Roon Discussion

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

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  1. earnmyturns

    earnmyturns Smartest friend

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    Maybe, but Prime and high-markup products such as new brand name gadgets is where it's at for them.
     
  2. supertransformingdhruv

    supertransformingdhruv Almost "Made"

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    Amazon, it should be mentioned, also has the start of their own hardware ecosystem for streaming with the Echo link & Echo link amp. They could see integration with Roon as competition, or they could see it as an extension to what they already do.

    It's hard to tell where they're going a lot of the time. Famously, they announced around 60 hardware products last fall... it's impossible to say if they've got a larger strategy or if they're just building everything they can.
     
  3. gaspasser

    gaspasser Flatulence Maestro

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    I’m interested in building a Roon ROCK device following their guide here.

    Has anybody here built one? Are there better alternatives in a similar price range? I want to keep it to around $500 if possible. I am planning to go ethernet out to my USBridge.
     
  4. mkozlows

    mkozlows Friend

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    I'm not using their ROCK software, but I do have a NUC and was running Roon on it.

    Building the hardware is trivial. Literally you unscrew the case, and slip an M2 SSD card and a DIMM into their sockets, screw it back up, and you're done. If you've ever done literally anything with electronics, you're golden. Software should be pretty straightforward, too, as long as you have a computer where you can burn an image to an SD card.

    The only real downside is that the NUC does have a fan in it, so if you're keeping it in the same room as your actual listening devices, you've got that going on. It's pretty quiet under normal load, but gets noticeably loud under load (like when playing games); not sure how much load Roon's DSP stuff will put on it. Otherwise, it's a great little machine for the purpose -- inexpensive, convenient, and directly supported.
     
  5. rlow

    rlow A happy woofer

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    Yeah I bought a used NUC (i3) and put ROCK on it. I don’t think there’s any cheaper way than this to run Roon Core/server, other than an existing PC you already have. Using the guide it was very easy - maybe took around 45 minutes or so. I go Ethernet out to a SOTM USB streamer.
     
  6. Lou Casadonte

    Lou Casadonte Friend

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    I went with an 7I5 Nuc and it has worked like a champ. I use a wd passport external 4tb usb drive for the data. Streamer is separate (auralic/hifiberry/chrome audio). I have several of each streamer and connect them directly to a dac via usb or aes. The hifiberry is analog out to my whole home system. I love roon rock. I wanted an appliance like device and it delivers.
     
  7. crenca

    crenca Friend

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    Roon's DSP does put a significant (causing fan spool up to high) my i7 processor & GPU's in my main system.
     
  8. rlow

    rlow A happy woofer

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    Are you running it standalone with ROCK, or on a system with other things? I’ve only used a bit of DSP, but noticed no fan noise when I did. Also I’m only indexing about 500 albums, so not a huge collection. The i3 NUC running ROCK does fine for my situation at the moment and is basically silent.
     
  9. crenca

    crenca Friend

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    No, I run Roon core on a heavily used Win 10 system with an i7 6700T, 16 GB, system board Intel GPU as well as AMD Radeon A9 - this is an HP all-in-one with the internals of a robust laptop. I am usually running several bands of EQ and often HP crossfeed in Roon. Both GPU's get used by Roon's DSP to a significant extent, the CPU a bit less so, but it's enough to kick up the fan speed. I also limit my CPU to 2.2 Ghz to keep Windows/apps from overclocking it. Back when I was regularly using HQPlayer all this was even more necessary, but Roon's DSP levarges those GPU's enough that the fans get kicked up out of slow/quiet mode pretty easily (espically if I am using the computer in other ways while listening with Roon). If I turn DSP off, Roon utilization goes down to a "normal" app level, but I like my EQ...
     
  10. Taverius

    Taverius Smells like sausages

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    The fan on my i7 nuc only spins up when it has to index a bunch of new albums at once.
     
  11. starence

    starence Facebook Friend

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    There was a Roon update a week ago. My favorite new feature is the recommendations based on album, I've discovered some good stuff that way.

    Oh, they also increased the lifetime subscription price, but the yearly rate is unchanged.
     
  12. Taverius

    Taverius Smells like sausages

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    Yeah bought the lifetime after a week and I'm glad I did.

    I mean for a hobby made almost entirely of stupid expenses this was one of the most reasonable.
     
  13. psuKinger

    psuKinger Facebook Friend

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    +1, I've really been enjoying it to. Just yesterday alone I ran into 2 or 3 albums I liked and never heard before because of it.
     
  14. supertransformingdhruv

    supertransformingdhruv Almost "Made"

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    Does it pull recommendations from Tidal/Qobuz now? If I recall correctly, it used to only show me similar artists from my library.

    Can't play with it myself as I'm visiting with family for the holiday, unfortunately.
     
  15. crenca

    crenca Friend

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    Yes, though Roon radio always did...but I think your right in that "discovery" was limited to your library of local and Tidal/Qobuz favorites...
     
  16. psuKinger

    psuKinger Facebook Friend

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    Yes as other poster indicated, recommendations (from Tidal and Qobuz) now appear along the right while playing something else... And I have found them to be particularly helpful/useful/interesting...
     
  17. iFi audio

    iFi audio MOT iFi Audio

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    Folks, apologies if we're mentioning it again, but just recently we launched a handy software, which allows our Pro iDSD to act like a Roon endpoint.

    More nfo is to be found in this vid:

     
  18. Lou Casadonte

    Lou Casadonte Friend

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    Picked up some pretty nice cases to take my core on the road on black friday. Also picked up a nice deal on a used NUC 7I7 for 315.



    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]
     
  19. MyPetSasquatch

    MyPetSasquatch Friend

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    I've been running my core on a Roon ROCK server for the past 2 years that I built out of a NUC7i3BNH. I went with the lowest spec'd i3 NUC because my database isn't huge and I don't run DSP (I have a separate miniDSP module for Dirac). While the fan noise was never a big deal from my listening position, I decided on a whim to transfer everything into a fanless case just to make everything dead silent. I grabbed an Akasa Plato X7 case not realizing it was total overkill for the i3, but oh well. It was relatively simple to gut the NUC and transfer everything over to the X7 minus some weird instructions regarding the thermal pads/paste.

    The X7 feels like a solidly constructed case and at it's hottest is barely warm to the touch with the i3, but it is huge compared to the NUC. One annoying note is that the blue LED light tube that lights up the front panel LED light is insanely bright if you like to listen in the dark or low-lit conditions.

    [​IMG]
     
  20. Lou Casadonte

    Lou Casadonte Friend

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    I've been curious about those cases. I'm not sure I ever hear my fans turn on.
     

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