Roon Discussion

Discussion in 'Computer Audiophile: Software, Configs, Tools' started by AllanMarcus, Jul 3, 2016.

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  1. wormcycle

    wormcycle Friend

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    Very true, but there is good news for the Roon 1.8 880 and 882 problems.
    The version 1.8 build 884 fixed the issue, and they finally identified the problem described as: "* Resolved issues causing variable number of library albums across app starts". That was exactly it, sometimes it was like 5 albums among 1000+ in the library, and maybe it was the only bug. 884 worked for me and there is more positive feedback, big relief because my last clean rebuild of the library with 882 worked for while and then the issues started again.
    The question why the heck they went through all this self damaging cycle of denials, blaming user setups etc etc...
    Anyway big relief.
     
  2. Riotvan

    Riotvan Snoofer in the Woofer

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    Reading the changelog i hope they fixed the app crashing on my ipad...
     
  3. YMO

    YMO Chief Fun Officer

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    I had a random Roon crash on me last night and again that caused a kernel panic on my Mac. I still think Roon isn't optimized to M1 as of yet I think.
     
  4. Cryptowolf

    Cryptowolf Repping Chi Town - Friend

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    My anecdotal experience matches yours. i used to run Roon Core on a M1 Mac Mini. I had a host of problems that resolved when I moved to a Innuos Zen Mini dedicated Core. It has an Intel processor and runs a customized Linux OS.

    My experience with the M1 overall has been great for 1st party apps and optimized code, but anything audio related has been rough. I ditched virtual room emulation, crossfeed, and digital EQ because I could not find stable plugins.
     
  5. YMO

    YMO Chief Fun Officer

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    When I gotten my M1 Mac mini with the new MacOS 12 Monterey I had more OS panics (which one was caused by Roon). Every Roon update and OS update the panics frequency keep going down and down. On audio music listening (not music creation) its been good other than a few minor quirks. Roon just need to make their code work on M1 and beyond and they are all set IMO.

    For me...I'm leaving Roon on my M1 since the power consumption of the M1 Macs is cray cray good. I don't miss my Thinkpad at all.
     
  6. Riotvan

    Riotvan Snoofer in the Woofer

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    Roon server has been rock solid on my Fedora desktop lately. On a different machine it was different.
     
  7. earnmyturns

    earnmyturns Smartest friend

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    I've been seeing multiple meltdowns in organizations that used to run relatively well but we now discover were running at the edge and the current increase in world chaos seems to have pushed them over. Roon leadership has always been a bit opinionated on the forum, which was just entertaining in good times, but set a poor example for their frontline support team. The biggest issue with 880/882 is that they finally decided to do database integrity checks and those users whose Roon databases — and their backups — had been silently corrupted in the past by hardware and software glitches ended up in the lurch. The fact that they had been going for years without any integrity checks and just hoping that no bits got flipped by alpha particles or power outages might have added some over-defensiveness to the mix.

    Personally, I do all my metadata tweaking outside Roon with a file tag app, so the main thing I'd lose with a database wipeout would be my play history and personalized recommendations. Nice to have, but not a must.
     
    Last edited: Dec 24, 2021
  8. Riotvan

    Riotvan Snoofer in the Woofer

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    Well that’s a f'ing nope… usually at least one crash per session. Everything else works perfectly on this ipad pro.
     
  9. wormcycle

    wormcycle Friend

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    I am experimenting in Roon with the HD650 and LCD-X 2021 convolution filters and found something that could be obvious, was not for me, that the sequence of applying filters matters a lot.
    I am using here the Audeze preset, Jan Meier crossfeed, an Procedural EQ to lower the volume in the left channel by -0.5 dB to compensate for my crooked ears. The sequence below is the only one where there is nothing wrong with stereo image. I started in a wrong way: the volume first, then Audeze preset, and then the volume balance.
    Was not happy at all with the stereo image and instrument separation. Took me some time to guess what could be the problem.
    I wonder if there is any general rule how to apply DSP filters: FR correction, anything else, and then the volume correction? That sequence makes sense when I think about it but I do not really know. Or it is just implementation dependent?

    upload_2022-1-15_17-24-29.png
     
  10. Metro

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    My Pi2AES streamer has been a Roon endpoint running RoPieee or Volumio. I looked into options for playing an audio CD with an attached USB CD reader drive.

    The paid version of Volumio includes CD player software, but I found that it works poorly. It causes the drive to spin at high speed (mine goes up to 24x) which is very noisy, and it doesn't play gapless (re-seeks and takes up to a few seconds between tracks). On Volumio 2 there was a CD player plugin called Nanosound, but it hasn't been migrated to Volumio 3 yet. I tried installing the Volumio 2 final release but couldn't get the Nanosound plugin working.

    I tried the rAudio-1 music player, which has an integrated CD player. It works well (gapless and quiet spin), but unfortunately rAudio doesn't support Roon Bridge yet.

