It is very inconvenient and misleading not to disclose which Roon Ready multichannel AVRs and DACs actually support multichannel music files. I suppose it is up to Roon if you want to certify multichannel devices if they only support stereo but this should be disclosed. Either state “Stereo only” against the designation of these devices or have two Roon Ready designations “Roon Ready Stereo” and “Roon Ready Multichannel”. The only way to get this information at present is from external forums, getting a demo or asking he manufacturer. Very inconvenient!
@support could you at least in the meantime publish a blog post or something listing Roon Ready multichannel devices that have a full Roon multichannel implementation?
Nope, it’s more or less a safe bet to assume that AVRs don’t support multichannel over network protocols for music the DACs and streaming boards are generally designed for stereo. This isn’t just a Roon thing it’s a device thing. Arcam don’t, NAD don’t, Denon or Marantz don’t, Yamaha don’t. They only support it via hdmi. One device that is Roon Ready that supports playing them via HDMI is the Eversolo and that’s the lot that I know off. To get multichannel it’s usually a pc as the output via HDMI.
There is also exaSound with the multichannel streamer and I don’t know what’s with JBL and Primare.
But usually all the mainstream AVRs only supporting two channels, like CrystalGipsy has written.
There is also the Trinnov Altitude 16 & 32 which are full AVRs. After creating this thread, that’s what I bought after getting assurances from Trinnov and it works great. They are PC/Intel based AVRs. I believe that this IS a Roon problem - the Intel code as runs on Roon Bridge supports multichannel and that’s what’s been used in the Trinnov, while the code used in most AVRs (ARM code??) seems not to. (The exasound is also Intel based).
@support - It would be good if someone from Roon could engage and confirm this.
What’s exactly a Roon problem? None of the other makes of AVRs support mulitchannel via any software over the network its hardware limitation not a Roon one for them. Where the hardware supports it then Roon will to my knowledge.
When you talk about “over the network” you misunderstand the data flow. All the AVRS that do not support mulltichannel through their internal Roon Ready implementation work fine with a Roon Bridge plugged into them via HDMI. Those Roon Bridges are receiving the multichannel audio “over the network”. The Roon problem appears to be that their Intel code supports multichannel and their ARM code does not.
No you’re misunderstanding me I refer only to their Roon Ready function of devices which is in turn limited to the hardware as to what it can do. As I explained none of these devices support mulitchannel over a network connection via Roon or any other software. I do not mention HDMI from a separate Roon Bridge as that is completely different scenario. If your referring to Roon Bridge on Raspeberry pi then no they don’t support Mulitchannel over HDMI, but then some distros don’t anyway regardless.