Please recommend a cheap Roon endpoint

Hi. Trying Roon and want to play high res files.

Roon would live on iMac. 29,000 songs stored on Synology NAS. Nearby is my Yamaha RX-V2085 AVR. It has a nice ESS dac built in.

I want a turnkey endpoint, controllable by iPhone, to play my music. I can connect via Ethernet if need be. Bewildered by all the options.

Thanks for any advice. Allo? Which one? Others? Not really looking for diy.

 

I haven’t tried it, but a small stick computer might work. I have one of the Lenovo Sticks and i seem to remember using it for awhile before getting my uRendu, but i dont remember how well it worked. I know I certainly had to have it connected to a TV to deal with it day to day.

 

Chromecast Audio. They are discontinued, but you can pick one up for under $50. Output is limited to 24/96 and will connect to your receiver via optical cable.

 

Thanks. Looking for something that goes to 192/24.

 

Raspberry Pi with RoipeeeXL image.

Fantastic endpoint. Use mind with a i2s Also Boss 1.2 Dac....Does up to 24/382

RoipeeeXL also turns the pi into a Airplay, Upnp, Spotify Connect receiver

 

I use the Allo Digi One as my Roon endpoint.
Works with Tidel so I can control it via my phone or computer.

 

Digi one seems to have a lotta love on Roon site too. Can I use it with RoipeeeXL? Do I need to?
So if I get a digi one, do I need to program or install anything? Or do I just power it up and connect and Roon will find?

thanks all

 

With a Digi-one you will need a additional DAC that fits to the SPDIF output.

The Digi-one basically lets you get as clean a signal possible from the raspberry pi.

You would still need a distro like Ropieee in order to tell the pi to behave as a Roon endpoint.

So , you need:-

1, A raspberry Pi

2, A distro software such as Ropiee, Diet-Pi, Volumio, Pi-Core Player.
(Ropieee is probably best for your needs)

3, A dac for the Pi to send the music to your amplifier.
This can be a additional board for the Pi, known as a HAT (This is what I use, All Boss). a usb dac plugged directly into a USB port on the Pi, or something
like the Digi-one add on board plus your own dac plugged into it via SPDIF.

 

Can Roon be installed on a NAS?

 

I believe it can, but only certain ones.

Best to check Roon wiki pages

 

Thanks.
I was thinking of setting up Roon minus the expense of their Nucleus boxes, I know that a NUC (ROCK or whatever) can be put together and work well, but I was wanting to get a well appointed NAS setup, I suppose the beauty of Roon is probably most in effect when it is the only OS on a drive though -not sure.

 

I run Roon on a lowly mini Windows 10 pc (minix) with just that on it. It only has a Atom processor but has no problems running Roon even when using DSP.
I leave it on 24/7 headless and if I need to access it I use teamviewer.

 

I have a DAC in my Yamaha receiver, which is a good one, so that’s what I would use. I think the Digi one comes with diet pi. If I order that, am I good?

 

Yes it can, but you'll need a high end one with decent chip and RAM. See here:
Roon Knowledge Base - Roon Server on NAS

 

I’m not even trying with my D218+. I’ll just let it live on my imac

 

If you can connect to your Yamaha via HDMI, you may only need a Raspberry Pi (i.e. no daughter board).

 

I think what I read is that the HDMI is not a digital audio output and you need a hat to get a digital output, but what do I know

 

This is what I am landing on: anyone used it?

https://www.allo.com/sparky/digione-player.html

 

Load RoPieee on the Allo and you're good to go.

 

It comes preloaded with diet pi. I believe that that is a Roon bridge enabled operating system. Is that good enough ?

Not sure how to load RoPieee

 

Flash to SD card. You can read more about it HERE.

You can learn about diet pi vs ropieee on the roon forums HERE.

 

If you can get an old Squeezebox Touch that works as a Roon bridge and supports 24/192. It's what I use for an office system into an old Arcam AVR I'm using as a 2-channel receiver. As mentioned Chromecast Audio, but that is limited to 24/96. If you visit the Roon site, I think it has a list of other options to use as a Roon bridge (which is what you are really looking for).

 

There are other companies that sell a similar product. Just search for "Chromecast Audio" on Amazon.

 

Picked up one of the CanaKit's from BB last weekend and loaded up Ropieee. Really couldn't have been easier. Assemble the unit and Flash a card with BalenaEtcher. Stick the card in attach the Dragonfly and plug it is. Just about as easy as it gets, and with the Dragonfly it sounds really nice.

 

I’ve used the Digi One and other various RPi hats but these days I just use the perfectly clean USB output of the Pi 3 along with Ropieee.

Note RopieeeXL adds DLNA/plex support. For Roon it offers no value.