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Tag Archive for Roon

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.

Roon 1.5 test results with NimitraS featuring DSD and MQA with DSP

 in Article

 

Roon 1.5

 

Few days ago Roon released version 1.5 which is a major upgrade improving Linn, Tidal, and MQA support. There were sound signature changes in 1.4 making the sound too bright so I immediately checked on version 1.5 and here’s my findings.

I tested Roon 1.5 with NimitraS I’m going to bring to Munich show and use eXD audio interface for native DSD playback and converting MQA tracks to DSD format. It looks like they resolved brightness issue and Roon sounds musical again with improved transparency.

I checked audio output options and found new MQA options which freely allow user to use software (Decoder) and hardware (Renderer) to decode MQA files. Using Decoder will work with any output and Renderer will only work with MQA-capable device.

I also tested MQA with DSP such as Crossfeed to for my Rudistor RP030 + Beyerdynamic T1 and DSD upsampling for eXD interface with Emm Labs DSD playback. It worked fine and sounds very good.

So far I’m very happy with Roon 1.5 upgrade. It didn’t cause a huge mess with database like 1.3 upgrade and sounds better to my liking. I can search through Tidal better with official MQA support.

 

Fidelizer Munich AV Show 2018 Map

 

Oh, I will also bring NimitraS with Roon 1.5 and other goodies in Munich AV Show tomorrow so feel free to check our booth in Hall 3 J15. There’s also 3,000th license purchase offer for Fidelizer Upgrade Program including Fidelizer Purist ROMs so feel free to check out and take up offers. 🙂

Nimitra Computer Audio Server with Roon 60-day free trial license offer

 in News

Roon - Interview

 

Today I have great news for Nimitra customers who’s interested in Roon software. I talked with Mr. Enno on another day about giving 60-day free trial license for Roon software. Now I have the keys for extending default 14-day free trial license to 60-day.

If you’re interested in testing Roon software, you can now order Nimitra with offer to use Roon with 60-day free trial license. You can choose whether you want to setup Nimitra as a Roon Ready device or use Roon with 60-day free trial.

Nimitra comes with Teamviewer remote support so you can ask me to setup Roon software with your system after delivery easily. Feel free to test Nimitra Computer Audio Server and Roon with 30-day money back guarantee today. 🙂

Fidelizer Pro configuration with Roon 1.2 update

 in Article

After Roon 1.2 was launched for a while, some customers asked me about configuration they should set with Roon software. There’re Roon, Roon Server, and Roon Bridge software that can be installed in Windows with Fidelizer. Let’s see how each Roon’s software works with Fidelizer.

Roon – Main software that acts like media player software with cutting-edge UI. If you play music from network such as Tidal or NAS, I recommend “Network Player” audio profile. Otherwise, I recommend “Audio Player” for playing local music in computer.

Roon Server – Library server that allows music to be accessed from other devices through streaming. I recommend “Streamer” audio profile as the optimal choice for library server machine. If you use Roon Server as headless music server with Roon Remote, please configure as Roon instead.

Roon Bridge – This will run on background turning any Windows PC into Roon Ready device for streaming. I recommend “Network Render” audio profile for most suitable configuration of Roon ready device.

Let me wrap up again about Fidelizer Pro’s audio profile for each Roon software:

Roon – Network Player / Audio Player
Roon Server – Streamer / Network Player / Audio Player
Roon Bridge – Network Render

Seeing how Roon Bridge works, I can see a lot Roon ready products coming in years ahead. 🙂