[Krutsch]

Is there another device out there from other manufacturers that runs the Core on the same device? I really wish the Bryston could run it.

You can learn more here: https://community.roonlabs.com/c/audio-products

[Marius]

You have to let Roon finish indexing and analyzing your library. Unlike MPD, which only reads embedded metadata, Roon builds a sonic signature of your music files to uniquely identify the content, regardless of how they are named or what's in the metadata (i.e. tags), if anything.

I think you were the one that mentioned you haven't really tagged your files; Roon is perfect for you, because it doesn't rely entirely on tags to index your music. Subsequent indexing/analysis is very fast, in my experience, once it's completed the initial scan.

Trust me... let it finish indexing and analyzing before you grade the overall experience.

HI Ken,


That sounds quite mystifying.... not sure why they would do that, and, for example, how it would distinguish various versions of the same song. I have rather different sounding versions of lets say live opera;s. If Roon where to analyse how they sounds (compare a live mono recording in the 1930/40's to a high res 2015 recording of the same Tristan), they would well come up with different names listen to Neil Young on 10+ versions of the same song, and the only way to know they are the same song, is by reading the name and artist ...


btw, Roon says its analyzing i the background for crossfade, volume normalization and waveform displays. All things i don't care for (yet). Still, it takes such a long time if i enable it, something must be wrong. Or my Macbook air (1,7 ghz, I7, 8 gig mem) is just not up to it.


Importing the tracks went fine, so i guess im good now.


Thanks anyways, very helpful as always Ken, appreciated a lot!
Cheers,
Marius

[zoom25]

You can learn more here: https://community.roonlabs.com/c/audio-products

Thanks.

[zoom25]

Finally gave in and decided to use the Roon code for the BDP-1. Got it all setup. I have 10,000+ tracks all in WAV and my Mid 2012 Macbook Pro w/SSD, 8GB Ram, and 2.6 GHz Intel Core i7 got it all setup and library scanned in under 5-10 minutes. I have the tracks on an external portable 2 TB hard drive.

On the BDP-1, I disabled everything manually except RoonReady. There is no problem streaming 16 bit WAV files so far. Will see how that changes with 24/96 and above.

AESTHETICALLY, Roon looks great and I did notice the thing Krutsch was talking about regarding the extra clicks to play an album or track FWIW. With large libraries, its almost like having your own lossless Spotify app.

The main thing: SOUND QUALITY. I've only had it playing for 30 mins so far, but the sound definitely differs from MPD. It was quite immediate as I was playing the same album and tracks a few minutes ago on MPD.

[Krutsch]

...

The main thing: SOUND QUALITY. I've only had it playing for 30 mins so far, but the sound definitely differs from MPD. It was quite immediate as I was playing the same album and tracks a few minutes ago on MPD.

In which direction? Better or worse than MPD?

[zoom25]

In which direction? Better or worse than MPD?

Better. Between the HD 800 and Amphion's imaging capabilities, it's very easily noticeable. No guessing required. It's more relaxing on the brain for sure. More dynamic, treble and mids definitely sounds cleaner. The entire top end (2k+) opened up. Very capable blackground. If anything, I was expecting MPD to be better, but this is something else. Beautifully unexpected.


Also, I downloaded both "Roon" and "Roon Server" on my Macbook Pro. Currently using Roon to run everything through BDP-1. Roon Server opens a little icon at the top bar where battery and time icons are. I have no idea what it does, or will it let the Bryston control anything? Manic Moose as of right now does nothing for controlling the sound beside changing preferences. So is the Bryston now supposed to just clean up music before sending it to the DAC?

I'm a bit confused about your previous statement on the last page:

"Directly attach your USB drives to the Roon computer (preferably running RoonServer) or point Roon to a dedicated NAS box (e.g. Synology or WD MyCloud, which is what I use).".....WHY?

[Marius]

other than the occasional dropout and not always so gapless transitions, i must admit to really like the speed of search results in Roon. Not being able to browse by folder might be solved by a very immediate response to a search, which is in fact even faster 


Sonically,the sound seems to be more direct, somehow less three dimensionally sculpted than MPD. Ive test driven 2 of my bring-always recordings and both seem to give the same impression. Very good, but ... Will have to do further testing and comparing.


Also, very handy, is the volume slider. In my balanced setup, the BDA and the BDP tend to have a lot of gain (maybe even too much) , compared to unbalanced sources. Having this slider available might be a valid alternative to switching to unbalanced cabling, in the various variations I've tested lately. Even better  since it provides more fluctuation than + or _ 6 db.


James, technically, would you be able to describe he difference between the 2 (digital slider vs 6db unbalanced/balanced), and maybe even advice on your preference, and why?


Cheers,
Marius

[Krutsch]

...

I'm a bit confused about your previous statement on the last page:

"Directly attach your USB drives to the Roon computer (preferably running RoonServer) or point Roon to a dedicated NAS box (e.g. Synology or WD MyCloud, which is what I use).".....WHY?

