Roon & Pi/IQAudio - A real Roon endpoint

[lovejoy]

I noticed this yesterday whilst rooting around the Roon forums for the latest news.

For anyone using Roon with a Pi and IQAudio DAC there is now a dedicated build which turns your Pi/IQ into a real Roon endpoint meaning you don't need to use Airplay or the beta Squeezebox support. This is the real deal, using the Roon Advanced Audio Transport protocol that has been talked about for some time now, previously called Roon Speakers.

This has to be the easiest installation for a Pi yet. Gordon has done an exemplary job here. You download the IQRoon_RC2.zip file from here: http://www.iqaudio.com/downloads/, you create an SD card with the image, you put it into your Pi, you switch your Pi on, and within a minute or 2, you load Roon and select the IQaudio DAC/DigiAMP device as your Roon endpoint and start playing music.

The only slight drawback at present is that it only works over a wired network connection to the Pi, but if you have a wired connection then it is truly plug and play. You won't get to say that about software for the Pi very often.

What an absolute joy it is to use and listen to as well. The Pi is always going to feel like a hobbyists piece of kit, but this has more the feel of a piece of dedicated, high end streaming equipment now.

I'm currently sat streaming DSD files into the Pi for the first time without any glitches and it's sounding wonderful.

[mikeyb]

Do you require a Roon sub?

[roob]

Nice one.
I have an IQ dac on the way I will give this a go when I get it up and running.

[lovejoy]

Do you require a Roon sub?

To run Roon you need a subscription yes. I started with the free trial and instantly went for a years subscription which worked out at around £65. It transformed the way I listened to and discovered music in such a huge way that when they were offering a discount on a lifetime sub it seemed silly not to. It IS expensive and I balked at the price when I saw it, but I've not regretted it. The way I look at it is that it's a fraction of the cost of a Sooloos system and from what I can gather, every bit as good.

[mikeyb]

Ah ok, it works out at about £85 a year now. I'll give it a miss.

I use Apple Music to discover new music and the family subscription covers 6 of us, so not worth taking Roon as well.

[rikardo1979]

I looked into this but I somehow dont get it what it actually offers?
If I have a Tidal for example, why I would need this extra soft to give me something what Tidal offers anyway? I mean HQ music, all the informations, suggestions etc...?
And than for local collection stored in NAS or elsewhere I can use Kodi which scan all into Music library, it downloads all the info from scrapers of your choice...and its free

So I would like to know what this Roon actually offers?

[lovejoy]

This gives a far better run through than anything I could write here:
http://www.tonepublications.com/spotlight/roon-is-here-worlds-first-in-depth-review/
To answer the question what does it give you over all of the free tools available - Functionally, not a lot, but in terms of the interface, how you interact with it and how utterly addictive it is in that it makes your digital files stored on your NAS, or your streaming service feel like a music collection rather than a bunch of files sat on a server, it's a world apart from everything else.

[mikeyb]

Still doesn't give me a lot, as mentioned already I can do similar for free.

Thanks for the info at least now I know it's not worth buying.

[roob]

The IQ dac arrived today and I have it up and running as a Roon endpoint, early days yet but sounding pretty good so far(with cheap switching psu)

[mikeyb]

The IQ dac arrived today and I have it up and running as a Roon endpoint, early days yet but sounding pretty good so far(with cheap switching psu)

excellent stuff, it will improve through time as well, key is getting the audio settings to suit your setup, I'm not convinced I have mine right yet, it still sounds great but I'm not sure if I have it set as it should be for the IQAudio Dac and my amp.

I added an MCRU Long Dog Linear PSU and that improved it again, mind you I got it at a good price or I would have just went with a Chinese PSU like Grants.

[roob]

It's sounding nice and detailed but at little bass light at the moment, bass guitars seem a bit less prominent compared to my normal dac but it needs to run in for a few days.
If I go for a linear psu I think I will go for one of the ebay jobs first.

[mikeyb]

It's sounding nice and detailed but at little bass light at the moment, bass guitars seem a bit less prominent compared to my normal dac but it needs to run in for a few days.
If I go for a linear psu I think I will go for one of the ebay jobs first.
I'm assuming you have it set as hardware volume control and alsamixer at 100%

100 is too hot for my setup and I run it at 93, but I think 100 is optimal for most setups.