    I discovered that there is a way for Roon to play an audio CD directly. If you run DietPi as the Roon endpoint, there is a CD player Roon Extension that can be installed. This was my first exposure to DietPi. It is lot more geeky than user oriented software like Volumio, Moode, RoPieee, etc. and highly configurable. After installing and starting DietPi, I logged in through an ssh terminal and installed Roon Bridge and the Roon Extension Manager, and configured audio to use the Pi2AES. After the Roon endpoint is connected and running, the remaining setup is done in the Roon app under Settings > Extensions. Use the Extension Manager to install the Gateway and CD entrypoint extensions, and set up the CD player as a custom live radio station. It is all described in a YouTube video.

    It all works, but the interface is wonky. The CD player becomes set up as a live radio station under My Live Radio. When a CD is loaded, the play/stop button performs play or pause.
    Screen Shot 2022-05-30 at 3.04.51 AM.png
    Screen Shot 2022-05-29 at 3.54.48 PM.png

    To look at the metadata and playing status, you need to go into Settings > Extensions.
    Screen Shot 2022-05-29 at 4.44.35 PM.png

    To move between tracks, there are controls in the CD Entrypoint extension settings (the live radio controls can't do it).
    Screen Shot 2022-05-29 at 4.45.23 PM.png

    Therefore the experience is not bad if you just want to start a disc and let it play through, but awkward if you want to play or skip specific tracks. This extension is only a workaround that provides some basic CD player functionality.

    The result does sound good. The CD audio stream is converted to FLAC and handled by RAAT, and in the end sent out through my Pi2AES to my DAC.
    Screen Shot 2022-05-30 at 3.08.53 AM.png
     
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    Last edited: May 30, 2022
  11. Metro

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    Quick summary for my previous post, to play audio CDs on Roon. Lots of little steps, but this is the overview.
    1. Set up a Roon endpoint that runs DietPi. In addition to Roon Bridge, also install Roon Extension Manager.
    2. In the Roon app, enable the DietPi endpoint and follow this YouTube video for the next two steps.
    3. Go to Settings > Extensions > Roon Extension Manager > Settings, and install Entrypoint Gateway and CD Entrypoint
    4. Use the URL in CD Entrypoint Settings to set up a custom live radio station
    To play a CD:
    1. Connect a USB CD drive and load a CD
    2. In My Live Radio, open the CD Entrypoint station and press play
    To switch tracks, open Settings > Extensions > CD Entrypoint > Settings > Broadcast (select action)

    20220530_131749.jpg
     
  12. iFi audio

    iFi audio MOT iFi Audio

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    If I may ask, what's that angled XLR (that's XLR, isn't it?) plug you have connected into your Pi2?
     
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  13. RestoredSparda

    RestoredSparda Friend

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  14. Metro

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    It's a right angle XLR connector from Cable Techniques.
    [​IMG]
    This (B-shell, with large cable outlet) is what I wanted, but minimum shipping is steep for purchasing a single connector. I bought mine from one of their vendors, Redco Audio with lower shipping. It has the A-shell, which has a different range of exit angles but it works fine.

    I was originally using a right angle Neutrik XLR, but it is bulky and its limited range of angles causes it block one or more ports on the Pi2AES.
    [​IMG]
    Switching it out really made me appreciate the solid build quality of Neutrik. It can withstand rough handling by a road crew rushing to pack up gear and get to the next concert venue. Not so much with the Cable Techniques.
     
    Last edited: May 31, 2022
  15. crenca

    crenca Friend

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    At this past weekends 'Texas Audio Roundup' I was poking around in Roon and "discovered" two new setting's that are very significant to me. Not sure what update these showed up in or how long ago, but helpful for me.

    Go to "Settings", and under "General", scroll all the way to the bottom and notice the "Streaming Content Preferences" settings. The first and the third are relevant, in that we can now unprivilege MQA - no more drilling down into "versions" to get to the Hi or just CD resolution!!
     
    Last edited: Jul 28, 2022
  16. Clemmaster

    Clemmaster Friend

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    Good find!

    I like how they spell it out clearly: “Treat MQA as worse than CD quality, but not as bad as lossy codecs” :D
     
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  17. Taverius

    Taverius Smells like sausages

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    Since MQA *is* a lossy code where, unlike MP3, Vorbis and Opus, we don't have control over the compression settings or any knowledge thereof, the correct setting to use is the final one.

    "treat MQA worse than everything else, as the scam it is"
     
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  18. Ksaurav402

    Ksaurav402 Friend

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    Is this a new feature “Streaming Service Preference”?
    I wanted it
    5FA58373-2F60-412A-BF23-180178B47D0A.jpeg
     
  19. Metro

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    It was added about a month ago and was mentioned a few posts back.
     
  20. zonto

    zonto Friend

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    Roon released Roon 2.0 today: https://blog.roonlabs.com/introducing-roon-2-0-and-roon-arc/.

    As part of this release, they released a new app called Roon ARC, which brings Roon functionality to mobile devices (including downloading local, on-device copies of songs for listening without mobile device signal). See: https://roonlabs.com/arc

    Per the Roon Users Facebook group it looks like there was a Core update that is also needed to use ARC. Maybe one of these days I'll get off my butt and finish my Roon Rock server setup and actually use the Roon for which I have paid.
     

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