Astell&Kern A&ultima Series Players Receive Roon Ready Certification
Mar 16, 2021 at 1:14 PM Post #16 of 30
:hearts:!

God I hope A&K does not wait long with Kann Cube support. Love Roon to bits, Tidal integration is close to perfect, EQ is amazingly powerful and the user experience and user interface (control Roon from your Ipad for example) is beyond anything in the market.

I think many Roon owners will love this to bits.. Finally AK!!! This seem such as business opportunity: cannot understand which it took so long.
 
Last edited:
Mar 17, 2021 at 11:50 AM Post #17 of 30
I have no idea what this means :D Roon is the most complicated and downright scary piece of software I've ever encountered. Feels like I should somehow get into it, because of the upsampling, but no step by step guides that don't make a mortal's head explode are forthcoming as to how to get it into my sp2000 after the latest update...
 
Mar 17, 2021 at 11:55 AM Post #18 of 30
Astell&Kern Stay updated on Astell&Kern at their sponsor profile on Head-Fi.
 
https://www.facebook.com/astellnkern/ https://twitter.com/astell_kern https://www.instagram.com/astellnkern.official/ https://astellnkern.com astellnkern@astellnkern.com
Mar 17, 2021 at 11:58 AM Post #19 of 30
I have no idea what this means :D Roon is the most complicated and downright scary piece of software I've ever encountered. Feels like I should somehow get into it, because of the upsampling, but no step by step guides that don't make a mortal's head explode are forthcoming as to how to get it into my sp2000 after the latest update...

Roons OS is nice feature, but only for audiophile nerds like me. I like to EQ sometimes, and A&K implementation is rather limited. Check my Arya guide in my signature how I used EQ & OS with Roon.

You do not need it at all to enjoy music with Roon. Once set up, Roons user experience is top notch IMHO. Highly prefer it over Tidals and A&K own interface.
 
Last edited:
Apr 6, 2021 at 3:42 PM Post #20 of 30
@JasonNYC

Any update on the "Roon Ready" status on other A&K DAPs, specifically the A&ultima Series SP1000M? Please. 🙏
 
Apr 10, 2021 at 11:14 AM Post #21 of 30
@JasonNYC

Any update on the "Roon Ready" status on other A&K DAPs, specifically the A&ultima Series SP1000M? Please. 🙏
Yes, please! Without Roon support on the SP1000M, I'll have to sell and get the SP1000. Unnecessary hassle. My SP1000M did receive an OTA firmware update (v1.53 I think). Did that update include Roon support?
 
Jul 21, 2021 at 9:26 PM Post #22 of 30
Roon's partners site claims that SP1000M is Roon Ready, but my SP1000M, on the latest firmware 1.62CM, does not offer the Roon option in Settings. What gives?
 
Jul 21, 2021 at 9:29 PM Post #23 of 30
Roon's partners site claims that SP1000M is Roon Ready, but my SP1000M, on the latest firmware 1.62CM, does not offer the Roon option in Settings. What gives?
Firmware for SP1000M enabling Roon Ready support will be released at the end of July/early August.
 
Astell&Kern Stay updated on Astell&Kern at their sponsor profile on Head-Fi.
 
https://www.facebook.com/astellnkern/ https://twitter.com/astell_kern https://www.instagram.com/astellnkern.official/ https://astellnkern.com astellnkern@astellnkern.com
Aug 30, 2021 at 9:03 AM Post #25 of 30
Coming back here nearly 6 months later and seeing that the other A&K lines are still not supported is a bit of a disappointment. There is no good reason I can see why the A&futura line is not Roon Ready.
 
Aug 30, 2021 at 10:26 AM Post #26 of 30
Coming back here nearly 6 months later and seeing that the other A&K lines are still not supported is a bit of a disappointment. There is no good reason I can see why the A&futura line is not Roon Ready.
One of the futura DAPs is Roon Ready. As is one of the Kann series.

