ND5XS and ROON CORE on Synology DS918+

[Dano]

My Observations and opinions on getting the Naim streamer, Synology NAS and Roon Core playing together.

Very frustrating and a basic exercise in chasing your own tail in a circle, as there is little documented support you will get from the above three brands. You will find large amounts of solutions on the internet and I wish you well with that if you so choose.

I have a better solution for those wanting a quality audiophile solution at the best price that will give you the best solution now and going forward.

First Solution for ND5XS

Purchase a Sonore UPnP Bridge from smallgreencomputers. About $250.00 USD.

It plugs into your router and then you run a web browser to set it up and discover your ND5XS and Synology. The technical support is awesome by email, remote access and yes hold on, a human on a telephone, very rare these days. SGC somewhat specializes in the issue with the ND5XS.

The installation from SGC also includes the software to integrate a squeezebox lite, so that your ND5XS is a renderer seen by Roon Core. Roon uses different terms, endpoints, audio outputs, and another I cannot even remember as I get a mental block with Roon these days. It is very confusing when going through the install process and Roon should get this changed to one terminology period.

You must also install Roon Core V 1.8 for Synology from Roon website for your Synology NAS. Be advised Roon Core takes an immense amount of CPU power, and also must be installed on an SSD not a spinning drive. So, either an SSD in one of your slots, not the SSD cache, or an external SSD connected on the USB port on back of NAS. All devices must on the same subnet, Sonore UPnP, Naim ND5XS, and Modem. The Sonore UPnp and squeeze box lite are from Little Green Computer.

Any iPad or iPhone will require a Roon App download (apple store in my case) and a Roon account. When you purchase the Sonore UPnP Bridge unit from SGC you get a 60 trial Roon service code, which is better than the standard Roon 14-day trial.

For most users this should be a solution for the next year. Be advised that Synology current DSM is v 6.2, version DSM 7.? Is not yet compatible with RoonCore.

In my case I could not get everything working. My VSwitch is not enabled, nor is firewall, nor anti-virus software. These are only some of the issues. Which leads me to the next solution.

ND5XS and hardware solutions for Roon.

First, if the above Sonore UPnP does not work in your case, you can return it (30 days) for a full refund and purchase the following: (which is my case)

Then forget the Synology NAS, you can still use it for your music library if you choose, but it is not a long-term solution unless you are a geek who is seeking challenges. It simply does not work for me.

Purchase a sonictransporter i5 (Gen 3). $1358 CAD delivered from smallgreencomputers. You will need to add customs and tax. I purchased a separate 2.5” 1TB SSD drive for $150 CAD to install my music library on, although you can leave it on your NAS if you wish. This slips into a slot on back of the Sonic transporter i5, very smart. The RoonCore v1.8 and all software runs on a separate SD card already installed by SBC. In addition, you can also run Plex or any other media streamer now or in future. This is not available ( I stand to be corrected on this point ) on the Roon hardware solution Roon Nucleus. It is price prohibitive to upgrade my NDX5S to the NDX5S2 or to ROON Nucleus Plus which is basically a severely overpriced NUC. Of these two choices, I considered trading my ND5XS for a ND5XS2 and it was still less expensive than a Roon Nucleus, at least here in Canada.

So the sonictransporter i5 (Gen 3) is the best overall choice for me (and open solution) going forward. It is audiophile quality and allows the Naim DAC to do its process, and it will run DSP. It does not tie me to a Naim or Roon solution in the years to come, and allows the balance of my NAIM classic components to integrate seamlessly. It comes with lifetime support with a human via email, remote access, and even phone! Marvellous a conversation, not a helpbot. Downstream I can incorporate the sonictransporter i5 with a video library, and media software such as Plex and others. (Note that Plex and video are not as CPU and resource intensive as audio and ROON), to my surprise. This is great for most applications, as Plex sometimes has issues with 4K videos at the moment. Nothing daunting, but I am being mindfull and as prepared going forward as I can on the video side.

As technology moves forward it seems that Naim, Synology and Roon are all on different paths.

