Article: iOS Roon Audio Endpoint With iPeng - Almost Perfect

[The Computer Audiophile]

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[George Hincapie]

Anything that attracts new users to our hobby can only be a good thing; well done iPeng!

[Dan Gravell]

Great hack, Jörg!

[Jeremy Anderson]

This is super awesome!

 

Now I just need to set up a VPN my iPhone into my network so iPeng and Roon can see my Roon Server when I'm away from the home...

OpenVPN may do the trick... http://www.runpcrun.com/howtoopenvpn 

[The Computer Audiophile]

Here's my current issue with VPN and Roon - Roon won't launch unless it's connected to a WiFi network. Thus, when I'm in the car on LTE I can't use this setup. At the coffee shop should be a different story. 

[The Computer Audiophile]

By the way, anyone interested in a little DIY OpenVPN project should checkout PiVPN. It's really easy - http://www.pivpn.io/

 

I used PiVPN for years. Now I purchased a new router that has OpenVPN built-in. 

[Jeremy Anderson]

3 minutes ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

Here's my current issue with VPN and Roon - Roon won't launch unless it's connected to a WiFi network. Thus, when I'm in the car on LTE I can't use this setup. At the coffee shop should be a different story. 

 

You could if you got one of those little cellular WiFi Access Point devices. They were all the rage a few years back... 4G LTE to the 'net, WiFi for all your devices. Boom.

[Dr Tone]

3 hours ago, Jeremy Anderson said:

 

You could if you got one of those little cellular WiFi Access Point devices. They were all the rage a few years back... 4G LTE to the 'net, WiFi for all your devices. Boom.

 

That won't solve any issues with accessing your core at home.  @The Computer Audiophilereally meant same subnet when saying wifi at home.

[The Computer Audiophile]

13 minutes ago, Dr Tone said:

 

That won't solve any issues with accessing your core at home.  @The Computer Audiophilereally meant same subnet when saying wifi at home.

 

Actually, I didn't mean the same subnet. That's not a requirement. 

 

Shut off your wifi on your mobile once, the launch Roon. It won't even launch. 

[Dr Tone]

1 hour ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

 

Actually, I didn't mean the same subnet. That's not a requirement. 

 

Shut off your wifi on your mobile once, the launch Roon. It won't even launch. 

 

But that's exactly what happens when you turn off your wifi.  Even openvpn doesn't work well unless using TAP and bridging the network.

[R1200CL]

So how about iPeng for Apple TV ?

 

Did you guys talked about that as an option ?

Turning your Apple TV into an endpoint. 

[Dr Tone]

5 hours ago, Dr Tone said:

 

But that's exactly what happens when you turn off your wifi.  Even openvpn doesn't work well unless using TAP and bridging the network.

 

They obviously added the check recently because they got too many support requests on their forums with people that couldn't talk to roon because they forgot to turn on their wifi or it wasn't set to auto connect.  I know I helped at least one guy with this exact issue, he was cool enough admit to the silly mistake.

[Jörg Schwieder]

Thanks for this article, much appreciated.

Regarding the bit-perfect issue I can confirm what's written in the article. I was a bit surprised to hear about it because I'd been using a similar setup a lot for DoP testing recently (working on DSD playback for the next major iPeng release, hint, hint...). This also requires high sample rates with bit-perfect output but that was with LMS, something seems to be different with Roon.

The tests mentioned in the article seem to indicate it's indeed iPeng or iOS causing the bit changes, I'm investigating. Since iPeng doesn't seem to have the issue with LMS my current guess is that something is different with gain handling in Roon's Squeezebox emulation so that iPeng uses the gain mixer, I'm sure I'll find out ...

But for now ... don't expect it to be bit perfect beyond CD quality although I hope that's going to be fixed soon.

[ecwl]

Great to know. I erased iPeng9 from my iOS devices when I stopped owning Squeezebox. Good to know I don't have to pay for it if I want to try it out. 

[firedog]

I've got iPeng running on my iPad and Squeezebox support enabled in Roon. Don't see any option for the  in app purchase.

[The Computer Audiophile]

22 minutes ago, firedog said:

I've got iPeng running on my iPad and Squeezebox support enabled in Roon. Don't see any option for the  in app purchase.

iPeng 9?

[Jörg Schwieder]

The In-App-Purchase is in "Settings->Enable Playback".
If you don't see the In-App-Purchase it usually means that either you have already purchased it before (in this case you will then fins an "Enable Playback" switch in "Settings->iPeng Settings") or you have disables In-App-Purchases in the iOS settings on your device.

[firedog]

10 hours ago, Jörg Schwieder said:

The In-App-Purchase is in "Settings->Enable Playback".
If you don't see the In-App-Purchase it usually means that either you have already purchased it before (in this case you will then fins an "Enable Playback" switch in "Settings->iPeng Settings") or you have disables In-App-Purchases in the iOS settings on your device.

Thanks

[Booster MPS]

Man I am gonna ask a really dumb question, but I will put it out there for those that might not ask.  Does this mean that you are running Roon core on the iDevice with iPeng?  I understood that you had to run the Core on a computer, that computer would act as a server for your tunes and the iDevices would talk to the core allowing you to control the music going to any Roon ready network player in your system?  Just trying to fit the blocks together in my head to see how it fits together and what problem is being addressed.

[firedog]

He still needs to have Roon Core running on a server. What it means is that previously you couldn't use the iOS device as the actual playback device (not controller, but audio playback) for Roon, and with this addon/setup, you can. 

[Booster MPS]

@firedog, got it!  So the iDevice is playing (rendering) the files from Roon and conveying them via wifi to a networked audio device that does NOT have to be Roon ready!  OK, I think that is it.  Appreciate the feedback.

 

This is not a ding on Chris, but sometimes I think that we can sometimes get caught up in the lingo of our hobby and wonder why the masses don't get it and adopt our solutions.  Even the fairly savvy like myself can "miss it" sometimes.  I would also offer I could have missed it in reading the article, so sorry if that is on me as the reader.

[Dr Tone]

3 hours ago, Booster MPS said:

So the iDevice is playing (rendering) the files from Roon and conveying them via wifi to a networked audio device that does NOT have to be Roon ready!  OK, I think that is it.  Appreciate the feedback.

 

iDevice with iPeng is the audio end point and isn't conveying them anywhere.

[Jörg Schwieder]

1 hour ago, Dr Tone said:

 

iDevice with iPeng is the audio end point and isn't conveying them anywhere.

Unless you use Bluetooth or AirPlay.

Although at least for AirPlay there would be little point in that since you could use that just as well directly with Roon.

[Booster MPS]

Maybe I am just hung up on the term endpoint.  I took @firedog's post to mean that the Core database runs on a computer, you play the files on your iDevice to a wi fi ready/connected component in your system, and the iDevice uses the database info on the computer.  Correct?  No need for a Roon ready component in your system.

[Jörg Schwieder]

The music comes out of the iPhone or iPad. Speakers or headphones. Or a USB DAC connected to it.

That's the idea

And yes, you can redirect that to other devices through Bluetooth or AirPlay but most of the time that's not what you want.