Wondering if Roon will work for me

Roon Software Discussion
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Some, but not all. The following will not be available:

  1. Recommended for you.
  2. New Releases for you.
    Why these aren’t enabled for non-streamers is another discussion.

The other features will work without streaming, but the ‘world’ of available choices will shrink from millions (the size of all Tidal metadata) to thousands (your specific metadata). Basically you can’t discover music outside your library if you limit the view to your library. This is fine for some users, but having had a taste of the real thing, I couldn’t go back.
Another way of looking at it is how much would you spend on new music in a year, versus adding just about as much as you want for the price of the streaming service. Still, if one already has Amazon it can be hard to justify Tidal on top of that. Pity Amazon hasn’t chosen to integrate with Roon…

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You shouldn’t let the price of a DAC influence your perception of it’s quality. DAC components (chips, USB, etc.) are fairly standard across the board regardless of price and manufacturer. It’s implementation that makes a difference. Some inexpensive DACs are very good, some very expensive DACs are not that good.

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Yeah. That kind of stinks. Should still be able to recommend things.

We just tried Amazon HD because it was free for 90 days and it was easy because everything was already in place, having prime already.

I use Amazon to look at New music releases on Fridays usually they are more for the younger crowd. If I see something good, I buy the CD and Roo it or look for it on HD tracks. My 14 year old daughter has a bunch of playlists on it so I kinda have to keep it. Otherwise, I’d try Tidal or Qbuz. Maybe Amazon will someday work with Roon

I understand the value of streaming but I generally feel better owning a physical thing. Some day I’ll retire and be on a budget. If you quit the streaming service you have nothing. If you buy a cd, you still have it. Might be a dismal outlook but both my divorced parents now need in home help and in home help, quickly depletes retirement funds for anyone who is not rich. My father has become title 19 from it and my mother will be inside the year. I pay her help from her retirement for her to the tune of about 5k a month for 7 hrs. A day. My father needs 24 hour care

Yeah, I know $20 a month is nothing but I still like to own a physical thing

When I started this process, I ripped all my cds to a NAS then spent a few grand at hdtracks. Thought I had it backed up on a backup hard drive. One day my NAS died. I found out I had not backed up everything. Luckily, the NAS wasn’t totally dead, just mostly dead( The Princess Bride). It worked very, very slowly so every night after work I transferred the hdtracks to the backup drive. Had to do it one song at a time and it went very very slowly. Could do a couple albums per night. The NAS lasted almost long enough to save most of my HDTracks albums but I did lose a few. Now I hopefully have a successful back up drive. That was no fun. Then I had to rerip most of my cds

Now most older cds are pretty cheap so I have since created a very large(to me anyway) library. If I hear a song that I like I go buy the cd… Now a days, I’m finding less and less music to buy

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So assuming, that I have no drop outs this week, then I have a decision to make. Keeping Roon would be obvious. I just ,this week, spent $750 on audioquest earth balanced interconnects for my amps. This was supposed to complete my system for a while. I never believed that cables could make a difference, but this past year, I decided to try a more expensive one to connect my streamer. It made a difference. This lead to the Niagra 1200 , blizzard power cords for everything… I must be nuts! But it really did make a difference

So everything sounds as good as it can with this system for now but I was still getting these drop outs in my music and some times they were pretty frequent. That lead me here to Roon. Maybe it was my streamer, maybe it was my NAS, or maybe JRiver ? If this new set up with Roo n fixes the problem then it was either JRiver or the streamer.

So assuming the problem is fixed then where do I go from here? Seems that a Nucleus is in my future. Poked around on some other topics here and I think the Nucleus while a good amount more money might be better then a NUC.

