I don’t believe it is but roon is not something I wanted or need. Sounds great though.
Ah I read that as you want a computer.
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A caveat on the Nuprime Stream 9, although it upscales PCM to DSD, it does not take in DSD. I think we covered that in the thread on devices that I2S back around March. The Silent Angel Munich does take in DSD, if I recall right, up to 256 via USB and 128 via other input. So I went with it back then. The I2S HDMI did sound excellent. But I have moved on to HQPlayer Network Audio Adapter (NAA) in the meantime. This does require a big computer tho.
PS: from what I understand of @msaladino22 's desired state, the Nuprime Stream 9 should work fine. Just if you have DSD files is it not the answer.
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Nuprime stream 9 is Roon ready? 
Very interesting development… HDtracks have started to offer MQA.
Diversifying out of Tidal might be a good idea. The HDtracks MQA version of the money for nothing remaster album certainly sounded good in my system, and better than Tidal’s version of the same (better impact / dynamics).
Don’t know how that tallies up with the MQA concept though!
I am going to approach this as glass half empty. I am guessing that either Tidal or MQA is subsidizing HDTracks to promote MQA as a last ditch effort to save it.
Optimism is something I use sparingly.
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Acquired them / bought a stake in them?
They signed joint rights acquisition deal to cut costs?
MQA is in demand somewhere else?
Lots of people think it sounds way better. I don’t know myself as I never reach for it. My guess is it is here to stay.
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MQA was sold to multi-billion Swiss investors years ago. They’d burned through $40m by December 2020 with group revenues of $600,000 in 2019 and 2020. They’ve been kept on life support, for the owners it’s loose change, probably waiting for the people running it to give up and go home. The 2021 figures are due end of September.
It was nonsense from the start, now it’s just expensive nonsense.
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Been waiting for a PS Audio streamer device to consider for so long, I think I’ve gone through the ownership cycle with my Innuos Zen Mk3.
For non-audio reasons I own a QNAP TS-473. Roon don’t like NAS drives, but if you’re going to use one, that’s the one they recommend.
I use the Innuos with their great Sense app via usb. Innuos Zen also rips CDs (no longer need that), stores rips and downloads (can attach a SSD to the QNAP for that) and was bought as a Roon Core (QNAP now does that). I can still use Roon to my all-in-one player using wireless.
The new Innuos Pulsar is now looking interesting as it basically runs Sense with Qobuz and has the usb reclocker from the Innuos Statement.
Paul may think usb is effectively faulty, but Innuos know what they are doing and are making it their premium output. The Pulse machine one level down I think is optimised for AES/EBU. Both might be a good bet for DSD DAC Mk2.
I wonder if the Roon advice against NAS drives has to do with folks using WiFi or Marvel Comics powered NAS drives. I run a 10G NAS over CAT7 house-wide ethernet. Have two ethernet jacks per bathroom in the house. Previous deceased resident was crazy. The music is on a 4TB SSD in the NAS. The NAS is actually mostly used for 4K movie streaming which is on a RAID of 10TB drives. I considered looking into running Roon via Docker on the NAS itself. But did not think too much about it or even start researching it. Am having fun with HQPlayer instead, for which a big PC, also with 10G, is in play. But frankly the 10G is more for fun than actually necessary. 1G Ethernet is fine even for DSD512 stereo upscaling or DSD256 multichannel upscaling. Considered asking here if the AirLens would support Network Audio Adapter (NAA), but am still too dejected from the disappointing news last March.
I think its multi reason. One its almost impossible to support the 50,000 variations of what/how a user has it set up. So its a puzzle for each case. With internal storage, no network debugging involved. The other reason is look at the last line, look at the Nucleus… you can do that with a NUC Rock and get same stability. They would love for everyone to have their hardware. I think one of the reasons its grown like it has is the ease of starting it on a spare PC or Mac…and then grow into a more power unit as your library and use cases grow. If you had to by a $1500 device first, and then try, it would be very limited. The other Servers with their own solutions that do not have a monthly charge would burry them.
