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New audiophile looking for good starter system advice


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My opinion - sending sound over HDMI sounds great. :)

 

My experience with NUC and HDMI (using JRiver 22) - the darn NUC, Windows, JRMC, or some combination insists that music get transcoded to 48khz and sent over that channel. Mac Mini's will usually work, but honestly, not all that much better. It's just a royal PITA.

 

Best answer to that, grab an Oppo 105, which can stream everything over HDMI, sounds great, and has the added advantage of playing multi-channel soundtracks back too. Great investment I think. :)

 

-Paul

 

Agreed. I've never had a problem with HDMI, sounds great. I wish my receiver would accept DSD over HDMI, but that's just a minor inconvenience, as my main listening experience is via headphones these days, anyway, and my headphone setup is eminently capable :)

John Walker - IT Executive

Headphone - SonicTransporter i9 running Roon Server > Netgear Orbi > Blue Jeans Cable Ethernet > mRendu Roon endpoint > Topping D90 > Topping A90d > Dan Clark Expanse / HiFiMan H6SE v2 / HiFiman Arya Stealth

Home Theater / Music -SonicTransporter i9 running Roon Server > Netgear Orbi > Blue Jeans Cable HDMI > Denon X3700h > Anthem Amp for front channels > Revel F208-based 5.2.4 Atmos speaker system

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I have an Intel NUC D54250WYK i5 and used to run hdmi into my Yamaha RX-V2065 receiver to play my music and video. now using an Auralic Aries Mini for stereo only using Pure Direct into same receiver, and to be honest there is not a huge difference to the sound quality. I do prefer the Mini because its more user friendly. If I want to play 5.1 music I have a Dune media player for that. YMMV

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Asynch USB source to DAC is the dominant tech today for audiophiles. HDMI is a surround sound play, with not a lot of audiophile gear in market, mostly mid-fi gear

 

hdmi can support 24/192 and dsd. sounds like a great starting point to me.

(1) holo audio red (hqp naa) > chord dave > luxman cl-38uc/mq-88uc > kef reference 1
(2) simaudio moon mind 2 > chord qutest > luxman sq-n150 > monitor audio gold gx100
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My opinion - sending sound over HDMI sounds great. :)

 

My experience with NUC and HDMI (using JRiver 22) - the darn NUC, Windows, JRMC, or some combination insists that music get transcoded to 48khz and sent over that channel. Mac Mini's will usually work, but honestly, not all that much better. It's just a royal PITA.

 

Best answer to that, grab an Oppo 105, which can stream everything over HDMI, sounds great, and has the added advantage of playing multi-channel soundtracks back too. Great investment I think. :)

 

-Paul

 

In jriver, use the wasapi output option to bypass windows mixer/resampler. I have used hdmi for bit perfect up to 24/192 this way.

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I've been continuing to research this a bit but the some of the components are a bit confusing to me.  Players, renderers, end points and servers all begin to confuse me as exactly what they all do.  So if I eliminate the requirement for video output, is there a device that will run Roon (without the need for a PC) access my files from my NAS and output to my Marantz?

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25 minutes ago, bozrdang said:

is there a device that will run Roon (without the need for a PC) access my files from my NAS and output to my Marantz?

Yes, just purchase the MicroRendu. 

That is if your NAS is Qnap or Synology, as they can run Roon. Otherwise you need something to run Roon on. The SonicTransporter i5 is a very good choice. And can be purchased together with the MicroRendu  

https://www.smallgreencomputer.com/collections/audio-server/products/sonictransporter-i5-microrendu-ifi-bundle

If you want to save money you could use a different endpoint than the MicroRendu. Even Rapsberry Pi. 

What NAS do you have ?

Do you have any computer available in your house ? If so, you can start using Roon on that one. 

If you can afford, the Aurlic Aries is an option, but as long as you like to use Roon, you still need somewhere to install Roon. However the Aries will by its Lightning DS app, only available on iDevices  I think, will probably fulfill your needs, if there is a absolutely requirement of no other computer. Then also you have to forget Roon. 

I personally would not go that route. 

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10 minutes ago, R1200CL said:

Then you should consider the SonicTransporter i5 and MicroRendu bundle. Is it within you budget?

I was hoping to keep it under a grand.  Here's what I don;t understand - why the need for the Rendu?  The SonicTransporter i5 doesn't output audio?

6 minutes ago, R1200CL said:

This is a long shot. 

https://lime-technology.com/virtualization-host/

 

if you have the skills, it should. It possible to install Roon via VM. 

I thought about that but I'm not well versed in Linux.

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23 minutes ago, bozrdang said:

I thought about that but I'm not well versed in Linux.

I suppose you seen this:

https://lime-technology.com/wiki/index.php/UnRAID_Manual_6#Lime_Technology_Tested_Components

If your HW is good Roon on Linux via Docker should be the cheapest way. 

Edit: That is if anyone has done via Docker before. So you probably need to find that out first. 

Quck Google:

https://hub.docker.com/r/mikedickey/roonserver/

and probably even better;

https://community.roonlabs.com/t/roon-running-in-docker-on-unraid-6-x/10456

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12 minutes ago, bozrdang said:

I was hoping to keep it under a grand.  Here's what I don;t understand - why the need for the Rendu?  The SonicTransporter i5 doesn't output audio?

