Roon on a NAS?

Not sure if this belongs in the streaming or HiFi forum, but is anyone running Roon on a NAS? I have Roon, but don’t have a proper core (running on a MBA) or use it much as I’ve got previous gen (NDX, NAC 172) streamers - but still have a bunch of Sonos in the house.

Something like a NAS + Roon kind of makes sense for my current setup, but not sure if that’s feasible - have done a quick forum search but didn’t see much on the topic; if anyone has a steer here on if you can do it and which NAS is a good one would be really helpful. Thanks!

What you need is a Roon rock - a nuc pc - on the
auction site you can pick one up for around 150

so for a medium-sized library (less than 1k CDs) you can just use a standard PC vs a NAS?

Yes definitely

I wouldn’t recommend having the core, library and database in one place. Leave the core seperate - on a Roon rock. They’re tiny and can sit next to your router

Something like a Grimm MU1 would have the functionality that you are after but at a price.

At a much more affordable price point, the Audiostore Prestige server would also work well, as would a Roon Nucleus with on-board SSD storage.

Hope this helps, BF

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I have Roon on an Audiostore Prestige; it just works, has never given me any grief at all. I thoroughly recommend it. Martin at Audioquest is very helpful if you have an questions.

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This perfectly reflects our experience with our Audiostore Prestige too.

Best regards, BF

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library I understand (files) what’s the difference between core and DB? Aren’t they both part of the Roon software? Or are there only two parts you’re referring to?

  1. Library (files) and
  2. Core & DB (Roon software)

?

3 really

Files
DB
Core

You can save your database on a different location to the Core they dont ‘come as one’

Personally I have had issues with DB corruption when all 3 are running from the same place.

Also, no idea why and for what reason people are recommending £2k+ solutions just to run Roon when you’ve suggested your desired level is a NAS running roon on Sonos?

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got it - thanks.

yes. I agree on the above point. what i think i really need is a 10 year old mac mini to drop a 250gb music library and Roon software on. right now, my setup on the MBA works fine. it only falls down when I close the lid or the battery runs out

just having the files available for my NDX and 172 somewhere is great and i love the Roon interface for Sonos. so having both in one is perfect. and there’s some optionality if I upgrade to an NDX2 or ND5XS2

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Alas it is because we are old and it is so long since we tried running Roon on a Synology, QNAP or similar NAS drive. When we tried, the NAS drives lacked the processor speed or RAM to run Roon well so we turned to the Audiostore for their excellent, capable products.

Perhaps the NAS drives have much faster processors these days, though my 2 year old Synology one would still struggle.

You may have more recent knowledge so your recommendations of specific products would be most welcome.

Best regards, BF

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I’d consider an Intel NUC with a Roon core installed on it - then add 4tb storage to it via a usb connection.

The NUC’s are tiny and can sit next to your router.

All in you can get that for around £250

Ah, okay, so we’re still recommending what is in effect a Roon Nucleus without the price mark-up then. Sounds familiar.

Best regards, BF

A NAS unit with sufficient horsepower to effectively run Roon puts you in the used Mac mini + big external USB drives price bracket. I would only recommend it if you already own a suitable NAS device and aren’t already stressing it with image and video sharing.

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Great feedback - thanks all.

Used M1 Mac Mini it is. NAS makes no sense as I don’t have TBs of music, photos, files or need swappable drives

I have a 5 year old Synology NAS and have the Roon Core installed on a Samsung portable SSD attached to a USB port on the NAS it works perfectly.

Doesn’t even have to be M1. As I mentioned in another thread, I run Roon out to four or five endpoints from a 2011 (!) i5 mini, problem-free. Caveat is no DSP, fixed volume everywhere.

double-duty as my home office personal machine

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I ran Roon on a basic Qnap NAS for years. It was fine. I now have it on a mini PC as the Qnap packed up.

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