Then do I keep the Node for now because it is a cheap fix, plays Amazon without a cable to my computer( although I could fix this by snaking another cable in the wall but then the cost of said cable might approach the cost of the Node) and it will also allow for wireless speakers for background music in other places. Yeah. Probably seems like a keeper

Then with budget busted but the ultimate goal, to make this system sound as good as possible, do I plan on adding Bel Cantos Roon ready streamer? At $1600 list it has to sound better then the $550 Node. Especially since part of the Node is a dac that I am bypassing to my Bel Canto 2…5

There is a Bel Canto 2.7, but it has been around a long time. I am waiting for its predecessor, that would be Roo n ready and go along with the new streamer that came out last year. Problem is, Bel Canto just came out with a new line priced between my cheaper stuff and their expensive out of my league Black line. This line has a preamp/dac/streamer all in one for $6500 list. This makes me and my stereo shop worried that Bel Canto may be abandoning my cheaper line. This would suck

I don’t like this new all in one, because as we all know, the streamer will be outdated in a few years and in this case that would mean upgrading the whole darn thing where I would normally be happy with the Pre/dac part of it for a longer time. I could maybe go out of my budget once for this but I couldn’t do it every few years. So I have to hope the cheaper line continues. But do I buy the new streamer spoon or just keep the Node? Or give the Node back and buy the new streamer and do the Nucleus later? Can’t do it all at once especially since this last cable was supposed to be the end for a while. I hate these decisions

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My theory is never own something you can rent. I don’t always follow that such as house and cars. I like hanging on to my money where possible. I long ago got rid of all my vinyl, CD’s, and DVD’s.

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For the price difference between a NUC and a Nucleus you can either 1) pay for a lifetime subscription to Roon and 3 years of Tidal, or 2) pay for a really high quality Roon Bridge. There will be no discernible difference in sound, because they are both NUC boards inside. If you can do Legos you can put a NUC together in 10 minutes. The software is just a bit more work, but that could take 1/2 to 1 hour. Not trying to hurt any feelings on the forum but the Nucleus is for you if you are too busy making (lots of) money to be bothered with it or really do feel insecure about putting something together. It is a nice piece of equipment though…

Personally, I’d hold off on buying hardware as best you can until you figure out your priorities (because they will change). If you are really committed to Amazon and Alexa that is one thing. There may be other ways to tie that into your system without the Node (I’m sure Amazon has a gizmo!). A decent Raspberry Pi-based Roon Bridge can be had pretty cheap for your ‘sweet spot’. You can build or buy lots of different types. Lots of people like the Node, but it seems crazy (to me) to pay for a DAC you won’t use. It’s tough sifting through the choices, but you have lots of options. Anything I say or you decide today will change in a week, so I won’t dwell.

I hope things work well for you hardware-wise and you enjoy the Roon experience. Its pretty exciting doing something new like this!

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This is perfect advice. Really setting up a nuc with Rock is extremely easy and you can hide it, if you do not like the look. Also with the Pi‘s, it really is easy putting a player together.
Newbies really should not be scared of trying themselves. It really is like Lego

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The only reason you would need a Nucleus or NUC right now is if you don’t like running your Roon core on your Mac for some reason. Or, you want to move your Roon core to a device that sits next to your DAC so your can do USB or HDMI out from the Nucleus to your DAC. If Roon is working for you now, you can delay this purchase until later.

I would keep the Node 2i if it is allowing you to stream from Amazon. It seems you and your family like Amazon and it is working for you. If that is not the case, I would ditch Amazon and subscribe to Qobuz. I say Qobuz instead of Tidal so you don’t have to worry about MQA capable DAC’s.

I’ve mentioned this 100 times, but if you decide to ditch Amazon and don’t need the Node 2i, you can assemble a Raspberry Pi 4 with USB out to your pre-amp with parts from Amazon for $74. It takes about 10 minutes.

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Trust me I’m not making lots of money. I’m sure I could put it together. The software part is what will have me jumping out the window.

So I’m trying to get rid of drop outs in my music. This is the whole point of trying the different stuff. Before I was getting drop outs for a second or 2. Now listening to Roo n today I have had playback stop twice for about a minute then start back. Worse then before. Crap! wirelessly

I was using the Node wirelessly. Hooked an Ethernet cable to it now to see what happens. Every other possible thing is wired in my house. Spent a long time snaking cat 6 all over. Short runs between pieces are auxiliary cinnamon

So with everything wired, shouldn’t be drop out s playing from a NAS right? But I always have had them

Levs see what happens with Roo n now that I hooked the Node to Ethernet cable. Hopefully Roo n won’t freeze anymore.

