Samsung Q990B Soundbar

Audio Gear Talk
1

Hello,

I’m quite new here so excuse my basic knowledge.

I am looking to buy the Samsung Q990B which is the flagship soundbar and I wanted to connect to Roon for my living room music purpose.

Unfortunately, my budget does not allow me to have a seperate solution for movies and sound so I’m trying to combine the two.

My question is, if I hardwire it to the router do I still need a streamer? Do I need an amp? Or a DAC?

How different would it be if just streamed to its AirPlay 2 or built in chrome cast as to a streamer. For a streamer I would be considering a raspberry pi of some sort (on a budget)

I would appreciate and recommendations for a setup.

Thank you

3

I really don’t find that link helpful. It’s a very basic guide and doesn’t address my questions

4

If it supports AirPlay, then it should work with Roon and you won’t need a separate streamer, amp or DAC.

5

Roon doesn’t support airplay2 so would have to be Chromecast

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6

I know AirPlay works with Roon, but I hear everyone talking about connecting streams and dads to their airplay-ready device. Just trying to understand the difference

7

Airplay itself is fine but it’s a limited mechanism but for millions of people it’s perfectly fine. If you care about being able to play hires music files then Airplay cannot. If you care massively about sound quality reproduction, Airplay cannot be guaranteed to be lossless as the device might resample it or reclock it at source and end devices. Chromecast can do hires on some devices but Roons picky about whether it allows them to or not and may resample if needed. These are the reasons people often choose to use a separate streamer and DAC.

You may or may not get better sound quality using an external DAC and streamer, only you can decide on this by listening. Personally go for the easiest option of Chromecast or Airplay, listen if you feel it’s lacking then try the other option but don’t dive headfirst before trying the free options available and don’t listen to the audiophools.

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8

Thank you, most helpful.

9

The limitation to your sound quality is likely to be the sound bar, So I don’t think a DAC or streamer will make a difference TBH.
As long as you are happy with the soundbar and it works for you, it doesn’t really matter what anyone else thinks.

One caution I would make is that Roon is a money pit (or maybe it is the slowly sinking into the audiophile world that is the money pit). When I first got into Roon I had Sonos all over my house and a HT Amp also connected to a Sonos streamer, and I consider myself quite content with this solution.

Well many thousands of £ later and I am still adding and changing things in my set-up. Always good to give the warning early as you will see it on the forum post’s anyway if you hang around long enough.

But good luck and hopefully you enjoy dipping your toe in the water

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10

Cheers mate, good advice. I agree, you got to draw the line somewhere.

I think I would be happy with above average, no need for perfection

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