Really interested in how everybody is (going to be) using Roon.
What is your setup? Intel Nuc based or Mac Mini (and what config) or something more exotic?
Are you planning seperate endpoints? Multi room?
What control are you envisioning? Tablets, touchscreens, etc.
Are you going for convenience, maximum DIY or audiophile quality?
And of course, how is it panning out for you (when the time comes).
I’ve seen some snippets through the other topics but thought it would be great to collect in one place.
Ok, with these topics it is always a little weird to show of your own setup first. I really am interested in what everyone else is aiming for, not to create a topic to just brag about my own setup, so please add yours!
As someone needs to get the ball rolling and an example is usually a good way, here goes…
I’m in the lucky circumstance that I have two sets; one HT one in my living and a stereo one on upstairs.
At the moment I stream using Sooloos, Jriver, LogitechMediaServer sourcing from Tidal, Spotify and a local connection on my NAS\Sooloos.
Roon for me gives me the opportunity to condense this into one system.
I’m expecting my HT set (powered by a Meridian 861v6 with ID40) to hook up using the ID40 end point.
My stereo set (which is fully DIY style) will hook up directly to my Roon core; a DDDAC and Linkwitz Pluto’s. My storage for local content will stay on my NAS.
The Roon core will run on an i5 NUC, with 16GB ram and a 250 GB SSD in a silent Akasa case.
OS wise I’ll be reusing windows 2012 with audiphile optimizer on which I currently run jriver.
Hardware wise, I think I am all set. I expect that Roon will both simplify my setup, and increase the coolness factor .
As some of you are visually oriented, a pic of my stereo setup and Roon core to be on top…
Of course it is possible that Meridian will announce a Sooloos v3 based on Roon, but looking at the signals here and over at HH, I would not expect this to happen in the very near future. Roon has indicated they will start with an OS based install and then look at working with vendors (or themselves) to have a ’ packaged’ solution.
Waiting till mid May will probably not be sufficient.
Happy to be corrected by the Roon team if I misread of course.
Roon core on i5 Mac mini, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD (dedicated & headless). Store: QNAP TS-469L. Endpoints: Meridian MS600 into DSP5200 and AirPort Express into F80. Control: MacBook Pro 15 retina & iPad Air.
Roon on an i7 NUC 16gb memory SSD of required size run as a dedicated server, or equivalent Mac mini, two touchscreen pc’s and one iPad Air as controllers, endpoints are 861v8 with ID41, two MS600’s, speakers, one pair of DSP8000sl, one pair of DSP7200, one DSP7200hc, two pairs of DSP3200’s, other stuff Qnap NAS, G02, G56, Clearaudio performance TT, Stax SR009 and Kimik energiser, AC200, MD600, Explorer v1 and Control 10.
Roon server on an i7 24GB Windows 8.1 desktop PC (which I also use as my home PC). This will act as an end point in my home office and is connected to a pair of in wall Meridian A330i s via USB, Meridian explorer and Meridian G41 amp.
My main system will be Meridian: G68J processor, 3 * 5200s across the front, 2 3200s rear and an MS200. Initially the MS200 will be played via optical but I have a Reviver which will convert SpeakerLink to Coax. I will continue to run a Squeezebox in this setup for a couple of months. I will also run 3 additional Squeezeboxes throughout the house
In the medium term, I will identify a dedicated PC for the Roon server and then run Roon endpoints via Squeezebox hardware Ideally though, I would like to get the whole family off Spotify and onto Tidal with the view of changing to Roon endpoints. (I would love there to be an affordable touch-screen endpoint similar to the Squeezebox Touch which is very intuitive to use and is never out of power or in the wrong part of the house.)
You read this correctly. There will be no Sooloos V3 based on Roon in the next few months. We haven’t been engaged by Meridian in this manner (yet!). Even if the deal was done today, it’ll take some time to get product shippable.
Initially, Roon on a Mac Mini, 2.5Ghz Intel Core i5 with 4Gb RAM initially, feeding a Meridian HD621 direct into Meridian DSP5200SEs. Will later look to take the HD621 out of the signal path.
So I took the next step in set up yesterday by purchasing a 2nd hand mac mini i5 2.5. When it arrives I will strip it down and add 8Gb RAM and 256Gb SSD and a fit-Headless HDMI adapter. Media storage is currently an UnRaid server holding an export from my recently sold MC200, but this will probably morph into a directly connected 3TB disk.
Initial control will be a MacBook Pro with an iPad Air 2 wating in the wings for the app to be delivered.
Source will start as my Volumio RPi/SPDIF but when I’m convinced this is the route to take that’ll change to MS200.
Interesting times. All the little teaser comments on the board from the Beta testers are really making me start to itch .
Indeed yes. I was thinking of the 2014 range (which has half of the idle power consumption of the 2012) but it is relatively expensive for an equivalent spec. It’s replacing my aged (2007) 1.83GHz Core 2 Duo which has done noble service but is ready to go to pasture.
I did look at, and almost went with, an Intel NUC but I just can’t bring myself to let Windoze into my house…
Main reason I was asking is that the 2014 Design onwards has the RAM soldered to the Motherboard…so your planned 8Gb RAM upgrade would have hit a brick wall
Shame they took that direction…can somewhat understand it in laptops with constrained access…but there’s room to play with in the Mac Mini
Everything about the 2012 design makes it much easier for upgrades…even the SSD upgrade is much easier than in the 2014 design…shame
Agreed. I suspect the lack of simple upgrade is what is keeping the resale value of 2012 devices quite buoyant. That and the fact that the performance improvement for 2014 is minimal (and for the i7 devices they’ve gone backwards quite considerably for what is supposed to be the Hot Rod mini).
Since it’s going to be doing Roon and some Handbrake trans-coding (not at the same time I hasten to add!) I think this should do the trick pretty well.
I managed to have a bit of a play this weekend and am a bit closer to the “final” set up. The Mac is in place with SSD and upgraded memory. It’s still playing via System Output to an RPi/coax and into the rest of my Meridian kit.And it’s sounding great!
Next stop, hopefully the next release will enable me to talk direct to the RPi for the purple dot of goodness.
And then I think I will catch a breath whilst we wait for all things Sooloos/MQA/DSD to become a little clearer before committing to a final network endpoint…I’m sure an MS200 will not suddenly become a bit old-fashioned but I’m a wait wary of investing in hardware at this point (same goes for TVs but that’s a different forum).
I’ve been given the impression that pretty much any PC will capable of hosting Roon as a server. As such, I’ll be using my fairly ancient i5 with 8GB ram, SSD drive for the OS/Applications and a couplce of 2TB drives hosting my music and the primary back up.
Will be ethernet linked to my 861.4/LPS/ID40 front end, then onto a variety of analogue amps and speakers.
I’ll be controlling Roon using the upcoming iOS App once it’s released.
In the meantime, I’ll be using my laptop to stream and connect up using my HD621 as I’ve just sold my MC200.
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Ideally though, I would like to get the whole family off Spotify and onto Tidal with the view of changing to Roon endpoints. (I would love there to be an affordable touch-screen endpoint similar to the Squeezebox Touch which is very intuitive to use and is never out of power or in the wrong part of the house.)