ROON ROCK now available

[Hifi_swlon]

...though this is not scientifically quantified.

Well it's an audio forum - I wouldn't expect anything less

[Hifi_swlon]

How does Rock sound compared to Win10? What are your impressions?

gui

Not wishing to speak for baddog, but he did say he can't use AIR on ROCK so I'm guessing it's not an easy comparison right now, and assuming AIR is eventually on both could we expect a difference?

[baddog]

How does Rock sound compared to Win10? What are your impressions?

gui

I cannot do Apples to Apples yet, as the Windows 10 Pro version allows me to use Devialet AIR and the ROCK version does not.

p.s. What Steve said...^^^

[baddog]

Houston we have lift off!

Running on ROCK with AIR to the D440 Pro!

Note I am sending DSD64...

AIR is running seamlessly.

Note the ability to control volume as well.

Plus one can shut off the Devialet as well.

Home run!

Oh, and it sounds great....

And in case you missed it:

https://community.roonlabs.com/t/roon-1-...ng/28166/3

http://blog.roonlabs.com/roon-devialet/



   

[baddog]

Also nice that I no longer need to use Microsoft Remote Desktop to login to the NUC and turn off Roon and the machine. I can now use a web browser.

   

[baddog]

Also one can, as mentioned control volume and turn off the 440 Pro from within Roon.

Having previously run this NUC under Windows 10 Pro, and having to have run a lot of optimization on the system, including disabling Windows updates et al, it's nice not having to customize/prune/optimize the OS.

Fast too, FWIW my library has about 31,000 tracks.

   

[tategoi]

Hi baddog, need your advice. I am also running a headless Roon core on a NUC 6i5. You mentioned that you have two M.2 SSD, one boots into Win10 and another into ROCK. So you need to open up the NUC to swap the M.2 every time you need to boot to the other platform?

[baddog]

Hello tategoi -

So yes I have two M.2 SSD drives, one has Windows 10 Pro installed on it with RoonServer, the other is my ROCK boot disk.

So if I wanted to move to the other platform, I would indeed have to swap the M.2 drive every time.

The reality is now that Roon has AIR integrated, I no longer have need for the Windows 10 Pro M.2 drive.

As an aside, given how Roon treats my other SSD drive (which has music stored on it), I am not sure if this SSD would or would not be recognized by the Windows 10 Pro system, but I have not tried yet. I do have a NAS as well, so I can easily use that if need be for the music files.

So yes, if you wish to swap back and forth between Operating systems, you would need to open up the NUC every time and swap M.2 drives.

I also like the fact that I no longer need to use Remote Desktop to login to the headless NUC when running Windows to shut it down, the Web GUI available for ROCK to control the NUC and shut it down is far more convenient. Plus I no longer have to battle with Windows 10 to disable features and/or updates I don't need or want.

[tategoi]

Thanks bandog. 

On matters concerning your other SSD, the 2.5" SATA SSD I presumed, and if I understand you correctly, you are not using the 2.5" as the ROCK boot drive because you had music stored in it? I am considering of using the 2.5" as my ROCK drive, this way I do not have to open the NUC case and swap the M.2, not that I foresee I will do that at all once I had the ROCK correctly installed. Well, I have never done anything Linux in my life 

[baddog]

You are correct. M.2 Drive is boot drive with Roon (either Windows 10 Pro or ROCK (linux)).

SSD drives only purpose is for music storage.

The challenge I foresee with using your M.2 drive for Windows and the SSD drive for ROCK is I believe you will need a monitor attached and need to go into the BIOS to change/select your BOOT device if you wish to switch from one OS to the other. It can certainly be done, I assume this would be short term until you made a decision on which Operating system you preferred?