Hey All
I posted this reply in another thread, but thought maybe I should create a topic. Just curious. I just came over to Roon. I too have an all an all Sonos Home and I can see transitioning to other endpoints without torching current gear investments. I’ve got three questions you could perhaps help me with.
Have you discovered a difference in SQ between using Sonos Net and Airplay 2 I see both options for all my gear and not sure what to go with
As above have you discovered any difference in relability of playback between the 2 (Sonos Net vs Airplay 2)?
I want to get rid of my Port which I have connected to a B&O system in my Living Room. Ive got a Beam Connected to my TV which I only use to get HDMI audio off the TV and into Sonos Port so I can get the audio into the B&O (and other zones). Do you know of a good soliid way to get audio off the TV and into Roon? Once I figure that out, 2 pieces of Sonos are gone and I’m unshacked from Sonos ecosystem while still enjoying the AMPs, Play 5s and Sonos Eras!
[Maybe the better way to ask this last question is this: Is there a recommended device out there that I can use as an endpoint with RCA Output to my B&O system that also has HDMI eArc input? That would eliminate those 2 pieces of Sonos Gear]
I would love and value any feedback or insights this Roon Noob could glean from your collective experience. Thanks!
Hi Howard I started the migration from Sonos to Roon 5 year’s ago and was an all Sonos home at that time (about 12-14 devices and several stereo pairs l).
I still have an ARC (sub and surrounds), Pair of Play 1s in bedroom and a couple of portable devices for the garden.
I personally prefer to play back using Sonos protocol rather than AirPlay, but I use AirPlay to connect devices to stream across systems for the garden.
I also have 6 or 7 Roon Ready devices now that are used in most rooms. You can take your time and hopefully Roon to Sonos will be reliable as you transition away from Sonos.
Not sure what you are trying to do with number 3. We don’t play stereo music to our ARC, but we do play multi channel through Roon HDMI and also Plex server to give full ATMOS and that works great
Thanks Michael.
All I’m really trying to do is get my TV Audio out of the TV and into the Roon Sound System. At present I have a BEAM attachd to the TV through eArc. I don’t even turn up the volume on the Beam. It is there simply to receive the audio signal in the the SONOS system then I group the Beam to the Port which is attached to the Living Room amplifier (B&O system). I dont use that Beam for any reason except to make the TV audio wireless to get picked up the rest of the system. I’d like to the same thing without the Beam. I’m thinking that something like a Bluesound Node could replace both the Sonos Port and Arc. I could feed the eArc out of the TV into the Node, the Node would go into the B&O and the one device would carry my music and TV into the sound system and the rest of the home zone if chose to group them. I haope that describes what I’m trying to accomplish. It doesnt neccessarily need to be BlueSound. I’m looking a device to receive the HDMI audio only then I can feed it into an external dac or straight into the B&O Amp. This would also get one wireless device off my network
You can’t route tv audio into Roon. You would need to use a similar eco system to Sonos to achieve that such as BluOs devices or Wiim devices. Roon is pure music routing to devices it doesn’t have inputs. It can’t take audio from a device only send to them via its server.
Hi Howard and thanks for clarifying.
I am not aware that an HDMI input can feed back into the Room streaming.
(Looks like @CrystalGipsy got there quicker than I did)
Thank you @CrystalGipsy & @Michael_Harris , I just check that off my list then and keep the Port & Beam. Done. Now I gotta work on building a ROCK, a MOCK of DietPi…
For now I’m ecstatic with the plaback and control of the Roon Server off my main production PC - but I will in short order have a dedicated machine.
Good luck Howard I made this same journey almost 6 yeas ago and while it has not been without issues, I am still using Roon every day
It has been a very spendy time in life, but the music has been a pleasure.
While I am a NUC in a silent Akasa case king of guy (running DietPi of course), I do think a M4 Mac Mini would be a great device to run Roon on. It is not much faster (in truth) but is pretty much silent out of the box and has great performance at a very low power. I have run Roon on PC, Synology, Rock, DietPi as well as Mac Mini M1 and a Mac Pro running DietPi.
Thanks again for all your help with a newbie. I’ve been on a fastrack and much less a newbie now. I’ve build a ROCK in an i7 and 64GB Ram in an Akasa Case and have the whole house converted. Over. Anyway here’s the question I picked up a WiiM Ultra to take HDMI out of the TV and to receive music into my Living room only to discover that I can’t group the Ultra with my other devices because its not Airplay 2 or Sonos Net compatible. So now I’m considering tossing the Ultra and getting a Bluesound Node N132 or Icon. Does anyone know if I’d be able to group the Bluesound node with Sonos pieces using Sonos Airplay. (in Roon audio every Sonos piece shows up twice, once as Sonosnet and Once as an Airplay 2 Device).
Yes you can group zones via Airplay, but it doesn’t use Sonosnet so your home WiFi will need to be upto scratch to ensure it can handle streaming to multiple zones at once.
Thought I’d bring this topic to completion. No new streamer necessary, I’ve got everything between WiiM and Sonos working perfectly. I just made this post and hopefully it helps somebody. WiiM Ultra And Sonos Cooperating And Peacefully Coexisting
