Where should I install Roon Core to use in two houses?

Roon Software Discussion
1

I just got a Synology NAS for my house and am planning to get Cocktail X45 for the vacation cottage. I will use a Surface Pro tablet to connect to on both of these devices and use Surface running ROON as the UI. Should I:

  1. Install a separate Roon Core instance on both the Synology and Cocktail ?.. or …
  2. Make Surface the Core and then connect via WiFi to Synology or X45 depending on where I am?

If I do #1 will I need to buy Roon twice (once for each device)? Will #2 overcome this problem as I will only be using one Roon device at any given time.

I just don’t understand enough about Roon to know if this question even makes sense.

2

It would be easy to install Roon on both the Synology and the Cocktail X45.
You can only run one Roon core at the same time under one license. It is easy to do that. You can disable the Core you were running when you want to start the new Core (you’ll get a prompt).
What model is your Synology NAS? An undersized CPU will not give a good Roon experience. It’s highly desirable to have your Core machine connect via ethernet to your router or switch. The Surface Pro is powerful enough to run Roon, but it sounds like you want that untethered.
How are you connecting to your DAC at home?
Also, important to note you can run MANY Roon devices (tablets, phones, laptops) but only one Core. The Core does all the musical heavy lifting. The other Roon devices are either controllers (getting use input and sending to the Core), or Roon endpoints that can receive the digital signal from the Core.

3

I installed rock on a nuc and bring it with me.

4

@Louis_Casadonte has the right idea…make sure to keep the core network setup as DHCP if you take it with you between locations. keep some music on a USB connected HDD to bring too…even if its not your whole library it should get you through a holiday I would think.

Personally I use my core on a MacBookPro laptop and some music on external disk plus my tidal subscription and that does me.

I’m not sure a cocktail audio can run core roon tho. It might only run as an endpoint.

5

@wizardofoz makes an important point. If the Cocktail 45 is just a streaming endpoint, it won’t run Roon as a core.
Depending on what Synology you have, it might not be adequate for running the Core either.
So then you could have two storage devices, neither of which can run Core.