Hi - just taken the 14 day trial, hoping to be able to play to my Marantz PM7000n (which I’ve just bought and am quite happy with).
As I understand it, I either need to purchase/install a dedicated Roon bridge to plug into the USB port or the coax port, or use Airplay. I don’t mind giving Airplay a try, but the documentation seems to suggest the device should just appear in the network section of the Roon app in Settings-Audio. However there is no such section in the app on my computer.
I’m running W10, with PC & Marantz both plugged into Ethernet.
Firewall rules allow the roon application in/out to all ports.
Airplay sounds like a sub-optimal solution anyway, but it would at least allow me to see if I like the Roon application enough to decide whether to buy it and install a bridge.
I did manage to get the Airplay to appear briefly in Roon then it disappeared again, even with firewall off and both PC and Amp set to Wifi only (normally they are wired.) It sounded fine, then I restarted the app and it could no longer find it.
The Marantz is a long way from the PC, so I don’t think USB anything is an option.
I’m looking then for a device that can be recognised by Roon across the network with an Ethernet port on it with an output into Optical or RCA Aux that I can feed into the Marantz. I’m not sure whether the Marantz would use its own DAC or not at that point.
I guess across all of that it needs to maintain a HiRes signal, otherwise I might as well just use Spotify or the Heos app to play music off the PC.
I’m quite happy with the Marantz, and HiRes files streamed from the PC sound very nice. The Roon app does look very nice for mixing music from PC, Tidal and Qobuz, so I would like to try to get it working. It does play very nicely into my desk headphone amp.
Someone will be along shortly with an RPi recipe for a diy network streaming device. Or, you could look for a Chromecast Audio on ebay or somewhere. They are discontinued but inexpensive and do exactly what you want, except it is wifi, not wired. You will need a 3.5mm toslink adapter for the chromecast audio dual mode port.
A suggestion - compare the same Tidal track via Roon / Airplay and via HEOS directly from Tidal. If, like me, you find the Airplay route doesn’t sound as good then it’s worth getting an endpoint if you want to use Roon.
A Raspberry Pi with SPDIF out (on RCA) should be cost effective & fine for sound - Allo’s DigiOne comes to mind but there are others. If you go this route pay a bit of attention to the RPi power supply, it reaps dividends.
I’m assuming your PC, PM7000N and Endpoint would all be connected to your network via Ethernet by the way.
Personally I would go to the trouble and expense to do this - the PM7000N is worth it.
Ciao Phil, congrats for the review on Darko. I am a lucky owner of the PM7000N my first step into good listening after many years of Sonos (which served and still serve their purpose).
I found that airplay beside the obvious down-sampling of hi res is not effective also with my digital 16/44 music on my NAS; to me seems worse than streaming via HEOS.
I am going back and forth considering the Hifiberry Digi+ Pro (100€) an the Allo Signature with linear PSU (500€). Do you think the difference between the two could be significant on the Marantz?
Thank you and to anyone who has experience to share!
Cheers
Thanks And Sonos is good IMO, I’d be happy to have it in my house (the IKEA (Sonos) Symfonisk speaker is a steal at £100)
I presume you mean the Allo DigiOne Signature. I haven’t heard that or the HiFiBerry. Gut feel says the difference will be fairly clear through the PM7000N, whether that’s worth it depends on your priorities and what speakers you’re using.
One thought is on the power supply. Could you use a better one on the HiFiBerry? And if yes then a good switching supply might be cost effective. Like the iFi one or Allo’s new one. Both around £50, I’ve got the iFi and it’s a definite step up from the standard RPi supply (it’s very good IMO). You could also reduce the cost of the DigiOne Sig by using one of those with it rather than a linear supply.
Hey Phil, I was super happy with my Sonos the day I went into a HiFi store to buy an AV Receiver and sales guy made to A/B test the PM7000N with the AVR (damn sales people!!!). I do agree on the Synfonisk: what you get for 100£ is amazing and for casual listening are super cool.
Thank you for the feedback, I was also considering the Hifiberry + IFI PSU as compromise, it’s still less than a third the price of the Digione Signature and it fixes my MQA/hi res “mental” issue.
If anything interesting comes up I will share my thoughts, meanwhile thanks again.
Cheers!
I recently purchased my new stereo setup to my TV with PM7000N as well. I have no experience with Raspberry Pi, it all sounds quite complicated to me and I’m worried about ease of use in reality. I don’t want to tinker with it to get it working every time or something. HEOS system sucks and I would like to use Roon for everything, not just on my PC setup. So I would like to ask if there is any other ‘easier’ low-cost option to make PM7000N Roon ready like, to have maximum possible streaming quality from Roon Core / my desktop PC. As mentioned by others here, Airplay is not good enough.
In ideal situation, I would get Bluesound Node 2i, which should be Roon ready and connect with digital or analog to PM7000N, depending on what would sound better. But that is like 535 EUR for me and I’m wondering there must be some cheaper solution and hopefully not that complicated as those Rpi systems?
Or, perhaps I’m wrong that going with some Rpi system is complicated. I’m willing to learn about it, but I’m not really sure where to start?
The Pi options all seem to start a bit cheaper, but once all put together nicely for you don’t cost much less than the Node 2i. And sometimes seem to remain complicated.
I came to the conclusion that the Node 2i would end up being worth the extra few euro as it comes with warranty etc.
I find that I have gotten used to Heos - and it actually works fine. Certainly it’s okay with Tidal and music servers. There are rumours that Qobuz support is coming quite soon - which would be very nice.
If I’d known about Roon before I got the Marantz I might have considered getting something else, but overall I am really happy with it and have decided to live with Tidal and Heos for now.
@Rugby The PecanPi is $500 USD, so not much of a difference, although I guess this will sound better than Node 2i
@Craig_Arnold Yeah, that’s what I’m finding out as well. RPi solutions start from like 200 EUR and could go to around 500 EUR. I’m sure that then you get a better sounding device than Node 2i. But with Node 2i you get almost Apple-like product, easy, plug and play, you get BluOS platform which I think is better than HEOS, MQA support. PM7000N was just too good to me to pass on, even without full Roon support. It plays even a bit better than PM8006 to my ears, which is just an integrated amp with no streamer and in my country almost for the same price as PM7000N. I don’t think you can get anything better for that price.
And Sonos is good IMO, I’d be happy to have it in my house (the IKEA (Sonos) Symfonisk speaker is a steal at £100)
). I do agree on the Synfonisk: what you get for 100£ is amazing and for casual listening are super cool.