Ten years of sonicTransporter, and Sonicorbiter OS v3

Audio Gear Talk Small Green Computer
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Ten years ago we released the first sonicTransporter, the first music server to support Roon Core. Today we’re releasing Sonicorbiter OS v3, for every sonicTransporter.

It’s still the best OS for running Roon, and v3 adds the latest features:

  • Still the best Dedicated low-latency environment for Roon Core
  • HDMI playback, plus Roon Web with lyrics displayed on your TV
  • Tailscale for easy, secure Roon ARC access away from home
  • HQPlayer for DSD512 upsampling
  • Web Drive Manager to manage all your USB and internal drives, including backups and file imports

Beyond Roon, v3 supports Audirvāna Studio, Lyrion Music Server, DLNA, and much more.

I made a short video walking through how it all works:

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Excellent summary, and a key concept may be “every sonicTransporter.” I use an older i5, but I can update to Roon v3 soon, not only SonicOrbiter v3. Consider this from Darko:

"Original Nucleus owners miss out

“Alas, original Nucleus and Nucleus+ owners will miss out on RoonOS 3.0. Roon’s announcement doesn’t mention them, but its support site confirms both Rev A and Rev B units will remain on RoonOS 1.0.”

Darko’s post looks like a knock on Roon’s hardware business. It’s not meant to be. Roon should see its Nucleus as Google saw its original Pixel phone: not better than Samsung Android, but with features Samsung wasn’t including or pushing. The Nucleus needs to always be capable of running Roon at its best to keep other providers on their toes. In this case, Small Green Computer is levitating!

If Small Green Computer had only released Tailscale, that would have been enough, but it includes just about every server. Wild.

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Installed last month Sonicorbiter OS v3.0 in my opticalRendu Deluxe, last weekend I installed it on my sonicTransporter i7.

It wasn’t as easy as putting vinyl on the turntable platter, but I didn’t have any particular problems.

Sonicorbiter OS v3.0 on sonicTransporter servers is dedicated to many different types of users who use different server applications (Audirvana, Plex, Lyrion, etc.). Let me note here some tips for Roon users.

From Roon’s point of view, upgrading the sonicTransporter means dealing with a new server.

Before updating the server, it is essential to force a final backup of Roon.

If you have a sonicTransporter, the best way to keep your Roon backup up to date is to use an ext4 formatted USB key, housed in one of the two USB-A ports, or in the USB-C port.

Once the Roon backup was finished, I extracted the USB key, freeing up the two ports necessary for the Sonicorbiter update operation: 1) in one port, in fact, you will have to insert a USB keyboard and 2) in the other the external volume, from which to boot to install Sonicorbiter OS v3.0.

There are two options for upgrading Sonicorbiter: 1. Prepare an external boot disk; or: 2. Have Small Green Computer do the work [https://www.smallgreencomputer.com/\].

Here you can find the description of some features:

https://audiophilestyle.com/forums/topic/72324-release-of-sonicorbiter-os-v3-for-the-transporter-series/

I prepared a boot disk by myself [SGC Installer USB key], downloading the local .zip file and preparing the USB volume with Linux and «Raspberry Pi Imager» [SGC recommends the excellent «balenaEtcher», but I had small problems with my Mac and so I preferred to use Linux].

After installing Sonicorbiter OS v3.0, I inserted the USB key with the Roon backups. I launched Roon, showed it where the backups are and retrieved the last one.

As mentioned above, for Roon (already present in the Sonicorbiter OS v3.0 package) the updated sonicTransporter is a new, completely unknown server. This means that you need to authenticate with your Roon account credentials. It’s a simple procedure, explained step by step by Roon himself.

At this point, having recognized his account and imported the latest backup, Roon needs to know where the music library is (in my case in the Samung SSD inside the sonicTransporter).

To instruct Roon on where the music library is, you must first enter the application of the Sonicorbiter package called «Drive Mounter», copy the address of the SSD with the library, and then indicate to Roon this address, also instructing him on the user name and password of the shared volume.

Importing the Roon backup first, and only then exposing the music library on the internal SSD to it is an ideal procedure for quick recognition of albums and playlists.