Why is Devialet not Roon Ready and what are the consequences?

Perhaps it would improve the sound, but it would also enable me to sync it with other RAAT players in my home.

Hi everyone,

I am seriously considering purchasing Ronn + 2nd hand Devialet 120.

But, after a lot of reading, I honestly cannot understand what is the difference between the current situation (integration of Air into Roon) and the ā€˜fullā€™ Roon Ready certificationā€¦

1 - will it bring added functionality? (someone above mentioned zone management, is that it?)

2 - will it bring added quality? theoretically the current situation seems to perfect already (bit-perfect streaming in asynchronous, not streaming, meaning that if the network works fine this is already as good as it gets - or am I missing something)?

3 - lastly if I understood correctly:

  • using Air within Roon is available for any Deviatet and only requires the latest Ronn version;
  • Roon Ready will only be available to and ā€˜oldā€™ Devialet 120 after a hardware update that would enable the new core infinity features, correct?

Thank you for your help.

Thereā€™s a bit of history to understandā€¦ before Roon integrated ā€œAIRā€ streaming into the the Roon software, the only way to stream via AIR to the Devialet was Devialetā€™s AIR plugin and that software was full of problems for many. Roonā€™s integration has been a huge blessing. It sounds just as good as using Devialetā€™s AIR plugin (when it worked) and is completely stable. And yes, it will work on all Devialet Experts.

Iā€™ve been using Roon + Devialet for over two years and have found it to be an ideal combination - particularly since Roon integrated AIR.

There may be other benefits to RAAT that Iā€™m missing, but the only reason Iā€™d like to see Devialet integrate RAAT is because it would enable me to more easily play music to mulitple zones in sync. I do use RAAT to other rooms for playback and there are occasions where itā€™s great having the same music playing in mulitple rooms including from my Devialet. But itā€™s really not that big a deal and there are easy workarounds. I recently picked up an Allo USBridge that is RoonReady (i.e. uses RAAT). It uses ethernet in and USB out to the Devialet. Works great, sounds really good and is fairly inexpensive. There are other products that can do the same such as Sonoreā€™s microRendu, albeit for a good bit more $$.

If Devialet does eventually integrate RAAT, it will almost certainly require the new CI board which would also require you to upgrade your 120 to a 130 Pro. None of that is necessary for you to thoroughly enjoy Roon and your 120 - a great match!

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Same for me. RAAT would bring grouping and volume control. Right now I work around with another Allo product - the digiOne- and am very happy. But if I were able to get rid of those boxes and group the Devialet directly with other zones, and have control volume from Roon, Iā€™d be happy.

I donā€™t see it coming any time soon, but we can but hope. Meanwhile Iā€™ve had zero issues with the current setup for so long I donā€™t really think about it any more. (I donā€™t have the CI upgrade yet, still waiting for the beta testers to finish, and hope to have it installed sometime in 2019/2020).

I should update here that some Devialet owners attended a presentation alongside Munich HighEnd, where Devialetā€™s newly appointed ā€œExpert teamā€ showed a slide presentation stating, among other things, that Expert Pros (with the Core Infinity) will become RoonReady, hopefully by year end.

Exciting news. If they deliver they will at least part restore my faith in the brand. But letā€™s wait and seeā€¦

There are many advantages of RAAT, with zone grouping the biggest for me. And thankfully Roon do the QA.

More info about the presentation, and more slides, over on Devialetchat.

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DSD support also covered by Roon RAAT?

Finally a public statement from Devialet concerning this topic.

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