Solutions To Vacation Home Problem?

So I’ve got a vacation place I’ve started to frequent. It’s isolated and the fastest Internet connection is 128K DSL – no cell service as it’s a remote place (I’m lucky to have phone even).

I tried my remote VPN, but the connection is too slow for Roon. It works fine with Jriver (which downsamples) and Tidal set to medium quality, but Roon dies because of the slow connection. The bottleneck isn’t home as I have FIOS Gigabit Internet.

I thought about copying off my entire digital collection to an external drive and taking that with me, but I’d require a 2nd Database license right? – has anyone figured this one out?

The other thought I had was to add it as a “local folder” to my Roon playback device, but I’m not sure if the data flows back to the database server then to the endpoint, which would be the equivalent of doubling the necessary bandwidth. Not to mention it would create a duplicate of everything in my database and screw up all my playlists (it’s really the playlists I love since they’re a combination of my local files and Tidal and don’t work on anything else).

So I figured I’d ask the collective group if anyone’s got a similar problem or solution perhaps.

Thanks in advance everyone.

There’ve been whispers here about a “portable Roon solution” coming.

Right along with MQA. :slight_smile:

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You don’t necessarily need a second license. You can use more than one core, just not at the same time. You’re prompted when you start up Roon to de-authorize the other core. I use Roon at home and work with a single license. I cloned the external drive with my music files onto another drive, copied my database, and I was all set on the second computer. Neither of my setups is complex and I’m not worrying about trying to keep the 2 databases in sync. If a single database is important, that’s a different situation. I just wanted music via Roon at work. Good luck!

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@John_V: John, Roon works with MQA over my Rossini just fine. :slight_smile: I do wish they would show what’s MQA and what’s not in Tidal though as that’s frustrating; so if you’re talking about that then that would be great! Partial unfolding would be nice I suppose too, just not a huge deal for me as my other loudspeakers are not time-aligned (I have Wilson Alexia’s with my Rossini and they are time-aligned and MQA sounds good over them for the most part).

Edit: I missed the “portable” solution. I wonder what that means. Is there a “rumint” thread or any other suggestions as to what that will be??

@kneville: Kevin, I think that would work for most people, however my situation is a bit different. I work remotely (from home or anywhere when I’m not traveling) and go to the vacation place for the peace and quiet lately. I go there and work for a week without the family. They are at home on those occasions and would be left “music-less” if I were to deauthorize my primary database. They all use Roon throughout the house. It’s my whole home audio system as we have about 6 Sonos’ of varying type along with my main listening system with the Rossini. They use their phones and iPad’s as controls for wherever they are in the house.

I realize this is not the end of the world, life has bigger problems haha. But music is a big part of my life and my Roon playlists have become very good. I’ve spent some time on them and I’m quite happy with playlists for the first time in my life thanks to Roon; I have no idea how I went without!!

Just for anyone curious, my vacation system is fairly simple and is a Macbook pro feeding a Devialet Integrated which drives a pair of Dynaudio monitors and a Velodyne DD10 sub. I also have a Windows10 i7 CPU-based laptop with a lot of RAM I could use for this project as well, but haven’t really used it. I may use that as the database as I often use my Macbook Pro as a control in my home, and occasionally for playback using headphones late at night.

Thanks again everyone.

Nope, core-switching won’t work if you’re trying to listen in 2 places at once. That will require 2 licenses, or some as-yet-to-be-explained portable Roon solution. Could your second license just be monthly so you’d only pay for the months you’ll be using it?

Yeah, maybe, I haven’t looked at Roon’s pricing model. I did a lifetime license when I bought in on Roon. Back then it was that or yearly if I recall correctly. I suppose I could look into that. Still, it’s less than ideal to not get at least a 2nd DB license out of what you’re paying. I never really thought that would be a problem back then unfortunately.

Edit: yeah, I just looked and it’s an annual license still not monthly.