But yes, Roon should be taking the work that it did to make the Ultima series work, and should be using that work to make ALL the modified-Android DAPs out there--whether A&K's or some other brand's--sound better. It's crazy that there are all these DAP manufacturers doing all the work to produce an Android fork with high sample rate audio, and Roon is still forcing their Android app to do the 48k resampling to work on phones. The level of support for Android players is frankly sad considering Roon's aspirations.
 
Aug 30, 2021 at 12:56 PM Post #27 of 30
One of the futura DAPs is Roon Ready. As is one of the Kann series.

But yes, Roon should be taking the work that it did to make the Ultima series work, and should be using that work to make ALL the modified-Android DAPs out there--whether A&K's or some other brand's--sound better. It's crazy that there are all these DAP manufacturers doing all the work to produce an Android fork with high sample rate audio, and Roon is still forcing their Android app to do the 48k resampling to work on phones. The level of support for Android players is frankly sad considering Roon's aspirations.
Last I saw was this post, but I'd be excited to see differently if that's the case.

https://us.astellnkern.com/blogs/news/astell-kern-kann-alpha-now-roon-ready

It is definitely unfortunate. Has Roon stated a reason they want to handle that instead of letting Android natively do it?
 
Aug 30, 2021 at 1:16 PM Post #28 of 30
One of the futura DAPs is Roon Ready. As is one of the Kann series.

But yes, Roon should be taking the work that it did to make the Ultima series work, and should be using that work to make ALL the modified-Android DAPs out there--whether A&K's or some other brand's--sound better. It's crazy that there are all these DAP manufacturers doing all the work to produce an Android fork with high sample rate audio, and Roon is still forcing their Android app to do the 48k resampling to work on phones. The level of support for Android players is frankly sad considering Roon's aspirations.
Roon does not do the work, the manufacturers do all the work and are responsible for integrating it into their devices. It took AK two years to overcome all of Android's limitations and fully integrate Roon into players. It's also probably the reason why there are no other Android-OS based devices that support Roon Ready and Roon's own Android app is limited.

Roon provides the code and each individual player firmware has to be rebuilt from the ground up to fully integrate the Roon code. It cannot simply be copied from player to player.

There are plans to expand the players that will have Roon Ready support, it is a process of developing the individual firmware by AK, then testing and certification by Roon's team.

This is the latest list of Roon supported Astell&Kern devices - https://roonlabs.com/partners/astellkern
 
Astell&Kern Stay updated on Astell&Kern at their sponsor profile on Head-Fi.
 
https://www.facebook.com/astellnkern/ https://twitter.com/astell_kern https://www.instagram.com/astellnkern.official/ https://astellnkern.com astellnkern@astellnkern.com
Aug 30, 2021 at 3:01 PM Post #29 of 30
Roon does not do the work, the manufacturers do all the work and are responsible for integrating it into their devices. It took AK two years to overcome all of Android's limitations and fully integrate Roon into players. It's also probably the reason why there are no other Android-OS based devices that support Roon Ready and Roon's own Android app is limited.

Roon provides the code and each individual player firmware has to be rebuilt from the ground up to fully integrate the Roon code. It cannot simply be copied from player to player.

There are plans to expand the players that will have Roon Ready support, it is a process of developing the individual firmware by AK, then testing and certification by Roon's team.

This is the latest list of Roon supported Astell&Kern devices - https://roonlabs.com/partners/astellkern

Huh. That's interesting. Still: I'm saying that Roon should do the work, because right now they ship an Android client that undercuts one of Roon's main selling points--the high-res sound quality--when played on devices that can actually showcase that selling point. "Roon Ready" wouldn't really matter, if they were actually shipping a non-crippled Android app.

But given that they aren't doing that, I guess it's good that at least one equipment maker is willing to put in the time. I am certainly considering selling my current DAP and paying a few hundred extra bucks for a Kann Alpha because of this issue; it's actually probably the factor that to me would most justify the added expense of going with AK.
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top