My Roon Wishlist

ok..Here goes.

I'm gearing up to purchase Roon. I'm convinced it's the best front end system out on the market.
The hardware is where things start getting "fussy"

So I figured I'd state what I'd like from the system and see if my wants are even possible.

Hoffman experts, I need your guidence!

I have an Anthem 720.

Requirements:

01: I have about 8 Terabytes of mono, stereo and 5.1 FLAC files. I'd like to play them. They are on a USB external hard drive

02: I'd like to stream Tidal high res "master" files using the Roon interface.

03: I'd like to play 5.1 FLACS (in surround) from my external drive.

I'm willing to:

01: Spend up to $1000 on hardware

02: Use a computer (Build one or buy one)

03: And/or buy a Oppo player that's compatible with Roon

Possible?

 

Roon is fantastic and, despite its price, one of the great bargains in HiFi. I don't think the Anthem is Roon ready (or has Airplay) so you'll need a way of connecting (an endpoint in Roon parlance). Lots of options for where to house the Roon core - NUC, Windows or Mac laptop, Mac Mini, high end NAS, music server like Roon Nucleus, etc. I personally use a Mac Mini to host the core which is connected by ethernet (via router and switch) to a Sonore ultraRendu (an ethernet>USB bridge) which feeds the USB input on my Hegel H190. Files are stored on a Synology NAS also connected by ethernet, but could easily be on a USB drive connected to the computer with the Roon core on it. Roon Control is via iPhone, Android phone, iPads or mostly a MacBook Pro. There are many other options for both wireless and ethernet based systems, but for me this works extremely well and integrates seamlessly with Tidal. Despite what the Mac Mini haters on e.g. Audiogon say, sound quality on this system is excellent.

For 5.1 you might need to think of other options (including the now defunct Oppo). TBH I play the relatively small amount of 5.1 stuff I have through a Blu-Ray player hooked up to the Arcam AVR450 by HDMI - sounds great.

 

You should have a backup of that external hard drive. I would consider NAS solution over just a backup. A NAS offer advantages over like RAID redundancy. It also includes the use use of Hard Disks that are suitable for constant spinning. That's a lot of data.

 

I have a few backups. Thanks.

 

The only way Roon makes sense at it's price point is if you start comparing it to productivity software like Photoshop. In that regard, because the program gets updated constantly, it could be worth the $500 price tag. But I find the subscription based model to be disingenuous. Roon is really smart and has convinced so many people that it's a necesary buy, and imposed a subscription based sales model on their customer base. I don't feel that software to playback local music files deserves a $10 a month paywall behind it. It should be a limited time lisence, one time. Not ongoing. And probably not $500.

But they have the snazziest looking interface. So what can you do but just buy it?

 

I would never spend $500 on a lifetime subscription for any platform. But the $120 a year is not so prohibitive if the software provides genuine value?

As I said in my OP, my mind has already been made up about Roon. I'm more concerned with finding hardware options that best suit my needs.

 

It's even good value when you have to pay with the Canadian peso

 

I'd also suggest looking at a NAS. Both my QNAP models were inexpensive. The oldest one has been running for about ten years. NAS models can be chosen which are quiet (and cool) and sync to USB 3 drives. Roon software runs on the NAS and can be accessed from computers and peripherals. I use Tidal with Roon and do not have any issues--except that new releases are sometimes delayed a few days. I ported everything over from Logitech Media Server and a squeezebox system and never looked back.

Technically speaking the Roon front end as database software is still maturing, it's the back end database and data that IMO is certainly worth the purchase price. The bonus is their partners in the industry.

If considering a NAS, you may be tempted to over-purchase. The biggest NAS Roon processor hit is building the initial library. My library of 3 TB took a couple of days to build--I also restricted the processor so that the NAS would run cooler. The NAS as a file server uses minimal CPU and network bandwidth.

 

If you are comfortable building an Intel NUC, you could use this as your Roon server with your USB music files attached. Install Roon ROCK, then use the HDMI out from the NUC to your Anthem 720 for multi channel (and stereo/mono). I would try this before buying the Oppo, unless you need/want to play CD, SACD, BluRay, etc.

If the fan noise of the NUC turns out to be an issue in your room, you could buy a fanless case.

I have a lifetime subscription to Roon, and while it is far from perfect, I can’t imagine going back to my pre-Roon days. I would suggest you start with an annual subscription, and get everything up and running. If you like what it does, and want to go lifetime, contact them and they will roll your annual into lifetime, on a pro rata basis (that is, if you use Roon for 2 months, they will apply the value of the remaining 10 months towards lifetime).

I’m not a multi channel expert, but I’ll try to answer anything I can... good luck!

 

Thanks for your thoughts! I managed get a Elac Discover for dirt cheap, so I'm using that for my endpoint and a 2018 iMac for my core.
I have no expectations that this system will handle my 10 tb of content, but it's a start.

I'm pretty sure the Elac does not pass 5.1 through the optical out, so I may be out of luck on this front. Finding info for 5.1 and the Elac has been "challenging".

I'm wondering if the best Roon system is just the Roon Nucleus+? Im not terribly excited about building a PC and diving into the world of Unix with ROCK etc. Maybe it's not as difficult as I think it is?

 

I can understand not wanting to build a PC... I think the Nucleus is a great idea, if you are okay with the premium price. The price reflects the build, the cool looking case, and support from Roon Labs.

Keep in mind that with ROCK, you don’t need any Linux skills... in fact Roon locks down the OS so you can’t tinker with it at all. I’m not using ROCK now, but installing it on a NUC was very easy if you have any tech ability at all (rip a CD, copy files to USB drives, etc.)

Here’s another idea... if you are happy with your iMac as your core, you could check ebay/craigslist for a used Intel NUC already built, then load ROCK on that. (ROCK is not just for use as a server/core - it can be loaded and used as an endpoint). Looks like NUC5i3xxx models with RAM and small hard drives (the minimum needed for ROCK) go for $100-200 . You won’t need a lot of processing power, since you’ll only be using it as an endpoint...

A variation on the above, would be to run Win 10 on the NUC, so you could pass video as well (that is, the Roon display). The downside is that you have to deal with Windows drivers, updates, etc.

 

Yeah...it does look like a wildly better solution, in terms of cost.

I may dive in!

The links provided here look interesting:

Roon Knowledge Base - Roon Optimized Core Kit

 

I built up a Roon ROCK server on an Intel NUC (NUC8i7BEH) with SSD for the OS and memory for about $600. It was easy to do following the instructions on the Roon website, and took me no more than an hour to stand up. This is roughly equivalent to the $2500 Nucleus+, but without the fancy fanless case.

For about another $130 I added a 1 TB internal SSD for my audio files (I just have about 600 GBs). So everything is self contained in a small appliance that needs little to no attention or care. I have another copy of my audio files on another drive for backup. I also use Qobuz with Roon, so having a single unified interface for my digital audio life for $120 a year is is worth it to me.