I can get thunderous bass on electronic tracks on my piddly little PMC 21's [emoji6]

[roob]

I am not sure how to change those settings, with Roon there is only the option to enable or disable hardware volume, I have enabled it and set it to 100 in Roon.
It's not an entirely level playing field at the moment as I have it hooked up with a cheap set of interconnects that I had lying around, tomorrow I will have a root behind the rack and connect up with the RFC Mercurys that connect to my Chevron dac.

[mikeyb]

Maybe have to SSH into it using Putty or a similar programme. This gets you into the Pi and you can then get into the alsamixer settings.

[roob]

Maybe have to SSH into it using Putty or a similar programme. This gets you into the Pi and you can then get into the alsamixer settings.

Now you are getting to technical for me:):scratch:

[rikardo1979]

I think same...
I using Kodi, and after it scrapes all the info for whole Music or Movie library its not a bunch of files abut nice selection with all the informations ...
So yes, for me is the same...I have all of this and for free :)

[WAD62]

This gives a far better run through than anything I could write here:
http://www.tonepublications.com/spotlight/roon-is-here-worlds-first-in-depth-review/
To answer the question what does it give you over all of the free tools available - Functionally, not a lot, but in terms of the interface, how you interact with it and how utterly addictive it is in that it makes your digital files stored on your NAS, or your streaming service feel like a music collection rather than a bunch of files sat on a server, it's a world apart from everything else.
Unless I'm mistaken, what one is subscribing to is some form of multi dimensional music categorisation index/catalogue system...

I followed your link, and one of the screenshots has David Bowie categorised under 'R&B', Prince under 'Electronic', and Zappa under 'Classical'...:doh:

I'm not sure I need that kind of assistance...;)

[lovejoy]

Unless I'm mistaken, what one is subscribing to is some form of multi dimensional music categorisation index/catalogue system...

I followed your link, and one of the screenshots has David Bowie categorised under 'R&B', Prince under 'Electronic', and Zappa under 'Classical'...:doh:

I'm not sure I need that kind of assistance...;)

Well, I'm not sure what of Bowie's output could be considered R&B, but Prince made a couple of Electronic albums and Zappa most certainly dabbled with Classical. All of the Zappa in my Roon library appears under Avante-Garde and Prog-Rock which sounds about right. I can't say I've disagreed with any of the categorisations Roon has come up with so far.

[Rothchild]

Still doesn't give me a lot, as mentioned already I can do similar for free.

Thanks for the info at least now I know it's not worth buying.

I'm glad I'm not the only one!

It does look pretty, but it doesn't seem to do much that you can't do with Subsonic, Plex, Ampache, Servilo or (to an extent) Kodi for much less money.

[mikeyb]

I think where it overshadows the likes of kodi etc is that like most music streaming services it hunts out info, lyrics and similar artists to encourage you to try other stuff.

I'm not one for doing that so it didn't interest me.

[Rothchild]

I think where it overshadows the likes of kodi etc is that like most music streaming services it hunts out info, lyrics and similar artists to encourage you to try other stuff.

I'm not one for doing that so it didn't interest me.

Subsonic brings you an 'artists page' and also has 'artist radio' (so it will play similar artists to the one your looking at), I'm not too fussed about lyrics so I've never missed it not having that but I don't think it's impossible, certainly GMPC, which is an MPD client (so could be used with Moode / Volumio etc) has a lyrics view as does Plex https://plex.tv/music.

Kodi is very much the outlier in that set of examples, Plex, Ampache, Sevillo and Subsonic are the key competitors and are mostly charging the same for a lifetime license as Roon is asking for for a year. Makes Subsonic, at $1 a month look like a real bargain!

Don't get me wrong, Roon looks very nice, it's just that it seems like the pricing is just a bit ambitious in what it actually quite a keenly competitive market.

[mikeyb]

I found two good videos that show you what Roon can do.

Part 1: Start watching at 2m 20s ( a couple, of mistakes in his intro so you'd be as well bypassing them)

https://youtu.be/yrRfhWcLoqA


Part 2:

https://youtu.be/QEDRA54q5nM