Very good points. After all, who does not have an old PC/Mac and tablet lying about just looking to be useful again. And Roon is both useful and pretty. Many of the other servers ain’t so pretty, especially not for the app user interface.
Roon do over-specify so that it can do all 50,000 variations.
I have about 10 or 11 Roon zones, but don’t use any DSP, so have no problems with the TS-473.
The Innuos Zen/Zenith/Statement Mk3 devices are not Roon certified as their Intel NC4200 chip is below Roon specification, but they are amongst the most popular Roon Core servers.
All the 30-odd Roon units work at 24/192 wirelessly without any problems at all.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Roon starts announcing minimum OS supported for all device types. In some cases that will also eliminate H/W supported.
Completely agree with @brian.fitterman
R.O.C.K. is a network appliance that is absolutely care-free.
So many people think an Intel NUC R.O.C.K. is some sort of Windows box or that the R.O.C.K. has myriad DIY hassles.
It’s a custom OS by Roon so there’s no other OS operating on the NUC.
R.O.C.K. just sits on your network, out of sight out mind. It made things so much easier not having Roon installed on a. conventional computer or operating systems designed to do a million things.
This is is what ROCK offers (and what it doesn’t offer):
1. It is completely free ($0)
2. It is an alternative to Windows/MacOS/Ubuntu/Arch/etc…
3. It runs Roon (The stock Linux RoonServer to be exact), but does not come with a Roon membership. You can sign up for a free trial or purchase a Roon membership here
4. It is an extremely lightweight Linux-based operating system. Much more on the scale of an embedded machine than a desktop or server operating system
5. It is a turn-key image with all required pieces to make a Linux based Roon appliance without any prior knowledge of Roon or Linux
6. It auto-updates in an experience similar to Roon, integrated fully into the Roon Remotes’ Settings->About page
7. OS updates will blow away any “custom” changes you may have made to the OS, so we do not recommend you try to tweak the OS
8. It provides a web browser-based configuration for networking setup, factory reset, power/reboot, etc…
9. It can not run additional software, nor does it support any customizations or modifications to the operating system
10. It has working multichannel digital audio output support (if the hardware has a working HDMI or DisplayPort connector)
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FYI, I am not a ROON user but I have had great success in thwarting issues where software goes wonky with remote storage by using ISCSI as the connection.
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Nr. 1… “completely free”… seems a little disingenuous though considering Nr. 3. But my personal issue with Roon is less about the price and more about treating me like a moron. Plus I hate the million separate little backup files. But I totally totally understand how it is totally cool. And if Roon remote access comes onstream like @vkennedy61 mentioned, that would be a big add. Though I use Plex for that in my car… and across oceans away from my NAS, while driving with only my smartphone roaming. I suppose this really should be moved to another thread… which probably already exists…
Seems that you are not a set it and forget it guy. I have no idea what you mean when you say million separate files. @kerosene is so right, set it and forget it. Just build it right size which is really not that big. or expensive. As soon as you use your PC then you start worrying about what its doing, storage taking up, do I need to defrag etc… I do not want a PC as part of my system. Too much of a PIA to maintain. I started with ROC right at the beginning of 21 and have NEVER had an issue with the ROC, knock on wood. It just runs. I have had more issues with power losses and things dont restart and I have to hit the button. I plugged a usb drive into the unit and set it to back up auto every night. never an issue. Did the same with my NAS. 4 TB NAS with 4TB plug in usb to back up.
Most issues I have seen people have with Roon are on windows or Mac’s. Its just NOT the same experience, period.
Updates, never an issue, I hit the update all button when it comes up, takes about 10 sec or less and poof done.
Roon 2.0 I am hoping with Remote. I signed up for the beta. Hope they take me.
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I also use PLEX, specifically, the Plexamp app, if I want to listen to something from my home library that’s not available via streaming service (like non-remastered albums).
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