Hello, I’m not quite sure where to post this so I guess I’ll try here. I have a HTPC connected to my home theater system in my living room via HDMI and I also have a PC connected to a speaker system in my office/game room and both are connected to wired network.
I am looking at Roon as a way to organize the music and sync these areas but I would also like to get a small speaker for our bathroom, something for the kitchen and maybe one I could quickly plug in outside when grilling. I was looking at Sonos speakers because they use Wifi but I think from what I’m reading I could not use Sonos in combination with regular PC’s as end points, is that correct or did I read that wrong? If I can’t use those, is there something that is simply plug in and go just like Sonos that would work? I don’t really want to replace the PC’s I have in place already and it would be cool to just have the screens on showing the music and offering music control.
I would suggest one of the several Raspberry Pi dac/amp hats and a PI too. Just add speakers. If you are handy diy or maybe bluesound has some options too.
Would a pi dac/amp be better than the Intel BLKDE3815TYKH0E? I already have some of the Intel’s already put together running Win 7 pro and not used… I guess as long as it never moves it should be pretty reliable, just not as compact of a solution since i’d have to mount it to the speaker. I guess I mostly just hoping to keep it as less DIY as I can which is why the Sonos sounded so attractive, I already have a cobbled together home automation set up that requires tinkering with fairly often…
I found bluesound on the partner list and they look like they are just like the Sonos speakers but these would work in combination with PC end points?
Imho bluesound is a better option than sonos with Roon as they can use Roons RAAT protocol and be in sync with all other Roon RAAT devices and pcs. Sonos devices will only be in sync with other sonos devices.
RAAT is Roon’s own advanced streaming protocol. All about RAAT in the Knowledge Base: http://kb.roonlabs.com/RAAT.
RAAT talks to Roon Ready devices and devices with Roon or Roon Bridge installed (computers or SBC’s (small board computers like the Raspberry Pi). In your case, the Bluesound speaker is RoonReady and if you have Roon or Roon Bridge installed on your HTPC, you’re all set. You could even group the two to play simultaneously.
That is exactly what I’m looking to do, I’ll look into acquiring a Bluesound Pulse Flex and then once I have that I’ll look into starting a Roon trial. Is there a guide for setting up Bluesound in Roon?
Yes, If zones are of the same type you can group them as a single zone and play the same thing in sync. (If you set them as separate zones you can play different things to them at the same time if you want to listen to one thing in one room and someone else wants to listen to something else in another.)
No problem: you can group and ungroup Roon (Bridge) / RoonReady devices ad libitum - here’s a BlueSound Node 2 grouped with a Raspberry Pi running Roon Bridge and my MacBook running Roon (Remote):
The PI allows for a HAT that can drive speakers (small ones as the amps are often only 25-45watts) directly. Your intels would need amplified speakers off the headphone/audio out jacks! Or ideally a better spec’d DAC and amp externally with speakers. The pi’s are very compact and not too expensive
