[mbritt]

Just finished my new living room set up and I wanted to share it with others who might want to integrate computer audio with their home theater. I’d been using a first gen AppleTv modified with a larger hard drive for Apple lossless to my Marantz receiver via hdmi. That sufficed for easy navigation and background listening but when I wanted to be engaged in a song or album I’d get out the SACD, Blu-Ray Audio or DVDA disc and play it in my Marantz Universal or through my desktop speaker/headphone rig via Amarra/Peachtree/Audeze El-8s.

Recently the cd transport mechanism failed on the Marantz and I decided to take a new look at current options for ease of use and quality sound. I’d tried Roon a year ago but I wanted it to be a direct replacement for the AppleTv including an on screen navigation. I didn’t have a new enough iPad to use for the interface so I didn’t get Roon at that time. The convoluted audiophile set ups with wired Ethernet, multiple computers, NAS, streaming endpoints and dedicated 2 channel DACs didn’t endear me to Roon either. I just wanted to easily integrate it into my home theater and be done with it. I went to Roonlabs and saw that there’s been an update since I tried it so I emailed and ask for another evaluation period which was kindly granted.

I loaded it on an old laptop I’d quit using (2010 MacBook Pro) and used an Apple display port to HDMI adapter to feed the Marantz SR 6005. The full install including the core was on the laptop so I could play music locally from the MacBook. It sounded way better than the AppleTv via hdmi but the real magic started when I loaded the Roon app on my iPad Pro 10.6” and started exploring my music collection and reading all the great info displayed about artists and albums. Next I fell in love with Roon Radio where it curates a playlist based on a song you choose. Wow! I listened for hours with hardly any misses in song choice. Roon Radio is worth the price of admission- which is $119 per year or $500 lifetime). Roon also integrates with Tidal so I signed up and linked the accounts but I wish I hadn’t picked any collections to add to my library. I don’t want Tidal albums mixing in with my local albums and shouldn’t have been so button happy during setup - I’m looking at you Pat Boon for sneaking into my library along with Classic Rock collection What!

The MacBook Pro was really struggling (desktop graphics jittery and buggy) trying to run Roon and its built-in display while sending 1080 video to the receiver so I picked up a Schiit EITR USB to SPDIF (coax) converter to take some of the load off by only sending audio signals. It’s also supposed to clean up the USB signal so I anticipated a slight bump in SQ. I was wrong, it was a major bump in SQ! My wife, who’s happy with Apple earbuds, asked if I sped up the music. She couldn’t put her finger on what was different but I sure could. The various instruments and vocals had a much cleaner presence and weren’t all mushed together. As I sat and listened I had to keep getting up to double check that the center channel hadn’t been activated. The stereo imaging is the best I’ve ever heard from my Axiom Audio M22 v3 speakers and the already amazing EP175 sub gained a noticeable bump in low end clarity.

The last tweak I made was to run the Amarra script to disable computer processes like spotlight that can interfere with audio signals (I own Amarra for my headphone rig).

I’m very happy with this setup and recommend it highly. Don’t get bogged down in wired verses wireless streaming, audiophile computers or end points (that can come later ). Just download a trial version of roon and feed your receiver via a Schiit EITR which has a home trial return policy. Simple as that. I can now listen to lossless CD rips that sound better than ever and feed my high resolution files up to 192/24 to my Marantz receiver.