Whole-Home Audio Amp and Roon Ready

For whole-home audio, we are currently powering our ceiling speakers in various rooms with a Sonos Amp. We use Roon app to select zone and select music. With S2 app coming out the Connect Amps are being phased out. They still work for our purpose, but wondering what others are using for a multiple channel amp that can power five zones and integrate into Roon?

1 Like

I use a NAD CI580 (4 zone) preamp which is RoonReady to feed an AudioAccess 6 channel amp that drives in-wall or ceiling speakers in our various rooms. Obviously with 4 channels from the NAD, I had to gang a couple rooms (e.g., dining room and living room) but it wasn’t that hard as I realized that since these rooms were physically adjacent, I always grouped them anyway prior to adding the NAD. The NAD has worked well for me for several years but after a recent sw update (on both the Roon side and NAD) I’ve been having issues, so I can’t really recommend them until they get the software issues sorted out.

I also have 5 outdoor speaker pairs powered by an Audio Control amp with a single microRendu as the source for all speakers, since they are all in the backyard around the pool area, so no reason to use separate Roon zones for them, although the amp would support it. Both amps have been in the house 20+ years, so Roon replaced other sources and control systems but the amps have been dead reliable.

Great thoughts and setup. Still will keep eye out for a five zone network player that works well with Roon.

Have you picked your replacement/upgrade path? NAD seems a popular choice here although some have had problems with NAD and Roon and others have not.

Thanks for the NAD reference. At this point, we have found nothing that materially changes /improves our usage, so sticking with the Sonos Amps for as long as Sonos /Roon support it through the use of their S1 app.

The material upgrade we did was to install a dedicated Roon Core (MAC Mini), but that is another topic. …