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Correction: Roon Rock OS isn’t Windows emulator nor emulation from Windows environment

 in Article

Since I published my article yesterday about Roon Rock OS, I noticed my headline has misleading title as Mono is open source platform to emulate what .NET runtime does in other platforms like Linux/Mac. It’s not conveyed properly and some may understand Mono as .NET runtime emulator so I apologize for this mistake.

I also have my own misunderstanding about Roon development that it was based on Windows with expansion to support Mac/Linux through Mono. Last night Mr. Danny Dulai, one of Roon’s founders shared his insights to correct my misunderstandings.

He said Roon was firstly developed on Linux and MacOS using Mono so my assumption to say Roon is based on Windows is incorrect. So my opinion of Roon Rock OS as to emulate what Roon does in Windows is incorrect and I’d like to apologize again for stating as emulator. It was rude of me.

Mr. Danny Dulai is truly a gentleman developer. He came to provide facts to correct the mess I created in calm and composed manner which is really rare to find from software developers. I truly respect him for passion of his work and his attitude.

As I already stated in my previous article, I believe Mr. Danny Dulai and his team did what could possibly be best to share Roon experience in Linux. I however will stand on Windows side because .NET runtime still has better garbage collection and I believe that’ll affect audio performance.

Let’s exam Roon Rock OS – Windows emulator in Linux clothing

 in Article

Correction: Roon Rock OS isn’t Windows emulator nor emulation from Windows environment

 

Most people probably know me as a Windows guy but I actually took all possibilities to improve computer audio including Mac and Linux too. I wouldn’t be able to push 100% positive feedback on Fidelizer Purist ROM for Android ROM without intensive research on Linux OS.

Today I decided to explore what’s inside Roon ROCK and see if I can improve Roon Rock image with optimizations based on my research from Linux’s audiophile OS optimizations. We’ll start exploring with Linux Reader and you also need program to unpack tar.gz file too.

 

Roon Rock - 01

 

There’s Linux ROONRESET partition and FAT16 CUSTOM_ROON partition. Inside ROONRESET has bootfs.img.gz for ROON OS installation loader I guess. After extracting and opening bootfs inside, It was named ROONBOOT. In there, it looks like ROONRESET but this time we have roonos-1 folder which looks like this.

 

Roon Rock - 02

 

This seems to be RoonOS partition to be cloned to Intel NUC’s device. there’s rootfs.img so it should contain something worth examing for further improvements. Let’s open rootfs.img and see how it looks like. I’m sure it’d be great.

 

Roon Rock - 03

 

Unallocated? That’s weird. But there’s no error during mounting process. Maybe it’s unsupported partition? Wait. There’s another CUSTOM_ROON partition from Roon Rock image too. Maybe this is an empty partition waiting to be created from there?

 

Roon Rock - 04

 

And there’s roon.tar.bz2 file. There’s nothing inside identity folder. Let’s extract roon.tar.bz2 file and see what’s inside. RoonServer folder? Cool! Let’s jump into it and see how Roon OS works!

 

Roon Rock - 05

 

RoonMono? Mono? It’s not what I’m guessing right? This can’t be real, right? Just to be sure, let’s open Server folder and see how it looks like.

 

RoonRock - 06

 

It seems Roon Rock OS is a Linux with Mono runtime running RoonServer’s .NET code through Mono platform. MacOS version also use the same principles too and works pretty well with MacOS support through Mono.

That aside, I think it’s good idea to run Windows .NET runtime emulation software rather than making a Linux port that can be worse than main code they wrote in main code if not done right. Mono is quite powerful. Maybe not as good as .NET Runtime in Windows but getting better over time.

As for possiblity of Fidelizer optimizations on Roon Rock OS, maybe I can optimize kernel and ramdisk image with some tweaks I can apply, insert some optimizations in startup script to further improve Linux OS environment, adjust Mono configuration, etc.

