Roon - signal path

Streaming Audio
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I today use a macmini as my Roon core and a Lindemann Bridge II as my roon end point. Both hooked up to my router with ethernet cables.

My question is, is the roon core only a “remote” in that no files are going through the macmini and on to the Bridge II end point? I believe the files only go through the core if I would apply DSP or something but if everything is off the ethernet cable, the core hw and such should not have the files going through it, right?

I’m wondering since I have ethernet cables going to the core and if it has any value adding better cables there too.

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The Roon Core is effectively the Roon server - it’s managing your music files (either locally sourced or via a streaming service such as Qobuz, Tidal etc) and using the RAAT protocol to send music you’ve selected to play to the Roon endpoint - your Bridge II. So yes, even if you don’t apply DSP or any other processing to the signal path, your Core is still part of the chain.

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And the same if I only use the core for streaming with Tidal then. Then those cables and the core will affect the sound quality too then (I know the say it’s bit perfect but…)

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Yep, the same if using it with Tidal. Do you normally use Roon or are you just trialling it ?

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I use it all the time :+1: I’m bit curious about the Nucleus One but it’s not yet for sale here in Europe (US only).

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James is correct, the Roon Core is always in the signal path regardless of the music source.
If you use the Roon Remote app to control it, on a phone or tablet, that of course is not in the signal path. Like the Naim app, it’s just a controller.

The Roon Core is amongst other things a server, a bit like a UPnP server, except that it buffers the incoming stream instead of using the buffer in your streamer.

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That looks a neat little device. Ideal plug and play if you don’t want to run the Core on another computer in the house.

I’ve used a Nucleus for the last 6 years after trialling Roon and finding it was the perfect music management application for me. So far, the Nucleus has been trouble free and has all my local music stored on an internal drive I fitted to it. It sits quietly in my office, connected to my main switch, and away from the Hi-Fi in the lounge.

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The Mac mini (Roon core/server) takes say a flac file from Tidal then unwraps this and serves up PCM data to your streamer as far as I’m aware so is always in the replay chain.
I assume your Ansuz d2 switch and data cable are the final leg before streamer so would doubt data cables before this would have that much impact on sound quality but perhaps I just want to believe that :sunglasses:.

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Correct but I’m bit curious if any changes prior to the D2 could make any changes to sound performance given how much the switch and last meter have done so will evaluate a bit there :blush: Thanks everyone :+1:

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I know all don’t agree, but I prefer to my roon core (fan less nuc w. LPS) connected to the last switch together with the streamer.

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