The Dark Side; Digital audio equipment recommendations and setup.

Joe Mac said:
Just cancelled Qobuz and I’ll be cancelling Roon come July. Both are utterly fantastic. I just wasn’t using them anywhere near enough to justify the outlay. Currently on Apple Music, because I’m getting a deal with the cloud and tv etc, while i decide what to do next.
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Make sense. I love Roon and have a ton of digital files, but have switched over to Apple (same bundle). I know it will never happen but I wish Roon could incorporate Apple Music.

I have been using Plex for video and got a lifetime subscription to it recently. I need to poke around in its music side of things.
 
jamieanderson1968 said:
Make sense. I love Roon and have a ton of digital files, but have switched over to Apple (same bundle). I know it will never happen but I wish Roon could incorporate Apple Music.

I have been using Plex for video and got a lifetime subscription to it recently. I need to poke around in its music side of things.
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I just have no faith in Apple pulling another itunes down the road for profit so find it hard to contemplate using. Still using the final pre subscription version of Audirvana+ and it's working (files, flac, playlists, custom audio settings, remote, streaming) but it's certainly not perfect. Still open to another platform if a good option comes at some point.
 
jamieanderson1968 said:
Make sense. I love Roon and have a ton of digital files, but have switched over to Apple (same bundle). I know it will never happen but I wish Roon could incorporate Apple Music.

I have been using Plex for video and got a lifetime subscription to it recently. I need to poke around in its music side of things.
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From what I’ve seen from Roon’s side they’d love to have every streaming service available in app. The issue is that Apple Music/Spotify/Amazon won’t play ball with integration in Roon to allow the second metadata level to sit on top of theirs. They view Roon users as such a niche part of the market that it isn’t worth the effort to integrate them.

I also have a tonne of files but I just don’t ever find myself using them. Almost two years at home on WFH and I still rarely grab anything bar a record to play during the day. They’ll sit on a HD in case one day I go back to something like this.
 
JohnnyCashFan said:
I just have no faith in Apple pulling another itunes down the road for profit so find it hard to contemplate using. Still using the final pre subscription version of Audirvana+ and it's working (files, flac, playlists, custom audio settings, remote, streaming) but it's certainly not perfect. Still open to another platform if a good option comes at some point.
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Joe Mac said:
From what I’ve seen from Roon’s side they’d love to have every streaming service available in app. The issue is that Apple Music/Spotify/Amazon won’t play ball with integration in Roon to allow the second metadata level to sit on top of theirs. They view Roon users as such a niche part of the market that it isn’t worth the effort to integrate them.

I also have a tonne of files but I just don’t ever find myself using them. Almost two years at home on WFH and I still rarely grab anything bar a record to play during the day. They’ll sit on a HD in case one day I go back to something like this.
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Yup it is totally the big guys not wanting to play Roon.

I am off today, think I will give PlexAmp a shot and report back
 
Joe Mac said:
Just cancelled Qobuz and I’ll be cancelling Roon come July. Both are utterly fantastic. I just wasn’t using them anywhere near enough to justify the outlay. Currently on Apple Music, because I’m getting a deal with the cloud and tv etc, while i decide what to do next.
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Is it because you spend all your time using the Humminguru now? 😂

i'm actually surprised at how much I use Roon/Qobuz still. definitely helps that I work from home permanently now but if work isn't too busy, I spin records. If I'm really busy and can't deal with getting up to flip records every 15-20 minutes, then I toss Roon on. I also have Apple Music but that's for the car + being out and about.
 
MikeH said:
Is it because you spend all your time using the Humminguru now? 😂

i'm actually surprised at how much I use Roon/Qobuz still. definitely helps that I work from home permanently now but if work isn't too busy, I spin records. If I'm really busy and can't deal with getting up to flip records every 15-20 minutes, then I toss Roon on. I also have Apple Music but that's for the car + being out and about.
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Hahaha! It’s actually over a much longer period. You’d think with my system in the same room that I’m working in that I would use it more. The reality is that I just haven’t been using it. I just put records on the turntable. I only really stream in the car or when out for a walk on my headphones. The more I thought about it that set up was just such overkill for me.

Perhaps in the future things will change but for now I don’t need that level of set up when it’s just me in an apartment with 1,000 records and a beautiful vinyl playback system.
 
PlexAmp - sort of a Roon replacement

While Plex itself is free (you might be already using it), you need to buy a PlexPass to access PlexAmp. Right now an annual PlexPass is $50CDN or $159CDN for a lifetime subscription, but the lifetime one usually goes on sale a few times year (probably again soon for BF). I think I paid $99CDN late last year for the lifetime subscription.

With the pass you can then download PlexAmp. It comes in all the usual flavours, though the desktop version is identical to mobile version. I don’t think you can edit the metadata using the PlexAmp, that has to be done on the PlexServer. Nice thing with Plex is that the server is just through your browser now.

It looks like Plex scrapes their info from the AllMusic, just like Roon. I compared a few entries for artists and for albums and the genres etc were all identical, so that is a plus. Also it works like Roon in that any edits in PlexServer does not affect the actual music file metadata but is in a separate library file.

