Article: iOS Roon Audio Endpoint With iPeng - Almost Perfect

[Booster MPS]

1 hour ago, Jörg Schwieder said:

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.

 

Got it!!  Thanks!  So Solomon was hard connected to his Peachtree with the iDevice.  OK, got it and thanks!

[mattinminneapolis]

On 8/6/2017 at 5:28 PM, Jörg Schwieder said:

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.

Sending music through my Samsung Note 4 might be a very useful End Point. This is probably a stupid question but how does one do this same thing with an Android phone? I cannot seem to find anything on this topic in the Roon Forums.

[Dr Tone]

53 minutes ago, mattinminneapolis said:

Sending music through my Samsung Note 4 might be a very useful End Point. This is probably a stupid question but how does one do this same thing with an Android phone? I cannot seem to find anything on this topic in the Roon Forums.

 

I thought the Roon Android app had playback already.

[mattinminneapolis]

20 hours ago, Dr Tone said:

 

I thought the Roon Android app had playback already.

You are correct. I tested out the Bluetooth and oh boy is the DAC in my phone terrible. Although I can see this capability as valuable for those that have newer DAPs from the likes of Onkyo, Pioneer, A&K etc.

[austinpop]

@The Computer Audiophile

 

I just tried this on my iPhone, and after a few hiccups, got it working. The hiccup was that I had the old iPeng Classic app on my iPhone, back from a couple years ago when I was running a SBT. Once I "bought" iPeng 9, it all worked. I say bought in quotes, because even though I had to buy it on the App store, it seemed to recognize I had the Classic, and didn't charge me. Or maybe I got lucky. I did have to pay for the in-app purchase to "Enable Playback."

 

Anyway, I think I discovered the non-bit-perfect issue from another angle. I wanted to play music files from my Roon Core, to my iPhone 7 connected to a Dragonfly Black via a CCK. Out of curiosity, I fired up some sample MQA files in my library, and without exception, the MQA shade (purple) would not light up on the DF. I ensured the volume was set to 100%, but to no avail.

 

I sure hope Jörg finds a fix. Is there a way for me to contact him directly with this additional finding?

[Jörg Schwieder]

14 minutes ago, austinpop said:

@The Computer Audiophile

 

I sure hope Jörg finds a fix. Is there a way for me to contact him directly with this additional finding?

 

You can just write me through the App, there's a link under "Help" and it will give me details about your setup.
I'm not 100% sure what Roon exactly sends to a non-MQA device like iPeng.
I have recently done a lot of testing on the data flow through iPeng and I really can't see where iPeng would touch any data. I'll have to talk to Roon again whether there are any player specific modifications being made or the like but unless you have somehow enabled replay gain (unlikely, I haven't seen that in my Roon testing) or the equalizer iPeng just doesn't touch the data at all. iOS might do that downstream of iPeng but that would surprise me because my DoP testing works well.

One thing, though: iPeng currently only supports up to 96kHz sample rate so if your MQA is converted to higher sample rate output this will be transcoded. And also, iPeng might insert silence before your track starts, if that affects any code detection it might also be an issue.

I'm a bit surprised about your App Store experience, it should have been the other way around, you'd have to pay for the App (iPeng 9) but the playback feature is what you can migrate from iPeng Classic for free. That said, if you purchased iPeng 9 through one of the upgrade bundles you might come off pretty cheap under certain circumstances depending on the currency your store is on, prices here can fluctuate widely due to the somewhat complicated way in which Apple calculates price changes and exchange rate changes (compared to US$).

[austinpop]

48 minutes ago, Jörg Schwieder said:

 

You can just write me through the App, there's a link under "Help" and it will give me details about your setup.
I'm not 100% sure what Roon exactly sends to a non-MQA device like iPeng.
I have recently done a lot of testing on the data flow through iPeng and I really can't see where iPeng would touch any data. I'll have to talk to Roon again whether there are any player specific modifications being made or the like but unless you have somehow enabled replay gain (unlikely, I haven't seen that in my Roon testing) or the equalizer iPeng just doesn't touch the data at all. iOS might do that downstream of iPeng but that would surprise me because my DoP testing works well.

One thing, though: iPeng currently only supports up to 96kHz sample rate so if your MQA is converted to higher sample rate output this will be transcoded. And also, iPeng might insert silence before your track starts, if that affects any code detection it might also be an issue.

I'm a bit surprised about your App Store experience, it should have been the other way around, you'd have to pay for the App (iPeng 9) but the playback feature is what you can migrate from iPeng Classic for free. That said, if you purchased iPeng 9 through one of the upgrade bundles you might come off pretty cheap under certain circumstances depending on the currency your store is on, prices here can fluctuate widely due to the somewhat complicated way in which Apple calculates price changes and exchange rate changes (compared to US$).

 

Hi Jörg,

 

Roon doesn't do any MQA unfolding (yet). The files I was referring to are 24/44.1 and 24/48 MQA-encoded files. But I just remembered something. The Dragonfly is an MQA renderer, which means it cannot do a full decode of the original MQA files. It needs a SW decoder, also known as an MQA Core, to do the first unfold to 24/88.2 or 24/96. Currently, only the Tidal desktop apps on Mac/Win, and Audirvana Plus 3 have licensed the MQA Core. Roon does not have an MQA core as yet.

 

So - I will correct myself. I offered my original observation that MQA files were not being decoded on the Dragonfly as another proof point for what Chris was reporting - i.e. an issue with 24-bit files.

 

But as explained, even if the problem did not exist, my experiment was flawed, as I won't get the DF to render MQA files via the Roon/iPeng route until Roon ships with an MQA Core.

 

Sorry for the false alarm. FWIW - my use of the Roon/iPeng path on my iPhone is for casual listening, so this 24-bit-perfect issue isn't that big of a deal for me.

 

As for the app purchase experience, yeah I can't explain it. I fired up iPeng Classic. After a bit, it gave me the option to purchase the playback feature for $4.99, which I did. Then I realized I wasn't seeing the Roon App option. At this point, I decided to "buy" iPeng 9 (for $8.99). I followed the usual path on the App Store, but looks like I was never charged.

[Jörg Schwieder]

4 hours ago, austinpop said:

 

1. Currently, only the Tidal desktop apps on Mac/Win, and Audirvana Plus 3 have licensed the MQA Core. Roon does not have an MQA core as yet.

 

2. As for the app purchase experience, yeah I can't explain it. I fired up iPeng Classic. After a bit, it gave me the option to purchase the playback feature for $4.99, which I did. Then I realized I wasn't seeing the Roon App option. At this point, I decided to "buy" iPeng 9 (for $8.99). I followed the usual path on the App Store, but looks like I was never charged.

 

1. Ah, ok, that makes sense.
It's worse, iPeng would probably need an MQA core for this to work as well.

 

2. Interesting. Could it be you purchased iPeng 9 before, too? Maybe when it was still called iPeng 7?

[austinpop]

4 hours ago, Jörg Schwieder said:

2. Interesting. Could it be you purchased iPeng 9 before, too? Maybe when it was still called iPeng 7?

 

You know, I think you're right! I had removed the app from my phone when I sold my SBT, so yesterday, when I reinstalled it, I just assumed I had been using classic, but maybe I'd already bought iPeng 7. It's ringing a bell.

 

Hopefully that solves the mystery.