Roon

Roon 

Roon consists of 3 separate components. 

1. Roon Server

2. Roon Player (Roon Ready)

3. Roon Control. 

1. Roon Server. The Roon server software runs on various streamers such as Antipodes Audio streamers. Roon server manages your music collection on your streamer and corrects errors. Roon server retrieves album information and organizes your music. Roon server costs $699 one-time or $10 per month, and you only need 1 server license. At home you also only use 1 Roon server, but possibly many more Roon players. You control Roon server with your tablet, computer or mobile device, which in turn passes the music to the Roon Player

2. Roon Player (Roon Ready, the R.A.A.T. or Roon Advanced Audio Transport) runs on the same streamer or on an external player, but it is actually a separate process. You can also choose the ultimate solution by using a dedicated streamer as a server and another streamer for the player function. Roon Ready receives the raw music data from Roon Server, and Roon Ready prepares the music data for output to USB/AES/I2S/SPDIF and similar

3. Roon Control is the control interface for your Roon streamer. Roon Control runs on your tablet, smartphone and even your PC and Mac. With this you control Roon server to select and play music. 

In the transition from physical media such as LPs, CDs and SACDs to the invisible files on your streamer, something has gone completely wrong and has been lost. The connection with the music and the artist. Many types of streaming software offer only a list of Albums and Tracks, and that's it. It works, but it can be much better and more intuitive. 

Roon's solution is as follows. Roon looks at the music on your streamer, on your server or computer, and at all music from Tidal and Qobuz, and finds photos, album reviews, lyrics, concert data and more, and creates an extensive connection between the Bands, the Artists, the Songwriters and the Producers. What you then get is an extensive search, find and browse interface over your music. Everything neatly organized as if you have 1 large and easily accessible music collection.  

Tidal and Qobuz 

Roon understands the content. Music lovers have often built extensive music collections over the years. Roon finds the music, identifies it and provides it with the most recent and accurate metadata. Roon does this not only with the music on your streamer or server, but also with all music on Qobuz and Tidal. Tidal and Qobuz are music services that you pay a monthly fee for, giving you access to a huge music collection with albums displayed in CD quality. This is in contrast to Spotify, which delivers compressed MP3 music. Tidal and Qobuz are fully integrated into Roon, which means you no longer see the difference between your own music and the music from Tidal or Qobuz. Everything is available and completely visible. The Tidal or Qobuz albums you like, you simply add to your own collection with one click.

MQA stands for Master Quality Authenticated. Master quality, but packaged in Flac format. Tidal uses this format a lot and calls it Studio Masters. The latest version of Roon can unpack these files so your Antipodes Audio streamer delivers High Resolution quality to your DA Converter. All Antipodes units play MQA files with Roon. Roon converts the MQA files to High Resolution PCM. Also the MQA files from Tidal. So you play High Resolution files streaming in the highest quality. Qobuz even offers albums in High Resolution without any compression. 

Roon plays with all your music streamers at home, such as Antipodes streamers, but also your Sonos devices and Squeezebox and Sonos devices are recognized as Roon players and can be used as playback units. In fact, Roon Server sees all Roon Ready compatible devices and you can stream to them unlimitedly. 

How does Roon work? 

Roon consists of 1 single source, the Core. That is the server. The Core is the traffic controller of your music, the "brains" of your collection. The Core is unique and can be controlled by as many tablets, PCs and smartphones as you want. There are also unlimited playback devices possible. So 1 Core, various control interfaces and various playback devices, that is Roon. The Core manages your collection from different sources and those from Tidal, and builds an easily accessible digital library for you. The Core, or Roon server, runs on your Antipodes Streamer, but it can also run on Windows and Macintosh computers. However, these have noticeably worse sound quality due to all the interference sources in the PC or Mac. For the best sound quality, speed, user convenience and therefore enjoyment, Ohm-Audio bv recommends Antipodes streamers with SSD storage for the music collection and control.  

You can browse through all your music and control your playback devices with as many tablets and smartphones as you want. Mac OS and Android. But you can also control Roon with your laptop or PC, or Macbook. 

Playback devices 

The most ideal and best-sounding solution is the use of Antipodes streamers with SSD storage. The Antipodes units are available with dedicated USB Audio only outputs (Recommended) or Spdif / Toslink / AES/EBU. The Antipodes K50 even has all current digital outputs built-in as standard. The Antipodes units have dedicated discretely regulated power supplies AHPS and have by far the best digital signal processing to achieve the best possible playback quality. 

You can play your music collection in CD or High Resolution quality anywhere in your home on Roon Ready devices. Roon streams up to 24 bit / 384 KHz PCM and DSD 256 to Roon Ready devices and automatically converts the content to the most suitable signal for the device. Same music everywhere in your home, or different music in each room, Roon can do that too.

And now further..  

You can register and use Roon for free for 14 days. So you can see if Roon gives you back control and fun over music. Roon has an extensive Community site where virtually all questions are answered. There is no manual, but it is not needed either. Roon guides you naturally. 

Ohm-Audio BV 2020-11