You can skip the MicroRendu and run USB direct from the SonicTransporter i5 to your Marantz. This has been confirmed by Jesus as a possible option. 

How big is your collection?

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2 minutes ago, R1200CL said:

I suppose you seen this:

https://lime-technology.com/wiki/index.php/UnRAID_Manual_6#Lime_Technology_Tested_Components

If your HW is good Roon on Linux via Docker should be the cheapest way. 

 

My hardware was great when I built it 4-5 years ago:

Supermicro X9SCL server mobo

Intel Xeon E31230 CPU

32GB ECC RAM

 

But with that I am running about 5 Docker containers on it too.  I was fearful that if I could get it working on there that with some many things running  I wouldn't get high qaulity audio from it,

 

 

 

Just now, R1200CL said:

You can skip the MicroRendu and run USB direct to your Marantz. This has been confirmed by Jesus as a possible option. 

How big is your collection?

 

My collection is about 12,000 songs right now.

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22 minutes ago, bozrdang said:

My hardware was great when I built it 4-5 years ago:

Supermicro X9SCL server mobo

Intel Xeon E31230 CPU

32GB ECC RAM

 

But with that I am running about 5 Docker containers on it too.  I was fearful that if I could get it working on there that with some many things running  I wouldn't get high qaulity audio from it,

 

It seems to me you both have the HW and skills to do a Docker ?

You should really try. Xeon is powerful and you have plenty of RAM.

Take your time and install Roon on that server. I think you have better HW than most of us around here ? (At lest 4 years ago)  

12000 tracks is nothing. I bet is gets into a 500GB SSD. My 27500 is less than one TB. 

Not that I recommend, but all your music fits a USB interface with an SSD. 

I think a MicroRendu withe LPS-1 is what you need. Roon on you server. 

Later you probably can do some light HQPlayer on the same server. 

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I'll give it a try but I am still doubting my skills.  Yes, I am running some Docker containers, but unRAD makes it super simple by allowing users to share preconfigured templates which makes it almost as easy as installing app.  I don't see one like that for Roon but I may be able to manually configure it.

 

My music is stored on my unRAID NAS.  Would it be better somewhere else as far as playback quality?

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It seems to be working as far as I can tell.  My builder just finished the theater room and all my equipment is still upstairs. So I don't have any amps, speakers or preamp down by my server to actually play anything through it.  But I am able to connect via my phone and my music is all there.

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2 hours ago, bozrdang said:

One other question I have is what does the microrendu do? I assume it is not a DAC so why would someone by it over a DAC as a first upgrade? If I installed it in between my server and my Marantz, what would be it's function? 

 

http://www.sonore.us/microRendu.html

 

As said, even a Rapsberry Pi will work as an endpoint. 

Or a laptop, just install Roon Brigde on it. 

 

If it make ant any sense to you, look at it as a CD transport. 

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2 hours ago, bozrdang said:

It seems to be working as far as I can tell.  My builder just finished the theater room and all my equipment is still upstairs. So I don't have any amps, speakers or preamp down by my server to actually play anything through it.  But I am able to connect via my phone and my music is all there.

 

Great to hear it worked. I suppose you keep your "noisy" server away from your Marantz etc. ?

No problems then, Roon scanned all your music quickly ?

 

Maybe you even try HQPlayer ?

 

 

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15 hours ago, R1200CL said:

 

Great to hear it worked. I suppose you keep your "noisy" server away from your Marantz etc. ?

No problems then, Roon scanned all your music quickly ?

 

Maybe you even try HQPlayer ?

 

 

 

I was planning to have the server and the Marantz and amps all installed in my server rack. Not good? 

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1 minute ago, bozrdang said:

I was planning to have the server and the Marantz and amps all installed in my server rack. Not good? 

 

There may exist different opinions about this. But I think the general rule is to keep away your audio gear as much as you can of non audio or noisy equipment. And isn't that server quite noisy as well ? (In addition to the possibility to pollute your AC lines). And how about heat ? Or maybe not an issue ?

 

My personal opinion is as a general rule, is to try as much as possible to work on your power in order to achieve good sound. This is a huge topic. And many different views, and way to deal with. And the quality of your audio equipment also mattes.

 

If you can have one (or two) separate power line from your fuse cabinet, (sorry for bad English, but I guess you get the point), you may have reduced some AC pollution, or at least the possibility. Good cables of cause. I'm a fan of power conditioners, but not all does a proper job. John S has some opinions and have been writing about this.

 

Which make me wonder why no one as far as I know have started a proper review of power equipment (filters and conditioners) for audio. This is maybe the only thing that can be easily measured in a way, that ought to give a "correct" result. 

 

As an example I used this one myself http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews/bluehorizon/1.html

The thing is that it's produced by Isotek, and when I ask the sales manager Keith Martin the difference between the sound and the numbers shown, he could not answer, nor did he reply my email. Not a convincing thing. But I'm happy with my Isotek products :)

I think you just have to do what is feasible for you. 


 

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