Suggestion for a roon setup with NAS and Anthem

I have a question for a Roon setup:

I have a Core-i3-QNAP NAS with a Roon Core installation in my basement.
It is wired to my network.
It will recognize two physically local audio devices from “Intel”

I have many Sonos speakers.

I have an Anthem MRX740 AVR in my living room, also wired network. It’s not roon-ready (yet).
I have a nVidia Shield in my living room, also wired network.
That Shield is connected to my Anthem AVR using HDMI.
That Shield acts as a Google Chromecast target.

I have a lot of music on my NAS (as above)

What is the best ways to enjoy my music on my Anthem?

Hi there, me again.

Bought a Raspi and built a RoPieee with HiFi Berry Digi2 Pro and a coaxial cable from the HiFi Berry to the Anthem. Works perfectly.

The Anthem should be Roon-Ready soon, then I maybe won’t need that workaround ($100) anymore.

So I installed the Roon core on my i3-QNAP NAS and use my Windows computer to setup everything. I was able to add my RoPieee and my Sonos speakers to Roon and I am happy.

So I don’t use any HDMI connection. The Sonos might not be the best candidat but it works.

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Install Roon on Qnap then connect qnap 2 anthem via hdmi
Add you library on nas 2 Roon server by app on iOS or other device…configure on app the hdmi output connected 2 anthem

That’s all!!!

As the Anthem is in a different room (living) as the NAS (basement) I would have needed a 50m HDMI cable so I opted for the RoPieee.

I did same but used the the optical output of my hifiberry digipro2. Also I used the hifiberry instead of ropieee. No idea if any of those things are better or make a difference :slight_smile:

I have the older Anthem 720MRX but have been thinking about upgrading to the newer one for the improved setup and hopefully better integration with the rest of my setup.

I had to reply to this since I am also a Bill Wolff :wink:

I have Anthem 540 in HT. It has 3 inputs that I use a lot: optical cable from LG OLED TV for theater/shows/sports (could use eArc), analog cable from Chord Mojo DAC for fine music, and streaming using chromecast protocol (airplay is also supported). The latter sounds pretty good but limits to 24/48 or something like that. Sort of sad given that DAC in 540 is 32x768.

Anthem promises Roon Ready for full DAC bandwidth but that may be a year or two away.

The new Anthem software is excellent and web based so control from a PC or phone is fast and easy.

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I would find a Room endpoint that’s within your budget and technical abilities and enjoy it. There’s quite a few options both new and used.

Anthem, while able to make good gear has been historically slow to fix issues. Adding new features, even promised features, have also been slow to arrive.

Enjoy what you have now and switch to the new features as they arrive.