New app

[David A]

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If the  Devialet itself could become a roon core then game over... they kill the market for good and the rest of the source/streamer/dac/pre-amp/amp/cable industry mostly goes bankrupt.

Why should the Devialet  become a Roon Core? According to Roon themselves, you get best sound quality when the Core (server) software and the renderer software are running on different devices. Whether we're using the AIR protocol with Roon as at present, or RAAT when the CI amps become Roon Ready, the Devialet is a renderer so we should get best results running Roon Core on a different device.

In addition Roon Core can do a lot of processing, especially if you're using the Roon DSP engine. The Devialet's processor also does a fair bit of DSP processing with things like SAM and tone controls. The current processor on the CI board may well not be capable off handling the DSP functions for Roon plus the Devialet DSP functions so that means needing to get a processor upgrade and new software. Considering the last 6 months of mucking around with the CI board rollout and the software program associated with that, how many of us CI owners would look forward eagerly to going through another hardware and software upgrade program to make our amps capable of doing Roon Core functions as well as what they are currently doing? Not many, and I suspect that not a lot of non-CI owners are going to rush to that upgrade after hearing of all the issues that CI owners have gone through with the current upgrade program, especially to end up with a 1 device solution for Roon that Roon themselves say is less than ideal.

There is for sure value in having a Roon core accessible from various network replay devices, but I would be surprised if a one box solution (core and renderer both running on the streamer board) were not superior to a network based multi-box setup. I'd be very interested in understanding the reason why Roon claims this. I wouldn't be surprised if this were the result of a willingness to stick to their architecture.

I don't believe you have factual information to back up your claim that the streamer board doesn't have the power needed to run a Roon core on top of the other tasks running in the Devialet, do you?

It seems obvious that the streamer board was designed to run software similar to a Roon core, and the Devialet implementation will probably be very similar indeed, only will it lack the sophistication of Roon.

Cheers,
Bernard

You say that you would be surprised if a one box solution were not superior to a two box solution and that you wouldn't be surprised if Roon's claim that a two box solution is superior were the result of a willingness to stick to their architecture. Well, Roon are the people who are making the decision about their architecture and they have their reasons for choosing that architecture over other architectures. Could they change their architecture and produce a solution running on a single processor? Well, their software can do that but they have definitely stated that separating the core and renderer functions is superior. Others like Antipodes who produce excellent servers which run Roon Core also believe that a two box solution is superior and have just produced a two box solution with their CX and EX which they believe is superior to their previous flagship model, the DX, and are now presenting the CX/EX combination as their flagship. The Antipodes servers can also run other server and renderer software instead of Roon for those who don't wish to use Roon and they haven't suggested that any of those other server and renderer applications won't be improved if run on separate processors. I think the new Innuos flagship product is also a two box solution. If a software developer and one, possibly two, hardware developers, all well respected, believe that a two box solution is superior,I think that's an opinion which deserves some very serious consideration before it is dismissed. Unless I see some very good reasons for doubting Roon's opinion on the superiority of a two box solution, I'm taking them at their word.

Secondly I most definitely did not say that the Devialet CI board was incapable of running both functions. I said I wondered if it were capable of doing so. That means I don't know whether it can or it can't, and I don't think you know either. Apart from processing power, consider that running Roon Core requires storage for the software application and storage for Roon's library database which is separate to the actual music files and can take up a fair amount of space in itself for large libraries. Does the CI board have sufficient storage for the Roon server software and library? Devialet  have never mentioned that the board could make a Devialet capable of hosting and running 3rd party software or any plan to implement such a feature at any stage. It isn't at all clear to me that the CI board was designed to run software similar to Roon Core.

Finally, Roon produce versions of their Core software that can run on various platforms. They haven't allowed others to develop their own implementation of the Roon Core software and judging by their current practice of making their own versions of the software to run on different platforms they are not likely to allow Devialet to develop their own implementation of the Roon Core software, especially a version which lacked the sophistication of Roon's own versions given that they are obviously invested in producing a particular user experience.

You may be right on all points but I think that Roon have a much better understanding of their product than either you or I and I'm willing to take their view as correct until I'm given good reasons for doubting it. I also note that Devialet have definitely committed to making the amps with the CI board Roon Ready but they have never made any statements at all about intending for those amps to run server software as well. I see no reason to believe that we'll ever be running Roon Core on the CI board or that doing so would be more desirable than running Roon Core on a separate computer/server/NAS drive which are our current options for running Roon Core.