Roon Rock

[Darren69]

I am not sure how much longer I'll keep ROON/Tidal, I don't get time to listen to my CD collection I have and I seem to find more music through Youtube and from suggestions here on SNA. I just never use it.

[SteveC]

On 9/13/2017 at 3:43 PM, mattjtaylor2809 said:

Great thread guys, very interesting read.

I'm currently running my Roon Core & library on my 2013 iMac which resides the other side of my house.

I've had Cat5 installed & I have a wall plate in my av room. From the wall plate I have 3mtr Cat6 into a switch > short cat6 > media converter > optical patch > media converter > cat6 into my PS Audio DSJnr.

I'm quite happy with my SQ although I think my CD player sounds slightly "richer".

The main issue/concern I have is having to have my iMac on to access Roon & all my music on the same system so I've thinking what are my next steps in terms of access, back up & any improvements in SQ?

The 1st thing I thought of was moving the core closer to my av room & taking off the home computer which will reduce the length of unshielded Cat5 & either introduce a NAS with a Roon core or a Roon core on a NUC +/- NAS or external HDD.

Any suggestions?

I'm not that "techy" which has put me off a NAS but they seemed to becoming more & more user friendly.

Cheers
Matt

PS - one question about the NUC, I assume it's either wireless or do you connect via a switch & then onto your DAC via Ethernet? It only has X1 LAN port?


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Here is a post on Roon forum:  https://community.roonlabs.com/t/rock-intel-nuc-to-directstream-jr-ideal-connection/29869 that provides some info.

 

As your DAC is a Roon endpoint you have pretty much the ideal set up IMO. It looks like you have already isolated the ethernet connection electrically anyway.  

A NUC would allow you to set it up as your Roon server and take it off the iMac. You could just hang a hard drive off it for now and get a NAS later if you feel the need. I use a NAS as a server but if I had my time again I would go the NUC/Rock direction as I am not using the NAS for anything else. 

 

The only reason you would put the NUC in your music room is if you wanted to try USB (and this may be a valid reason if sound quality is better), otherwise it is a potential source of noise so I would put it elsewhere.

 

Curious what is the media converter/optical patch you are using?

 

 

 

 

[mattjtaylor2809]

Thanks for the link, I'll have a flick through later today.

As I said I'm happy enough with my set up & now that I've got my media converters to work I'm comfortable that I've isolated most network noise from entering my DSJ bridge but I'm not convinced it's best with both core & library sitting on my iMac hence in the interest in either a NUC or similar for the Core & NAS/ big HD for my library seperate to our home iMac.

The MC's I use are the TP Link MC110 from memory (can't use 1Gb with DSJ), I can't remember the details of the patch as I bought x3 before I bought one that worked! Triple check before buying!

Cheers all
Matt


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[Guest scumbag]

Also interested in the media converter/optical patch you are using.......

[mattjtaylor2809]

I'll send more details later when I'm home


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[mattjtaylor2809]

Hi Guys,

 

This is the optical patch that I bought that works well with the TP Link MC110cs Media Converters (they need to be single mode, SC-SC connectors OS1 or OS2)

 

https://www.4cabling.com.au/3m-sc-sc-os1-singlemode-fibre-optic-patch-lead.html

 

Media Converters

 

http://www.tp-link.com/us/products/details/cat-43_MC110CS.html

 

 

[SteveC]

So you need 2 converters and one patch. Each converter hooked up to power ? Complicated isn't it? Now the big question, do you notice any difference or is it more peace of mind?

[mattjtaylor2809]

Hi Guys,

Correct, they're a little complicated & do require power (& some people use a LPS on the 2nd MC) but I have noticed a small gain in SQ.


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