Wireless speaker endpoint

Audio Gear Talk
1

Hello, I’m setting up a Roon Nucleus with an internal SSD and that will feed my AV system for critical listening. I’d like to get a wireless endpoint speaker for the kitchen area. As I understand it, only Bluesound and ELAC make Roon Ready wireless speakers capable of streaming via RAAT. However, both of these device seem to have some issues (the new Pulse 2i not getting great reviews for sound and the Z3 connectivity and sound issues).

It seems the Naim speakers or the Devialent Reactor or even Audio Pro C10 would be a significant step up in wireless speaker sound quality. So my question is this: since these are not RAAT capable, can they still stream CD quality and hi-res quality audio from the Roon Nucleus, and if so, how? Is it as simple as AirPlay (I have Apple devices)? Will that do hi-res files?

Thank you for any advice and thoughts on these wireless speakers.

Cheers!

2

Hi,

Airplay tops out at CD quality. If you want hi-res then you’re looking at an intermediary device to act as a RoonReady endpoint. That could be a Chromecast Audio, though there are reported connectivity stability issues at >88.2KHz. Otherwise there’s a host of RPi options discussed on the forum (depending on your speaker choice you may want digital or analog out) and on to more expensive options, such as the Bluesound Node 2 or Metrum Ambre. Look at Allo, IQAudio and HiFiBerry for RPi ideas. Fwiw I use IQAudio products with Volumio as endpoints - it is a very stable setup.

NB if synchronised play with your other audio system is important to you you’ll definitely want a RAAT capable endpoint, not Airplay or Chromecast. Also avoid the Node 2 (i) unless/until the relevant bug is fixed.

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