On the desktop PlexAmp I could not see a way to hand off the music to my Bluesound streamer, but if it could I think it would still use Airplay. With the mobile version you can hand off to the Node and to my Sonos speaker in the kitchen, but again it is using airplay so you will max out at 16/44.

Never noticed it before but looks like you can incorporate a Tidal account with PlexAmp. Not sure if it combines it with your local library like on Roon. Being able to access that content would be nice, but I cancelled Tidal about 6 months ago so I cannot test it. No option for Qobuz.

One thing I do like with PlexAmp is that you can download music for when you are going to be offline for a bit. This is a nice little feature. Will definitely use this feature in a few weeks when I fly back to the West Coast.
 
Hey gang! Think I’ve finally decided that a Bluesound Node is the way to go for me for digital playback in my hifi setup. Will be keeping an eye out on any deals the next couple weeks here - please let me know if you see any! Though I may just end up getting a used 2i - for those who have experience with both, any big discernible upgrade with the 3?

I believe I’ll be giving Qobuz a whirl first. I wanted to double check, Apple Music is not supported on the Bluesound outside of Airplay, correct?
 
How the bloody hell do I get Roon running on my MacBook Pro to recognize my Bluesound. In audio it simply shows my system output and MacBook Pro speakers…
 
Im off reservation for a week working from home in the countryside! Been using lossless Apple Music with the Atmos spatial thing into a Marantz all in one with Dali speakers via USB. Gotta say I‘m really impressed, the lossless and hi res sounds fantastic like this!
 
Joe Mac said:
Im off reservation for a week working from home in the countryside! Been using lossless Apple Music with the Atmos spatial thing into a Marantz all in one with Dali speakers via USB. Gotta say I‘m really impressed, the lossless and hi res sounds fantastic like this!
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The Spatial Audio mixes are pretty fun.
 
Ghost said:
How the bloody hell do I get Roon running on my MacBook Pro to recognize my Bluesound. In audio it simply shows my system output and MacBook Pro speakers…
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Is Roon core running on a different computer and you are trying to use the MacBook as a controller? I have not tried to use a 2nd computer as a controller for Roon so not sure how that would work exactly.

But you might want to check that the BlueSound and MacBook are on the same wifi network. We have 2 wifi networks (one using eeros units). If I have a power failure, when my iMac reboots/reconnects, it will automatically connect to my other wifi network and won't see the BlueSound.
 
jamieanderson1968 said:
Is Roon core running on a different computer and you are trying to use the MacBook as a controller? I have not tried to use a 2nd computer as a controller for Roon so not sure how that would work exactly.

But you might want to check that the BlueSound and MacBook are on the same wifi network. We have 2 wifi networks (one using eeros units). If I have a power failure, when my iMac reboots/reconnects, it will automatically connect to my other wifi network and won't see the BlueSound.
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you could also use screen sharing for this
 
This looks to be an interesting little streamer unit. Roon ready etc. I love my Bluesound Node but I am looking for an option for down in the kitchen and dining room. Right now I use a Sonos, but have a set of AudioEngine A5s that I am not using. I don't want to get another Node to connect to them, but something like this would be a nice set up. Sadly right now they only ship within Europe.

darko.audio

Argon’s Solo streams Roon, Spotify, Chromecast for €249 | Darko.Audio

Move over Raspberry Pi and Bluesound NODE, there's a new sheriff in town.
darko.audio darko.audio
 
folsom_lives said:
So it seems that the Bluesound Node is a good entry point to the digital hi-fi realm? I am thinking about grabbing one soon, but I wanted to hear others' experience with the unit and Bluesound app?
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First off, welcome to the Darkside.

There are a few of us with a BlueSound device and I think most of us here are happy with the unit. The app itself is pretty crappy I think. If you are using Tidal you can use Tidal Connect to stream right to it without any loss of quality. I think Spotify Connect works the same (though is not a cd quality stream yet.) Apple music uses Airplay within the music apps, so it only streams at CD quality.

If you have a large amount of personal digital files on your computer/network, you might want to look at Roon. It integrates you local files with your Tidal/Qobuz streams (not sure if Spotify is in there yet). I have about 2000 local digital albums and I find Roon is the best player for my needs, but it is an annual license instead of a 1 time purchase.

Overall I really like my BlueSound Node 2i, and cannot imaging being without it after about 18 months. I have it plugged into a 50yr old Marantz receiver and it would wonderful.
 
folsom_lives said:
So it seems that the Bluesound Node is a good entry point to the digital hi-fi realm? I am thinking about grabbing one soon, but I wanted to hear others' experience with the unit and Bluesound app?
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Simply put it's an affordable high-res multi-room streamer and I love mine but it doesn't come without its flaws, one being the BluOS app. It's not crappy per se but it can be glitchy at times and the app is not as intuitive as others on the market, that said, the app is the closet one can get without shelling big bucks on a Roon.
 
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