Hi everyone,
I’m having trouble getting Roonbridge.I am unable to stream music via Roon to my MarkLevinson No.5101 UPnP renderer, which is not Roon ready.
The MarkLevinson 5101 works well with Audirvana and BubbleUPnP.
My setup:
Roon Core is installed on a recent and updated Mac Mini, which is connected to my one and only LAN via Ethernet.
RoonBridge is installed on a Windows 10 or 11 PC, also connected via Ethernet to the same LAN.
RoonBridge appears on my Mac mini where Roon Core is running.
Detaiils:
When I go to Settings>About, I can see RoonBridge listed, so it’s being detected by Roon Core. However, when I check Settings>Audio, it does not appear as an avilable audio device.
RoonBridge is also appears on my two Roon remote Android devices, both connected via WiFi to the same LAN. It does not appear however on my iPad which is also connected via WIFI to the same LAN.
Possible issues:
Network configuration problem?
Permissions issue on my Mac?
Firewall or Security software blocking RoonBridge?
This occasionally happens to my RPI’s, although it is frustrating, it is normally solved by changing the USB output and turning off and on (a couple of times).
Thank you! My case is that it actually never worked. The Mark Levinson 5101 UPnP renderer is a standalone streamer that has a USB input that supports flash memory sticks but not Audio USB input. So I am trying to have Roon control it without USB connections.
What you need is something like this.
This will act as a Roon endpoint and sends the signal further as a UPnP stream over the network. You will also have to enable Squeezebox control in Roon.
I don’t know however if such a piece of software is also available for a Windows machine.
(Roon Bridge does something else: it acts as a Roon endpoint and streams the signal further over USB.)
This is how mine looks like. What is supposed to happen next? How do I get my Mark Levinson No. 5101 UPnP renderer to stream via Roon? If at all possible?
I agree. It seems I misinterpreted what Roonbridge really does.
I don’t understand however if your suggestion for using a “squeezebox” would work as a streamer or core by itself, or if it would have my Mark Levinson 5101 UPnP rendrer work with Roon.
The point is that the 5101 is a high-end device that sounds great when it streams and produces analog output via its own DAC.
It works well with Audivana, BubbleUPnp and some other apps but it is not Roon ready.
My target is to have it run with Roon. At this point, I am starting to wonder if it is even possible…
@rawiabouleila, it appears you are asking about two issues here, 1) how to stream Roon to your ML 5101, and 2) Roon Bridge visibility.
On the first front, the 5101 is not Roon Ready or Roon Tested, nor does it support UPnP, and as you noted, the USB input only is for playback from an attached USB drive. You need a Roon Ready or Roon Tested streaming device from which you would connects its TOSLINK or digital coaxial output to the appropriate TOSLINK or digital coaxial input on the 5101.
Audirvana and BubbleUPnP work with the 5101 because they support UPnP.
I believe we are still trying to determine the second issue regarding your Roon Bridge question.
I have been in a similar situation as you. I have a Hegel amplifier/streamer/DAC that wasn’t Roon Ready at first. But it did accept UPnP streams.
The server that I have is a Sonicorbiter device, on which Roon is running. But this also has a small piece of software called Sonore UPnP bridge. This piece of software can show itself to Roon as a valid endpoint under the Squeezebox protocol (this has to be activated in Roon’s settings). It sends the signals received by Roon to a streamer that accepts the UPnP stream, which in my case was the Hegel amp.
So I didn’t have any extra hardware, but only some software that converted the Roon signal to another protocol.
Now, because you have this piece of software running, I think you can use a Raspberry Pi with UPnP bridge installed. I don’t have any knowledge about Pi’s etc., but I am pretty sure it will make you Mark Levinson usable with Roon. The developer of the software is active in the thread I linked to, maybe he can help with the practicalities.
The software that @Sean_O is referring to could also help you. It’s basically the same thing, but is installed and used in another way.
And regarding this:
I believe to have read somewhere that Roon Bridge will only be visible when connected to a DAC that accepts the audio signal, which isn’t the case here.
“About” is just a common information section. All your supported devices should be in “Audio”.
We can’t be sure if No.5101 will be ever certified as Roon Ready
And as @Rugby said Roon doesn’s support UPnP.
So the only way is to connect your Roon Bridge to your No.5101 via coaxial or optical cable.
Or to buy an extra bridge device for this:
Raspberry Pi with Digi HAT (optical and coaxial outputs) running RoPieee or some other Roon supported OS. Personally I liked HiFiBerry Digi+ Pro HAT running HiFiBerryOS. But it’s a DIY way.
Also there are many affordable devices that will not require extra skills. My recent discovery is FiiO SR11 Cheap, simple, reliable and great looking.
(You can turn off all its LEDs and hide it among your equipment. So it will be almost invisible in black color)
With my Roon Extension rooUPnP you can stream to UPnP/DLNA devices. As rooUPnP sends FLAC streams your UPnP device has to be able to handle lossless FLAC streams. On my Download Page you find a list of devices tested and commented by rooUPnP users.
More about rooUPnP and all my other Roon Extensions can be found on my homepage http://diy.rooExtend.com.
For those that like to get a Plug & Play solution I offer the rooExtend-Box you can find here: https://rooExtend.com
I finally got RooUPnP running on a Raspberry PI and it worked with my Mark Levinson 5101 but sound quality proved to be a downgrade. I tweeked all the available setting and sound improved, but not to the level of what the 5101 when controlled via a UPnP app.
The quality loss is probably due to jitter, and anyway it was not acceptable to me. Who would accept a sound quality loss to his system? We are all looking for upgrades, not the opposite. So since my system is high-end and I want to use Roon, I will be replacing my 5101 with a roon ready streamer only to dive into the dilemma of trying to find a streamer that sound at least as good as it…
Cheap, simple, reliable and great looking.