Running Roon Core on iMac

Hello

Sorry if my questions come across as silly.

I have an iMac at my home but this is being shared by me and my wife. We both have MacBook pro but planning to run Roon on iMac only. Now my question is if I install the Room software using my user account what happens when she logs in. Is there a way to make the software running irrespective of whose logged in. My next question is computer is set to sleep after a certain period of inactivity. Do we have to disable this and only screen go to sleep?

BTW, I will be using Bluesound players as endpoint.

Cheers

Not silly at all. We have a Mac in the living room and a Mac in my study room upstairs. On the Mac downstairs, I use my account when I’m downstairs and the guest account when I’m not there (young kids with eager fingers, I don’t want them to accidentally mess with my stuff😉).

I run Roon on my account. And I was surprised the first time, when I just had Roon, to find out that Roon kept on playing smoothly upstairs (running as a remote), even when my wife changed the Mac downstairs from my (locked) account to the guest account. No hickups, nothing. Roon just keeps surprising me!:blush:

Not sure I understand your second question, could you be a bit more specific?

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Thank you so much for helping me with my first question.

Let me try to rephrase my question. We generally don’t use the iMac that often. During these extended period of inactivity the computer goes to sleep and have to wake up when we access again. Do I have to disable putting the Hard Disk to going to sleep?

Thanks again.

cheers

Ah, now I think I understand you. That depends on a few things. Are your music files stored on your iMac hard disk? In that case, I think you do, if you want Roon to keep on playing. Not 100% sure, as I have all my music files stored on an external hard disk.

Also, in your case, I think it’s best to install Roon Server on your iMac instead of the normal/full Roon version (that is, of course, if you haven’t already done this). You can then run Roon Server headless from your iMac and use your MacBooks as remotes. Again, I have to admit I haven’t tried this myself yet, as my setup is not yet complete. I run the full Roon version on my Mac mini, but find Roon too slow now, so will eventually try this, probably with an iPad or iPhone. Hope this helps!

Thanks for your reply again.

I plan to run Roon full version on the iMAC. This iMAC is the latest beast and has much more specs then what i need. My music will be on Bluesound Vault and not on Mac. I plan to use Vault and Node as my end points. I will also use iPad and iPhone as remotes.

Cheers and happy holidays.

If you don’t use the iMac often, I would advise you to install Roon Server (no GUI, so lighter and faster), but to each his own :wink: Thanks and happy holidays to you too!

Sure. makes sense. I will use my iPad to control the core.

Reviving this thread:

About to buy a new iMac (June 17) and/or build up a NUC with Rock. Dilemma beeing we need a new computer for the house (wife and I), mostly for browsing, pictures management and work/productivity. But I would like a Roon Core to be made available anywhere and anytime in the house through Raspberry Pi endpoint.

On top of that, the idea would be to set up a Plex server as well. This is secondary requirement, not top priority. Music and movies to be stored on two separate external drives (or existing NAS), pictures and the rest to be stored localy. Roon database included.

I’m trying not to spend a fortune and would rather spend on a DAC rather than build a NUC/Rock for music only when I could easily run Roon Core on the new iMac and stream at least two endpoints simulteanously, including upsampling at least one endpoint (I’m doing so with my late 2013 MBP). Clearly Plex and Roon won’t be used simultaneously very often but the iMac should be able to handle it (stream to ATV / transcoding requirement).

Another question being would I have to leave the iMac on 24/7 or could it go to sleep while running Roon Core/Plex Server in background?

And would the Roon Core wake up anytime by simply using Roon Remote without having to manualy wake up the iMac?

Finally, what could be the advantage to get a dedicated Roon Core on a NUC versus multi task iMac ?

I’ve read many threads but can’t manage to get all the answers as a lot of people are going dedicated Mac mini route or NUC/ROCK.

Thanks