Denon and Marantz Owners Will Enjoy the Benefits of Roon’s Graphically Rich Subscription-Based Music Management Capabilities When Connected to Certified Devices
Vista, Calif. (March 23rd, 2020) — Sound United LLC, parent company to Denon, Polk Audio, Marantz, Definitive Technology, Classé, and Boston Acoustics, today announced several Denon and Marantz products received Roon Tested accreditation. This certification enables music lovers to seamlessly stream music from Roon server or Roon Core devices to 68 Denon and Marantz products for a visually rich, and easy-to-use listening experience.
Agreed. As far as I know, the more recent Denon & Marantz AVRs have always been Roon Airplay compatible. When I saw this announcement over at AVS, I assumed it meant that Roon RAAT was suddenly going to be supported, but was wondering, “How are they going to do that – via a software upgrade?”. Now that I find it’s only via Airplay (which was already in place) – I feel really let down. Maybe the Denon & Marantz products only recently received the official “Roon Tested” (Airplay only) label, so now they can advertise it? . . .
Yes I was disappointed at the way it was advertised as well. My Marantz SR 6014 has been listed as a Roon Airplay compatible device for some time. But even now after the above announcement, my Marantz SR 6014 is not listed as a Roon Tested device. The announcement is confusing and misleading.
I just tested Roon to an Ethernet connected Marantz AV8805 and it works. Both Roon and the AV8805 say AirPlay. It has been a year or more since I previously tried Roon via AirPlay, and my memory is that it did not work via Ethernet so that may have improved at some point. I did a quick test of multi-channel audio and that did not work. I could not find any documentation as to what should work.
Unless there is support for high resolution audio and multi-channel audio, Kal’s “That sucks” comment is very applicable. As an owner of multiple Marantz and Denon devices that are covered by the Sound United Roon announcement I am very disappointed.
Can I ask a stupid question. Would it not have worked every bit as well before it became roon tested. If that’s seems a very stupid question I apologise I’m just trying to understand what roon tested brings to the table.
I was using the Ruby as a dac for the Mac prior. I don’t know what changed but it is night and day better with Qobuz on Roon, DSD files and Flac. The existing library I have that is apple lossless files do not sound as good as the Qobuz files in flac. I don’t know why.
If I have to guess the Apple Mac was the player and the Ruby the dac. Now it seems the Ruby is both the player and dac pulling the files thru the usb cable. I hope that makes sense. Take care.
It is not a silly question but the answer is indeterminate. It is possible that the test approval was of the previously installed firmware in the target device and the then current version of Roon. It is also possible that, in the course of the testing, one or the other or both were tweaked.
I’d be interested to hear from Roon and Sound United on what the difference is but it definitely sounds and performs better. A example is when I use Roon on the Ruby it displays the source on the screen ie DSD 2.8 DSD 5.6 before it would convert DSD to PCM. Tho I know the Ruby is up converting all signals to DSD 11.2. Maybe it was something in the settings I didn’t have correct but I’m still playing with it. Before the Ruby would display USB DAC only. I appreciate any feedback. Thanks everyone!
This is a step in the right direction but they need to start making new models Roon Ready.
Over the last 25 years there has always been a Marantz or Denon source and/or amp in my system but since discovering Roon last year, I’ve switched brands for the first time ever.