Disclosure of Material Connection: Some legal info before we get into the good stuff ;) Some of the links in this post are “affiliate links” (when indicated). This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, MusicServerTips.com will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I own and/or use personally and believe will add value to my readers. Any external link pointing to a commercial offering is clearly marked as an “advertisement link”. Please also check the privacy policy for more details. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. If I mention a product’s price, it may have changed since publishing this article. So please double-check for up-to-date prices. NOTICE TO U.S. VISITORS: I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.” and international laws. Click here to learn more.
Further Disclosure to Visitors: MusicServerTips.com is operated from Austria, Europe and therefore I may live in a timezone different to yours. Note that products I talk about may have different availability in your country of residence to which I have no influence (since I’m not selling those). I do my best to keep information as universal as possible. Click here to learn more.
Introduction
Pre-Disclosure: I’m an active, paying Roon Labs subscriber (annual subscription) so my article is based on my personal experiences with the Roon Labs service and its applications.
I’ve probably mentioned it a thousand times and I won’t stop telling folks how I think Roon Labs is THE easiest to use and most elegant music streaming architecture on the market bar none. It works so well, you simply forget the computer stuff that makes all of this tick. But for newbies visiting the Roon Labs website opens Pandora’s box with more questions popping up. So I decided to put together a small recipe for easy success.
If you don’t know WHAT Roon is, please check out their website.
What You Need To Get Started
Besides a Roon Labs license plus DAC and your audio system – you can choose between annual and lifetime Roon subscriptions (which are costly but worth it in my opinion if you are in it for the long term) – at the least you essentially need a server for the Roon application and ideally a remote control so you can kick back and relax. This could be an iPad or an Android tablet. Roon runs well on both. If you’ve got no tablet, a smartphone will do.
Ingredient No 1: Roon Server
Roon software is available as a fully integrated server/playback client or as a standalone server package for “headless” installation. Roon Server is the beast that crunches the data and hosts your music library. Ideally , you would keep your actual music collection separate on a NAS. Almost anything can be turned into a Roon Server starting from a current laptop up to powerful desktop machine running in your basement. Roon Server runs also on more powerful Intel processor based NAS boxes such as from Synology or QNAP. You don’t need to worry about the OS itself as Roon Server runs on Linux, Windows or MAC OS. What you do need to consider though are the power requirements: Roon needs a reasonably fast machine to shine – ideally with an SSD and plenty of RAM. And that machine needs to be on all the time – at least when you’re listening to music. Forget any low-powered computers because they won’t work here. Roon’s philosophy is to constantly add to their feature set such as digital room correction. I would expect the minimum system requirements to rise in the future.
The following machines are suitable and proven candidates for your Roon server taking into account performance, power consumption and your music library’s size:
- Intel NUC (SSD and 8GB or more RAM recommended)
- Apple Mac Mini (SSD and 8GB or more RAM recommended)
- Powerful laptop or desktop PC
If you want to spend less money or prefer a less energy consuming solution, check out the Intel Compute Stick for smaller libraries (500-100 CDs). I haven’t personally tried this yet but some users at least considered it usable.
Roon recently released their own system software that was designed to run on the Intel NUC so you generally might want to build a system around the NUC.
Ingredient No 2: Roon Bridge
Yet another computer that would connect to your DAC and receive its music stream from Roon Server. Fortunately, Roon Bridge can be a lightweight computer such as the Raspberry PI with a Linux distribution of your choice. I personally use DietPI which is fantastic and lets you set up the whole thing in about 10 minutes! If you’ve got more cash to spend, you can also choose from dozens of readily available streamers by audio manufacturers that can act as a Roon Bridge such as the ones from Auralic, T+A, Melco, Burmester, NAD or Bluesound. Many of these also come with a DAC which is great if you want an all-in-one solution.
Ingredient No 3: Roon Remote
Finally you need something to browse your music library and interact with Roon. Roon Remote is your visual “front-end” to your library. Roon Labs offers apps for iOS and Android. For greater comfort I highly recommend a tablet even though a smartphone would do just fine. I’ve had great success turning my Amazon Kindle Fire HD 8 into a full Roon Remote and the whole thing costs less than 100 bucks. If you want to go this route, you need to install the Google Play Store or sideload an Android APK. Even a good old-fashioned laptop can run as a remote control although many audiophiles would rather not have something sitting on their lap while listening.
Summary
Roon is a fantastic product with a great eco-system. But it isn’t and probably won’t ever be cheap. If price is an issue, familiarize yourself with a Raspberry PI setup that sounds just as good, costs nearly nothing but requires some tweaking.
How do you personally use Roon? Let me know so I can keep this guide up to date.
P.S.
That said if you like or are interested in using Roon for music streaming, please consider signing up through the following referral link:
https://roonlabs.com/r/WtCxTlcuSkWyCDkZCKMldw
If you do so, Roon will give you 30 free days of Roon! In return, Roon will also credit me 30 free days towards my own membership. All in all, we both win:)
