio path atm, imho.

Keep in mind that Chord DACs don’t play native DSD it only plays PCM. When you send a DSD file to a CHORD DAC the first thing it does is change it into PCM and then does the digital to audio conversion.

5

Thank you for the reply Big Dan,

How do I get the phone out of the Audio path and keep it portable? Cost is definitely a consideration. Please keep in mind I have a Mojo 2, although I still can return it

Do you think I will be able to stream DSD through a Google pixel 2 phone?

For some reason my Roon Arc app cannot find my Roon Rock.

Not sure how big of a problem that the poly changes DSD to PCM???

6

Poly is Roon Ready and the Mojo/Poly combo can turn your headphones into a portable Roon endpoint. Your phone would not be in the audio path (run the Roon app just as a controller and select the Mojo/Poly for endpoint)

Android does USB audio output when using a USB OTG cable connected to a USB audio device. It isn’t my normal way to listen, but I just confirmed that I can play from my Android phone using either Roon app or Roon ARC through USB to my DAC. It is not bit perfect (Android resamples to 48Khz). The UAPP app should enable bit perfect playing but I’ve never tried it.

7

Which is what I was talking about.

It does.

8

Okay, I’m going to try the phone first. If that doesn’t work I’ll go the poly route.

Thank you very much for your help!

John

9

I have the Poly and Mojo2, for a Roon endpoint that’s mobile on your home network, it’s great, I find it very reliable.
I use Roon only for Qobuz with Tidal CD to fill any library gaps.

Trying to use the Poly outside the house is not user friendly, I don’t use the SD card.

If you’re ok with spending the money to use it for Roon only it’s great.

10

@johnlownik This is just a heads up in case you want to use the Pixel 2 with ARC’s BETA USB driver.

To start, I don’t know if this actually affects the Pixel 2. However, some Pixel devices don’t play well with ARC’s BETA USB driver, at least with some DACs. I have a Pixel 8 Pro and an iFi Go Bar. For me, the dac would cut out every 35 - 50 seconds or so. Roon is aware and there is a workaround.

To summarize ivan’s quote below, the workaround is to enable Developer options and Enable the ‘Disable USB audio routing’. This works well for me, but does occasionally cause audio issues with other apps. It’s a little bit of a pain, but toggling the setting back fixes the other apps.