At this point, I have spent so much money on this already, I’m at the point of not caring how much it costs to fix it. If a $1400 nucleus fixed it. I’m thrilled at this point

If I add a hard drive to the Nucleus, then can’t I also get rid of the NAS which could also be part of the problem. Just a cheap WD

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One thing to try with the dropouts is to play to your Mac (System output) or to another device (iPad?). If the only place you get dropouts is your DAC, that narrows down the issue.

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I think playing from a NAS can be problematic. A USB drive plugged into your Roon core device should work better. Also, running Roon core on a computer that is doing other things can be problematic. I struggled with Roon at first. What finally fixed it for me was moving Roon core from a Dell laptop to a Nucleus and getting everything hard wired with no WIFI except for control devices.

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I have always wanted to take the computer out of the music so that’s why I would add a Nucleus. I like the idea of not having to go to the computer to open JRiver. Or now Roo n and starting up from my tablet is worth a lot to me. Getting older and lazy maybe

Amazon isn’t working that great right now either. My wife paid for prime so the Amazon HD attaches to her Amazon account. So it won’t allow my tablet to control it on my tablet. Stupid but even though we are only controlling 1 stereo, it sees us as more then one user and then you need to pay for a family membership which is $20 so then I’d be better with Tidal or Qbuz. Or just my NAS

Also can’t get Amazon on the computer to play through the Node for some reason. Only plays on the Node from my wife’s tablet. Pretty frustrating. Trying to fix too many things at once right now. Pretty frustrating

I here you on the Raspberry Pi. I just hate computer crap and have less then zero patience for it. It’s hard enough getting something to work that was built by some big company and is supposed to be plug and play

Not to be a butthead but I also can’t imagine the Pi sounding as good as my refstream. There has to be something too the expensive streamers or everyone would have the Pi.

I just spent thousands on cables that I never believed made a difference but they really did. Thousands of dollars worth of difference? Probably not but that’s how this hobby works. You do the best you can in your budget, then you go over budget

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Yeah. That’s where I’m at. That’s why I’m considering the Nucleus. And adding a hard drive to it to eliminate the NAS should help the cause too. I snaked the wires for everything before I started all this. I knew I didn’t trust wireless

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Couple of things…have your wife sign out of Amazon and then you can sign into her account on your tablet using her ID and password.

I thought you had your Nodi 2i plugged into your pre-amp. If you decide to ditch the Node 2i, you can do the same with a Raspberry Pi as long as your pre-amp has USB in. If you’re going with Roon, you need a Roon bridge device plugged in somewhere. There are other turn-key solutions available.

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Good point. This is going to take a long time. Hopefully connecting the Node with Ethernet fixed it. Should have done that in the first place. Just didn’t want to pull the cable out of my refstream as a symbol of its demise which I think it was if Roo n does the job

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Yeah tried that. It wouldn’t let me . Didn’t under why.

Yes optical to the Dac. But was doing wireless ethernet. The 2.5 doesn’t connect to Ethernet

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Didn’t you say that the Nucleus fixed your problems. Along with hard wiring everything which I have already done.

Think cat 6 was just out at the time. My electrician said I was nuts. They wire even the zillion dollar homes with cat 5

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USB, not ethernet. Where ever and however you have the Node 2i plugged in, you should be able to replace the Nodi 2i with a Raspberry Pi if the input device has USB. I’m just throwing this out as an option if you decide not to purchase the Nodi 2i.

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Yes, but I already had an Oppo 203 which is a Roon ready device connected to my sound system. Since I had a Roon ready DAC, I did not need a Roon bridge device. As I understand what you are doing, you are using a borrowed Blusound Node 2i as your Roon bridge device. If you decide to keep it, problem solved. Now all you need to do is figure out why the dropouts.

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Yeah. The 2.5. It does have usb. I could do the Raspberry Pi as a cheap way to buy time to decide what to do. If I don’t figure it out this week

Also haven’t gotten Alexa to work with the Node yet either. My wife has patience so she started but then we get side tracked fixing some other problem. I understand how things should work but have no patience for the computer end. She will try different stuff on the computer but didn’t really understand the stereo end