@danny Why is it so damn hard to certify a new device for “roon ready”? Some brands need more than three years to get the label “roon ready“.
Are the requirements excessive or are they not communicated correctly and completely?
Not Danny, but worth a response.
A lot of suppliers shipped broken or half baked Roon Ready solutions and Roon took a lot off flack for it from angry users.
Therefore Roon tightened up the requirements and new Roon Ready devices once certified have been mostly excellent (besides the odd exception where the supplier has shipped a Firmware update that has broken it and then fixed it again.
Roon requires deep integration into the player and full visibility of the signal path and some companies have not been able to manage this easily.
Companies like Hegel seem to be hardware companies and have struggled with development and that seems to be the real issue. If you look at Lumin and Matrix Audio they have their solutions ready very quickly.
Some companies have told user’s that the devices have been with Roon for month’s and are fully working, but Danny has always refuted this suggestion.
One of the good developments in the last few years are that many devices also have Chromecast and Airplay built-in which means that the devices are usable before Roon Ready is available, and only get better with RR certification.
How do you know that this is the case? A Roon Ready device has to pass a test, and if it doesn’t, that’s down to the implementation, not the certification process.
There are many Roon Ready partners now, and many new products are certified at launch, so it would seem that most go through the process in reasonable time.
Do you have a specific product or manufacturer in mind?
Primare, Hegel
I think it’s hard for two classes of manufacturers.
- Those who are new to the whole streaming thing and have zero or little in house skills. I guess Hegel fit in here.
- Those, and there are many, who bought an off the shelf streaming module and then struggle.
Some may combine 1 and 2.
Primare have had roon ready devices since 2019 I think. The mp5.
But they struggle with the pre35 prisma an the sc15 prisma
There could be all sorts of reasons. A lot of companies, and I don’t know about Primare, buy in the expertise. They may have to take their turn with resource.
NAD use the blueos module so a bit like Primare’s module and they bang out roon ready devices like peas.
24 Roon ready devices.
Because we demand the manufacturer does not put out crappy unfinished products. If you look at the state of UPnP implementations, you will see an ecosystem that we are trying to avoid. Also, to do Airplay or Chromecast, they have similar requirements.
…or the technical expertise to do anything in this space is missing from the manufacturer
…or the manufacturer has prioritized the work low
We have good docs, working code examples, and multiple people on staff dedicated to the account management as well as certifications themselves.
We actually didn’t tighten up the requirements, we just stopped letting them release usable uncertified implementations. Almost all of our support issues or unhappy Roon Ready users were from these uncertified products.
I have refuted it, and I welcome any representative of any audio hardware manufacturer to say that publicly to me. Usually, it’s a sales person or support person that doesn’t quite understand the situation in their own home.
Have you asked them why it took so long? I know why it did, but it’s not my place to say.
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guessing they won’t say either. 
I heard from one supplier it was about money, ie having to pay to get listed.
Who knows and I’m sure we wont be told 
John this again has been covered in the past.
Roon do no charge for certification (Danny has said this more than once).
They do require companies looking for RR certification to send in (I think from memory) two of the devices that will be certified and that Roon will keep these after certified.
So if these are expensive devices, which many are, then that could be twisted into a form of charging, though it seems reasonable that Roon have devices available for any future issues that might occur.
There is no license charge or costs charged by Roon. Obviously adding in RR has product development costs but that should be factored into the pricing.
It’s obvious that most manufacturers put all the main focus on getting the product out with the features with the widest support for the biggest range of their customers. This is why no NAD, Bluesound, Kef etc come out at launch with it and then add it. Even NAD with their many devices still don’t pass first time. They focus on their own app; upnp, Chromecast and Airplay then they can then sell it and make money. Then they look to get Roon added after launch. Some smaller ones like Matrix launch with it but it’s rare as marketing and sales need to be had before it looses it’s market share and with Roons base pretty low over all you can see why they do this.
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That is false.
In a broader sense of money in terms of development manpower costs and devices to be shipped, see the above posts.
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@danny Platinum with their WiSA hub probably being on of the companies that make way too bold claims towards the customers? They claim that the device is with Roon for certification (for months now already). I also specifically asked them whether they are withholding any bad news considering the certification from their customers, which they denied. This is going on for almost 2 years now. UNBELIEVABLE and ridiculous how these companies fool their customers! And even harder to believe that I fell for it. I am old and experienced to know better actually. I bet the only customers who are off even worse are those who put their faith in HEGEL.
Truth to tell we want the news to be positive and like Fix Moulder we want to believe 
I have been lucky enough to wait and buy my devices after RR certified (though always tempted before hand). All but the Zen Stream which worked through Roon Bridge to start anyway so when it was certified it didn’t change much.
With Chromecast and Airplay (and USB audio) at least these days many devices are usable from the day of purchase and just get better with RR certification.
Who did you hear this from? They weren’t paying us, that’s for sure.
Sorry my post was misleading. I think what was meant is that the requirements are such that they cannot afford to meet them. Development of products in the low to medium price range, the most competitive part of the industry, cannot meet the demands of a particular specification I guess.
Whatever, my equipment isn’t certified but works for me.
I don’t think this is the case. Some of the earliest devices to achieve certification were £30+ DAC and streamer hats for the Raspberry Pi.
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