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RE: Thank you so much Abe. I really am very grateful for all of this . . .

Posted by AbeCollins (A) on January 16, 2017 at 16:44:39

In Reply to: Thank you so much Abe. I really am very grateful for all of this . . . posted by JoshT on January 16, 2017 at 15:03:10:

Hi Josh -

#1) I don't believe Roon bypasses CoreAudio but it still sounds outstanding. It is not 'compatible' with Audirvana or Pure Music that I am aware of. I just happen to still have Audirvana and fire it up now and then. However, my primary player is now Roon. That being said, Roon is compatible with HQPlayer so some folks use Roon as a 'front-end' AND HQPlayer to tweak the sound. I played with it. It was good and has lots of 'knobs' to play with, but it's not something I have to have. I didn't mention HQPlayer earlier as it would possibly confuse things and make it more complex than need be.

#2) You can use Roon over wifi but like most network streaming scenarios it is better to use hardwired Ethernet. Higher res music files require more bandwidth and the reliability of the network becomes more important. Wifi -may- work fine for you but your chances are better at typical CD resolutions vs hi-res PCM or DSD. Of course, the streamer device must also support wifi. The microRendu streamer that I use supports strictly hard wired Ethernet.

#3) The microRendu is a network streamer and it gets it's music from a networked computer, dedicated NAS, or some services like Tidal or Qobuz. The microRendu does not store any music locally. It gets it from elsewhere. You initially interact with the microRendu through your web browser by inputting the IP address of the microRendu into your web browser URL field. Here you can setup the microRendu. Once setup, it's just a streamer and you no longer need the web interface. I then use Roon on my iPad. From within Roon, I can direct the music to be played thru the microRendu or played thru my Mac Mini. Different streamers offer different features and support for various streaming services (Tidal, Qobuz, Spotify, Pandora, etc), if that's important to you. I use the microRendu with Roon so the fact that the microRendu supports Roon is important to me, but I don't care about Spotify, Pandora, etc. Maybe you do, so keep that in mind if you go with a streamer someday.

#4) The sonicTransporter is still built upon a general purpose computer ("optimized" I suppose) but it will not (to the best of my knowledge) allow you to output to a directly attached USB DAC. It will not allow you to rip new CD's. You will still need a computer somewhere. And it will require that the music be on an external USB disk drive. The sonicTransporter will be doing the same thing as my Mac Mini in terms of running Roon and streaming over the network with the RAAT protocol (Roon Advanced Audio Transport). With the Mini I can also output directly to a USB DAC when I choose to, or output to the microRendu streamer, and I can rip my CD's.

P.S. There is no one 'right way' to setup your system. You have to take into account not only the quality of the sonics but all the features and conveniences that you want.

Edits: 01/16/17

This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors:

Herbie's Audio Lab

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