Roon and Bryston Pi

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Mesanjah05

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Roon and Bryston Pi
« on: 17 Sep 2020, 02:31 pm »
Was in a dealership the other day for another issue and got talking to a rep about the Bryston Pi.  He stated that he recommends purchasers of the Pi to also subscribe to Roon or purchase the Nucleus for improved functionality, file management and full sound quality.  My sister has the Pi, itunes and a Western Digital MyCloud EX NAS.  She has to go into MM services to access the NAS and shareplay if she wants itunes files.  Her NAS is too full to port her itunes over to it.

When I investigated Roon it seemed to me that Roon would simultaneously group itunes and the NAS without having to switch between them.  This would allow full access to her music libraries.  Can anyone verify this level of functionality before I suggest she explore Roon to her?  Those with a Pi unit how has Roon worked for you?  Thanks in advance.

NekoAudio

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Re: Roon and Bryston Pi
« Reply #1 on: 17 Sep 2020, 06:22 pm »
When I investigated Roon it seemed to me that Roon would simultaneously group itunes and the NAS without having to switch between them.  This would allow full access to her music libraries.  Can anyone verify this level of functionality before I suggest she explore Roon to her?  Those with a Pi unit how has Roon worked for you?  Thanks in advance.
Yes, Roon will do what you're looking for if properly configured.

Roon will let you set up multiple local sources, as well as Tidal, Qobuz, or Dropbox. Then when you search it will search from all of those from a single search box. When you navigate around in Roon, you can either be navigating all those local and network services at the same time, or only your local sources, or only a network source. For example, the "Overview" main page will show my local albums and artists, as well as new stuff that is being featured by Qobuz, plus some recommendations by Roon. But if I click on the "Qobuz" menu item it will only show me Qobuz stuff, and if I click on the "Library" menu item it will only show me my local sources.

Local Roon sources can be either a local or external hard disk on the Roon Core computer, or a network share mounted by the Roon Core server. So if your sister has all her iTunes music stored on your Mac hard disk, then you'd want to install Roon Core on the Mac and tell Roon to include the local iTunes music folder and also to include the NAS network share music folder.

That being said, the Roon Client UI can eat up a lot of CPU. You'd either want to make sure your sister's Mac is powerful enough, or think about running Roon Core on a dedicated computer that mounts the NAS and Mac music folders over the network. We run Roon Core on one computer, and use the Roon Client on our Macs, iPads, and iPhones to send music to different playback systems.

Mesanjah05

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Re: Roon and Bryston Pi
« Reply #2 on: 17 Sep 2020, 09:24 pm »
NekoAudio,
Thank you for that detailed and on point response.  I'm not certain of the status or vintage of her Imac, but will share with her what you have outlined.  This is promising for her to move forward.  This is also why I value this community/resource.

vonnie123

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Re: Roon and Bryston Pi
« Reply #3 on: 18 Sep 2020, 09:03 pm »
NekoAudio,
Thank you for that detailed and on point response.  I'm not certain of the status or vintage of her Imac, but will share with her what you have outlined.  This is promising for her to move forward.  This is also why I value this community/resource.

https://kb.roonlabs.com/FAQ:_What_are_the_minimum_requirements%3F

Here are the minimum Roon equipment specs.  Most problems with Roon are network related.  Weak networks give poor results.

NekoAudio

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Re: Roon and Bryston Pi
« Reply #4 on: 19 Sep 2020, 10:46 pm »
Here are the minimum Roon equipment specs.  Most problems with Roon are network related.  Weak networks give poor results.
Minimum requirements assuming you're not going to use the computer for anything else, and even then it may have issues if you try to make decent use of Roon's more advanced features. I am not the only one who has experienced excessive CPU and/or GPU load when running the Roon Client UI on a computer; you can find a few posts on this on the Roon Community forum and other places online.

Network I/O is definitely a concern. Even on a very good network, when Roon Core is reading music data from a NAS and retransmitting it to a Roon Ready endpoint plus keeping its Roon Clients in-sync, if whatever else you're doing on the computer saturates I/O, Roon Core may stall completely. I have to be sure not to do things like that while playing music back on my Roon Core (no Roon Client UI).

Mesanjah05

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Re: Roon and Bryston Pi
« Reply #5 on: 20 Sep 2020, 02:14 pm »
My sister has successfully installed Roon core, set end points and been able to stream music and receive the metadata associated with Roon.  It is clear that computing power and memory are dynamics with this software and it's operation.  She has the horsepower needed but as others have noted it draws a lot on existing resources.  My fear is that if it crashes's as NekoAudio has experienced it maybe a short experiment given her disdain for repeated computer glitches.  We will see!

fbny71

Re: Roon and Bryston Pi
« Reply #6 on: 20 Sep 2020, 03:25 pm »
The system requirements are not all that demanding but it will work best if the computer used is only used for that sole purpose. There could be issues if one browses a lot of webpage tabs at once or works on an excel worksheet.

My Roon core is a 2011 Mac mini!

Mesanjah05

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Re: Roon and Bryston Pi
« Reply #7 on: 20 Sep 2020, 03:55 pm »
The system requirements are not all that demanding but it will work best if the computer used is only used for that sole purpose. There could be issues if one browses a lot of webpage tabs at once or works on an excel worksheet.

My Roon core is a 2011 Mac mini!
fbny71,
You are correct it does seem to be network quality that defines the use of Roon.  My sister is rural based and network strength is an issue as her hardware has the firepower to handle the program.  So far Roon is not on a dedicated pc and she does utilize other active programs given her hobbies.  She also has a "gaming" son and that might lead to issues, certainly in the event he is online and she is listening to music.

NekoAudio

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Re: Roon and Bryston Pi
« Reply #8 on: 20 Sep 2020, 08:17 pm »
My fear is that if it crashes's as NekoAudio has experienced it maybe a short experiment given her disdain for repeated computer glitches.
Sorry I wasn't clear what I meant by stall. Just that music playback would be interrupted, and not that the software would crash. I've never had any issues with crashing, although I've seen the occasional report of crashes online.