ROON

[Hifi_swlon]

OK, so the last couple of nights I employed my Raspberry Pi2 as a Roon endpoint using the new Linux Arm RoonBridge.

Right now it's just a testbed, to see how it all works, so SQ isn't the highest priority - its just connected to a Jambox speaker from the Pi's headphone socket.  But ignoring SQ for a minute… WOW!

I can now walk into my kitchen (which is semi-open plan to the lounge), and use the new iPhone remote to tell Roon to group my lounge and kitchen together, or just transfer music to and from each zone.  So far it's like a dream.  Not a single dropout while paying music over wired ethernet all night, even while running the two zones simultaneously (and keeping them perfectly in sync).  I'm really impressed.  What's more, even though the speaker in the kitchen is pretty awful SQ wise, it kind of doesn't matter.  It means I don't have to whack the lounge hifi volume right up, and its generally a much more pleasing sound having a source in each room, rather than one loud source that's too loud in one room and too quiet in another. I'm really excited now at thinking about what to get to make this a better setup (less wires, better sound), and to be able to have music upstairs - will be a nice treat for the soon to arrive new baby to be able to listen.

I'm doubting that there are any SQ issues when using a decent set of speakers/DAC - my next plans are to try something like and Audioquest dragonfly (because I'll have it for my headphones anyway) and/or a 'built-in' Pi DAC like the hifiberry or IQaudio. Then some slightly nicer speakers maybe. Plus I want to test using the Pi2 into the Devialet instead of the Mac directly (or indirectly since I'm using the Intona).

I couldn't test the wifi, as after getting my dongle setup on the Pi, the signal in my kitchen was just too weak, so I'd need to re-instate the downstairs access point (which I'd disabled to try and save myself from excess radiation).

The only negatives so far are:
There isn't a single Bose/B&W style 'Roon Ready' speaker on the market. So, nothing I can buy to use in the kitchen and work with Roon zones. There are loads with Airplay, which work fine with Roon, but the problem here is you can only group by type at the moment (to keep them in sync apparently), so I wouldn't be able to link my lounge and kitchen that way, which would sort of defeat the whole point. I'm sure things will change but I'm guessing the RAAT uptake by hardware manufacturers will be slow (assuming there are going to be some), so it leaves the situation a little confused. For now I may have to try and find a nice box (like and old Robert's radio) and shove the Pi and everything inside - but I've got a feeling that will be a nice idea that will never come to fruition due to time. Otherwise I need a way to hide the Pi and DAC, and then use line-out to a nice speaker with a line-in. Since I don't need to group the upstairs, the world of Airplay is open to me there so will start exploring those options.

And a very minor one, but there is a slight pause in the music (1-2 seconds) when grouping/ungrouping zones which I hope they will be able to remove at some point down the line, and it's a bit disconcerting for someone listening in the other room (I got a few 'looks'). Also, playback did stop once when ungrouping, but I was on the iPhone and its VERY small (also a slight negative) so maybe I pressed something. Time will tell there.

Considering this was only released a few days ago, I'm impressed. There's room for improvement sure, but where it counts - solid uninterrupted playback - they've nailed it.

WARNING: Devialet Rant to follow…please skip if you're sensitive to Devialet's feelings.
I can't resist it, so I apologise, but I'm just absolutely staggered that Devialet hasn't managed to fix AIR yet. It only runs on two operating systems, and only works with their hardware which they should know inside out. The only unknowns they're dealing with are people's home network environments. Yet despite this, years down the line they've failed to address the dropouts, crackles etc from an unreliable transport, and they've failed to fix the Windows white noise and BSOD.

This is insane. I mean it is absolutely, completely, bonkers! In less time, Roon have completely written RAAT from scratch, made it work on a variety of hardware, and also on Linux and ARM devices, as well as OSX and Windows. And they've supported Airplay and Squeeze devices, and Meridian. And this is just the transport aspect of their software. Sure there are bugs and issues on their forums right now, but very few (if any) seem to be anything to do with dropouts and crackles etc - more specific hardware at the end of the chain. And in any case ONE WEEK after that release they put a maintenance release out to address a load of the issues. I'm sure next week we'll get another one. And another again until most people are happily listening to music without issues.

I just don't know what's going on at Devialet HQ I really don't. Thank goodness Roon came along to save me, but I still want to be able to stream to my D200 over AIR, and no matter how hard I try, I just can't believe they haven't managed to get their s*** together and get it working yet. Devialet have almost managed to make a cult out of their failure, where their users are so desperate for AIR to work and so mesmerised by Devialet's incompetence, that they get excited when they manage to get a whole hours playback without issues. After a year or more of changing systems, re-installing OS's, suffering crashes, completely re-arranging their whole networks to accommodate Devialets crappy code, they get an hour or maybe two hours of uninterrupted playback, and get excited. Noooooooooo! This isn't right!!!!!!!
END OF RANT….