Roon sold to Harman. Implications?

Exactly, a quick change. Also, using a sudo command in Terminal and you can set it up to restart at any time you like. Doesn’t sound important but recently Roon has performed better after a restart rather than letting it run for days. With the sudo command you can set it to reboot the mini each day at 2am if you want with Roon server to load up when restarted . That’s not possible with Roon Rock.

@garyi Just to say the Mac mini doesn’t sit on the rack, not even the same room. It sits in a network cupboard tucked out of the way and is accessible as a headless unit. Couple of settings changes and you can share both files and also remote access the device. A Gen 13 Intel NUC with 16gb of RAM costs £650 - £1150. A 16gb Mac mini M2 is £850.

Yes there are cheaper systems to use but as a Mac user, it’s handy to have a system that could be used as a backup in emergencies as well. Each to their own but I do remember the M1 mini I had used to work perfectly with HQPlayer as well as distributing movies to the house as well.

So what was your experience comparing these?

I didn’t say it won’t work I said it’s not optimum. Apple pulled away from server duties years ago.

If you are buying something purely as a server better options are available and at less cost

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Sure - but I don’t think the Roon Server is much of a load at all for a modern desktop - and it can quite comfortably sit in the background on a desktop PC/Mac which you use for other purposes. I think some of these things get overstated.
The only thing I notice is a new little white icon on the top right of the OSX screen. No noticeable impact to anything else - and I do run some quite heavy application loads.
The Roon software still functions fine - when the Mac goes into stand by.

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Sure but I feel like you are evading the point. If a person wants a server specifically to do server duties, a mac is not the right option. Its over priced, under performant and really just not designed to be a server.

The fact it works is great but anyone reading this considering purchasing a computer to just be a server would be better placed purchasing something else.

I agree. I am not sure I am evading any point - my point is this things sometimes get over stated and you don’t need a ‘server’ to run a relatively trivial load like Roon server.
But yes if you do want a genuine server for specific reasons then there are specific platforms designed for that - and an iMac is not really optimum for that which I believe is your point and I agree.

And Roon Server was called Roon core up until a few months ago and one had the Roon Core machine running it.

Also the Roon Server can be self contained on one machine directly connect to a DAC where it isn’t acting as a server at all.

So Roon Server is a probably a slightly exaggerated title for the Roon program.

.sjb

None of them is as good as a simple Linn app on an iPad/iPhone or a PC. The HQPlayer/NAA running on a good PC maybe comparable to the simple Linn App in terms of SQ, but the setup is clunky. So in the end, I’ve just decided on the simple solution which happens to work best SQ-wise.

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Now I’m confused - was planning to try the free trial on my iMac and use the iPhone as the Roon remote. If it all went as I think it may; was going to get a used Mac mini 2018 and cheap iPad as a remote for the 333.

So do I download Roon server or ‘full fat’ Roon for the iMac? :man_shrugging:t3:

I’m not going to debate you on this, but I think you don’t understand what a server (say for a business) is doing versus what the Roon ‘server’ is doing. Roon, as long as one doesn’t exceed the processing overhead can be run on just about anything, and the load, if not doing tons of dsp etc, is quite light (certainly much - much!- lighter than say Lightroom or Photoshop). I run a minimum of 64GB RAM on my MacBook M1 for my photo apps (next time I’ll go for 128) but the now ancient NUC I run Roon ROCK on has only 8GB RAM and it does just fine.

Now if I was a business with a dozen or more employees etc I certainly would want to run a proper ‘server.’ But that’s not what Roon is about. So yes, running on just about any headless Mac from 2012 on can be optimum, and even more than optimum if a newer one.

You can download the whole thing. It’s been a long time since I’ve had to do it (I run ROCK on a NUC, but trialed in 2016 on a Mac Pro). If you are planning on also using the Mini as a Roon ‘endpoint’ into another device that doesn’t have Roon native (Naim streamers do) then I think you also need Roon Bridge. Confusing, I know…

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Hey you do you, what ever floats your boat. Its not optimum, you can accept that or you can belittle people by suggesting they don’t know what a server is. I do. A mac mini is not an optimum server.

Roon may not have major overhead. (Although it can get hairy with multiple outputs and DSP but thats another story)

But the underlying mac OS is not ‘optimum’ for server duties. The actual Mac OS Server wasn’t that great back in the day and the fights people have trying to use it for LMS/Roon/Plex etc over the internet is testament to that.

In apples defence its not supposed to be a server, anymore than windows 10 is.

If someone wants to spend 800 quid plus for a server, all I am saying is, get a server.

I have a 500 system and can’t hear any diminution of sound quality when Roon is being used

There is now only one version of roon to download for mac and windows because of this very confusion so you can’t go wrong.

The one piece of software will work on both iMac and Mac mini.

You don’t have to worry about Roon bridge if you are using you 333 as the roon “end point”.

So go ahead and trial roon, it’s the second most highly used piece of software I have (web browser being No. 1) and definitely my favourite software.

.sjb

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Thank you for the reply - all clear👍🏻

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Just download and run Roon server on your iMac. You can remotely manage it via an iPad… and it streams from your iMac over your home network to your endpoints/Naim streamer.
It’s all so simple and straight forward… it’s what I do. I also use wifi to connect my iMac running Roon server… work perfectly, superb performance and great SQ like UPnP (with Naim streamers).
Talking about it is more complex than doing it… its easier than unwrapping a CD from its cellophane wrapper.

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Thanks Simon

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No one is suggesting that, they are suggesting that you are getting confused thinking a Roon server as an actual server like you would find in a workplace network, whereas it is just a dumb use of the name by roon

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I understand I genuinely do. But I honestly dont think a Mac (or pc for that matter) is ideal to be serving anything 24/7 like a server would.

I’ll leave it here I was just saying that anyone about to drop 800 plus on a mini purely to serve music needn’t purchase a mac.

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what if you wanted to do some light surfing, email, background applications AND serving music. then Mac mini good?