[Northman]

First, I apologize for another uninformed Roon question, especially during the holiday season. I've looked through this forum, including the sticky, and can't quite find my answer.

I'm currently using a BDP2 with a wired ethernet connection, using MM from my phone or laptop. It works great. I'm considering trying Roon. My internet speed is okay, nothing special.

Let's say that I'm using my laptop as the Roon Core and either the laptop or an iPhone as the Roon App. Would the laptop be receiving the music (signal) wirelessly from the network/Qobuz and then transmitting it wirelessly to the BPD2 as a Roon Endpoint? Similarly, for music on a flash drive (which is now attached to my BDP), would the drive instead be connected to my laptop and then be sent wirelessly to the BDP2?

I'm undoubtedly missing something but would I experience any signal deterioration with a double wifi process (network > laptop > BDP2)? Or am I being fussy and is wireless just as good as a wired connection? I've always assumed that wired is better. Or ... do people have a dedicated laptop that is connected to the BDP2 (how?? USB > USB?) that can be run from the Roon App on the iPhone?

I guess I'm stuck on whether wifi can transmit the signal as cleanly as cables, and I'm wondering how people have maximized their SQ using Roon and a BDP. I don't see any point in moving to Roon if I risk losing an SQ. I also wonder about my cds, carefully converted via dBpoweramp to the flash drive, being delivered via wifi. There wouldn't be any degradation?

Thanks. I'm sure I'm being clueless. And, despite this tiresome post, happy holidays!

[unincognito]

WiFi has gotten really fast and has at this point with WiFi version 6(not that you need version 6, older versions are also plenty fast) has likely gotten faster then most people's wired connections, the real issue for me any ways I reliability, a wired connection will always be more reliable.  Running a roon core on your laptop (assuming the laptop is fast enough) will likely be just fine.  Qobuz will come down from your internet connection to the roon core (at this point your internet connection no longer effects the performance), the roon core will package the content and send it to it's destination the BDP2 using your local wifi.  I'd recommend using a roon trial and if you'd like you can call us up at bryston and we can give you a hand, I however am on holiday till the new year.

Chris

[zoom25]

I think I've exhausted all the options on a BDP-1 (BDP-2 should also be covered).

You can do native Manic Moose MPD (USB drives as media source, or wired NAS as source, wireless NAS as source with USB Wi-fi adapter)

You can do Roon wired (ethernet cable on BDP-1) and wireless (USB Wi-fi adapter on the BDP-1). If you do wireless, make sure no ethernet cable is plugged on the BDPs. I've done a post or two on this before with setup. Also, Chris/Bryston made a very helpful guide as well that should hopefully still be available. You can get their USB Wi-fi adapters, or third party like I did for a much lower price. Mine worked flawlessly and still does in another IPTV rig.

With Roon, all your music must first go through Roon Core, which can only run on desktops/laptops. It doesn't matter whether that music is your own on USB drives and/or streamed music from Tidal/Qobuz. It will all first come to Roon and then out to the Bryston BDP player.

When using Roon, you ideally want the music itself wired to the Roon Core device (laptop/computer). NAS can be used for storage of media for Roon to pull the music off of, but direct storage like USB is preferred. You can also use the USB drives attached to the BDP as a media source for Roon, but that's not recommended. You'll be adding unnecessary load on the network and on BDP. I've done it in the past with mixed results. Not recommended.

Have the USB drives connected to Roon Core (computer) directly for best Roon experience. In my case, my USB music drive was connected to my iMac running Roon Core. I've tried full wireless (both iMac and BDP-1 wireless) and full wired (both iMac and BDP-1 wired) to a local switch/router. If you have decent internet speeds and a decent router in correct locations, it works just as good. I didn't experience any dropouts and it was very responsive with full wireless mode. You couldn't tell the difference in experience as the end user between wired or wireless.

As far as SQ goes, I've written about that many times on all the Roon and MPD comparisons and the many ways to feed them. Wireless USB adapters for both MPD and Roon use, wired and wireless NAS for BDP-1, local USB flash drive vs. portable 2.5" spinning HDD drives, FLAC vs. WAV in MPD out of NAS and various USB drives, Audioquest Jitterbug for USB drives and/or the wireless Wifi adapter connecting to the BDP-1, linear power supplies for the network router/switch, 5 network switch and router (both gigabit and 100 mbps - slow everything to 100 Mbps), direct bridged ethernet connection from the computer to the BDP-1 without any router/switch involved.

There are many options and they all have different SQ. Most people seem to like MPD for SQ over Roon. Within MPD, some people like music off a NAS vs. USB drives from a SQ point alone.

Anyways, try it out and if you run into issues, someone here or on the Roon forum can likely help out. Good luck!

[Naimophile]

I run Roon on a desktop PC connected to my home network by Ethernet, and also have my BDP-3 and BDP-1 connected to the network by Ethernet. My music is on an internal hard drive in desktop running Roon. I bought a lifetime license for Roon. The Roon interface is beautifully designed and is a pleasure to use. However, I find the sound quality of Roon inferior to playing music directly from the internal HD drive in my BDP-3 using MPD - Manic Moose.

So, I find myself defaulting to Roon, eventually becoming fatigued with the Roon sound, switching to Manic Moose to play files directly from the HD in the BDP, preferring the audio quality with MPD on local files in the BDP, missing the Roon interface, switching to Roon . . .

[jobiwon]

I gots a Pi ,Qobuz, Roon Core on SGC ST.  I switch back and forth.  Play  The Roons most of the time.  But for critical listening/streaming  i switch to MPD.  Got more life and image depth.

[zoom25]

Yeah, I've had to deal with that same issue. Roon is better than Manic Moose in every way, except for missing folder view (which they said will never happen). However, MPD sounds better than RAAT. It sucks having to choose between better interface vs. better SQ.

As for how to get the best SQ out of MPD, that's also an interesting topic, for example: https://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=162169.0

There are countless number of Bryston customers who haver reported hearing such differences between different playback methods. Yet, there are other high-end manufacturers from whose customers I have never heard even a peep of a suggestion that there are differences between different playback methods. On their systems, everything sounds the same provided it's the same bit-perfect file. I wish Bryston's digital player products were also the same in that regard and not so sensitive to changes in playback methods. Don't get me wrong. It sounds amazing. I just wished it sounded the same through every method, making choosing playback method only based on feature and user interface without having to weigh/worry about potential SQ difference.

[Northman]

Just a quick note to thank you all for responding. You all answered my questions brilliantly. And Chris, thank you for your offer of help. (You've helped me in the past, as have many at Bryston.)

Thank you!!!