I have been playing with Ropieee for a couple of weeks now and have decided that, coupled with a Topping D50S i have something that sounds very nearly as good as my Naim ND5 XS2. So good in fact that I’m going sell the Naim.
The display has sealed the deal for me. Such a simple addition that makes such a difference to the overall experience. Overall a very cost effective and elegant solution 
Tomorrow I’m going to make a wooden surround for it.
Hello @dannybgoode I was thinking about getting the ND5 XS2 and sell both my Naim Dac V1 + Bluesound but I’m curious about RPi4 and how it sounds out of the box without any HAT attached.
From your review here it seems the sound quality is excellent…does it do DSD too?
Thnx
The Pi running Ropieee is just a Roon bridge to allow any USB DAC to be connected so yes it does full DSD etc.
The DAC is a Topping D50S and it’s quite brilliant. Certainly enough for me to release some cash from the Naim. That said I’m concentrating on vinyl at the moment also so have been ploughing some money into my vinyl front end (always had a substantial record collection - not just following the trend here 
).
The Naim does have advantages - it’s supremely well built and just works. Sounds glorious too and if you want the support behind you of a top hifi band they don’t get much better. And particularly if you don’t want to faff about with installing software on a Pi, finding a good but cheap DAC etc there’s a lot to be said for a ‘proper’ brand.
I know Naim quite well I have Dac V1 and Nait XS2.
It doesn’t bother me to install a software on a sd card…and it’s not about the money since these Pi are extremely cheap…just curious of the sound quality…
Btw the ND5 XS2 looks beautiful and I heard sounds really good…just plug+play
Ropieee with display is perfect addition to my Moon 390! I love it.
The sound quality is entirely unaffected by the bridge (imo). It’s the DAC attached to it that matters more.
I agree with you that Ropieee, a Raspberry Pi with the standard 7" display is hard to beat.
I’m using mine with the USB output going to a iFi iPurifier, then to a PS Audio Sprout which is running a pair of the ubiquitous KEF LS50’s. In near-field listening like I’m doing on my computer desk, it sounds fantastic.
(The 2nd display is another Raspberry Pi displaying my PC’s stats)
Nice little setup. Mine hooks into the DAC via an ifi iUSB3.0. Works very well
I have gone without a display but may make another unit for my other system with a display. No HAT, just going straight into the USB input of the active speakers
Nice and simple. I like :).
The display is great and can be powered down - there’s a touch button top right that just switches it off. Otherwise on standby it displays a clock. For the price it’s a great addition.
Note you have to reinstall Ropieee for it to be recognised if you add it to a Pi that’s already set up.
The Pi is great
With Ropieee or DietPi
You can have it as an EndPoint with Ropieee
Or you can have it as an Endpoint and a Web Roon Controller with DiepPi and the extention Manager of @Mike_Plugge
Would live to see a picture of the wooden frame 
I’ll be sure to post a pic
Cost aside, is there any advantage to running a Pi + 7" screen + power supply vs just using a tablet or iPad to display and control ROON? Thanks 
Couple reasons I like the 7" Display on the RoPieee:
Generally speaking, I find it to be a much more simple and pleasurable experience than the Roon app on a phone or tablet. The app is fine when you are looking for something to play. But once it’s playing, the app experience just gets in the way.
And the screen is pretty inexpensive. The screen itself is about $70USD and then the case I got that holds both the screen and the RPi was about $25USD.
@cwichura pretty much sums it up. It’s just a nice big, always on display that gives useful track information, album art and basic playback controls.
It adds functionality that some streaming devices have built in but is a much larger size display and brings the total cost in at around £/$100 making it by far the cheapest option out there for such a device (albeit it is somewhat more limited than full on streamers without adding HATs and the like).
Overall it’s just a nice little thing. Is it essential? No. Does it make the overall system a little bit nicer? Certainly does.
Very similar to basic wall control pads which are great. It would be nice to control volume as well.
Are you referring to the Flirc remote and do you have a link to the case you mentioned for the screen & Pi? I’ve got a spare Pi4b on it’s way to me so will give it a go. The thing you mentioned with the ROON app sleeping and having to reconnect is annoying and is in itself a good reason to try out the Pi option. Thanks very much!
I use a Pi3 with screen mounted in the front of a case in my rack (there are other stuff in it so not just a Pi3).
I also use the Bluetooth remote control and that is perhaps the best thing, easy to play/pause and skip forward without using the app.
Yes, I went with the Flirc remote. The case I ordered is the “SmartPi Touch 2”. I got both from Amazon.
