Hello - apologies if this has been covered before but I cant seem to find anything basic enough for me to understand! I have a 272 and stream from a Western Digital NAS. I would like to try Roon - mostly due to the DSP/ room correction as I have the room from hell. I have seen that the Sonore Microrendu is a possible solution for this but am unclear what else I would need to buy - I am presuming I would need to replace my NAS with something that can run Roon - which would probably make the whole exercise too expensive. I dont want to have to turn a computer on every time I want to listen to music. Have been patiently waiting for the new 272 but if there is another affordable solution to try I would like to give it a go.
Would appreciate any advice as to what else I would need other than the Microrendu? If there is a thread explaining this in basic terms I would be grateful if someone could point me there.
Hi, you will need a computer that can run the Roon Core. This can be any moderately powerful computer you already own, or a standalone thing like an Intel NUC or Mac Mini. A powerful NAS can also be used, or another option would be an Innuos Zen Mini. There’s lots of essential info on the Roon Knowledgebase about these requirements.
If you are in the UK, I recommend a call to Martin Smith who runs the Audiostore, importer of Sonore and other products. Martin is approachable, absolutely delightful and very helpful.
If you want to be doing DSP Room correction then you will need a device that’s more capable than a NAS as its very CPU dependant especially if you use the convolution engine which gives you the ability for phase adjustments as well. Innuos are not generally the best for this either but may cope if only ever using one zone for playback as they use pretty low specced cpu. If you have a recently current laptop or desktop computer using an intel i3 or above processor I would first try it out using this to see if it suits your needs first before rushing out and getting something specifically for it. Make sure you hardware though and don’t use wireless for Roons server.
If you go down the DSP route I would strongly recommend you look into Home Audio Fidelity as they can take all the hard work out of getting it working well and will tailor to your requirements then it’s just load the filters in to Roon and your off. They even supply an app now to help gather the measurements required from a mic such as MiniDSP umik 1.
I dealt with Martin a few years ago when I was looking to get a new core. He was very helpful and matter of fact. I didn’t go with one of the AudioStores as I thought they where still too pricey for what they where and ended up buying one from Tranquil PC with their own custom milled case for half the price and just installed Roons OS on it. Works flawlessly.
Your will need two things to run Roon on your system - 1) a Roon Core and 2) a Roon Bridge.
For 1) what sort of NAS do you have? If the NAS uses an intel processor you may be able to run Roon Core on it. I had Roon Core running on my Synology 918+ NAS which worked fine. Alternatively an old PC or Mac could also be used a Roon Core. Roon doesn’t need a lot of processor power.
For 2), if you are after an interim solution while waiting for the 372 (as I am), you could get a Raspberry Pi 4 to use as your Roon bridge, which you can then connect directly to your 272. The 272 will then function as a DAC and preamp.
The Raspberry Pi 4 is very cheap - around £60 for a 4GB version, and the software (Volumio or Ropieee) is free and easy to install. I don’t have a computer or IT background, but I had the whole thing running in around 30 minutes. Sound quality is very good, in fact many premium system use Raspberry Pi as the base of their system.
You could also use Sonore Microrendu as your bridge, but I question whether there is any improvement to sound quality over a Raspberry Pi despite being much more expensive.
Thanks very much all. The Rasperry Pi looks like a cheap option to give Roon a try so think I’ll look into that. Just to clarify - my NAS is a 2TB Western Digital Mybook LIve so several years old and pretty basic. Would the Rasperry Pi be all I need and work as Roon Core and a Roon Bridge? Would I just connect to my network and download Roon and then the 272 would pick this up from the network? Would the Rasperry Pi be enough to run the DSP for room correction?
Thanks again.
No you can’t run the Roon Core on the RPi…you need some other device. See the hardware requirements at the Roon site
In the context of this discussion the RPi can only be used as a Roon output function but there are still some limitations (see above re. HAT/USB Convertor)
Do you by any chance have any old Squeezebox devices or Chromecast Audio? Both of these can be used as Roon endpoints (outputs)
@Mungochatney: I am using a „sonore upnp bridge“ to roonify my old NDX. It works very well. But nevertheless you need a computer to run Roon. And you need a Roon license.
That’s where I made the mistake, I saw the USB slot at the front of the 272 and automatically thought it could receive a USB signal from the RPi. However, having looked into the 272 manual, this is not the case.
“NAC-N preamplifiers are fitted with a front panel USB interface intended for the connection of USB memory sticks carrying audio files. The USB interface should not be used for any other purpose.”