Core Infinity board

[petrik]

So why is it so important to some that the streamer board is Roon Ready?  Indeed, there is some indication that the wifi will be improved in the new streamer board, and with AIR remaining as a feature then from what we know now the streamer board will offer Roon, wirelessly via AIR, with equal or improved performance than is available now.

Thinking this through I can come up with two answers myself, that is sound quality, and maybe increased stability.  (assuming AIR is not 100% stable for a given user)  

I assume the assumption is that streaming via RAAT would offer better sound quality than AIR?  Or is there something else I have missed?  Maybe what folk are after is for Roon core to run on the streamer board, so just add a NAS and away you go?  (although most of what I have seen is simply a desire for the streamer board to be a Roon RAAT 'end point')

Another thought I have whilst mulling this all over is SPARK.  OK, SPARK is much maligned as an example of music server software and to be honest I have no great desire to use it.  But how good is it from a pure sound quality perspective?  As SPARK can only be used with Phantoms currently, the answer to this one is not clear.  Maybe SPARK beats RAAT for sound quality?  OK, I guess many will speculate, perhaps with good reason, that RAAT is best, but until this is put to the test (which would require RAAT on the streamer board), who knows?

AIR doesn't work reliably yet. I still have those bluescreen crashes when using AIR. Devialet support has confirmed that other Windows customers are also having the same issue.

I just want to move on from AIR because it just doesn't work reliably. Although we might get a fully working version of AIR during this year, I just keep thinking what happens if there comes a Windows/MAC version update which just breaks the AIR again? Do we need to wait for another 2 years to get a new version of AIR?

As said, I just want a more reliable way to use Roon with Devialet Expert. I think RAAT or HQPlayer NAA is the way to go.