Roon has the concept of a server and bridge. The server manages your library and tells the bridge what to play.
Your music library would have to be available to the server, and if you ran it on your laptop it would make sense to put the music on it.
|
Thanks Erik. That's what I thought.
Cheers
|
Roon can actually be three separate parts. Beside the server and bridge (or end point), you can have a third device that does nothing but select and control the music to be played. This latter part is often on a smartphone or tablet device.
You can have all three parts on a single Windows or Apple Mac desktop or laptop, or you can divvy them up between two or three separate devices. The music can even be separate from the server, such as on a network drive, though both the server and the music drive must be on and able to see each other for things to work.
I ran a month long trial of Roon, running the Roon server software on my Linux desktop, with a Raspberry Pi endpoint and a Kindle Fire as a controller. (I ended up passing on the subscription. There were some things I liked about Roon but other aspects I didn't.)
|
|
I passed on Roon for two reasons. First, they do not have a control app that runs on Linux, even though they have server and endpoint software for this OS. My laptop runs on LInux and I use it a lot while listening. Without a control program, that meant I had to pick up my phone or Kindle, get it opened up, go to the Roon program and do whatever I wanted, then return to the laptop. That's a lot of extra steps and a slow process for pausing to answer the phone or just skip a track.
The second issue is Roon doen't support folder browsing and, after using LMS (Logitech Media Server) for well over a decade, I really missed that option. Roon, which is heavily album based, really wants you to look for music THEIR way. I think I was just too set in my ways.
If either of those two features (particularly the first one - a Linux control app) were present, I'd probably have stuck with Roon. I'm still watching to see if they make any changes going forward.
|
If either of those two features (particularly the first one - a Linux control app) were present, I'd probably have stuck with Roon Have you looked at the WebControl extension. Appears to do exactly what you are looking for. |
Messed with it for a while but was never able to get it running to my satisfaction. It's not an official Roon program but rather something put together by another user.
Not to disrail this thread, I'll just wrap it up this way. LMS works well for the way I choose music. Roon had some glitzy features but to justify $120 a year, it would have had to fire on all cylinders. As noted previously, it didn't.
|
LMS served me for many many years. The reason I got off it was the very nice Tidal / local music integration as well as built in DSP capabilities.
I can search for an artist across everything I have and everything Tidal has. Those two things were more than just glitzy. The LMS Tidal support was always mediocre at best.
|
Different strokes for different folks. As noted, was very close to being a Roon subscriber and may still be in the future depending on how their software evolves.
|
You should theoretically be able to keep your hard drive plugged into the Bryston and run roon core on your laptop. I can’t guarantee that it will work this way with the BDP2 but I was able to set this up with my Auralic. When you install roon on your laptop and launch the core, go to settings then storage and add new storage thru the dropdown menu. You will need to know your Bryston’s IP address. The storage path you are adding should look something like this:
\\192.....\USB\Music
where 192.... is your Bryston IP. You will then wait until roon scans the drive. How long depends on the size of your library. One aspect of it that I’m still trying to figure out is how the music is being played from
the hdd...is it being passed to roon core via network and then back to the transport? Or does Roon use some sort of index or pointer that tells the transport what file to play.
You would also want to experiment with the drive connected to your roon core laptop as well. Don’t limit your setup to any particular config. Try what works and sounds best. |
Are those of you using Roon happy with it. I am not unhappy with the very simple stock Bryston media player. I just thought I would try something different. |
I am quite happy using Roon. It’s doing exactly what I want which is Simply presenting my own digital music along with favorite records from Qobuz as one collection that I can search and combine to playlists etc. Then it plays in sync to my four different zones. That’s all I need.
Everything else Roon does is just extra... the information and links to related artists and music is great plus layers of other options I never even consider using. |
In my original post I mention I am using a Bryston bdp2.
I am considering purchasing a second bdp2 for my second system. Will Roon figure out which is which? And give me the option of playing either bdp2 #1 or bdp2 #2.
|
Yes, it should figure out which is which they will have different IP addresses, you might name them system 1 and system 2 or something more intuitive like family room and kitchen. |
|
There may be differences in SQ running bdp2 as roon endpoint vs. playing your music straight off the hard drive that’s connected to the bdp2 using Bryston’s software or web interface. That’s why I brought up the set up I did with the Auralic in my earlier post. So if your system is resolving and you sit down for a critical listening session you may discover things you don’t like about the sound of roon. YMMV but that is my experience. However, as a database and a UI, I’ve not seen anything better than Roon yet. |
