I have a Samsung not-so-smart TV and an Nvidia Shield connected to it, which I use for smart TV functionality (Plex, Netflix, etc). The Shield is Chromecast compatible and works with Roon.
I am thinking of setting up a 5.1 surround system; something not too expensive, not audiophile grade. For example, I can get something like the QAcoustics 3010 system or the Monitor Audio Mass system between £450-600 (ca. $ 600 - $800)
Apologies if this is a very newbie and banal question, but could this system work with Roon via the Shield and its integrated Chromecast?
When I watch something on Netflix of course I don’t need Roon; but, since Roon can output to the Shield, would I be able to listen to music using the TV? I mean, Roon would recognise the Shield, the Shield would display lyrics and other info, and of course the music would be played through the surround system. Would this work? Would the satellite speakers be disabled or just be used as left and right speakers?
If it would work, how would the connections be set up? All the speakers connected to an AV receiver, the AV receiver connected to the TV and the Shield to the TV?
Should the connection between Roon and the Shield be unreliable, would it be possible to connect the AV receiver to both the TV and a HifiBerry?
It will work you need to set the shield as a display in settings. Then on the shields zone you enable the display with the display icon. The shield will only output stereo from Roon even in a 5.1 system and it will max out at 48khz /24bit. If you want it to play on all speakers then you configure that in the amp but it’s not 5.1 ever.
There is nothing wrong with QAcoustics speakers even the 3010’s they really are way better than there price suggests. Even for music they can sound very good.
Why on Earth can’t Roon play multichannel audio on Shield? Even more puzzling is why it can’t play 96 or 192 audio? Shield fully supports all these formats.
Because of Androids restrictions with audio. Very few apps support higher than 48khz on Android and will resample to it if not that rate… UAPP and a few others that bypass the OS mixer seem to get around it. I tried several apps on my shield and never got more than 48khz Video apps get around this mainly with pass through and transcoding.
I hear what you’re saying, and I hear this a lot. But Qobuz has no problem at all playing 192k audio. Kodi does it. Tidal does it. Google Play Music will do it. Plex used to do it, and played multichannel FLAC as well. SHIELD provides passthrough and supports 192k FLAC playback and multichannel FLAC at 24/48, etc. I think the problem is that some developers treat all Android devices the same, when they are not.
I agree they do, it’s my big annoyance about the Roon Android app as it does not recognise any of my USB DACs and is borked on most daps to. Last time I tried Tidal though it did not play native, did they change the app for the Shield or th OS has been tweaked to bypass the native resampling, as on phones it’s the same as does Qobuz none of these I have managed above 48khz on Android.
No side-loading. Just casting Qobuz from my phone and tablet. Works great. Even responds to my Harmony remote once it’s on screen. If Roon simply worked like Qobiz in this regard it would be infinitely better. SHIELD and ROON seem like a match made in heaven, at least as a simple endpoint.