Ps: Absolutely wonderful support from Andrew at small green computer. KUDOS!

Please be guided accordingly, each situation is different. I am an audiophile with both digital (Naim/PMC) and analogue (Linn/Dynavector). Like most of us I am on a budget. Music is a large part of my life and brings me immense joy and contentment.

Hope this assists those with similar issue.

Dan Holmes, Vancouver Island, BC, Canada

[robert_h]

Please don’t post commercial links. I have flagged them for removal.

There are a few users here using roon and we have all solved running roon with the solutions you have mentioned. The simplest solution for me was just to run it on a pc. Add a fully wired network, job done.

[opus]

I read all the stuff about Roon and I would never waste all this time for something that I can’t understand what it really does for me. I have all my music ripped to a Synology NAS. I use an Auralic Aries G1 to feed Dac. G1 has native Tidal and Qobuz support. It has internet radio and it’s Roon endpoint if that mattered to me. Truth is I only have a couple of hours a week to sit and listen so fiddling around is a bit wasteful.

[winkyincanada]

Is it just me or is the recommended “simple” solution also incomprehensibly complex?

[sicher]

Never hat a problem with my NDX2 and running room on my Synology, even on non-SSD.

[elevensheep]

same, I have been running Roon on my DS918 without any issues.

[Thegreatroberto]

When I trialled roon on on my synology 218+, I used a ssd HD to store the core. It worked fine to my nd5xs2 at the time.

I did not carry on with roon as I could not see the value.

[Mike-B]

Agreed, the OP ‘solution’ is incomprehensibly complex - & I’m a techie nerd
I installed Roon without even thinking about it, but like thegreatroberto I didn’t carry on for the same reason

[Thegreatroberto]

I’m a sad person who finds the Naim app ok. Yes it could be more fancy. But I don’t needs dsp and clever digital manipulation. Tried it, could not hear a difference.
I also use vinyl a lot and cd. Although all my cds are usually accessed from my nas via asset.

[klacke]

I use a Roon Rock solution (Intel NUC Frost Canyon Tall I7-10710U) with my ND5XS and MU-SO QB2. I’m super happy with the solution.
Setting up (basically just adding HD and RAM to it) the NUC was easy. There are a number of videos how to to it. Installation of ROON Rock was also easy. I have never build a PC nor installed an operating system before so it was a first time for me. And I don’t have much experience of the PC platform since I have used Mac’s forever.
I did the setup of the NUC and installation of ROON Rock in less than an hour.
For me ROON is so much better than anything I have ever used before. But it is expensive of course…
I never use NAIM app when playing music since I find ROON so much better.
Oddly enough I have more problem NAIM app than I have with ROON. NAIM app often have problem finding my my ND5XS and my MU-SO QB2 but ROON always find it. This is very strange to me. I dont understand how I can find my NAIM streamer with ROON but not with the NAIM app?

[Patu]

I’m not sure how this can be made so complex and difficult. I have similar setup with QNAP TS-253D NAS running Roon Core and Linn Akurate DSM. I just installed Roon Core from QNAP store and pointed it to the storage location on the same NAS. ADSM was immediately found by Roon and everything has worked flawlessly since that. Actually I’ve had less problems than with my previous setup when Roon Core was driven by my desktop PC.

Also Roon doesn’t need that much CPU power. My QNAP has quad core celeron at 2.0ghz which is well under the minimum spec of Core i3 recommended by Roon. If you use heavy DSP functions then beefier CPU might be needed but without DSP my setup has 1-5% CPU usage while listening to music.

I recommend at least 6-8gb of RAM memory on the NAS with Roon Core. Makes the experience smoother. My NAS had 4gb so I added another 4gb.

[charlesphoto]

@winkyincanada

Is it just me or is the recommended “simple” solution also incomprehensibly complex?

Actually not at all. Note he’s referring to the original non-Roon ready ND5XS, not 5XS2, so one has to use the Sonore or Small Green Computer solutions in order to cast Roon to it - worked a treat for my UQ in the office. I guess I don’t understand why the SonicOrbiter device didn’t work for him though.