21-Jun-2020, 10:17
First, I would recommend reading Roon's support page on best networking practices https://kb.roonlabs.com/Networking_Best_Practices and checking if there is something in it which helps you get better results with your current setup without Roon. They have suggestions applying to several different routers and there may be a simple setting change you can make to improve your current situation. There have also been a few recent posts here about problems with Devialet's AIR app since the last Windows update. You mention a laptop but not whether it is a Mac or a Windows machine. If it's aa Windows machine there may be something in those posts which could help.
As others have said, Roon now includes its own implementation of Devialet AIR which you select in Roon's audio settings. That works fine with the Expert range as well as the Expert Pro range. You won't be able to access your 120 as a Roon Ready endpoint, that requires an Expert Pro, but Roon will see your 120 on y our network and offer you its AIR option in its Audio Settings menu. It seems to be universally accepted that Roon's version of AIR works much better than Devialet's but you should disable the Devialet AIR app on your laptop and, preferably, delete it so it doesn't interfere with Roon. If you're using the free Roon trial to test things out, disable the Devialet app and compress it into a zip file so it can't run. If you decide not to use Roon it's easy then to unzip the Devialet App and start using it again.
You have several options for the network connection. You can try wifi but I had problems with that. You can run an ethernet connection to you 120 from your router or you could even run it from your laptop placed near your 120 and connect the laptop to your network via wifi. Then there's @Sailor4W 's suggestion of placing a wifi device near your 120 and connecting the wifi device to your 120 via ethernet. I did that with an Airport Extreme for a long time in my setup before having a wired connection installed from my router in a different room to a wall point near my 140. All of those connection methods should work. You may also be able to use a wifi device near your 120 and get better wifi reception with your 120. I think part of my problem with not being able to get good wifi reception with my 140 was due to the fact that I was trying that before it got the CI board upgrade so it still had the internal wifi antenna and I think the rear cover over the connections at the back of the amp was blocking good wifi reception. Wired connections can definitely be more reliable than wifi.
You asked whether the device you run Roon on can affect sound quality. I think that if you're running Roon on a computer that is also being used for other purposes such as email or routine timed backups or you're doing some kind of work on the computer while also listening to Roon, the other activities might affect sound quality because they're placing additional demands on the processor. I think Roon works best when it's the only app running at the time which is one of the reasons I moved to using a dedicated server which only runs Roon but if there's only light other activity going on and Roon isn't doing any demanding DSP processing you may not notice anything, You said you could use the laptop solely for Roon so if you do that, I'd program any automated backups you do on the laptop for running after you go to bed at night and not at times when you're likely to be listening to music.
As others have said, Roon now includes its own implementation of Devialet AIR which you select in Roon's audio settings. That works fine with the Expert range as well as the Expert Pro range. You won't be able to access your 120 as a Roon Ready endpoint, that requires an Expert Pro, but Roon will see your 120 on y our network and offer you its AIR option in its Audio Settings menu. It seems to be universally accepted that Roon's version of AIR works much better than Devialet's but you should disable the Devialet AIR app on your laptop and, preferably, delete it so it doesn't interfere with Roon. If you're using the free Roon trial to test things out, disable the Devialet app and compress it into a zip file so it can't run. If you decide not to use Roon it's easy then to unzip the Devialet App and start using it again.
You have several options for the network connection. You can try wifi but I had problems with that. You can run an ethernet connection to you 120 from your router or you could even run it from your laptop placed near your 120 and connect the laptop to your network via wifi. Then there's @Sailor4W 's suggestion of placing a wifi device near your 120 and connecting the wifi device to your 120 via ethernet. I did that with an Airport Extreme for a long time in my setup before having a wired connection installed from my router in a different room to a wall point near my 140. All of those connection methods should work. You may also be able to use a wifi device near your 120 and get better wifi reception with your 120. I think part of my problem with not being able to get good wifi reception with my 140 was due to the fact that I was trying that before it got the CI board upgrade so it still had the internal wifi antenna and I think the rear cover over the connections at the back of the amp was blocking good wifi reception. Wired connections can definitely be more reliable than wifi.
You asked whether the device you run Roon on can affect sound quality. I think that if you're running Roon on a computer that is also being used for other purposes such as email or routine timed backups or you're doing some kind of work on the computer while also listening to Roon, the other activities might affect sound quality because they're placing additional demands on the processor. I think Roon works best when it's the only app running at the time which is one of the reasons I moved to using a dedicated server which only runs Roon but if there's only light other activity going on and Roon isn't doing any demanding DSP processing you may not notice anything, You said you could use the laptop solely for Roon so if you do that, I'd program any automated backups you do on the laptop for running after you go to bed at night and not at times when you're likely to be listening to music.
Roon Nucleus+, Devilalet Expert 140 Pro CI, Focal Sopra 2, PS Audio P12, Keces P8 LPS, Uptone Audio EtherREGEN with optical fibre link to my router, Shunyata Alpha NR and Sigma NR power cables, Shunyata Sigma ethernet cables, Shunyata Alpha V2 speaker cables, Grand Prix Audio Monaco rack, RealTRAPS acoustic treatment.
Brisbane, Qld, Australia
