I am relatively new to Roon - I have a Naim Atom with Harbeth Compact 7.
As I consider adding speakers in the kitchen and bedroom, I have a couple of questions:
is it correct that I need the speakers speakers to be RAAT in order to play music simultaneously across my home?
if yes, besides Naim QB2 (pricey) and Bluesound (numerous complaints lately), which RAAT speakers would you recommend? Budget: about GBP 300 (USD 400) / speaker.
You could stream to the Chromecast in the atom.and so use Chromecast in the kitchen when you want things grouped.
How does the Atom cope with what I imagine to be pretty insensitive speakers? (Just being nosey)
Raat is the transport that Roon uses to stream music over your network. Ideally you want all your systems to be proper certified Roon ‘endpoints’. If you use any devices that support AirPlay or Chromecast they will also work with Roon, but you cannot have a multiroom group all playing in sync with a mixture of Roon, AirPlay and Chromecast multiroom.
Thank you very much to both of you - it is very helpful. Would you have any recommendations on speakers? (ideally not Bluesound except if is the issues experienced by others were RAAT related)
Also RAAT vs Airplay 2 vs Chromecast - what would you advise?
If possible I would stick with devices that have native Roon support rather than relying on AirPlay or Chromecast if you can find something you like. That gives you better support for things like different audio formats, gapless playback etc.
Having said that, your Atom supports AirPlay and Chromecast, so any of the three options will work. If that is your main system, where sound quality matters most, there is nothing to stop you from using it via Roon when you are just listening to it, and switching to either of the other methods for multiroom and for the other devices.