Roon Discussion

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

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  1. barbz

    barbz New

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    Are there any other good options for setting up a roon endpoint with USB dac support other than the rendu, sotm s200, Allo usBridge signature?

    Thankyou
     
  2. rlow

    rlow A happy woofer

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  3. barbz

    barbz New

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    Thankyou. Can you confirm it has USB support through the top hat?

    From the photos or looks like USB is through the base pi and spidf, coaxial, etc are through the top hat.
     
  4. rlow

    rlow A happy woofer

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    Sheesh sorry I completely overlooked the “USB DAC” part, sorry about that. Nope no USB output from the HAT sorry. There’s not a ton of USB only DACs out there anymore so I just assumed it wasn’t one of those. What DAC are you using?
     
    Last edited: May 30, 2020
  5. gaspasser

    gaspasser Flatulence Maestro

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    What is your setup? DAC, amp, etc?
    Edit: @rlow posted and I missed it while I was typing. I have Pi2AES and USBridge and they have different sounds.
     
  6. barbz

    barbz New

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    I'm looking to repurpose my giesler Klien3 dac in my speaker setup, this dac is USB only.

    My current speaker setup us Chromecast audio direct to Yamaha a-s500 feeding a pair of usher s520.

    The Chromecast is setup as a roon endpoint. The Klien3 is currently in my headphone rig but will be replaced by a bifrost 2 this week.

    I like the Klien3 and want to use it elsewhere rather than selling it on.
     
  7. rlow

    rlow A happy woofer

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    Any reason you’re opposed to the Microrendu, SMS200 or USBridge?
     
  8. barbz

    barbz New

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    None at all, I was just asking if they were the only options that I should be looking into or if there were others.

    Sotm's are more common here on the second hand market so will keep an eye out.

    Thankyou
     
  9. rlow

    rlow A happy woofer

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    The Sotm is a great USB streamer. I have an Ultra Neo in my main system, but also had the standard version, and it’s really good too. A used one is definitely what I would recommend.
     
  10. scblock

    scblock Friend

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    A basic Raspberry Pi 3 or 4 running Roon Bridge can also output to a USB DAC, and is a very inexpensive way to set up a simple streaming receiver. I know the Pi's USB ports aren't the greatest in the world, but I happily used a setup like this for years before adding an SPDIF HAT. Ropieee is an easy way to get things working, and if you later want to add SPDIF outputs that's easy to do too with a HAT like the pi2design one @rlow linked above.
     
  11. Lou Casadonte

    Lou Casadonte Friend

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    I discovered the display feature for ropiee and built a rasberry pi 3b+ based dedicated desktop display for roon. I don't see folks talk about this too much. It could be an endpoint with the addition of a dac or hat, amp/headphone amp combo if you wanted. I just wanted a display for the now playing stuff with simple controls. I used a smarticase touch 2 case/kit which had all necessary connectors and screws and configured roon by adding the ropiee extension and then telling the display which endpoint to monitor and done. Very cool project, not terribly expensive (185 us) and there are many variations possible. [​IMG] IMG_5278.JPG IMG_5279.JPG IMG_5281.JPG IMG_5282.JPG
     
  12. SineDave

    SineDave Friend

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  13. wormcycle

    wormcycle Friend

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    I actually respect this guy very much if for nothing else for his spectacular take down of the MQA fraud.
    But his measurements only conclude that "Nothing to worry about and all three devices result in the same analogue output from the TEAC USB DAC". One of those devices was Rpi3 USB, other two were USB feeds as well.
    I had the same DAC TEAC U501, its async USB is exceptionally good.
    The problem is that in RPi 3 both Ethernet and Wi-fi are just USB internal dongles. And no matter what his oscilloscope is telling him, if you stream hi res audio through RPi networking, and use USB out to a DAC it does not sound very good comparing to even a basic RPi 3 SPDIF hat like Digi+.
     
  14. Taverius

    Taverius Smells like sausages

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    Yep.

    Like, it's fine at doing one thing, but it's not very strong and all the ports are hooked to the same logical hub, so it's very easy to overload it if you try to do more than one thing at once with it, and you can't really solve it with an external network because that would also be usb.

    The WiFi is also weak on its own - not that the 4 has particularly strong WiFi, but there's always going to be a compromise cramming that much stuff into that small a board at that low a price.

    Its kind of ... the pi is actually rather poorly suited to be a roon endpoint. CPU-wise a pi zero is all you need, but it's quite taxing on the network, and pis are specced the other way around.
     
  15. Azteca

    Azteca Friend

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  16. SineDave

    SineDave Friend

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  17. Ksaurav402

    Ksaurav402 Friend

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    It's not always about USB vs Coax performance on a transport but how a digital interface has been implemented on DAC side.One of the benefit of Pi2AES is the number of digital interface that one gets. If a DAC has a nicely implemented USB then no need to use Pi2AES but if someone is using a DAC from say Metrum which doesn't have good USB then using AES or I2S is imperative and that's when this HAT punches above its price point.
     
  18. Michael Kelly

    Michael Kelly MOT: Pi 2 Design

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    It would be useful to other folks to know what DAC you are connecting to. Clearly a DAC with a solid USB implementation gives you good results. But not all DAC’s have a good USB implementation, nor do all USB sources.
     
    Last edited: Jun 11, 2020
  19. gaspasser

    gaspasser Flatulence Maestro

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    What does this mean? Are you suggesting USB out of RPi to DAC is better than Pi2AES? Especially since this is a Roon thread, I doubt it. I would say from experience that USB-based transports sound different than Pi2AES and whether it is better is a matter of personal taste and gear synergy.
     
  20. SineDave

    SineDave Friend

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    I'm saying that there is no discernible difference to my ears between a good USB implementation on the DAC fed via Pi4 USB and the Pi2AES to my ears other than the character of the input itself. I have tested several DACs fed via the Pi4's USB port and also the Pi2AES (running Ropieee) - and I'm just not sure where people are coming up with these statements proclaiming the Pi2AES's superiority over a good USB implementation - I think it's just a bit of audio nervosa combined with confirmation bias.
     

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