RoonServer is Roon without the user interface/control graphics engine on the same machine. You use your tablet, et al., to control playback, not the machine's screen/keyboard that is running Roon. It's to allow lesser hardware configurations to run well, since it's focused only on library management and serving audio to the endpoints (e.g. BDP-1/2).

No reason not to run everything on your MacBook, if that's working for you. Should make no difference in sound.

[zoom25]

Never mind. I partially figured it out. The Play, Pause, Forward, Rewind still work on the BDP-1 panel. Had to restart the device and its working.

I can definitely see why Marius finds MPD more 3D and holographic. On the other hand, everything feels like its placed naturally on Roon. MPD in comparison is like Audirvana Plus 1.5.10...more rounded and bigger, but somehow still less realistic.

Will have to let it play for a few days to see if the honeymoon phase wears off. I will say one last thing, regardless of the sound presentation differences, from a FUN and ENJOYMENT standpoint, I'm liking the sound a lot more now. Haven't head this much fun as a total package since the CD days.

[zoom25]

RoonServer is Roon without the user interface/control graphics engine on the same machine. You use your tablet, et al., to control playback, not the machine's screen/keyboard that is running Roon. It's to allow lesser hardware configurations to run well, since it's focused only on library management and serving audio to the endpoints (e.g. BDP-1/2).

No reason not to run everything on your MacBook, if that's working for you. Should make no difference in sound.

Thanks, Krutsch. Will revisit this in the future as required. 

[tie_breaker]

Congrats to Bryston and well done!!!  Over the weekend I installed Roon on my laptop and upgraded the firmware of my BDP-2 and I was up and running with Roon in a short time.  As many commented already, the interface of Roon is really nice. I rediscovered my music.  I did notice that the sound quality of MPD was better while playing files from an external disk connected to the BDP-2 via USB.  My BDP-2 is connected to my home network via cat5 cable and my laptop via wireless.  So I decided to also connect my laptop with a cat5 cable.  It certainly improved the sound quality of Roon. I can say it is almost as good as MPD, a bit more laid back in fact.

So I then decided to run Roon on my Synology NAS device (DS1515+) and get rid of the laptop.  I installed  Roon core on the NAS which was fairly easy to do, and Roon remote on my iPhone. I copied over music files to the NAS and configured Roon on the NAS to read files locally, pointed the audio zone to BDP-2 and I was streaming music from my NAS in no time.  It's a great setup, I am very happy with it, again congrats Bryston....

[vonnie123]

In which direction? Better or worse than MPD?

Coin flip.  Both are excellent (MPD/Roon Ready).

HQPlayer (NAA) with Roon adds a dimension (microRendu) with the added filter options and upsampling. I am listening to Sonore microRendu in NAA mode (Roon/HQPlayer) and my Bryston BDP-1 (in Roon Ready) about 50/50.  Both are very clean, and the Roon interface is great to navigate in.

[Marius]

Roon Server opens a little icon at the top bar where battery and time icons are. I have no idea what it does, or will it let the Bryston control anything?

Nothing showing here, could you post a screenshot of that? Found nothing in the settings to make that available either 
Thanks,
Marius

[Grit]

hi Grit,


You mean like this?


 


Roon delivers this searching for Diana Krall. It first shows whats in your own library, and scrolling down, this is what im presented with.
 Cheers,
Marius

What I want is for Roon to pull random songs from everything it thinks sounds like the artist in question,  but not from only my library, but from Tidal also.

[Marius]

What I want is for Roon to pull random songs from everything it thinks sounds like the artist in question,  but not from only my library, but from Tidal also.

Well, this is. Marian mcpartland, Elaine Elias, Jeffery smith, etc etc. not in my library..

[zoom25]

Nothing showing here, could you post a screenshot of that? Found nothing in the settings to make that available either 
Thanks,
Marius

Regardless of whether Roon is running or not, when I try to open Roon Server, only this icon opens. No application opens for Roon Server, so I have no idea how that is supposed to look.

[Marius]

Regardless of whether Roon is running or not, when I try to open Roon Server, only this icon opens. No application opens for Roon Server, so I have no idea how that is supposed to look.

 
no showing here, found no mention of it on the Roon Community.
Sorry, can't help you.
Marius

[Marius]

Regardless of whether Roon is running or not, when I try to open Roon Server, only this icon opens. No application opens for Roon Server, so I have no idea how that is supposed to look.

Roon community just explained to me the icon only is with Roon Server without GUI. If you want a GUI, you need to download the other package on https://roonlabs.com/downloads.html .


Cheers,
marius

[zoom25]

Roon community just explained to me the icon only is with Roon Server without GUI. If you want a GUI, you need to download the other package on https://roonlabs.com/downloads.html .


Cheers,
marius

Thanks Marius. I'll take a look at it. Right now, just using Roon flawlessly.

[Marius]

HI Chris,


Does Roon Ready Mode disable file transfers to the attached HDD's?
I had to disable Roon Mode to be able to write some albums to the HDD's. Does this have to do with MDP too, or only the USB mount and Samba services (which were enabled throughout)

Please also check: Re: BRYSTON BDP DIGITAL PLAYERS NOW Roon Ready
Cheers,
Marius