But I think the best way to optimize is to moved from Windows emulation platform to native Windows platform. Running real Windows with Windows environment optimizations should be better than optimizing Linux environment to emulate what Windows does better.

Should I get NimitraS or Nimitra + Nikola first?

 in News

 

NimitraS

 

I received similar questions from a few clients recently since NimitraS is $1895 and you can buy Nimitra + Nikola at about the same price too. After answering their questions, I believe it’s worth sharing my insights about this upgrade path.

Upgrading server with good linear power supply will really help your server shine a lot. I tested Nikola linear power supply with my own server, Roon Nucleus/Intel NUC, Mytek/exaSound/Yulong DAC and its worth upgrading for high quality power supply.

The question is actually more like whether you should spend $500 more on NimitraS upgrade or Nikola linear power supply first. If you choose NimitraS, you get SLC SSD and premium RAM upgraded with modification modification including high quality clock on USB audio.

If you choose Nimitra + Nikola, you get high quality linear power supply tuned with highend Esoteric transport as a reference for very low coloration sound and high neutrality. Both choices are good on its own with different ups and downs.

But if you have more budget in future, both choices will affect your upgrade path a lot. If you choose NimitraS first, you can just order NikolaS and you can enjoy the improvements with power supply upgrade immediately.

If you choose Nimitra + Nikola first, you will need to ship both products back to me first to apply Signature upgrade and wait until I finish and ship the upgraded products back. While I offer free shipping for upgrade combo, the waiting time without Nimitra is less desirable.

So I recommend to choose NimitraS over Nimitra + Nikola for your first purchase. Once you have more budget to further your upgrade path, you may consider adding NikolaS later. This way you don’t have to send your Nimitra + Nikola back for continuous music enjoyment. 🙂

Added DX200 Advanced ROM feedback from Lavitiana Tsimiala

 in Feedback

 

DX200 - Purist ROM

 

Here’s another feedback today. He shared his feedback as a comment in my Facebook post about DX200’s Oreo V2 update as below.

Rom Oreo v2 Fidelizer installed, interface become much fluid reading DSD512 works very well with Mango Android, and Pure Mango. The Pure Mango Interface has become a little more fluid so usable, but I hope the fluidity will improve again. But it’s already a sick sound, wow, bravo. I recommend.

And here’s his original message in French before translation.

Rom Oreo V2 Fidelizer installee, interface devenu beaucoup fluide lecture Dsd512 fonctionne très bien avec mango Android, et mango pure. l’interface de mango pure, est devenu un peu plus fluide donc utilisable, Mais j’espère que la fluidité va s’améliorer encore. Mais c’est déjà un son de malade Waouh, Bravo. Je recommande.

Fidelizer Purist ROM doesn’t only improve sound quality with purist audio performance but also improve system performance and add quality of life improvements too. 🙂

iBasso DX120 Purist ROM version 2.2.42 released!

 in News

 

Fidelizer - PerfectDynamics Sound Optimizations

 

I’ve been trying to find some time to work on iBasso DX120 ROM for a while and finally I made it today. DX120 comes as Mango version only but Purist ROM can still improve its Particle audio configuration and system configuration like previous its brothers DX50/80/90. 🙂

 

-Based on firmware version 2.2.42
-build.prop tweaks for better video and storage performance and improve battery life
-Audio engine optimized for only audio playback (EQ/Gaplass features work)
-Bundled audio effects removed but keep main engine

 

Download: iBasso DX120 Purist ROM

 

Installation Guide

1. Extract update.img from archive and copy to root directory of micro SD card and put in DX120 slot
2. Open device Settings > Advanced > System Update
3. Wait for device to finish flashing
4. After flashing is completed, you should see Fidelizer Purist ROM boot animation indicating successful update

 

There’s a lot of improvements for Advanced ROM and I also added Enhanced ROM into collection too. Please read Portable Products for more details including Fidelizer Mod project with 3 modification levels. Happy listening. 🙂