Bryan, on MQA I was referring to the partial unfold that Roon implied it was developing. But you’re ahead of me with the MQA Dac. I opted for a yggy instead, so the marvelous mystery of MQA has yet to be revealed to me.

Here’s an old thread that might be relevant: Mobile Music Sync and Streaming [On Roadmap]

I’m curious about your solution should you come upon it. I have a similar situation.

Could you convince the family to a good book instead of listening to music? :slight_smile:

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The only Roon license options are annual and lifetime…

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I like the the book idea. But there’s no reasoning with kids these days is there hahaa?

Duh, I knew that. :nerd_face:

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If I have no other choice does anyone know if there’s any kind of known discount for 2nd database licenses?

Not to start a flame war, but @John_V: You’re not missing out on a whole lot without MQA. It’s just a bit better, and even then only occasionally – but that’s just one person’s opinion. There are some who say it’s a “life changer”, but the audiophile magazines have eased off on the full-court-press that it’s the best thing audio has ever seen. When you do get it, you’ll be like, “huh. Yeah, sounds a bit better. Was it worth all this trouble?” haha. (or at least I was - YMMV).

And apologies to those who are in the “life changing” category, I just didn’t hear it. Maybe just my old, damaged ears talking.

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I appreciate your comment. That was the prevailing sense in another thread I participated in recently. Most said they wouldn’t base a new DAC purchase on it.

I’m an old newbie,and am working to ramp up the knowledge curve. So I gather opinions, and boy, did I come to the right place! :slight_smile:

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Hi Bryan

You can restore a backup to the portable setup.

I do this quite often for going on vacation and have one license. That way you can keep all your playlists and mods intact when you go to your vacation home. I have an exact duplicate set up of 2x 4tb HDDs which are portable and which I use as backup and for vacation use. I can even make mods to the database when away, back up the vacation copy and restore to my main PC version, thus maintaining workflow.

Hope this helps!

Hi @Sallah_48, I’ll try and duplicate it on my Windows laptop since it doesn’t have Roon on it in DB mode. I have an external drive that’s copying everything off right now and will give it a shot once everything is copied and get back. Thanks for the tip.

No worried Bryan. If you want workflow tips let me know. Ive replied also to your PM

So to update this topic with what I have done and the issues that linger:

I created a copy of my database and my music collection and deactivated my main system. I discovered there are some issues with doing this if you have Tidal integrated into any of your playlists there’s no way to adjust the streaming quality like you can in the Tidal app.

In my case I have a DSL 128K connection at the vacation place and it’s insufficient to keep up with a 16/44 bitstream. When packets get dropped, Roon will freak out and start skipping down the playlist and jump over 20-30 songs at once and start playing something way down your queue, or go to radio or just stop playing. This is the same issue I had with establishing a VPN connection into my main system from my vacation place.

So you can’t have both it appears. Roon integrated with Tidal over a slow connection does not work.

A slow connection is OK when all Roon needs to do is validate itself and do its housekeeping but no good for Tidal. You may have to limit yourself to whatever is in your personal collection or find a solution that doesn’t use Roon.

I just added this in another thread about a similar topic. What I added there in short is, is travelling to your 2nd home with a 5x5x5 sq.in. box along with everything else acceptable? Then you could consider what I do (I split my time in 1 - 4 week periods between two homes).

I setup my Roon Core on a 4.5 x 4.5 x 2.1 sq.in. Intel NUC 7 i5. After setting it up with monitor keyboard and mouse attached, it runs headless. It just needs a power supply. Technically doesn’t even need a lan cable if close to the wireless hub, but use of one is best. So, it travels with me just like a laptop. Time to set it up or box it up is literally measured in seconds.

Do the same myself when I’m moving between countries - Rock on a NUC (well protected in hand luggage) Just make sure the audio and Roon DB is backed up before moving anything. No issues so far, and as you say, up and running in seconds.