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My (Ma)Roon(ed) Experience


artto

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I like Roon.  I use it for organizing my disc collection but I also integrate Qobuz for streaming.   I like organizing my collection for surfing the various versions.  It takes some time for the complex collections like King Krimson with big boxes.

 

I also like tagging for easy sorts like all my MFSL or all MFSL Gold or Deluxe Editions, etc.

king crimson roon1.png

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I have been working on setting up Jriver house wide in order to be able to compare Jriver with Roon.  Jriver is somewhat difficult to get it to work properly with the various endpoints.  I am a long time Jriver user and it is still difficult to get the settings correct or.....even to find which settings affect what.

 

Yesterday I loaded Roon.  Initial impressions are:

- Much more elegant interface than Jriver

- Roon does a much better job of getting cover art and organizing my library

- Roon is way better at discovering and analyzing the endpoints and their capabilities.

- The Roon remote on the iPad is light years ahead of what Jriver offers to control the 'core' system

 

So far, I'm very impressed with Roon, with the great exception of the price Roon demands.  I guess, you get what you pay for. I hope to do some listening comparisons today. 

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I've been running Roon Server for NAS on my QNAP TVS-872XT with SSD for the Roon database for about 2 years.  Hard to beat the Roon GUI and convenience of having my local collection instantly accessible searchable sequencing.  Sound is excellent and performance over my LAN really quick.

 

Biggest drawback for me is it won't play my extensive surround sound tracks natively.  For that I would need a multichannel certified Roon endpoint.  Even my otherwise great for MCH Oppo 203 and 203 clone will only do 2 channel in Roon.  The MCH tracks play downmixed with a lot of "f*ckery" (as pbphoto puts it).

 

 

RoonHome.jpg

Roon 6 to 2 fuckery.jpg

 

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Interesting.  Thought there was a setting, advanced or otherwise, which allows you to set the output from the core to the endpoints.  IIRC, the default was set to 2, but I was able to change it to 7.1, which my main system supports.  Of course, I could be totally out to lunch since I am very much new to the software. 

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10 hours ago, pbphoto said:

I don't know much about Roon multi-channel

 

I don't either but from what I've gathered reading on the roon forms there are a handful of DACs with multiple chips on them specifically designed for 5.1. with a little work you can make it happen. My take on it is there is nothing like pointing roon at your oppo and it just working. You need a specifically designed outboard DAC.

 

I'm mildly interested in it but don't have enough multi-channel files to really pursue it. I know lots of people like it but to me multichannel music especially something like dark side of the Moon that wasn't meant to be that way feels gimmicky. Kind of neat at first but the novelty wears off quickly.

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I have been a diehard fan of Jriver for many years.  It has been my go to system to play my digital library.  However, the elegance and simplicity of Roon is going to make it really hard to go back to Jriver.  I know that Roon cannot play my .iso files, so will have to figure out how to convert those to a format Roon can read and play.  

 

I may just have to bite the bullet and at least sign up for a one year subscription.  This really is a well written and executed piece of software.  

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Eureka! Nothing like achieving something new with existing resources.  After a little research I found someone who was getting MCH in Roon not over the LAN but HDMI direct.  Got it working on my HT system in the basement where the NAS is near my Oppo 203.  I plugged a generic too long HDMI cable from NAS out to Oppo in and configured it as follows.  Convert to PCM was the only method that worked.  

 

I then found my MCH files would play - DSD64 with alot of "f*ckery" as shown by this Empire Brass track but FLAC 48kHz 24bit 6ch very unmolested!  They both sound great.  Now if I can just figure out how to get an HDMI connection from the basement NAS to my living room!

Roon Playing MCH on QNAP NAS HDMI to Oppo 203 5.1 analogue out - HDMI setup.jpg

Roon Playing MCH DSF DSD64 6ch on QNAP NAS HDMI to Oppo 203 5.1 analogue out.jpg

Roon Playing MCH FLAC 48kHz 24 bit 6ch on QNAP NAS HDMI to Oppo 203 5.1 analogue out.jpg

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On 2/21/2022 at 9:40 PM, Delicious2 said:

Now if I can just figure out how to get an HDMI connection from the basement NAS to my living room!

You can get hdmi to cat5e/6 extenders that can do up to 7.1 audio. Not running over your network, just using the cat5/6 as the medium. I believe some will do 4k video as well.

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13 hours ago, Marvel said:

You can get hdmi to cat5e/6 extenders that can do up to 7.1 audio. Not running over your network, just using the cat5/6 as the medium. I believe some will do 4k video as well.

Yes, you can do up to 4K video via Cat6 to HDMI.  I have used the OREI 1x8 HDMI extender to duplicate surveillance 4k video to various monitors. 

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On 2/23/2022 at 11:09 AM, Rudy81 said:

Yes, you can do up to 4K video via Cat6 to HDMI.  I have used the OREI 1x8 HDMI extender to duplicate surveillance 4k video to various monitors. 

Wow, thanks for the help on this guys.  I bought the monoprice Blackbird set and switched one of the 2 cat5 lines I had running from my basement rack to the living room rack from carrying the LAN to dedicated HDMI->cat5->HDMI.  It immediately worked just as well as the HDMI direct connection!

 

Even better,  the Monoprice receiver HDMI output plugged right into my Anthem AVM60 and got the decoding pictured above - NO OPPO 203 NEEDED!

 

I'm a happy camper with my whole MCH collection available in Roon in my living room/work space.  For years I thought I'd need a dedicated Roon MCH endpoint like an ExaSound, but, NOooo!  Don't even need the Oppo for this access.  The QNAP NAS HDMI output serves as its own MCH endpoint and works great plugged into any old processor/receiver HDMI input. (edit: I've only tried it on my AVM60)

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4 hours ago, Delicious2 said:

The QNAP

 

You need to put a Beets Docker/Container on that QNAP and start obsessing over getting each and every directory/file named and tagged to the nth degree. I have not slept in a week. Loads of time wasting but perfect for the obsessed music fan.

 

I went form this....

 

image.png.e77c392b25e03a8312e0d1cc1810f141.png

 

 

To This!!!

 

RoonNow.JPG.62e2246e5a5136c9109ea76b8e80bd2b.JPG

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