ND5 XS - Adding Roon

Hi all,

I have an ND5 XS and separate power supply, please note NOT XS2 2 model and am looking at ways to add Roon.

I don’t want to buy a blue sound node and by pass the Naim DAC, for instance as all the dealers I talk to advise that if I connect a separate streamer to the digital in I will be by-passing the DAC which would be a travesty.

Can anyone suggest a way of way of adding Roon without making a fantastic piece of kit less so, any suggestions gratefully received.

You don’t have to bypass the DAC with Bluesound It has spdif out. Connecting anything to the digital in is not bypassing the DAC of your Naim. Your dealers talking rubbish. It’s bypassing the inbuilt streaming that’s all.

So you could use one or build a low cost raspberry pi based streamer with an spdif output card. Or do what others have done on here and invest in the Sonore UPnP bridge which can run on quite a bit of hardware and it turns the UPnP function of your streamer into one Roon can see, or if your more a.tinkerer build one using the software LMS UPnP bridge that can run on any pc or a raspberry pi.

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Hi, thanks for the suggestions and the re-alignment of the facts.

In your opinion do you think using the blue sound node as a streamer would be a step back in quality compared to my naim ?

Do you think the Sonore UPnP Bridge is a step up in quality against the blue sound or similar?

Regards

I’ve compared the Chromecast Audio using digital out to ND5XS streaming and cannot hear any difference. The Chromecast audio also support Roon and is a cheaper alternative if Roon support is all asking for.

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Hi, yes excellent suggestion. Did you use any particular lead as the 3.5 mm on the chrome cast out to optical spdif to the naim - ?

SonoreUPnP Bridge as a package GUI driven application or LMS squeezeupnp bridge on a RPi, as a DIY solution.

I have both

Thanks for the suggestion.

try it all out with a raspberry pi and roopieee, about 60 quid all in.

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Hi just bought a google Chromecast and optical lead on eBay - then plan to take advantage of the Roon 14 day trial. appreciate the suggestion.

I was not aware they were compatoble but apparently so, I must dig mine out and try!

Your limited to 96/24 via a Chromecast and some have had issues with it streaming hires via optical as it had the habit of dropping out , so be warned it might not be plain sailing.

Hi, yes, I agree, I have read there are some issues with Chromecast dropping out.

In my mind I could trial Roon and c how it goes. If I feel Roon is worth the extra expense I will buy a more permanent solution and sell the Chromecast for probably more than I paid for it.

I have an old Squeezebox Touch. It works very nicely as a Roon bridge with support for 24/192 audio on the digital coax output. That’s what I used when I had a ND5XS. Now I used it in an office system with an old Arcam AVR repurposed as a 2-channel receiver.

Chromecast arrived, working fine, supper easy set up, sounds fine, need to give a proper loud test tomorrow, will be looking to figure out how to use Roon through Chromecast - guess u just link it though google home and select is as an output?

It will just present itself (through Roon discovery) as a possible endpoint - you just need to enable it, and check the default settings.

Once a Chromecast device is on (i.e. visible to) your network, you will see it Roon settings and then you just click a button to enable it. After that you can direct streams to it in Roon. Easy peasy lemon squeezy.

Many thanks both, sound dead easy, next stop Roon set up …

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